Food for Thought Interview with Jonathan Adams

Jonathan Adams, chef and owner of Pub & Kitchen and Rival Bros. Coffee Roasters, also wholeheartedly supports ACHIEVEability, and both Pub & Kitchen and Rival Bros. will be present at the Food for Thought gala event.

Check out our interview with Jonathan Adams below!

How did you get involved in Food for Thought? For how long have you been involved? Why is the Food for Thought fundraiser important to you? Why do you think people should attend?

I have mutual friends from the restaurant, who also worked at Urban Outfitters. When the event came up last year, they asked whether or not the restaurant would be willing to be involved. When I learned about the event I was kind of blown away because I’ve never seen anything like this before. I had never seen people who were so dedicated to charities, never seen people devote so much of their time. They’re changing every aspect of a family’s life. They’re taking care of so many loopholes in society. I then saw the other chefs who were behind this, and they were a lot of my friends.

After I started the coffee company, I reached out to ACHIEVEability and said I’d love to bring the coffee truck, to be even more involved. I wish I had more time to be involved in ACHIEVEability as it is such a great organization.

Can you give us any hints as to what you'll be cooking for the event?

We’re serving two dishes: a savory hors d’oeurve of poached chicken and black truffle terrine served on pretzel chip with cornichon mustard and a sweet coffee cream puff with dried cherry and sea salt.

The food at the event is out of control. There is such a mix of chefs there, who all serve fantastic food. This year we changed our menu after we saw what was offered last year.

Are there any other exciting upcoming events that you or Pub and Kitchen is involved in?

We have done events with the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Whenever we have the opportunity to do an event we try to. We also like to host events at the restaurant, we do not have many events like the Food for Thought Benefit on the horizon. I’ll be the Cook Studio on April 7th to do a dinner based on seafood. It will be 5 courses of seafood focused fine dining for $200 a head.

What do you like about the Philadelphia food scene? Why you think Philly a good place to start a gastro-pub?

Philly is manageable and accessible. I love New York, but it’s such an anomaly in culture and society, and the scope is so broad. Philly feels real. I’m from here, and I’ve lived all over the world but I’ve always ended up back in Philly so I decided to root down here. It’s easy to get around, and it’s not too overwhelming. The location is also great; we have mountains, the ocean and plains – everything you could possibly want within 200 miles. You can always find something to cook.

Where do you draw inspiration for your restaurant and menus?

Some of our favorite restaurants are in London, and we created a UK vibe for the restaurant. The general overall vibe is from the dark wood and the classic rock and roll soundtrack targeting good, classic Americana. Everyone in charge of Pub and Kitchen came from fine dining. We know how to make the place shine and an evening stand out, but we did not want to make that kind of space. We opened the kind of place we would want to go to. We want to unify everyone through music, food and drink, and create a “come one come all” atmosphere. We took inspiration from everything. We would go eat out somewhere and would always leave with a good idea. Also from everyday occurrences. We wanted to incorporate all of that.

Want to know more about Jonathan Adams? Check out the Spring 2012 Issue of Penn Appétit on racks all over Penn soon!


Find ACHIEVEability on the web: http://www.achieveability.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ACHIEVEability
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ACHIEVEability/179026932125700

Tickets to the Gala can be found via this link: http://bit.ly/A7d5n7