A Glimpse Inside Ted's Bulletin on 14th Street

Grid View

• Matchbox Food Group's executive chef Jacob Hunter and founding partner Drew Kim.
• The 500-square-foot bakery is located at the front of the restaurant.
• Drew Kim explains the new sheeter, which will improve the Pop Tart making process.
• The coffee and espresso bar will be open all day.
• The restaurant has three doors: a revolving main door, than a door leading to the bakery, and another to the bar.
• The bar is adjacent to the bakery, and features custom flat screens meant to look 1930s-era appropriate, as well as bulletins from the Philadelphia Convention Center — hence, the name.
• The main dining room is beyond the bakery and the bar.
• Ted's Bulletin on 14th offers counter seating.
• Four seats look right into the kitchen.
• The booths in the 160-seat restaurant are fixed, but there's space for large groups of up to 15 on either side of the dining room.
• Classic movies will be projected on the restaurant's back wall.

[Photos: Adele Chapin/Eater.com]

It's almost time for boozy milkshakes and homemade Pop Tarts on 14th Street. Eater checked in on the construction progress over at Ted's Bulletin new 14th Street outpost, set to open "soon," the owners say, hopefully within the month. The 1930s-themed upscale diner will stick with the same menu, the same concept, and the same look as the Capitol Hill location. But Ted's Bulletin on 14th Street is going to really focus on breakfast. Mainly, doughnuts.

"We invested in professional bakery equipment, and the bakery is 500 square feet. We finally have room to do doughnuts," said Drew Kim, founding partner at Matchbox Food Group. Ted's Bulletin pastry chef Rebecca Albright is still experimenting with different recipes, but the plan is to offer housemade cake and yeast doughnuts with a variety of toppings.

"We're kind of catching doughnuts at the tail end of the trend," Kim acknowledged. But in addition to doughnuts, Ted's signature Pop Tarts will also be going strong at the new location. Albright now has new equipment, like a sheeter to roll out dough, which will hopefully streamline the process and crank out more Pop Tarts, and mini Pop Tarts too. "We're going to sell a lot of Pop Tarts for my name to get out of the mud on this one," Kim joked about the amount of pricy equipment in the bakery.

A counter at the bakery will make it easy for people in the neighborhood to grab muffins, scones, and lattes. The restaurant is also going after the breakfast meeting crowd and will serve breakfast all day, starting at 7 a.m. "Breakfast is going to be a really big deal here from the get go," Kim says.

The 160-seat 14th Street location is like a super-sized version of the Capitol Hill Ted's Bulletin. "Everything is double the size: the kitchen, the seats, more staff and managers," Kim said. Jacob Hunter will serve as executive chef for the 14th Street restaurant, until he moves over to help open the new Reston location of Ted's Bulletin. Chef Eric Brannon of the Capitol Hill Ted's will move to 14th Street to handle the front of house during the opening.

The specials will be the same as the original location, like Pasta Night on Monday and a Burger Basket deal on Tuesday. When 14th Street opens, the last seating will be at 10:30 p.m. on weeknights and 11:30 p.m. on weekends, though these hours may change in the future.

As for the decor, Kim and his partners implemented some of the ideas they couldn't fit into the first Ted's Bulletin, like counter seating and a revolving door. "We've always wanted a revolving door," Kim said. There's also a chef table of sorts, with four stools positioned right in front of the kitchen. Classic movies will be projected onto the restaurant's back wall. And even though it's a new building, Matchbox Food Group is committed to making the restaurant look like its been around for decades, right down to custom flat screens made to look retro and architectural details salvaged from the Philadelphia Convention Center.
—Adele Chapin