All About Picnic in Philadelphia, From the Team Behind Suraya, Kalaya, and Beddia
A few years ago, Defined Hospitality burst onto the Philadelphia restaurant scene and the company’s momentum hasn’t stopped. It’s the force behind Philly restaurant royalty: Kalaya, Suraya, Pizzeria Beddia, Condesa, El Techo, and R&D Cocktail Bar. And now, this team of restaurant veterans has added a seventh star to their lineup: Enter Picnic.
Picture a beer garden in a reclaimed space with sunlight pouring in, big groups reaching across tables for fries, babies chilling in strollers while parents enjoy a drink … Now, imagine it with air conditioning, excellent food, a full bar, and an on-site wine shop.
Joe Beddia, the chef behind the renowned pizza restaurant and a strategic partner/creative advisor to Picnic, likens it to Bacchanal, a beloved outdoor wine bar and restaurant in New Orleans: “It’s simple, convivial, and with a focus on a kind of laid-back quality. Fun for everyone.”
This Kensington destination also sits on the same block as Martha and Philadelphia Brewing Company. Who’s ready for a moveable feast?
In this edition of the Resy Rundown, we’ve got all the details about Picnic, now open and bookable on Resy.
The Resy Rundown
Picnic
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Why We Like It
Picnic exudes chill beer garden vibes, with exceptionally good food, and air conditioning (!) in a sunlight-filled historic brewery. -
Must-Order Dishes
Rotisserie chicken with fries and hollandaise on the side. East Coast oysters. Watermelon and feta salad. A seedy baguette with cultured butter. -
Essential Drinks
A martini made with oyster shell-infused vodka and a Boulevardier lightened up with banana liqueur. Biodynamic wine from the on-site bottle shop. Non-alcoholic blanc de blanc.
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Who and What It’s For
Everyone is welcome. Families with strollers, big groups, and couples, take note. -
How to Get In
Book tables for up to 12 people on Resy up to a month in advance or just drop by; 50% of seats are being held for walk-ins. -
Fun Fact
Picnic is located in a late 1800’s brewery building that closed during Prohibition. The new owners restored it and left many of the building’s original features.
1. Enter through the wine shop.
You enter Picnic through a wine shop with a bird’s eye view of the busy, open kitchen. Take some time to browse the bottles on the shelves and in cold cases. “Instead of looking at a flat wine list on a piece of paper, to be able to go around and look at the bottles and see the labels and pick them up and interact with them — that’s a buying experience I really enjoy,” says Nick Kennedy, one of Defined Hospitality’s partners.
The experience is meant to evoke the feeling of stopping at a wine shop on the way to a picnic, so guests are encouraged to grab a bottle, and bring it back to their table, or order once they’re seated. The selection highlights low-intervention winemaking methods, showcasing grapes and terroir from around the globe. Bottles are generally in the $50 to $70 range, but there are also a few wines by the glasses available, including a Muscadet that pairs beautifully with fresh oysters.
General manager Aaron Deary, co-owner of R&D and former beverage manager of Kalaya, designed a bar menu that includes frozen drinks, draft cocktails, non-alcoholic drinks, and beer. “We want it to be fun and playful, but also kind of straightforward,” Kennedy says. He’s a big fan of Picnic’s martini made with oyster shell-infused vodka and kombu.
2. It’s all about rotisserie — and oysters.
When you walk in, you’ll also see the wood-fired rotisserie, an oyster bar, a prosciutto slicer, and a selection of cheeses: all signature menu items at Picnic.
For the rotisserie, Picnic sources organic chickens that get a nice charred crust and stay super tender. We recommend getting a couple of sauces, like classic hollandaise, anchovy salsa verde, pickled pepper aioli, roasted garlic chicken jus, fragrant chile oil, or Peruvian salsa verde, to pair with it.
Down the road, Picnic plans to add additional protein options and vegetables to the rotisserie. Kennedy is already thinking about cabbage and sweet potatoes in the fall. And possibly lamb shoulders with vegetables underneath to catch the drippings.
Oysters will be offered all year round, thanks to Picnic’s neighbor Bryan Szeliga, owner of Fishtown Seafood and Picnic’s oyster supplier. “His knowledge is extremely deep,” Kennedy says, adding that there will likely always be oysters from New Jersey on the menu. Right now, he’s especially excited about the Psychedelicates from a woman-run oyster farm in Virginia. “We love oysters because they’re perfect in themselves. They’re sustainable and positive for the environment. It’s a win-win.”
Chef Mark Jerome Hennessey, who has worked at Messina Social Club, Helm BYOB, and Condesa, has also come up with a menu of seasonal small plates. This summer, that means juicy and herbaceous watermelon feta salad, charred summer beans with tomatoes, and fluke with green tomato. You’ll also want to get a seedy half baguette with salty cultured butter and an order of hot, fresh-cut fries to share, too.
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3. Save room for dessert.
Defined Hospitality has developed a bit of a reputation for their soft-serve ice cream, which has been delighting Beddia guests since its 2019 opening. At Picnic, the soft-serve machine churns out tangy frozen yogurt. It’s a deal at $6, but worth the $2 upgrade to get it topped with blueberries; graham crackers and olive oil; or olive oil, bee pollen, and sea salt. There’s also a chocolate cake with whipped cream, caramel sauce, and candied pecans on the tight-but-just-right dessert menu.
4. Be sure to take it all in.
This brick and terracotta building, originally built in 1890, was part of the Weisbrod and Hess brewery complex. It closed during Prohibition and has remained empty since then.
When Defined Hospitality found it, the building was boarded up with no roof. “There were plants growing out of it,” Kennedy recalls. But, he says, “You would never be able to recreate a space like this. It’s cool. It’s special.” Stokes Architecture, known for its Philly restaurant projects, painstakingly restored the building, which involved repointing and stabilizing the bricks inside and out, all the way up to the top of the 80-foot smoke stack. They’ve since applied to get it on the National Register of Historic Places.
Once it was safe to go inside the building, interior designer Katherine Lundberg of Briquette Studio got to work. She let the historic building’s attributes — skylights, big windows, 40-foot-high ceilings, exposed brick — speak for themselves, while finding creative ways to bring the outside in. She added a lot of greenery, bright green tables, and tall streetlamp-style lights with exposed filaments. According to Kennedy, Lundberg spent a lot of time at flea markets in Northeast Philly collecting well-made, old chairs. The mixed seating gives the 11,200-square-foot space a casual, beer garden — or even friendly dive — bar feel.
All in all, there are 225 indoor seats, including a mezzanine over the bar, two soon-to-open private dining spaces, and even some sidewalk seating.
5. Everyone is welcome.
Kennedy and his partners designed Picnic with flexibility in mind. “The seating is very flexible,” he says. “We can pull and push tables in a lot of different ways, so you can have a lot of different size groups dining together.” The idea is to make this a place that people in the neighborhood can visit a few times a week and a destination for people from other neighborhoods and towns in the area.
“Early on Sundays, we have the stroller crowd, and we love it; it’s designed to be really family friendly,” says Kennedy, a dad to a young family himself.
Orders can be placed with servers or via a QR code on the table. You can also pay the check electronically or split it among a few people. “The QR code speeds up the [ordering] process,” Kennedy says. He likes how it makes the experience feel more relaxed for guests. Since the kitchen is free flowing, it doesn’t matter much if everyone orders at the same time or gets the same number of courses.
What else makes Picnic a relaxing experience? The menu is crowd pleasing and accommodating. The bar offers two non-alcoholic wine options, a red and a bubbly, plus hibiscus iced tea and strawberry lemonade. Gluten-free diners will find plenty to eat, and Kennedy notes more vegan options are coming soon.
Perhaps the best part: Kennedy says that with all of the space at Picnic, guests are welcome to linger. No one will be ushering you out the door after your 84-minute reservation. And in our over-scheduled post-pandemic world, lingering might be just what we need.
Picnic is open for dinner Monday to Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m., and from 4 to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
Sarah Maiellano is a Philly-based food and travel writer. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.