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And the Speck Replacement at the Piazza Is…

Posted by Victor Fiorillo on May 9th, 2011

In March, we broke the unfortunate news that the fragile Shola Olunloyo-Bart Blatstein alliance at the Piazza in Northern Liberties had fractured, with Olunloyo locked out of Speck, the restaurant he had been developing for ages and was days away from opening. In the ensuing weeks, we got lots of tips about this chef (Kevin Sbraga) or that chef (Jose Garces, pictured looking at the Speck space) replacing Olunloyo as Blatstein’s tenant. But none those tips checked out. Until today.

Though Bart Blatstein says “no comment”, we think we can safely report that Speck will be replaced by a Northern Liberties outpost of Sansom Street’s popular Raw Sushi & Sake Lounge. That’s the tip that came in this morning, with word that the lease has been signed. And given that they’re advertising for chefs on Craigslist, it seems like folks in Northern Liberties will soon have more options than just Koi and the underwhelming Hikari. Raw owner Tony Rim did not return calls for comment.

Meanwhile, Olunloyo has been posting plenty of pretty photos on his StudioKitchen blog.


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    This entry was posted on Monday, May 9th, 2011 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

    • palvar

      I hope that the owners of Raw learn how to use apostrophes in the near future.

    • http://www.foxnews.com MrOpinionator

      For real, another sushi place? That’s about as exciting as warm, flat beer. Good luck, suckers.

    • http://twitter.com/alexrolfe alex

      clearly a sushi place is a perfect fit for a million dollar kitchen.

    • Adam

      Weak.

    • aimee

      Awful!! we do NOT need a sushi place. Terrible use of a great space.

    • Scott Angelo

      Personally speaking, the problem with the Piazza is Bart himself. Anyone getting into a deal with him there is NOT going to succeed. It is sad, but true. This area should be much hipper and more active than what it is — trust me — we’ve been going around there since day one and probably no more.

    • Roland

      Man you guys are a tough crowd.

      What if Nobu and Morimoto are behind the counter every night, would that be alright for the Million Dollar Kitchen?

    • http://twitter.com/alexrolfe alex

      I’m distinguishing between a Million Dollar Restaurant, and a Million Dollar Kitchen, so i’m gonna say no… since the best sushi in the world is served at counters with, like, eight people sitting at them. I like Raw, and don’t really care what goes into the piazza, I just think it’s a wasted opportunity.

    • Pedro Dias

      @ Roland:

      No. Because generally the aesthetic of that cuisine means there is no call for the sort of equipment Shola had installed. Blatstein will be able to recoup some of the investment by selling off some of the more portable pieces, but generally I’d say he’s taking a bath on the deal. Not to mention that the layout of the restaurant makes no sense for a sushi place, even a very ambitious one.

      Love me the sushi. But high-grade, pristine, meticulously cut toro does not require a PacoJet or an immersion circulator.

      Mostly.

      Now, it’s possible to have an ambitious neo-Japanese restaurant that *does*. But that’s gonna take a hell of a search for a qualified chef.

      Hey, Alex, think the folks at Ideas In Food are interested in working with Blatstein?

      ;-P

    • Mosha

      I thought I smelled something fishy going on . . .
      Well, I guess it’s curtains for long-time Tower tenant Hikari.

    • 3rd&Brown

      Sucks. Really sucks.

      Bart needs to learn how to play in the sandbox. Until till then, we get, Apollinaire (sp?) and more (mediocre) sushi.

    • Daytime Drinker

      The raw people will find out soon enough, there is no way they are going to survive there with the rent they are paying once he starts ripping them any way he can. All the restaurants in the piazza die in the first year winter. Nobody goes down there after october. it will be closed by next feb.Blatstein is BARTSHIT crazy.

    • Snake

      Raw is great but yeah, it might be a tough spot for them up there. Agree about the winter comments…there’s really nothing for anybody up there in the winter time and it’s got to be very hard for a place to last the whole year up there.

    • http://www.foxnews.com MrOpinionator

      Even without winter in the equation they are going to get crushed by the inferior location. That spot really is as far from foot traffic as you can get in that complex. No access by car, no place to lock a bike… these things are tough to get past. The tough thing about sushi is you can’t have good quality sushi and be slow for extended stretches – the perishable nature of the food makes it tougher.

      Looking at Sansom St. and comparing it to the Piazza, I agree that it will be tough to make it through a January/February out there, and the owners of RAW might not have a realistic notion of how different the two locations are.

      The question remains: Who is going to wind up with the million-dollar kitchen, or is being sold off as we speak? I’ll go out on a limb and say a seafood joint – something like ‘Little Fish’ but with a liquor license – would have been the perfect fit.

    • suzy

      @pedro – Im sure Blatstein isnt taking a bath on a pacojet or an immersion circulator – thats about $5k worth of equipment. Was it ever confirmed as a million dollar kitchen? or a million dollar restaurant?

      And while the winters may be tough with the Arrow swim club crowd now Im sure it will do just fine. A business can survive seasonally if it plans accordingly. The question is going to be are they spreading themselves too thin too quick. The corners only been open a few months now this.

    • Joe K

      I noticed there hasn’t really been any talk about the “Sumo” aspect of Raw (their Club/Lounge at the back of the place). Maybe they’ll be doing something like this as well and plan on making it work that way? PYT seems to be doing it successfully.

    • Snake

      PYT has survived and prospered (at least I think) based solely on the sweat equity of their owner. The guy never sleeps. I don’t think that any of that place’s success can be projected towards other potential places…it’s honestly all on him.

    • Joe K

      I definitely didn’t mean to take anything away from Tommy Up — you’re right, he pours everything he has into that place and is a brilliant marketing guy. But they do have that nightclub thing going on in the back there, so I thought maybe Raw could try for something similar.

    • Jay T.

      I am very excited to have Raw right in my backyard. I prefer it over most sushi places in the city, given the food, price, and atmosphere, it’s great. I really hope that they do well, as I hope that all of our local businesses do well and strive in this neighborhood. It is very important to the community and value of the neighborhood that businesses are able to flourish and attract others to come into the neighborhood. Empty spaces is not a good thing, and makes it less desirable for businesses and patrons to come and take part in a very special part of our city.

    • Resident

      I was one of the first residents to move in to the apartments right on the Piazza and after about 2 years of living here, I can honestly say that I feel the place has steadily been declining. It certainly hasn’t lived up to the hype that surrounded it when I moved in and I’ve watched restaurants and businesses fail, move, etc. The number one cause is Bart. Sadly, dealing with him makes it almost impossible for any of these places to succeed and Raw probably won’t be any different. Speck would have been a destination restaurant for the Piazza, one that would have drawn people here from all over the area, something the Piazza really needs(pyt is successful, but not really a destination restaurant). Putting another Raw location in the spot just doesn’t accomplish the same thing that something like Speck hopefully would have.

    • Pedro Dias

      @Suzy: those are two *examples* out of an entire kitchen’s worth of equipment that has no use in a traditional sushi restaurant. Not to mention the layout.

      Raw, in its current form, is a miserable fit for the space as it now exists. And I find it hard to see them either developing a menu that puts the equipment, and the layout, to good use, or converting it to better fit their present needs, without considerable expense. Given the circumstances, I’d expect the expense to be Blatstein’s.

      Bath time.

    • Robert

      It is probably a million dollar restaurant not a million dollar kitchen. You could not but enough equipment to build a million dollar kitchen unless it is a vegas hotel.
      I actually think raw will work there. It isn’t even owned by Japanese people, raw is lame nightclub that serves mediocre korean sushi. Joe K. is right it will be another lame hipster hangout that serves sushi and cheap sake. No one serious will open anything in the piazza. the place was done when it opened. One restaurant that did not open, two that closed and the replacements still suck, a the drug dealer multiple homicides, one restaurant employee abducted and murdered, muddy parking lot, why the f would anyone go down there.

    • Max

      This aggression will not stand man

      http://www.cafepress.com/PhillyFoodShirts

    • PJ

      Ugh. BORING! What a wasted opportunity. One more reason not to go there.

    • http://www.foxnews.com MrOpinionator

      One Yelp reviewer said it properly: “I’m actually a little surprised by how low my rating ended up being for this place. The problem w/ Raw is that there are *so many* sushi places to visit in the city and it wouldn’t be hard to find one with equally good if not tastier sushi, friendlier and more attentive staff, and better lighting.”

      How many times can one say the same thing. Well here’s the MAIN problem with Piazza… it’s a transient rental community that lacks a supermarket (as we all know). Residents are young and order out all the time, but quickly settle on one or two ‘full-range’ (Darling’s, PYT)joints to fill their food needs. Whatever supermarket opens will also sell Sushi, and that’s probably where most of these renters are going to buy their sushi, and their hot buffet vegan lunch and so on. This is because people have a natural aversion to overpaying, and for a restaurant to succeed in the Piazza, it needs to charge very high prices to make up for the rent and the bad location. Piazza is little more than a housing project for trustafarians.

    • http://www.foxnews.com MrOpinionator

      Evidently the kitchen cost $180,000 – still a chunk of change. http://www.zagat.com/buzz/raw-sushi-saki-lounge-takes-over-the-speck-space-in-northern-liberties

    • Amanda

      “Blatstein is BARTSHIT crazy”

      HAHA! I like that…and agree

    • sushiyeah!

      Why rag on RAW, they sushi is very good as well as their other japanese dishes and cocktails are good too. Don’t be hating b/c Speck failed to follow through… Speck has become the Pathmark of NoLibs…lot’sa hype but no action…. I’m bummed that Speck will not occupy that space, but I’m sick of waiting…I’m sure Hikari will do fine as they have a good, loyal customer base and it’s small enough that the regulars will continue to dine at. Also Hikari has take out as well.

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