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'Le Bok Fin' caterer opens Fine Palate in Center City
Fine Palate, on 15th Street, has a global menu with approachable prices.
Fine Palate, the catering company behind the food and drink at the summertime pop-up restaurant hit Le Bok Fin, has just opened a permanent restaurant in Center City.
The new spot does not offer stunning city views from an eighth-floor roof deck; from the mezzanine overhang at Fine Palate, you can scope the dining room and, across the street, see a bank.
Courtney Dow and chef Vince Joseph have taken over the space last occupied by The Treemont on 15th Street near Locust (231 S. 15th St., 267-318-7971).
Menu is global, with plates under $24. It's an array of small plates as well as shareable dishes including a 28-ounce Creekstone ribeye with charred garlic and potato purée. Dow says cocktails are $8, in a bid for approachability.
Joseph's background includes work with Wolfgang Puck catering.
Fine Palate is opening at 4:30 p.m. daily as Dow determines an operating schedule. On weekends, dinner gives way to a late-night lounge menu at 10 p.m.
Le Bok Fin, with a limited French-inspired menu, ran for six weeks over the summer on the roof of the shuttered Bok High School in South Philadelphia.
To explain the names: In its day, Bok's culinary program operated Le Bok Fin, a student-run dining room that punned the name of Philadelphia dining destination Le Bec Fin, whose name is itself a French idiom translated as "fine palate."
Correction: Fine Palate was the caterer/vendor for Le Bok Fin, not an operator.