In summer 2020, Josh Mann, Graham Gernsheimer, and George Sabatino started scouting locations for a restaurant. Nearly two years and 40 spaces later, “we found this old furniture store that for some reason had a liquor license attached to it,” said Mann, who like his partners is a Philadelphia restaurant lifer.
They had been looking for “maybe a 3,500-square-foot, 60-seat, pretty manageable restaurant,” Gernsheimer said. “But we fell in love with a building that is over 15,000 total square feet” over five floors, plus basement.
Three years later, Fleur’s, under the Market-Frankford El at 2205 N. Front St. in Kensington, will open Sept. 12. On the ground floor is what Sabatino, the chef-partner, calls a “French-ish” restaurant with a 17-seat bar and counter outfitted with raw bar and a dedicated sous chef; a mezzanine with seating overlooks it. All told, it’s about 130 seats.
Coming later at Fleur’s will be a more formal dining room with an open kitchen on the second floor; a total of six hotel rooms (each with washer, dryer, and kitchenette) on the third and fourth floors; a dedicated event space with another kitchen on the fifth floor; and a roof deck with a skyline view on top. Lisa A. Calabro (cfTETTURA projects) has given the space a vaguely Art Deco feel.
The name is a spelling tweak of the building’s hundred-year history as Fluehr’s Fine Furniture.
Much of the main room’s seating is in semicircular banquettes near the 17 bar seats, though low loveseats are available in the lounge. There’s a booth inside a nook that can accommodate six to eight that they’ve nicknamed “the hot tub.”
Upstairs, in the rear of the mezzanine, is a space with a 14-seat table that can function as a private dining room with its own menu.
“We kind of put together the bones of the development plan for the building in the first hour that we were in the building,” said Mann, who spent the bulk of his career with Starr Restaurants and Defined Hospitality. Gernsheimer bartended at Amis and Osteria before stepping into management at Frankford Hall, followed by time at El Vez, Suraya, Hungry Pigeon, and Fitz & Starts. Most recently, he was director of operations for the Loco Pez Group.
Sabatino said their cuisine choice was intentional, given the current restaurant scene in Kensington. (Picnic, Little Walter’s, and Starbolt are nearby — nothing is remotely French.) “I want the food to be interesting, but I want it to be really accessible, too,” he said.
“Everything goes through a French lens,” said Sabatino, who worked for chef David Ansill at his eponymous Queen Village French bistro nearly two decades ago. Sabatino’s other early stops include Stateside, Fork, Monk’s Café, and Morgan’s Pier. A decade ago, the Hamilton, N.J., native had his own Center City restaurant, the ambitious Aldine, with his then-wife, Jennifer. He followed up with a long run with Safran Turney Hospitality (including Barbuzzo) and stints at Rooster Soup Co., A Mano and Rosemary.
His pandemic work as a New Jersey farmer informs his love of local produce.
Fleur’s will offer the brasserie staple steak frites. Sabatino’s version is au poivre with sunchoke soubise and Thai chili sauce vierge for a little bit of heat. The frites are fried in beef tallow and duck fat — the only dish cooked in Fleur’s deep fryer — and get a hit of nutritional yeast, espelette pepper, and garlic powder.
The hake amandine is roasted with a brown butter sauce meunière, and it’s served with wax beans and sliced caper berries.
A dish Sabatino calls cabbage a l’orange gets pickled green tomato, peanuts, Thai basil, and ginger, “so it’s a little bit Southeast Asian without ever blatantly saying that.”
On the section of the menu labeled “fancy” are four dishes that Sabatino says are “purposefully small in size, maybe a little bit more expensive or luxurious.” There’s sea scallop gratin, Tropea onion tarte tatin, and, in a collaboration with Mighty Bread’s Chris DiPiazza, a croissant that is stuffed with caramelized white chocolate and foie gras mousse.
There’s also an uni custard tartlet, topped with minced preserved lemons and caviar. “We did it at our pop-up and everybody said it was like the most delicious cheese and crackers they’ve ever had,” Sabatino said, chuckling at the oversimplification.
The other mains include a roasted half-chicken, walnut-stuffed eggplant, oil-poached sea trout, and Parisian-style gnocchi in mushroom ragout.
Fleur’s wine menu is primarily French. “What we’re hoping to do is a pretty classical list, not delving deep into the modern interpretation of natural wine so much as looking for growers who are very interested in their growing technique and how that presents in the bottle,” Gernsheimer said.
The cocktails, both alcoholic and zero proof, will be woven into the culinary program. The mignonette that’s served alongside the oysters, for example, is made with a house-made watermelon vinegar, “and then we’re creating a shrub for one of the cocktails out of that watermelon vinegar,” Gernsheimer said.
Dinner tabs will run about $65 to $70 a person, they said.
The clam and oyster bar is dubbed Harry’s, after Sabatino’s late grandfather. “Harry loved clams and making great burgers in his backyard,” Sabatino said. “They’re some of my earliest food memories.”
With his grandmother Fran now in her 90s, “I just want her to come and eat at Harry’s, and I’m going to cry my eyes out,” Sabatino said. “It’s going to be beautiful.”
Fleur’s, 2205 N. Front St., will be open from 5 to 10 p.m. daily starting Sept. 12, with reservations on Resy. Weekend brunch is expected to start in November.
Dining and Cooking