Forwarded by PR maven Jennie Hatton, this statement from owner Matt Swartz:
“It’s been a great year at Fork & Barrel in East Falls, but we made a business decision to close since The Farmers’ Cabinet has so many of the same elements. We hope that our Fork & Barrel customers will continue to visit us in the city. We’ve also decided to close Tap and Table in Emmaus and bring the concept to Philadelphia in the coming months. The new restaurant will also have an Old World atmosphere, a menu based on fresh-ingredients including fondue, mussels, flatbreads, sandwiches and entrees and will feature American and European craft beers. We’ve had incredible opening success at The Farmers’ Cabinet and look forward to our next venture in the city. The Bookstore, our 1920s speakeasy, in Bethlehem will remain open.”
Aside from confirming the original rumor, the news here, I guess, is that “we hope to bring the [Tap and Table] concept to Philadelphia in the coming months.”
Whatever else you think of these folks, they sure are mercurial. By my count, they have had two projects announced which never opened (one never described in any detail in New Hope and a beer hall in Bethlehem) a restaurant closed within a matter of three months or so in Rehoboth Beach and a second in less than a year in Philadelphia, and now a new restaurant just opened in center city and and another maybe forthcoming.
It do make the head spin.
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They will say it was PR. I guessing it is more like BS.
Doesn’t really surprise me. I was at Fork & Barrel a few weeks ago on a Friday at 6, we were the only ones there. Loved the beers, very knowledgable staff, but the actual venue was too dark (I actually turned the light off in the bathroom thinking I was turning it on it was that dark), and the food menu was just a little to weird for these economic times.
Glad the Bookstore is staying open.
But I am surprised about the Tap & Table, it seemed to be doing quite well.
Just not professionals in any sense. Despite the reviews, Fork & Barrell just made no damn sense as a viable enterprise. I’m guessing these folks don’t have anything resembling a business plan.
Dan, I hope you’re not casting aspersions on Jennie PR Hatton…
No way Mr. Bryson, just on the owners
Lots of abusive comments regarding the owners at Foobooz. It sounds like they pulled a move like the Baltimore Colts and just left in the middle of the night. That’s usually a bad sign.
Smash, after reading that, I feel vindicated.
The statements on foobooz are sad but true. We are always closed on Monday and the owner and 4 others came down and empties out the bulding, took everything including Alot of stuff the building owner owned not them. Thank god a co worker drove by and saw this happening so we could all be there to watch it happen, the owner would not even talk to us and just looked at the ground the whole time… Coward. Cabinet will be closed soon enough considering he has hundred of thousands in law suits coming to him from varies building owners…
Hi,
To my knowledge [my office from 2000-2007] no new restaurant has survived in East Falls longer than a year..the exception being the mexican-themed Johnny Manana’s at Ridge and Midvale Aves. JM is opposite that weird corner store that makes hoagies and wings. I just don’t think East Falls is a suitable place to encourage small businesses because parking is extremely minimal and not enough people travel to East Falls for destination. If that awesome independant coffee shop didn’t survive, than I feel nothing would.