What to Expect From Jean, Emmett’s New Restaurant Upstairs

A glance at what’s will be on the menu at Jean / Photograph by Ed Newton

Julian van der Tak’s father’s mother’s middle name was Jean. It was his mother’s father’s first name, too — Jean-Pierre Bell, who was a well-known chef around Washington D.C. back in the day, cooked at the French embassy, for presidents and Elvis and Sonny and Cher.

Julian’s son’s middle name is Jean. And now it’s the name of the restaurant that he and his partner, chef Evan Snyder, are opening upstairs from Emmett, one of the most inventive restaurants in Kensington (which, itself, is named for Snyder’s son). The new spot will be “an extension of Emmett,” according to Snyder. Or, really, a fuller extension of what he and van der Tak wanted Emmett to be in the first place.

When the two of them were still on the hunt — years ago when they were doing pop-ups and looking at spaces all over the city — they had this vision for what Emmett would be. And part of that vision is what Emmett is today: this beautiful, comfortable, approachable, upscale neighborhood spot inspired by the Middle Eastern, Levantine, and Turkish flavors that Snyder loves. The kind of place where you can drop in on a Wednesday night alone, have a couple glasses of wine, some smoked rabbit manti, and a plate of rye tartlets with wagyu and horseradish, and leave dumbfounded by the level of quality and hospitality available, it sometimes seems, in every neighborhood in Philly right now.

But the partners wanted more, too. They wanted a chef’s counter. They wanted to be able to do live-fire hearth cooking that would be more in line with the North African flavors they were working with. They wanted something slightly more controlled and formal, where they could offer not just a meal but an experience.

The space where they landed, on the corner of Girard and Hancock in Kensington (which used to be Cadence, among other things), was great in a lot of ways, but the geometry of it and the crowds it drew demanded it become a certain kind of restaurant. “The kitchen is a shoebox, essentially,” Snyder explained. It’s got an eight-foot line and limits the number of people that can work in the kitchen and the amount of equipment that can fit. Plus, even from the early days, the vibe at Emmett was convivial and cool, casual without feeling forced. And that kind of thing? It’s valuable. And the partners didn’t want to mess with it.

Still, they really wanted that chef’s counter. And a more formalized tasting menu to go with it. And, of course, with the success of Emmett, they were looking around for a second space. But then, when the apartment upstairs from the restaurant became available, they thought: Why not just put a restaurant there?

And so now there’s Jean, a 15-seat chef’s counter set around a hearth where Snyder and crew (largely made up of Emmett veterans) will serve a 12-course North African menu twice a night. It’s still in build-out, but the framing is mostly done, and they’re moving on to finishes. They expect to move in sometime around October, according to van der Tak, and start training and test dinners. The opening is tentatively scheduled for “late 2026” right now, which seems reasonable.

And while the focus of the cuisine at Emmett is “based in the Levant and the Middle East,” van der Tak explains, Jean will be more about his memories and the flavors of his youth, growing up in the south of France, surrounded by the influences of Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian food. “Upstairs will be French North African,” he tells me. “Post-colonial French cuisine and flavors that I grew up with.” But he insists it’s still done with the same cool accessibility that Emmett has. “We’re still looking to engage with our community,” he explains. “And to make it accessible — as much as any tasting restaurant can be. But the upstairs should still have that feel. Like gathering with friends around the fireplace.”

Snyder adds that the hearth will basically be the center of this entire experiment — that all the cooking will be done on or around it. The cuisine he’s working with? “It was typically built around a fire pit,” he says. “It’s all about embers and smoke. Going back to basics.”

Which, even for a place like Emmett and a chef like Snyder, seems like an excellent place to start.