Garces Trading Company

I spent the weekend in Philadelphia instead of flying back to Chicago for the weekend... I think I have fallen in love with the city.  It's has so much more to offer than I had originally anticipated...

While walking around on Friday, I passed a restaurant that looked really cool so I took a mental note and told myself "I need to check this out tomorrow"  (yes... I take note of these kind of things... otherwise, I won't be a self-proclaimed foodie...)  So on Saturday morning (if you can still call it morning at 11:45 am), I decide to eat my brunch there...

After the hostess sat me down, I observed my surroundings and I am happy with what I am seeing... (they even have a very own wine cellar!)

 

But as the minutes passed, nobody seemed to have noticed me... nobody even brought me a glass of water!!! (even though there was a server that keeps walking up and down but she decided to ignore me...) my patience started to run low (since I was quite hungry)... so I just walked up and asked another server "do I have to order my food at the counter?"... that was pretty much the end of the let down...

Instead of just one, I had two servers serving me... one of them brought me some sourdough and sea salt to go with their house olive oil... the salt really accented the oil quite nicely... I ordered the Chef's Mix of Olives, the Lyonnaise Duck Salad, and a cup of their house coffee (GTC Reserva) and my coffee was GOOD...  (I ended up buying 2 bags of the coffee beans to bring home...)

While waiting for my salad, the other server brought me a cheese and fruit platter and apologized for the hold up... well, nothing sooths a hungry customer's mood better than food... the cheese wasn't my favorite but it's definitely not bad~ and it's always the thought that counts... my olives were decent but OMG... the salad was the highlight of my meal!!! It was simply delicious!!

Chef's Mix of Olives

Lyonnaise Salad
Duck Confit, Fingerling Potatoes, Mustard Vinaigrette

My servers keep checking up on me to make sure I am well taken care of and refilled my coffee (which I shouldn't have since the coffee was quite strong and hurt my stomach after the meal). I enjoyed everything and the initial hold up was entirely forgiven... haha!! there was a very tempting dessert menu as well... but I behaved...

When I got my bill, I wasn't even charged for my coffee!! That's totally unexpected!! so yup~ I left with a big smile on my face :) and it was then I realized that this resturant is a part of a small chain... so sure enough, I looked it up... it was one of Jose Garces' restaurants... some of you might know already but he is the 6th Iron Chef!!! I was like... wow... so guess what! I am on a mission to try out his other restaurants now :)

And yes, as the pictures have already indicated... this is his newest restaurant - Garces Trading Company

So here's the plan - Village Whiskey tomorrow and then maybe, Amada sometime next week... I am excited!!!  And then guess what! He has a restaurant in Chicago too - the Mercat a la Planxa!!!

Garces Trading Company
1111 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tel: +1 (215) 574-1099
Hours: 11:00 am ~ 10:00 pm; Saturday & Sunday Brunch 11:00 am ~ 3:00 pm