Breakfast And Lunch Get Elevated At High Street On Market

Fork Restaurant's owner Ellen Yin and Chef Eli Kulp have recently opened High Street on Market, a charming cafe offering hearty-yet-refined breakfast and lunch options that are poised to capture the hearts of Philadelphians. Situated adjacent to Fork in the Old City neighborhood, this space, which once housed Fork, Etc., has seating for twenty or so diners, who order at the sleek counter in the morning, and receive table service at lunch. The menus are posted on chalkboards in a flawless font, which is the first clue that this place pays attention to detail.

Breakfast beverages include Rival Brothers coffee, tea and OJ, and the food choices range from unusual savory pastries (such as the "Red Eye" Danish with smoked ham, gruyere and coffee gravy), to creative breakfast sandwiches (like pastrami, spiced hash, roaster peppers and onions, Russian dressing and a farm egg) on homemade kaiser rolls, to elegant sweet bites (a la the clevery named Choux-fly with molasses cream and blackberry jam in a cream puff shell). The homemade breads are the stars of the show, with a number of gorgeous specimens available for purchase by the loaf. These breads combine an impossible pairing of chewy, dense exterior and interiors with the perfect soft crumb, and come in varities rarely seen on the average bakery shelf: buckwheat cherry, vegetable ash, roasted potato, and more. The flavors and textures are wonderful enough to eschew butter, although cultured, daisy-yellow butter is available should you choose to indulge.

The deliciousness continues at lunch with snacks, sandwiches, pizzas, salads that go well above and beyond the usual stuff of cafe menus. Duck meatballs on seeded semolina, an autumn panzanella salad with squash, kale and fruit, and ribollita soup are just a few highlights among many other promising items. Dinner service will begin in October, which is sure to feature more knockout dishes.

We get the feeling that High Street on Market will emerge as one of the new brunch and power lunch hot spots, so get on over there to check it out before the secret is out!