A new BYO is set to open near campus just in time for the upcoming academic year.
Chefs Ross Scofield and Danielle Coulter are opening Rx The Farmacy at 4443 Spruce St. Scofield decided to transform the space — which housed another restaurant until 2011 — into a farm-to-table BYO that will open on Aug. 1.
The restaurant will feature fresh, local ingredients, “great flavors”, and a refined, modern presentation. “We’re doing a lot of local foods, free-range proteins and organic foods,” Scofield said. Additionally, Rx will provide wine glasses and coolers and orange juice for mimosas during brunch.
The menu will not include genetically modified food like corn oil, saturated foods, chemical preservatives and pesticides.
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Rising College junior Jess Stone is looking forward to this new addition to the BYO scene. “It’s always exciting when a new BYO is established on campus so we don’t have to go downtown, and the fact that it serves healthy food, reasonably priced, is an added bonus,” she said.
In addition to being a health-conscious BYO, Rx will boast a reasonably priced menu. “We have to be a little bit trendier towards students, trendier towards more casual dining, and I think we need to focus more on affordable dining as opposed to ‘insanity wow factor’,” Scofield said.
The restaurant will be painted in lively orange, green and yellow earth-tone hues to complement the natural menu and will also offer outdoor seating and free Wi-Fi. Tables both inside and outside will be deliberately bare. “If I walk past a place and I’m wearing shorts and a pair of Crocs and a T-shirt and I see white linen on the table, I may really want something off their menu, but if I’m not dressed, I’m not going to step foot in there,” Scofield said.
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Rising Engineering junior Rameen Vafa is looking forward to a more casual dining option. “After a long day of class, I am less inclined to go get dressed up for a fancy sit-down BYO. For this reason, this place, being more casual, will definitely attract more students,” he said.
For Scofield, the laid-back atmosphere and affordability will differentiate Rx from other local restaurants. He believes that Rimedio — an Italian restaurant which stood at the same location for a short time in 2012 — failed because it did not appropriately cater to the needs of the West Philadelphia community. Conversely, Scofield and his staff will be “guest-oriented.”
“I want students at UPenn and our neighborhood to know that if you wake up on a Saturday and it’s 11 o’clock and maybe you went out and had a blast the night before with your friends and you’re not feeling so sharp, you can roll out of bed and put your shoes on and walk into the Farmacy,” he said.
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