Breaking: No More Frog at the Yard
I’ve been hearing for a while that employees at Urban Outfitters’ Navy Yard HQ have been dissatisfied with the food and service at Frog at the Yard, the cafeteria run by Steve Poses, whose groundbreaking restaurant Frog was largely responsible for Philadelphia’s restaurant renaissance in the 1970s. And a couple of weeks ago, the word was that Urban CEO Dick Hayne himself had some problems with the establishment. Of course, these were unsubstantiated rumors, as was the one that Hayne had allowed Poses to use the space rent-free. But today, Urban spokesperson Kiley Baum confirms that Poses will soon be out on his ass, with a transition beginning next week.
The following e-mail was circulated to the staff today:
Dear Everyone,
After much consideration, we have decided to run our own cafeteria and coffee shop in building 543. To that end we have hired a manager/chef, Jon Feniger. Jon’s last job was operating a similar facility for Chico’s in Fort Meyers, FL. Before that, he held head chef positions at a number of fine dining establishments including News Corporation in New York and Sidney, Australia, the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach and Chesapeake Bay and Prezzo Affair in Boca Raton, among others.
Jon will join us on October 11th, take several weeks to build his new team and suppliers and then run the operations starting November 12th.
Our thanks go to Steve Poses, Len Terranova and each member of the Frog at the Yard staff for their dedication and hard work over the past 15 months in preparing the freshest and finest foods. Beginning with the outdoor tent facility two summers ago and then with the opening of Shop 543 and the Jharoka last October, not a work day has gone by when the URBN workforce has not had the best variety of healthy and wholesome food choices of any business in the Delaware Valley.
Frog at the Yard team, Thank You.
I double-checked Feniger’s name spelling with Baum and turned nothing up on Google, so who knows? Whoever the hell he is, we hope he gets Poses’s delightful lemonade recipe, which we awarded Best of Philly in August. — Victor Fiorillo