If you’re walking down Sansom Street, you’ll notice a plywood box has gone up over the facade of the-artist-formerly-known-as-the-Sansom-Street-Oyster-House… which means that the construction has officially started on the anticipated spring opening of Oyster House, which is the restaurant’s new name and which will be run by father-and-son team David Mink and Sam Mink. A little history – David Mink ran the SSOH back in the days before Cary Neff (currently of Coquette) took it over (and then closed it after filing for bankruptcy proteciton).

Sam Mink let us take a peek inside the under-construction spot today. No good photos, as there’s not much left but a long empty space, but Sam let us see the architect’s drawings and gave us a great verbal walk-through of what the Oyster House will look like, plus, he dropped the name of his chef. Click after the jump to find out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rick Nichols chronicles the story of the Sansom Street Oyster House which has managed to bring two prodigal sons home.

On the Side: The saga behind the sign at venerable oyster house [Philadelphia Inquirer]

A Foobooz reader dropped this photo of the front of Sansom Street Oyster House into our inbox. Michael Klein has more details. Owner Cary Neff, who also owns Coquette at 5th and Bainbridge has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and former Sansom Street Oyster house owner and still building owner David Mink plans to reopen the longtime restaurant.

Coquette is still open but you have to wonder if that restaurant black hole hasn’t claimed another victim, this one remotely.

Sansom Street Oyster House Closed [Food and Drinq]

The Inquirer food section, briefly:

Eat your greens! They’re good for you!
Where there are calorie counts and carbon counts, confusion is not far behind.

Michael Klein tells us that Pearl is open, so is Blue in Green. Sansom Street Oyster House is getting a facelift.

Philadelphia Weekly profiles some of the best soups in the city in today’s Field Guide.

• Raw Sushi & Sake Lounge
• Marathon Grill
• Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant
• Caribou Cafe
• Sansom Street Oyster House
• Barclay Prime

Broth, Where Art Thou? [Philadelphia Weekly]

Save 15% off dinner at the Sansom Street Oyster House. Whether you want raw, rare or fully-cooked seafood get it at a discount with this coupon from the Center City District.

15% Off Dinner at Sansom Street Oyster House [Center City District]
Sansom Street Oyster House [Official Site]

Field Guide takes you around Philadelphia for a tour of oyster bars. Scoring them for cost, Guinness availability, wine list, old-schoolness and more.

• XIX
• Sansom Street Oyster House
• Coquette Bistro & Wine Bar
• Striped Bass
• Philadelphia Fish & Co.
• Original Snockey’s Oyster & Crab House

Shells Angels [Philadelphia Weekly]

Rick Nichols goes behind the scenes with Ameen Lawrence, shucker extraordinaire at the Sansom Street Oyster House.

His world, your oyster [Philadelpia Inquirer]
Sansom Street Oyster House [Official Site]