Tesiny will be a raw bar in South Philly from Lauren Biederman of Biederman’s

Lauren Biederman, who owns the Italian Market-area appetizing shop bearing her name as well as a new caviar kiosk in Center City, has more than caviar on her plate (or the back of her hand, as it were).

Biederman told The Inquirer that she is opening a raw bar called Tesiny in a restored garage at 719 Dickinson St., seven blocks from her South Philadelphia shop. Tesiny will house two bars: a large U that will accommodate an open kitchen, and a drinking bar across the way.

Biederman is designing it and said she is aiming for a “sexy, cozy oyster bar” feel.

Besides raw-bar dishes, the menu will include charcoal-grilled items. At the bar, she plans cocktails, sparkling wines, sherries, and vermouth among the selections.

“I want to eat shrimp cocktail in South Philly,” Biederman told me. “There’s not that many places to do that right now.”

There will be no real crossover with Biederman’s, her shop on Christian Street, which sells smoked fish and brunch items. “We’ll probably have some smoked-fish croquette or something to tie it in a little bit, but it’s really going to be a very separate entity,” Biederman said.

The goal is to open around April. Biederman says she will be happy to meet her goal of opening her first restaurant by her 30th birthday, which is in July.

Tesiny is the name of the street in Bridgeport, Conn., where Biederman’s grandmother lived and her father grew up. Tesiny also is a settlement in west-central Poland that she assumes inspired the street’s name. She likes Tesiny not only for the sentiment but also for its SEO value.

Biederman, a former server and bartender at Zahav, Oloroso, and Osteria, opened her shop in late 2020, replacing a shuttered clothing store. Her line includes more than a dozen varieties of smoked fish hand-sliced by the quarter-pound, plus caviar and other fancy Jewish food fixings.

Biederman said she had been looking for the space for two years with broker Stefanie Gabel of MSC.

“From when it was a garage to now, the space just had character,“ Gabel said. ”The architect’s design left that old character but updated it. It’s an awesome storefront with great windows. And she agreed. Love at first sight.”