Food and Drinq

Alison Barshak (of Alison at Blue Bell) last night (11/18) signed a lease for her second Montco restaurant. She'll take over the old Marita's Cantina at 424 S. Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington, which is at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue near the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Fort Washington exit, four miles from Blue Bell. Concept: What she does now (new American), but "we'll be able to stretch more," she says. The name is not final, but will include "Alison." It's certain that the restaurant will have a bar, wine lockers, private dining and 100 seats, which means walk-ins will be easier to accommodate than at Alison at Blue Bell, which has 65 seats indoors. The new place, which she hopes to open in the spring, also will accept credit cards.

The career of the Lafayette Hill-bred Barshak largely follows Philly's current so-called restaurant renaissance. Then barely in her 30s and self-taught, she opened Striped Bass in spring 1994 with Neil Stein and Joe Wolf after jobs at Rollers in Chestnut Hill, Apropos in Center City, and Central Bar & Grille in Bryn Mawr.

When Barshak quit Striped Bass in June 1996 to follow love out West, the news shocked the town. In 1998, she opened Venus and the Cowboy on the Parkway, which lasted 10 months and was saddled with litigation, as the beau who had worked with her on the restaurant sued her. Barshak retreated to New York City, where she was executive chef at a swank seafood restaurant in Rockefeller Center. She returned to the area in 2001 with Alison Cafe in an old country store in central Montco, before opening the larger Alison at Blue Bell in 2003.

Copyright 2007 Photo by Courtney Grant Winston