Back in the fall of 2013, a talented Torrisi chef walked away from a future at Carbone to move to Philadelphia. It turned out to be a great decision: Eli Kulp has brought national acclaim to High Street on Market, the casual spin-off restaurant to 16-year-old Fork: Bon Appétit named High Street the second “best new restaurant” in the country; Food & Wine selected Kulp as a “Best New Chef”; and baker Alex Bois is a James Beard semifinalist. Perhaps it’s not a huge surprise, then, that High Street will open in New York this fall. (After all, Kulp once told Grub, “Once I realized how close Philadelphia is, it’s not like you can never go back.”)
Kulp and co-owner Ellen Yin will open High Street in the former Corsino space, at 637 Hudson Street in the West Village. It’ll closely resemble the original Philadelphia location, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner service, as well as a bread bakery. “We’re putting in all the necessary equipment to bake on site in New York,” Yin says. “Alex will be overseeing that, along with his sous-chef.” According to Kulp, he and his staffers plan on commuting back-and-forth often, though Kulp’s family will relocate to New York.
The beloved sandwich menu will stay similar, even though some of Kulp’s greatest hits are riffs on classic Philadelphia recipes. “I don’t care where that roast-pork-and-broccoli-rabe sandwich is served — it’s a phenomenal sandwich,” he says. “Also, it’s exciting to turn on New Yorkers to things like Lancaster bologna. Lancaster, it’s like 120 miles away from New York City. It’s closer than many of the New York farmers that sell at the Greenmarket. So if you sort of take away those geographical lines, it’s still very much regional food to New York.”
Will the West Village High Street location be the second of several? “Our immediate plans are not to roll out High Street all over the East Coast,” Yin says. “Our short-term goal is to get this one open, and after that, maybe one or two more locations.” And as for the possibility that kiosks selling Bois’s superb bread could pop up around the city, Yin says, “You never know!”
