Break out the best bottle of red and keep the ouzo coming — two new healthy restaurants are coming to Montgomery Township.
Harvest Seasonal Grill and Wine Bar, a restaurant specializing in local allergy-friendly farm-to-table fare, is expected to relocate by the end of the year to the former Greene Turtle location at 1110 Bethlehem Pike in Montgomery Township from The Shoppes at English Village in Horsham Township.
Up the street at the Airport Square Shopping Center, Kentucky Fried Chicken is becoming slow-roasted lamb. Mediterranean-rooted CAVA is expected to offer its Greek-inspired fare by March, according to Montgomery Township Manager Carolyn McCreary.
CAVA, which acquired its Mediterranean competitor Zoë’s Kitchen in 2018 for $300 million, is not planning any new construction.
“It is only a change in business, so it doesn’t need to come before the board of supervisors. They are using the existing (KFC) building, unlike Shake Shack,” McCreary said. “We expect them to open in March.”
CAVA was founded by childhood friends and Greek Sunday school classmates Ike Grigoropoulos, Chef Dmitri Moshovitis, and Ted Xenohristos, and investor Brett Schulman in 2010, according to its website. It promotes healthy, affordable meals as bowls or pitas with ingredients like roasted white sweet potatoes, balsamic date chicken, harissa honey chicken and avocado, falafel, lentil, and hummus. There are also Greek salads and Tahini Caesar bowls. Pita offerings include sweet and spicy chicken, crispy falafel, and spicy lamb meatball.
The closet CAVA locations are in Plymouth Meeting and Ardmore.
Harvest Seasonal Grill and Wine Bar’s Horsham location, which was awarded Diners’ Choice for Healthy Dining in the Western Suburbs by OpenTable, states that most of its meals are under 500 calories. It works with 75 local farmers, according to its website. Its newest seasonal lunch and dinner menu that debuted Jan. 10 features a variety of flatbreads, salads, appetizers, entrees, and cocktails and mock-tails. It offers Sunday brunch as well.
Along with Harvest’s upscale casual atmosphere comes an upscale menu (and upscale prices: appetizers range from $7 to $17, sandwiches are $17, and entrees begin at $28 to as much as $40).
Flatbread offerings include one with ricotta, local honey, sea salt, and harvest spice, another with braised short rib and mushroom featuring horseradish-pumpkin seed pesto and a third called Pear & Bleu, with aged blue cheese, fig glaze, and micro arugula. Salads feature baby spinach, pomegranate seed, pear, dried cranberry, agave-glazed walnut, and lemon poppy seed dressing, and a modern Greek salad with ingredients like kale, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, Kalamata olive crumble, and sheep’s milk feta.
Appetizers include butternut squash soup, mushroom bisque, Korean BBQ chicken lettuce wraps, and crab & spinach dip. Sandwich offerings range from grass-fed beef burger on a poppy seed onion roll to a salmon BLT with sun-dried tomato pesto and sriracha beet aioli on naan flatbread. Entrees include cedar roasted salmon, seared sea scallops, grilled filet mignon, vegan eggplant “parm” and vegan brick-oven chimichanga. It also offers kids’ fare and plant-based entree bowls.
Happy Hour boasts 25% off premium wines by glass and $4 local draft or bottled beer. There is also $5 house sangria: white wine with Mandarin purée and sage-infused honey, red wine with plum juice and rosemary vanilla syrup, and rosé wine with ginger brandy, and cranberry juice.
Cocktails include Harvest fig bourbon, pineapple ginger margarita, and honey Mandarin mojitos.
North Wales Restaurant Associates, LLC was unanimously granted a restaurant liquor license inter-municipal transfer to Harvest Horsham LLC by Montgomery Township supervisors at a July 25, 2022, public hearing.
The license would be transferred in November 2022, according to meeting minutes of the hearing, from the former Grub Burger Bar at 161 North York Road, Willow Grove.
The license covers an establishment with a minimum 400 square feet of seating and food to accommodate 30 patrons at once, according to the public hearing.
Pennsylvania Liquor Code requires that, prior to the receiving municipality adopting a resolution, at least one public hearing must be held to allow people living in the municipality to make comments and recommendations on the liquor license transfer.
According to the public hearing, there are three other liquor licenses in Montgomery Township that are either expired, for sale, or in safekeeping: Grub Burger Bar (under agreement of sale), Korean BBQ KOKO (sold to third party), and The Greene Turtle (expired).
Harvest’s liquor license is active until April 30, 2023, per the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. The new location will be run as Harvest North Wales LLC, per the PLCB. Other Harvest locations include ones in Moosic, Lancaster, Newtown, Harrisburg, and Glen Mills. The company is also associated with Wednesday Enterprises LLC aka Barra Rossa Ristorante on Walnut Street in Philadelphia.
The current Harvest location in Horsham Township is operated by Angela Williams and Executive Chef Josh MacDonald.
See also:
Manoff Market Cidery Joins Bucks County Wine Trail
Construction of New Shake Shack Location in Montgomeryville Underway
El Limon Taqueria Coming to Lansdale, Planning for April Opening
Blueprint Brewing Co. in Towamencin to Permanently Close in March
Retroware Arcade in Lansdale to Host Grand Opening Saturday
