Hearthside, helmed by Chef Dominic and Lindsay Piperno, debuts a new, forward-thinking restaurant model. The beloved BYOB is moving to a tasting menu and reservation-only format, enabling the restaurant to move to a four-day week. These changes represent a proactive and concerted effort to rethink how restaurants can operate. Dominic and the sous chef, Thomas Anastasia, sought to achieve a better work-life balance for their team and their families while creating more opportunities for collaboration and evolution in the restaurant’s award-winning kitchen to benefit the guest experience meaningfully.
Hearthside’s set menus will rotate twice a month and run the gamut from refined, individually-plated tasting menus to more casual and convivial family-style experiences. The first menu of Hearthside’s new era runs March 1 through March 11, spotlights South American dishes (individual tasting menus) — an ode to the flavors Dom discovered while living in Costa Rica and traveling in Central and South America — and will be followed up by one that skews more rustic Italian — paying homage to the Italian classics Dominic grew up eating but elevated (served family-style). Menus will continue to evolve every two weeks. Sample dishes from the South American-inspired menu include:
- Kanpachi, passion fruit, and lime
- Red snapper, aguachile, and chayote
- Carne Asada Hanger Steak
The rustic Italian menu will run from March 15 through March 25, and reservations will be released on Resy on March 1st.
With this change comes the launch of a four-day workweek for the entire Hearthside team. Opened in 2017, Hearthside has spent the last five years serving Philadelphia, Collingswood, and beyond as a contemporary wood-fired American BYOB restaurant. The concept saw early success — including being named on Bon Appetit’s 2018 “Best New Restaurants” list — and their lengthy, fine-dining-leaning a la carte menu gained a following for its pastas, crudo, and more.
While they felt fortunate to weather COVID-19 and still be busy on the other side, Piperno and General Manager Ashley Hayden thought it was time to pilot a refreshed restaurant model that prioritizes sustainability and equity. Inspired by the thought-provoking dialogue and realities of the pandemic regarding the fragile restaurant ecosystem, Hearthside — a paradigm shifter since its inception — joins a class of progressive industry leaders nationwide redefining the confines of a restaurant and its operations.
“When faced with long-standing labor shortages nationwide that acutely and disproportionately affect restaurants, you need to ask yourself why so many capable and talented people are deciding hospitality is not a viable career path,” said Dominic Piperno. “Fundamentally, changing a restaurant that our community responded well to may seem like a hard choice, but really it was an easy one. Our team can expect more consistency at work, reasonable hours that are commonplace for many other industries but not ours, and more freedom in the kitchen. We truly believe the guest experience will dramatically improve and that our regulars can now have something new to look forward to every two weeks.”
For a small, family-owned restaurant team, the benefits of a fixed menu contain multitudes. Namely, drastically reducing waste and allowing the culinary team to collaborate with farmers and purveyors more thoughtfully. Similarly, a fixed menu allows Hearthside’s team to prep more strategically to anticipate the exact number of guests dining each evening. The fixed menu template is reservation-based, a great equalizer for the scheduling and stability of the team.
Creativity and collaboration are amplified in Hearthside’s new model, a benefit of transcending the confines of a traditional restaurant menu and format. Dominic and the culinary team work in tandem to develop and execute each menu, prioritizing experimentation and discovery. The entire team, not just sous chefs, is a part of this; Hearthside welcomes the conceptualization of dishes at every level.
As a BYOB, Hearthside will continue to tap its long-standing partnership with Moore Brothers in Pennsauken for hand-selected wine pairings. Selections will be updated bi-monthly per Hearthside’s new fixed menus.
Hearthside is open Wednesday through Saturday from 5 to 9 PM. Reservations are available now via Resy. Pricing for each menu will range from $90-125 per person.
Marilyn Johnson is a freelance food and travel writer covering the food and drink scene of Philadelphia, South Jersey food, the greater Mid-Atlantic area, and beyond. Email Marilyn at phillygrub@gmail.com with food and travel news. If you liked this article, throw Marilyn a coffee! Follow Marilyn on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
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