Triple Crown, from the owners of the White Dog Cafe, celebrates the equestrian set
Fearless Restaurants saddles up for a new restaurant and event center at the Radnor Hotel with a classic American menu steeped in chops, a raw bar, and club sandwiches. It's all very Main Line.
Head into any one of Fearless Restaurants’ five White Dog Cafes, and you’re immersed in a full-on dog experience: photos, paintings, sculptures, objets d’art.
The Fearless-owned Triple Crown, opening Thursday at the Radnor Hotel, is a similarly over-the-top celebration, but of horses and the equestrian life.
Its clubby vibe is straight out of a Ralph Lauren shoot, as you’ll see along the passageway to the bar that is lined with hooks bearing tack, polo helmets, mallets, and jockey jerseys sourced from antiques and consignment shops.
Triple Crown, serving a classic American menu, is a passion project for Sydney Grims, who runs Fearless with her father, Marty. Besides the White Dogs, their holdings include the Moshulu, Rosalie, Testa Rossa, Autograph, and Louie Louie.
Grims, who has been riding since she was 3, pointed out that the Main Line is steeped in equestrian history — it’s home to the Devon Horse Show and Radnor Hunt — “so it was an easy extension of the lifestyle and history of the area.”
“We wanted to create a really cozy restaurant that felt like you are stepping into an old estate on the Main Line,” she said.
The space, previously the hotel-run Glenmorgan Bar & Grill, presented a design challenge because of its low ceilings.
“When we first came in here, we were asking, ‘How do we make this cozy but not stifling?’” Grims said. She and Barbara Balongue of Balongue Design used bold, contrasting colors to create a sense of height.
In addition, the building’s concrete walls meant that the small dining rooms could not be expanded. Pocket doors were added to allow each room to be closed off, a plus for a hotel restaurant that will host small meetings and private dining. Fearless was able to expand the rear of the restaurant to create a large bar seating 20 people; in addition, there are 36 seats in booths around the bar. Happy hour will start Monday.
Though Triple Crown is opening first for dinner, it will add lunch, then breakfast and brunch. The Radnor Hotel has a history as a corporate breakfast and brunch destination.
All of Fearless’ restaurant menus have an American slant. While White Dog’s is whimsical farm-to-table, Grims said Triple Crown’s menu — overseen by executive chef Robert Reissner, a Johnson & Wales graduate who last worked at Catch Steak in Los Angeles after many years in the Michael Mina orbit — channels a 1960s Mad Men mood: raw bar, prime rib, club sandwiches, French dips, lots of steaks and seafood, branzino fileted tableside, and banana pudding, key lime pie, and baked Alaska for dessert.
Reissner’s show-stopping steak is a 40-ounce ribeye, brought to the table on a hay-covered platter and then carved in the kitchen.
Come September, Triple Crown will have an exterior garden, featuring a glasshouse conservatory that can host 100 guests and a sailcloth tent that will accommodate 300 guests.
Triple Crown at the Radnor Hotel, 593 E. Lancaster Ave. Opens July 24 for dinner.
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