Cork Floats

MEEKER, BOLDER: Sae An (left) and Kevin Meeker drink to their new partnership at Cork.
Photo By: Mike Mergen

Kevin Meeker on how his new bistro switched chefs and still rode out the tide.

by A.D. Amorosi

The first thing to know about smiling Kevin Meeker is that he wants to please. "That's the one thing I teach my managers: Listen to the customer, make them happy, kiss their ass," says the Jersey native, renowned for a no-nonsense approach to the restaurant business. "I want you to leave here overjoyed."

"Here" has, for two decades, meant Meeker's seafood hostel, Philadelphia Fish & Co., vine-ripened within the Old City restaurant community.

Then, in the last year, "here" gained an alternate meaning: his new, crowded Cork in Westmont, N.J., an area just starting to sizzle.

But if you went in early 2005, you might not recognize it now. After losing its chef in its first few weeks, Meeker has had to embark on a tough search for the right person for the kitchen.

Looking back at his 22-year commitment to Philadelphia Fish & Co., Meeker is able to take things in stride. He recognizes the restaurant is neither flashy nor lime-lit like some of his competition: "More power to Starr, but it's not my style," he says. "I don't want all his stress." But he managed to put PFC on the map before the foodie Old City existed. And by opening his tony, melting-pot-menued Cork in Westmont, Meeker wants to repeat the feat.

"Before the '80s, Old City was like Bourbon Street, Greenwich Village and SoHo rolled into one," says Meeker. "But nobody knew it." Throughout the 1970s, his family owned Los Amigos on Second Street, long before the renaissance, when the neighborhood chopped the "e" from "Olde." Philadelphia Fish & Co. arrived in 1983, concentrating on freshness, culinary quirkiness and affordability. He frequently refurbishes his menu, while sticking to longtime faves like Stonington Lobster Rolls. He introduces new chefs like Anthony Bonnett, while his staff is filled with line and sous chefs who have been with him 15 years. It's a Meeker rule to find a team that can work together seamlessly to produce his vision, above all consistently.

He wanted the same for Cork, housed in a boîte on Haddon Avenue where Graziella once stood, which he shares with Stephen Hopson of Brownie's Pub. "South Jersey's a wasteland where independent restaurants with liquor licenses are concerned," Meeker says. "Any restaurants around here — beyond Chili's and Red Lobster — are BYOB. I wanted to bring a level of Philadelphian dining to the area. And a liquor license — we make killer martinis." Plus, he laughs, "I live around the corner."

Meeker brought in Jennifer Huynh, the master chef and co-owner of Le Mê Toujours in Marlton, to give his vision of American fare a pan-Asian/Vietnamese flair.

It was successful. Quickly, the restaurant became packed. But "She pushed that flair further than I wanted to go with it," Meeker says of Huynh's menu choices. He wanted contemporary American seafood and meat dishes, with hints of Mediterranean and Southwestern. That's not exactly what Hunyh brought him. So, despite the success, Huynh and Meeker parted ways. City Paper could not reach Hunyh for comment by press time.

Meeker is neither happy nor unhappy to discuss this. "Look, I've been doing this a lot of years. Nobody did anything wrong. But not only do you have to have creativity in the kitchen, it has to run smooth — the way you want it run."

Was it frightening to change a successful restaurant's menu and chef within two weeks of opening? Damn right. "The stress was immense," he admits. "But hey"

So Meeker needed someone adaptable, and on the same page as his new customer base and Cork's price point. He found that in Sae An, the noted chef from Twenty Manning and Philippe Chin's Chin Chin restaurant. He brought Meeker his own vision of "melting-pot" Americana, with twists on Meeker's fish faves, like scallops with sweet pea risotto, or chicken with chipotle and chorizo. "Sae came up with the smokiness and the cole slaw. I came up with the rice and beans," Meeker explains. "That's collaboration."

To An himself, his food is like the America he moved to at age 7 — a melting pot. "It's never been just Italian or Chinese or French — it's the mix," says the Korean-born An, 24. Trained at the Restaurant School, An so instinctively knows classic cuisine that when Chin opened his five-star Chin Chin, he brought in An as his associate. "Chin would give me a concept — Thai but French," he says, "and I'd put it [into action]." Having been given that opportunity, An encourages his sous- and line-cooks to collaborate with him. "I can communicate easily with my chefs. That's my talent: to make chefs pick up what I say easily," he explains. "They understand and can go from there."

An is up for getting customers to try his universal cuisines, which combine the spicy, the sweet and the earthy — for example, his Chilean sea bass, with red curry, coconut broth and lemongrass.

"Like any good artist [who] looks at colors and schemes [and] then creates, I look at what I have — from purveyors, from the pantry — and I freestyle," says An. "I want to jump in the fire. I want to expand people's palates, slowly and subtly."

Cork, 90 Haddon Ave., Westmont, N.J., 856-833-9800.

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there