Two of Philadelphia’s brightest young chefs are teaming up to debut a brand new concept in Fishtown later this year.
Chef Jason Cichonski is known in Philadelphia as one of the city’s most exciting and talented young chefs. He launched his debut restaurant Ella in 2011 to critical acclaim and was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “deliciously off the wall,” and “completely worth it”. At the age of 24, Cichonski served as the Executive Chef of Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Square, one of the city’s rare four-bells rated restaurants. Additionally, he also worked in the kitchen at The Pluckemin Inn in Bedminster, NJ, as well as the progressive American restaurant Moonlight in Bucks County. Fans may also recognize him from his appearance on Bravo’s Top Chef in 2013. His most recent venture, 1100 Social, launched at the Philadelphia Sports Complex and offered guests a variety of shared plates and hand-crafted cocktails.
Chef Alex Beninato meanwhile is the founder of Philly Milled, one of the city’s leading suppliers of freshly milled flour for pasta, pizza, and other specialty products. Chef Beninato is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and acquired a special familiarity with grains and the milling process when he worked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. He currently serves as the chef de cuisine at Laurel in East Passyunk, in addition to his work with Philly Milled. Utilizing a traditional stone-grounding method, Philly Milled preserves the most flavorful and nutritious parts of the grain in order to produce some of the finest home-milled flour in Philadelphia. Now though, it appears that Alex is getting ready to use his milling expertise to open a brand new pasta restaurant with Chef Cichonski.
According to a recent job posting on Culinary Agents, Chefs Jason Cichonski and Alex Beninato are teaming up to open a brand new restaurant called Tulip Street Pasta. Envisioned as a sustainable and seasonal modern Italian restaurant, Tulip Street Pasta is expected to open up at 2302 East Norris Street, right on the corner of East Norris and Tulip Street. The new restaurant will be replacing Over Easy Breakfast Club, a popular breakfast joint that sadly closed about six months ago. Before Over Easy Breakfast Club, the space previously housed Ida Mae’s Bruncherie.
According to the post, the new restaurant is “coming to Fishtown this summer,” and will highlight locally sourced Italian cuisine served in a welcoming and warm environment. The restaurant is currently looking to bring on board a new Executive Sous Chef for the concept, and curious applicants can find more details about the position on the page. For more information about Tulip Street Pasta, you can follow Jason and and Alex on Instagram for further updates as the restaurant develops.
