Rich Landau

An L.A. Update from Rich Landau of Vedge

Posted by Jason Sheehan on June 12th, 2013

Yesterday, I got Rich Landau from Vedge on the phone as he was driving over to check out a potential home for his new Los Angeles expansion.

Last night, we traded a couple messages about where things stood after the all-important site visit.

“It’s a big, beautiful raw space,” Landau explained. But also one that “needs…well…everything.” Still, it has great potential, and Landau seemed as though he was ready to move forward. So I asked him: Does this mean Vedge L.A. is a go?

“I wouldn’t say that yet,” he said. “Next up: lawyers. This is where it gets fun. And expensive.”

For a good look at the background on Vedge’s L.A. adventures, check out Zagat’s piece on how this all came to be.

Vedge [Twitter]

Is Vedge Expanding To L.A.?

Posted by Jason Sheehan on June 11th, 2013

It’s certainly beginning to look that way. Owners Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby are in Los Angeles right now to check out a space with their investors, and I got Landau on the phone while they were driving over.

The most important news, I guess, is that nothing bad is going to happen to our own Vedge here. It’s going to be business as usual. As a matter of fact, according to Landau, the L.A. project is being pitched as a “carbon-copy” of the Philly original. Same concept, same design scheme, same influences.

Landau told me that he and Jacoby looked at several spaces around Philly before shifting their gaze to the opposite coast. “We even had a couple projects on the board,” he said. “We would’ve done our Osteria, you know? Like a little sister [to Vedge]. That’s what people do, right?” And, he told me, they might still do exactly that. Just not right now.

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Annotated Menu: Vedge

Posted by Foobooz on March 11th, 2013

3_Vedge_Ashley Catharine Smith

Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby’s Vedge is that most unlikely of operations: a dedicated vegan farm-to-table restaurant that, in just over a year, has become a destination for both vegetable enthusiasts and their more omnivorous friends. Here, we take a look at one of Vedge’s “Dirt Lists” and ask Kate Jacoby how it came to be.

Vedge: The Annotated Menu »

Philly Chefs Offer Turkey Cooking Advice

Posted by Foobooz on November 21st, 2012

Looking for some turkey cooking advice that goes beyond Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, 1-800-BUTTERBALL? Here are the best pieces of advice from top Philadelphia chefs including Joe Cicala, Rich Landau, Marc Vetri and Jose Garces.

Thanksgiving Tips From Philly’s Top Chefs »

All Roads Lead from Horizons

Posted by Foobooz on June 28th, 2012

Nicole Marquis and her new team at HipCityVeg

Vance Lehmkuhl of the Philadelphia Daily News looks at how Kate Jacoby’s and Rich Landau’s Horizons broadened Philadelphia’s vegan scene through four alums who have stepped out on their own.

Rachel Klein – Miss Rachel’s Pantry
Nicole Marquis – HipCityVeg
Mark Mebus – Blackbird Pizzeria
Ross Olchvary – Sprig and Vine

How Horizons broadened Philly’s vegan scene [Philadelphia Daily News]

Opening Date For HipCityVeg

Posted by Jason Sheehan on April 12th, 2012

With just about every single man, woman and child–vegetarian or carnivore–going loopy for the radishes and rutabega at Rich Landau’s Vedge, it should come as welcome news to Philadelphia’s tofu enthusiasts that, come Monday, April 16, there will be yet another new place where those with the taste for it, might score even more Landau-inspired vegetable goodness–and this time, on the cheap.

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Vedge Bridges Gap Between Omnivores and Vegans

Posted by Foobooz on April 4th, 2012

Brian Freedman is the latest critic to heap praise on Rich Landau’s vegan restaurant, Vedge.

Richard Landau’s and Kate Jacoby’s Vedge, which resides in the stunning space once occupied by Deux Cheminées, does more to bridge the chasm between the artificially distant worlds of the omnivore and the vegan than any restaurant I’ve ever visited. It’s proof, to butcher the old Forrest Gump cliché, that great food is as great food does, regardless of how you categorize its constituent ingredients.

Vedge’s Ambitious Vegan Cuisine [Philadelphia Weekly]
Vedge [Official Site]

Jose Garces’ 45-Minute Turkey, Plus More Thanksgiving Tips From Philly’s Top Chefs

Posted by Victor Fiorillo on November 21st, 2011

Deep Fried Turkey Photo via iStockphoto

First published on November 21, 2011
Updated on November 21, 2012

Want to know how to tell if your turkey is actually done? (Don’t trust that pop-up thing!) Not sure if you’re supposed to take that bag containing the weird looking stuff out of the cavity before putting your bird in the oven? (You are.) For queries like these, there’s the tried-and-true Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, 1-800-BUTTERBALL. But if you want advice from Jose Garces, Marc Vetri and some of our other favorite Philly chefs on how to spark new life into America’s biggest food holiday and not go totally bonkers in the process, you’ve come to the right place.

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The Mystery of “Vegetable Charcuterie” at Vedge

Posted by Tara Nurin on August 26th, 2011

We tried to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. We really did. But after reading no fewer than four undefined references to “vegetable charcuterie” in the local food press’ coverage of the soon-to-open vegan restaurant Vedge, we realized we’d screwed up.

Honestly, when we here at Foobooz printed it, we didn’t stop to think about the unlikelihood of anyone knowing what vegetable charcuterie is. Hell, we’re not even sure we know what vegetable charcuterie is. As far as we know, everyone on the planet assumes charcuterie is meat. Seriously, we eat it at every single farm-to-table restaurant in town, every rustic Italian trattoria and New American bistro, and each time that charcuterie plate comes out, by God, there is meat on it. Good, old-fashioned animal flesh–salted, cured, smoked and delicious.

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Vedge and Cichonski’s Projects Move Forward

Posted by Foobooz on August 16th, 2011

Now that we know Chris Painter is heading to Noble’s space on Sansom Street we thought we’d check in with projects happening at the two other spots his name was attached.

Once upon a time Painter’s Il Pittore was slated for the Ansill space but that deal fell through. Now Jason Cichonski and his friends have been gleefully swinging sledge hammers as they do their own demolition within the 3rd and Bainbridge spot. Grub Street reports that Cichonski is aiming for a mid-October opening and he still has no name for the project. Cichonski describes the concept as “good food without any technical or cultural baggage.”

At the former Deux Cheminees on Locust Street, another Il Pittore target, Rich Landau tells us things are progressing on Vedge but slower than expected, which is to be expected. Landau is aiming for a late (very late) September opening. In the meantime you can be titillated by the brand new splash page on Vedge’s web site.

Meanwhile Back at Third and Bainbridge [Grub Street]

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Rich Landau

An L.A. Update from Rich Landau of Vedge

Is Vedge Expanding To L.A.?

Annotated Menu: Vedge

Philly Chefs Offer Turkey Cooking Advice

All Roads Lead from Horizons

Opening Date For HipCityVeg

Vedge Bridges Gap Between Omnivores and Vegans

Jose Garces’ 45-Minute Turkey, Plus More Thanksgiving Tips From Philly’s Top Chefs

The Mystery of “Vegetable Charcuterie” at Vedge

Vedge and Cichonski’s Projects Move Forward