D.C.-based Top Chef's Spike Mendelsohn has made no secret that he's coming to Philly to open a branch of his Good Stuff Eatery.
In a wide-ranging interview with Eater from the Cayman Cookout, he addressed the matter:
"We have a location. You're the first one who knows about that. We have a location on Walnut. Around that area. But it's bad luck to give out the specific address."
Maybe for him it's bad luck, but it's fair for us to speculate, right? It's not on Walnut, but is "around that area." (Nobody selling burgers is going to pay Walnut Street rents.)
My real estate insiders place the Philly branch of Good Stuff Eatery at 108 S. 18th St., which had been a series of Japanese restaurants before the last one - Numa - recently closed. I'm told that Mendelsohn's people dropped a lot of money to cinch the location, across from Di Bruno's and Continental Mid-town.
Mendelsohn's rep told me that a lease has not been signed yet.
Mendelsohn told Eater it will open "within three, four months" of a signing.