It’s Official: Shola Is Opening a Restaurant

We’ve been sitting on this draft for awhile, in fact it was last edited by Kirsten Henri on January 23rd. The “Shola is opening a restaurant” post is kind of the Foobooz equivalent of preparing Ted Kennedy’s obituary in advance. We knew we was going to use it, we just didn’t know when.

Studiokitchen fans, hold on to your hats. The enigmatic chef Shola Olunloyo, most recently rumored to be working on a project in the former Washington Square space, has announced his plans to open his very own restaurant.

Diehard foodies might be familiar with Shola through his now-defunct project Studiokitchen, which involved you and a group of friends paying Shola a prix fixe to cook for you in his house.

Today Shola posts that he is indeed opening a restaurant in Philadelphia. It will be about 30 seats and will serve dinner 5 nights.

Why ?

It works, it’s different and ultimately people want value both in the experience and the cooking, if all the energy went into the cooking and the food rather than the hype and the book matches.

It does not require multiple investors whose vision or interest may diverge from yours.

It is the “un-restaurant”

The one thing Shola leaves vague in his post is where the restaurant will be. Though we’ve repeatedly heard Northern Liberties we’ve learned that isn’t so until till Shola says it is.

For more on Shola Olunloyo check out his Philadelphia Diet on Grub Street.

The Way Forward and The Return of StudioKitchen [StudioKitchen]