Spike Mendelsohn On Possible Philadelphia Restaurant, Pretending To Be Pirates

When Spike Mendelsohn isn't on TV dealing with restaurant openings and multiple cameras following his every move, he's working on new recipes. The Daily Meal caught up with Mendelsohn as he just finished a batch of recipes for Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum, which he says, "is a little bit more mature."

"I pretty much had a bunch of friends in our house, and I pictured myself dressed up as a pirate, and I just got inspired," he said. Of course, aside from developing recipes with the rum, Mendelsohn has also been talking up his upcoming steak frites place in Washington, D.C., Bearnaise.

"I just got back from Paris on this huge 10-day research of steak frites," Mendelsohn told us. "I'm staying focused on opening up Bearnaise." The chef hopes to open his doors in the beginning of next year, around January, but "I don't really confirm dates because it is the restaurant business," he said.

Nevertheless, Mendelsohn is working on a new Good Stuff Eatery in December in Georgetown, plus expanding We, The Pizza nationally. But even further in the future? A Philadelphia location, which he says, is "not a rumor, [but] a very strong possibility."

"I don't want to jinx myself, but we definitely have been wanting to go into the Philly market and as well as the Chicago market," Mendelsohn said. It just needs to be the right deal and it needs to make sense for everybody involved." No word on what the concept might be, though. "I think have enough on my plate, I don't want to overextend myself," he said.