Maybe you have weightier issues to ponder, but I’ve been wondering what’s going to happen to the former Binkley’s Restaurant space on Osborn Road near 24th Street, which has been languishing without a tenant since chef Stephen Jones closed his Southern fine dining concept, The Larder & The Delta, this past June. Well, I have the official answer. Chef Tandy Peterson plans to open an all-day restaurant called Tandy’s in the space by the first week of December.
Peterson says she wants Tandy’s to be approachable and reasonably priced, a neighborhood spot that locals will pop into two or three times a week. She plans to keep her menus lean, offering a handful of popular standbys – meat loaf and mashed potatoes, roast chicken, that sort of thing – as well as a few seasonal dishes which will rotate in and out. She calls it “comfort food but lighter,” promising there will be plenty of options such as salad with salmon.
She also notes that because she’s operated as a private chef for the past four years, she’s learned a lot about what people want to eat day-to-day, and guess what? It’s almost never the kind of cutting-edge food that sets a chef’s heart atwitter. She hopes to make Tandy’s as beloved as Vecina, James Fox’s Latin-inspired restaurant on Indian School Road at 56th Street, which is arguably one of the most successful neighborhood restaurants in town. Yes, the food has high-end, chef-y touches here and there, but it’s always grounded in reality, always approachable. The idea, she says, is to do a few things really well.
Since Peterson left her job as chef de cuisine at Mowry & Cotton at The Phoenician Resort in 2021, she’s become an accomplished chocolatier, creating her own brand of artisanal bars labeled Embers Chocolate. Naturally, chocolate will play a big role at Tandy’s. Besides morning coffee drinks using Press Coffee, there will be hot cocoa and other chocolate drinks as well as pan au chocolat and chocolate features in daily rotation. Naturally, there will be other morning options as well, say, a savory croissant or a Danish. Rebekah Swift, who led the pastry program at J&G at The Phoenician back in the day – and now serves as executive chef for Fabulous Foods (a catering company) – will be in charge of the pastry program at Tandy’s.
For full-on breakfast lovers, there will be breakfast sandwiches, shakshouka and other easily transportable dishes. Counter service will be the MO for breakfast and lunch, and there will be online ordering as well as a pick-up counter. Come dinner-time, Tandy’s turns full service.
Peterson has done a lot to lighten and brighten the space, adding plants, a bookshelf of cookbooks and artwork that illustrates the chocolate-making process. She’s also spiffed up the front-yard garden (adding herbs and flowers) and bought new patio furniture. She envisions people sitting around the fireplace chatting. From the bar will come affordable cocktails – most of them well-made, high-end classics such as a G&T and a margarita. Not a one of them, she promises, will cost $20.
And what neighborhood hangout would be complete without a great happy hour? Expect (among other things) a burger, a charcuterie board and half-price wines by the glass.
I think Peterson is on to something. What we all want right now is great food at a reasonable price in a homey setting. Tandy’s promises to be all that and more.
