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Adsum Closed, Gastropub Coming

Posted by Foobooz on September 16th, 2011

Adsum has closed and will be replaced by a gastropub.

Adsum opened in July 2010 to much fanfare with Matt Levin in the kitchen of his own restaurant. The restaurant was an immediate darling of critics and off-duty chefs. Kool-Aid pickled watermelon and foie gras poutine were the talk of the town. A special dinner pairing Levin’s cooking with the now banned Four Loko drew national attention. But the restaurant never quite lived up to its stated goal of a refined neighborhood bistro. Co-owner Kar Vivekananthan lamented too many Queen Village neighbors would tell them they were intimidated by the menu.

In July Levin left and Vivekananthan went about remaking the restaurant into something more appealing to the neighborhood. Now the plan is to turn the space into a full-fledged gastropub with an expanded bar and a twelve tap draft system. Vivekananthan has brought in Rich Rivera (Agiato, Agiato Bread Co., Main Street Market and the upcoming Cervisia, Dos Vatos Tacos and the still promised Rubb) as a partner. In a twist we don’t quite understand yet, Rivera was originally going to do Rubb with Levin.

The goal is to reopen in three weeks.

Adsum is closed. But there’s more to it than that [The Insider]

Tapestry
700 S 5th St, Philadelphia, PA

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    This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2011 at 2:41 pm and is filed under News. 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.

    • http://gideonsbible.tumblr.com gijyun

      Oh, sweet, another gastropub. /sarcasm

    • Tex

      Foobooz: Any news on what might move into this spot in 8-12 months after the gastropub closes?

    • bob newhart

      amen. tex beat me to the punch. if my bad restaurant math is correct we have 3 weeks to open + more bird shit on the awning + who gives a shit – half-way decent location = january closing. god i’m good.

    • Snake

      @Tex

      If I have the pattern correct, it will be the front end of a car moving in followed by something southeast Asian.

    • toots

      i think the twist youre looking for is spite.

    • Gobirds

      True there are many gastropubs. However queen village doesn’t have that many. I guess you could count catahoula and petes sake, but the closest is probably Royal tavern. QV def needs one rather than the overpriced Adsum. Besides, that levin character just stood there on his iPhone the whole time.

    • herman

      Apparently,Adsum got more attention from bloggers (local and national) than it did from customers. But don’t worry, the new concept will feature food from a chef who has already demonstrated his ability to produce crappy overpriced, pseudo-trendy garbage at the restaurant from which he was recently sent packing. Success will surely follow.

    • BillG

      Cost was issue more than food- burger and fried chicken on the menu were solid and accessible, but too pricy when there was an equivalent down the street.

      I also wonder if there was more to this- before Levin left it seemed packed all the time.

    • http://foxnews.com MrOpinionator

      I’ve long maintained that location is death to any restaurant. Many people argued that Adsum was different. The proof is in the pudding.

    • Michael G

      Like the Academy House space this location doesn’t work. But I will miss the poutine but the thought of those tastykake sliders is nasty.

    • Conshy

      I was there four times and every time the dinning room reminded me of Campos sub shop. duces lined up like a cafeteria. the bar was nice but I could not get past how uncomfortable the room was. if you’re not doing well why is the chef not in the kitchen trying to save the ship or the labor costs for that matter?

    • JJV

      Why would anybody bring it a clueless dolt like Rich Rivera to run anything? Another case of a real estate guy who thinks he knows something about running a restaurant and/or bar, when the reality is that he knows nothing.

      I have no personal ax to grind with him, but I’ve witnessed his incompetency first-hand at Agiato, Main Street Market, and the now defunct Terrace Taproom.

    • mike

      I don’t see why this location can’t work for someone. I can understand why the academy house spot doesn’t work because it is set so far back on an already dark street and doesn’t exactly invite people to come in, but the adsum location is a great corner that gets tons of traffic and light.

    • Conshy

      Rich Rivera has four properties on main street that have applied for zoining but has done little or nothing. Rubb (two years), Taco, Agiato expansion, Chabata expansion (over a year delay). Little has been done on these projects and all of it cannot blame the ZBA. He has more that he can handle or his partners money is not as fluid as he would like.For a builder he is building very slow.

    • Yunker

      Conshy,
      As a Manayunk resident, I believe that Rich Rivera and Belvedere have done some great things in Manayunk…Agiato is a great restaurant, Main Street Market provided a grocery store to a neighborhood that was starving for one, and the Terrace Taproom took a dingy neighborhood corner bar and turned it into a craft beer bar.

      Yes, it does seem that he has a lot on his plate, but it’s my understanding that the Agiato expansion is still held up in a liquor license appeal from the neighborhood association, they’ve started construction on the taco place, and I don’t believe they are partners in the chaaba expansion.

      Time will tell on their success, but let’s not crucify Belvedere or anyone else for that matter for being ambitious.

    • http://foobooze YunkDrinker

      Thanks for letting me know about the Terrace Tavern, I thought it was Me arriving too late before closing. Nice fun place, but it was when it was a dive bar. And don’t we all Really need at least one dive bar in our neighborhood?

      I LOVED Adsum when it was Judy’s. don’t know why people mess with a proven concept, other than to put their own EGO mark on it.

      • http://philadelphia.foobooz.com Foobooz

        Judy’s was a couple blocks away at 3rd and Bainbridge and was there until the owners retired.

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