![]() ![]() They were super-helpful, believe it or not. What was your experience with Friday Saturday Sunday?Ĭhad: I have to say, the city was absolutely great. I’ve heard horror stories about restaurant build-outs and dealing with the city. She made the best cappuccinos, and I made sure to ask her for one every day. Was this a work relationship that became romantic, or was there an immediate spark?Ĭhad: There was most definitely a spark. Eventually, I wound up at Alma de Cuba when Jose Garces was chef there, and from there on to Amada. She called the restaurant to try to get me fired multiple times. The chef invited me into the kitchen, it all unfolded from there, and I quit college.Ĭhad: My mom cried. I had never seen or tasted anything like that before, and it was just a light-bulb moment. The chef put out this lamb loin cooked medium rare, with a mango puree. We were nobodies.Ĭhad, I know you grew up in West Philly, but I heard that you got your restaurant start in D.C.Ĭhad: I went to school at Howard for anthropology and wound up waiting tables at this Afro-Caribbean restaurant in Adams Morgan called Rocky’s Cafe. We still have people come in and tell us, “We had our first date here 40 years ago.”Ĭhad: Keeping the name was also strategic: We knew that even if people hated it, they would at least give it a try if we kept the old name. ![]() There was a lot of romance attached to it for a lot of people. Hanna: A lot of people had first dates here or got engaged here or had whatever celebrations here over the years. Given that this was a new concept, why keep the name? ![]() I walked in and realized this was going to have to be a complete teardown. Friday Saturday Sunday had been operating continuously for 40 years, so there was a lot of wear and tear. And I just kind of blurted out, “Let’s go look at it.” Chad thought I was batshit crazy.Ĭhad: Totally batshit crazy. Chad just came home from work at Tela’s in Fairmount one day and mentioned in passing that one of his purveyors had said Friday Saturday Sunday was quietly for sale. Hanna: We certainly weren’t in the market to buy a restaurant or open our own. Hanna, I know you’re front-of-house, but I didn’t realize the concept and location were yours to begin with. And that has nothing to do with what’s coming out of the kitchen. It has to do with the ambience and the vibe and the certain feeling I get from a place. Okay, well, I’ll let you go and just talk to her, then.Ĭhad: I mean, everybody wants to talk to the chef, but, you know, so much of what makes a restaurant great isn’t the chef. From the start, it was all her idea - the location, the concept. Why was that important to you?Ĭhad: Hanna is very much the visionary for the restaurant, and it would be remiss not to include her here. But when I asked to interview you in light of Friday Saturday Sunday’s nomination for Outstanding Restaurant at the James Beard Awards, you said you’d do it if we included Hanna, so I made an exception. Here, Chad and Hanna Williams talk food culture, pineapple pizza, and why on earth they got married in the restaurant’s kitchen - by their general contractor.Ĭhad, I never do this interview with two people. Then a tattooed waitress and a West Philly-raised chef with a Garces pedigree decided to risk it all, buying the place in 2014 and gutting it. Read more here.įriday Saturday Sunday was one of Philadelphia’s longest-running restaurants - a classic Rittenhouse stop for martinis, mushroom soup and chicken Dijon for more than 40 years. Update : Congrats to Chad and Hanna Williams for winning Outstanding Restaurant at the 2023 James Beard Awards. Chad and Hanna Williams, the owners of Philadelphia restaurant Friday Saturday Sunday, which is up for a James Beard Award / Photograph by Linette & Kyle Kielinski ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |