Those who’ve grabbed a flat white at couple Jason Hoy and Melanie Hansche‘s Tucker Silk Mill café and provisions store are familiar with the passion poured into every cup. So, it might surprise them that their first love, other than each other, is wine rather than coffee.
Hoy has served as a fine wine professional for over 30 years, while Mel is the deputy editor at Food and Wine. What won’t surprise customers is the same level of devotion the Australian natives will put into their new endeavor Kabinett. The couple will renovate a former bus depot and garage at 125 Northhampton St. in Easton to open what promises to be an enchanting fine dining, café, grocery store/wine shop experience in the late spring-summer of 2022.
“Kabinett is going to be an Art Deco romp with a wine list heavy on Australian and German rockstars, have tasty eats for your face, and a Tirolean-style wine garden overlooking the Delaware River,” their Instagram page reads.
The main portion of the building will be reserved as a fine dining wine bar dressed in 1930s decor with a modern touch. The outdoor space will serve as an Austrian-style “heuriger” wine garden overlooking the Delaware River, with expansive seating for diners who want a more laid-back experience amongst greenery and under a vine-covered pergola for a night where wine, beer, and pork knuckles flow with frivolity. Kabinett will serve an elevated modern Australian/American cuisine with other international influences. While the menu will include main plates, it will focus on a variety of delectable small plates that go perfectly with a large glass of wine. There will be over 100 predominately old-world, international wines to choose from when Kabinett opens, with their selection to expand over time.
Guests enamored by the wines they sample at dinner can walk over to the abutting wine shop where they can pick up a bottle to take home or gift to someone they love. Kabinett will also include a café open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner serving gourmet fare that is slightly less fancy than the restaurant’s fine dining menu. The attached provisions store will allow customers to grab anything from fresh vegetables, homemade hot sauce, spice and herbs, cheese, and dried meats.
The couple will continue their efforts to make fresh, healthy produce is available to those who are food insecure with the help from donations from their customers. They’re responsible for getting over $40,000 worth of food to hungry people during the pandemic. Hoy will also pay every employee, whether they take orders or are cooking on the line, at least $20 per hour or more on top of tips. He’s also providing his employees with health insurance. According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, the average CEO at the nation’s 350 largest public companies was paid about 351 times more than a typical worker in CEO, with CEO-to-median-employee pay ratios highest in industries like the restaurant business.
“The hospitality system is broken, basically. And it’s time we fix it,” Hoy told What Now Philadelphia. “There’s no other business model where you can not pay your staff and depend on your customers for paying them.”
Kabinett is a 25-year dream in the making that will come to life in May or June of 2022.
“After toughing out the last 16 months, we are so grateful to have a bright spot on the horizon, and we’re determined to have Kabinett contribute to the community the same way that Tucker has. Jason’s been building this bar in his head for 25 years, and we can’t wait to welcome you,” the couple wrote on Instagram.
Until then, you can follow Kabinett for updates @kabinett.winebar, stop by Tucker Silk Mill, or order something from their store here.
