Next week, a Top Chef restaurant will open in University City.
Kevin Sbraga, the winner of season seven of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” will open the Fat Ham on 31st and Walnut streets on Dec. 6. The menu will center around southern country cooking with a twist.
“The Fat Ham is influenced by the experiences I had growing up. It’s a place where friends and family can gather for good conversation and a simple dinner prepared with the freshest ingredients,” Sbraga said in a press release on Wednesday. “It’s a communal, lively experience unlike anything else on the Philly dining scene.”
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Items on the menu took shape after a two-week culinary road trip around the South. A particularly important stop was in Avery Island, La. — known as the home of Tabasco. There, Sbraga developed new ideas for his housemade hot sauce recipe.
Most of the menu will be small plate items, which will encourage family-style dining. Items on the menu include smoked lamb belly, oyster sliders and baked macaroni and cheese with a potato chip crust. True to its name, the menu will be pork-centric.
Besides food, the Fat Ham will stock a cocktail program. The drink menu will focus on whiskies and other ingredients such as herbs and fruit preserves. A variety of drinks will be barrel aged in two casks on top of the bar. Signature cocktails on tap will include the Montgomery Mule — a mix of vodka, peach infused vodka, lemon juice and ginger beer — and the Fat Apple, a drink blended from hard cider, apple cider and ginger ale.
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The restaurant will seat up to 45 people, and is designed to reflect the experience of dining in a southern home. The seating will be upholstered in cowhides and artwork featuring animals will hang on the walls. Sbraga completed the rustic feel by using an eclectic group of chairs and setting the tables with simple dishes and mixed glassware.
The Fat Ham will serve dinner Sunday through Thursday between 5 and 10 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday between 5 and 11 p.m. This is Sbraga’s second restaurant in Philadelphia. His first, named Sbraga, is located on Broad and Pine streets and was recognized by Philadelphia Magazine as one of the “Best Restaurants of 2013.”
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