Starr is a passe PR machine driven by nerdy investors feeding sheep

Was starr innovative? yes.

Is starr an innovator now? No. Hiring Chang’s #2 isn’t innovative. None of his recent projects has been a novel addition to Philly’s dining scene in terms of food type, style, decor, etc. Route 6 is just Oyster House, and Vetri already proved a restaurant could succeed on N. Broad. Dandelion is Pub and Kitchen, just in a better location. Talula’s? Frankford Hall? El Rey? Ranstead? Il Pittore? They’re fine places, but how did they innovate? How did they open new neighborhoods or introduce new foods to Philly’s food scene?

Yes, the large majority of restaurants are not innovative if you look around the world. But there was no high-end israeli food anywhere near Philly before Zahav. That’s innovative–for us (and really, for the US more generally), for example. Osteria introduced Philly to a new high-end pizza style (cough–Stella–cough).

Taking chances and lifting neighborhoods…
That kind of reminds me of William Reed and Paul Kimport who dropped The Standard Tap into a forgotten section of the city–a neighborhood that, prior to The Tap’s opening, had a little less traffic than whatever nightmare scenario we can paint for Center City in the 90′s. They not only moved into a truly decrepit area, they forged ahead with a focus on local beers on draft as well as fresh, local ingredients, with the quality of their food helping to give rise to Philly’s, and America’s, gastropub scene. Their raising up of an entire area was eventually furthered by the addition of Johnny Brenda’s nearby in Fishtown. The addition of a concert space shrewdly came at a time when Philly music fans and touring musicians were looking for spaces to counter the now Clear Channel controlled TLA and Electric Factory.
These gentleman, along with Fergus Carey, Tom Peters, and all the people who helped push modern American cuisine into the mainstream via Philly’s many great BYOBs are innovators.
These men didn’t borrow from anything across town–they all took a risk while giving us something new. It’s cheap to point out that, as Henri of Philly Mag does, that borrowing from the source (the country of origin) is on par with what Starr does. No it is not. One is making the much needed case for authenticity (the difference between spaghetti & meatballs and bucatini all’Amatriciana), while being guided by passion,vision, and balls. The other is safely following a trend via corporate guidance.
I’d say “true innovators” for the people listed above, but that’s a redundancy necessitated by the misuse of the label.