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Inspired chefs spiceup the area’sdynamic dining culture

Making the

Cut

D A V I D M A R Q U E S

Since 2008, David Marques has been spend-ing his days perfecting the menu and theexperience for customers of Horsham’s

Buona Via Italian Seafood and Grill, which heserves as executive chef. By the start of theNew Year, however, his schedule will likelyrequire some adjustments, as the team behindBuona Via expands to a second restaurant inHatboro, an American bar and grill dubbed,simply, 58 York.

Opened on the site of the shuttered CaféLa Fontana, 58 York will feature “Americanacuisine” influenced by regional dishes fromacross the country—“from Oregon to Florida,”Marques says. The new restaurant will includea raw bar and a semi-open kitchen, alongwith “two big bars” and a general store, ac-cording to Marques.

Chef Marques, who in 1991 graduatedfrom The Restaurant School at Walnut HillCollege, cut his teeth at notable Philadelphiarestaurants. He later crossed the Atlantic tolive in his parents’ native Portugal, where hehad his own restaurant. Upon his return tothe states, he started working at RistoranteMediterraneo in Horsham, owned by BuonaVia proprietor Salvatore Carratta. Marques’

skill in fresh fish and seafood made him theobvious choice to lead Buona Via’s kitchen,and the restaurant has been on the right sideof the growth curve ever since.

The restaurant business is always busy, buteven Marques can admit the past six monthshave been something of a blur—spending agreat deal of time and energy preparing for thenew restaurant’s opening, while maintaining

B Y L E I G H S T U A R TA N D B I L L D O N A H U E

From Italian to American,Mexican to Mediterranean, the

restaurants of the GreaterPhiladelphia Area offer optionsto suit any taste imaginable—

world-class pizzas, prime steaks,cutting-edge vegan dishes andmuch more. Behind all these

great meals, of course, are themaster chefs who have put inthe hard work and creativity to

make our region a culinary destination on par with any cityin the country. We’re not talkingjust about the folks with famous

last names—Garces, Sbraga,Solomonov, Vetri, etc. We spokewith six men and women from

disparate backgrounds—RicardoFranco, David Marques, Timothy

Thomas, Habib Troudi, MarcieTurney and Mark Twersky—about

their establishments, their inspirations and their thoughtson what makes the local dining

scene shine so brightly. 

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the level of excellence customers have cometo expect from Buona Via.

“This time of year gets really busy as it is,especially with all the holiday parties,” he says.“We’ve continued to introduce new items thatpeople might not see elsewhere, like prosciuttoand black mozzarella, different kinds of pastasand other exciting things. … We want peopleto come here and indulge a little—experiencethe food, have a good time and enjoy the at-mosphere we’ve created here.”

Soon enough, locals will be able to “in-dulge” at the new place in Hatboro, thoughMarques says 58 York’s personality will becompletely different than Buona Via’s. He ex-pects the new restaurant to open its doors byyear’s end.

M A R C I E T U R N E Y

Chef Marcie Turney helms an enviablerestaurant empire. She and her partner,Valerie Safran, have led the transformation

of 13th Street in Philadelphia’s Midtown Villageneighborhood, which now includes five of

their restaurants, in-cluding Barbuzzo,Jamonera, LittleNonna’s and Lolita.In addition, the pairowns two boutiques h o p s — O p e nHouse, which waslaunched in 2002,and Verde—andChef Turney has her own line ofsweets under thename Marcie BlaineArtisanal Chocolates.

Their newestrestaurant, Bud &Marilyn’s, is mod-eled after the restau-rant owned by Tur-ney’s grandparents,

Bud and Marilyn Briese, in her hometown ofRipon, Wis. “When I hear how many placeswe have, I’m just kind of, like, ‘Wow, that’s in-sane,’” she says.

As if this weren’t enough, Turney saysthere is still more to come. She and Safranhave lived above Jamonera for 10 years butrecently bought a new second-floor space inSouth Philly where they intend to move—along with, of course, a ground-floor spacethey will turn into a restaurant. This newrestaurant, Turney says, likely won’t open forat least a year or two.

When asked what keeps her going for-ward, continually creating new restaurantsand sparking new entrepreneurial ventures,she answers simply, and with a laugh: “It’skind of like a weird addiction, I think. It’sexciting to do something new, design some-

thing that will be awesome in Philadelphia.”While many might look at each of Chef

Turney’s restaurants as unique, she notesthere is at least one commonality amongthem all—“big flavors,” she says. While herchefs, who like to take educational sojournsto different restaurants within the empire,may jump from Mexican to Mediterranean,she says every cuisine “has a pasta or a noodleor a way of grinding spices. [The restaurants]have a similar thread that runs through themall, but then all these different flavors. I thinkthat’s what’s exciting.

“I’ll never know everything, but you canalways keep learning.”

M A R K T W E R S K Y

It can be a tricky proposition when abusiness owner wants to bring the nextgeneration into the family business, even

to lead the business. One of the best ways toensure a smooth transition occurs when theparent tells the adult child, “Go off and dosomething else first, learn something else.Then come back and we’ll see what happens.”Huntingdon Valley native Mark Twersky canrelate, to a degree.

A graduate of the French Culinary Institute,Twersky began his career in Stephen Starr’s“family” of restaurants, as chef tournant inthe illustrious Buddakan in Philadelphia. Togain experience and expand his view of theworld, he left Philadelphia and went on towork in a number of renowned New Yorkrestaurants, including Dos Caminos, Isabella’s,Le Cirque, Per Se and Alfama. He also workedextensively as a private chef, cooking forclients in Manhattan, upstate New York andthe Hamptons, as well as in California.

His culinary career came full circle in2014, when Twersky returned to the STARRRestaurants family as executive chef of Starr’sBarclay Prime—home of the finest steaksknown to man and, of course, the legendary

$120 Barclay Prime cheesesteak—in Ritten-house Square. He has since been buildingupon STARR’s legacy of culinary excellence,while lending his personal touch to BarclayPrime’s menu of signature items.

T I M O T H Y T H O M A S

Timothy Thomas never backs down froma challenge. That’s partially why he con-siders “modern American” his preferred

style of cuisine, because it requires balancingdifferent cultures and getting them to worktogether on a plate. It’s also what led him tothe kitchen of Flora, a 16-seat BYOB in Jenk-intown that opened its doors last November,serving only seasonal vegetable-based cuisine.Thomas took over as chef in July 2015, andhe quickly applied his unique flair to themenu.

“I’ve worked in a lot of different venues—sports arenas, hotels, French and Italian finedining, gastro pubs—but this was my firsttime doing vegan,” says Thomas, who previ-ously led the kitchen at Forcella, another Jenk-intown restaurant owned by the same folkswho launched Flora. “The challenge comesin substituting vegetables in dishes that Iwould otherwise do with meat, and in imple-menting flavorful vegan sauces to complementthe vegetable dish.”

One example from the current autumnmenu—spicy cauliflower wings and lemon-thyme waffle with golden raisin chutney—was inspired by a popular Southern dish:chicken and waffles. Likewise, with shepherd’spie, another dish currently on the menu, thecombination of lentils and mushrooms providethe “meatiness” that would be provided byground beef in a more traditional recipe.

Thomas intends to continually refine histechnique and incorporate new items intothe four-course, prix fixe menu. For starters,he hopes to introduce a raw vegan option asone of the courses. He’d also like to do “someplayful desserts.” In particular, he envisions atrio of “boardwalk treats”—namely, funnelcake, sugar rolls and dessert empanadas.

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R I C A R D O F R A N C O

South American by birth, Ricardo Francowas raised in Brazil and Italy. He came tothe United States in the late 1970s to

forge a career in the culinary arts and made abeeline for New York City, where he honedhis skills beside Michelin-starred chefs. “Weused to make everything from scratch,” hesays. “We used to make our own headcheese.”

An invigorated Franco opened his firstrestaurant in South Carolina in the early ’90s.Travel—one might say fate—brought him tothe New Hope/Lambertville area, and he im-mediately fell in love with its quaint, historicrichness. Upon relocating, he opened hisown restaurant, Atrio, in Stockton, N.J., whichhe ran for 10 years. In 2012, he signed on tolead the kitchen at Azie on Main in Villanova,

where he remains today.“We work clean, we work neat,

and we try to offer the best food inthe best way we can make it,” saysFranco. “We’re not cheap, but bynot being cheap we’re providingsomething extra that you’re not go-ing to find someplace else. Everyday is a new challenge, up anddown. On a Friday or Saturdaynight, we’ll serve 200 to 250 people.You’re not going to please 250 peo-ple every night, because it has tobe almost like the perfect storm …but if you send it out with love,they’ll be back.”

Although Azie on Main is knownfor its sushi, which is rolled to order,

other dishes Franco would put on the “mustorder” list include the Azie rock shrimp and,from the wok, kobe beef fried rice and crabfried rice, which he considers “the best onthe Main Line.” Considering his wide-rangingbackground, influenced by cuisine from acrossthe globe, he says guests who have neverbefore dined at Azie on Main are in for a de-lightful surprise.

“We have four restaurants in the company,”says Franco, referring to Azie on Main and itssister restaurants Azie in Media, Teikoku andMikado, “so I’m fortunate to go around andsee what they’re doing. I also get into Phillyand New York to see what’s new. One thingin this business: It’s a challenge every day,and if you don’t stop learning, you don’t be-come complacent.”

H A B I B T R O U D I

Over the past few years, the tract of Mont-gomery County between Horsham andBlue Bell has become something of a

hot spot for exciting new restaurants. Thanksto Habib Troudi, it’s about to get one more inthe form of Panache Wood-Fired Grill.

Carved out of the building that had been

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home to L’Angolo Blue, an Italian restaurantthat closed earlier this year, Panache isbased on a “simple concept,” as Troudisays, offering thin-crust Neapolitan-stylepizzas cooked in a wood-burning, coal-fired oven, as well as prime steaks, seafoodand other new American cuisine. Oncecomplete, the space will have two bars,one of which will also house the massive10,000-pound oven needed to crisp upthose pizzas and cook other dishes in cast-iron skillets. Troudi expects Panache toopen its doors by year’s end.

“We’re aiming to have the best of thebest,” he says. “We want to cater to casualfolks, families, so I’m trying to humble thebuilding down a bit. It will have an industriallook and a casual theme—no white table-cloths here.”

Troudi is a veteran of the restaurantbusiness. Although he had no formal culinaryeducation, he learned on the job—first, ata French restaurant in his native Tunisiaand then, after coming to America, honinghis craft in restaurants in Miami and else-where before striking out on his own. Today,in addition to Panache, he owns the wildlypopular Ristorante Castello, a 250-seat des-tination serving northern Italian cuisine,just up the road from Panache on SkippackPike. At both restaurants, the menus originatefrom Troudi’s mind, Troudi’s pen, thoughhe splits his time between overseeing thekitchen and tying down any loose ends onthe business side.

“I’m an old-school guy,” he says. “I’vekept educating myself, and I’m still learningevery single day. I’ve always felt that ifyou offer good food in a good setting, thepeople will come. That’s the only thingthat has kept me going.” n

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