Rebooting Pub & Kitchen; Fitler Dining Room opening

Lots going on over the next few weeks for Dan Clark and Ed Hackett as they plan to open Fitler Dining Room, at 22d and Spruce Streets (the former Meme).

Around the same time, toward the end of January, they also plan to close their Pub & Kitchen, at 20th and Lombard Streets, for a 2- to 3-week renovation - new furniture and such - that will be completed in early February. When the dust settles, executive chef Jonathan Adams will be gone. Adams wants to concentrate on Rival Bros. Coffee, the mobile coffee operation he and friend Damien Pileggi opened in fall 2011. Hackett says that at least initially, there will be no one P&K "chef." Everyone in the kitchen, he points out, has worked there a minimum of three years.

Then in early February, we'll see the debut of Fitler Dining Room - a 32-seater serving beer and wine. The shoebox-size space represented a challenge. Clark and company are setting it up with a look evocative of the post-industrial '20s and '30s. Banquettes will line the walls and three four-tops will run down the middle as they maintain the open kitchen that has been there since it was Melograno. Hackett will have two beer taps in the dining room - small-batch crafts - plus 12 to 20 bottles. Artisan wines (about 40 bottles and 10 by the glass) will include an enviable champagne selection as well as after-dinner ports, sherries and the like.

Exec chef Robert Marzinsky will be in charge of an American bistro menu whose dishes will include Butter Poached Caraquette Oysters with potato and fennel chowder, parsley puree, and brioche crouton; Porcini Poached Chicken Breast with savory bread pudding, braised turnips, and black trumpet gravy; and Potato Gnocchi with Burgundy snails, hazelnuts, winter truffle, and chartreuse butter. Neighborhood prices, Clark said. Marzinsky, who has worked as chef de cuisine at Pub & Kitchen and Clark's Shore spot The Diving Horse, more recently assisted with the opening of Stateside on East Passyunk.