Three nights a week, Fiore’s Bakery on South Street is transformed into a decadent dessert bar and bistro: Whisk.
Whisk is the budding business of Fiore’s chef, Phillip Kruta. This “pop-up” restaurant offers two seatings a night for changing tasting menus.
A customer makes a reservation and shows up to eat whatever Kruta and his staff decide, which changes from day to day. A seven-course sample menu available on Whisk’s website includes fresh pasta, ox-tail ragout, cardamom crème anglaise, honey caviar, chocolate mousse, lemon curd and salted, caramelized white chocolate.
“Fiore’s has a very neighborhood and community appeal to it and Whisk is more for the adventurous foodie or the special occasion,” Kruta said, “It’s for people that want to sit for two hours and get to experience seven courses with no menu, and it’s all about the food.”
As Fiore’s closes at 7 in the evening, Kruta and Fiore’s owner Charlie Fiore came to an agreement: they’d share the space and equipment until Kruta found the resources to move to his own premises.
“My arrangement with Charlie is that he would help jump-start my business by offering his space. It was already sitting there empty at night with all the equipment in it, so we figured it seemed perfect to turn the place into a restaurant at night,” Kruta said.
The two businesses “are feeding off each other nicely,” Fiore added. “It’s great. [Kruta] is getting very good reviews of what he’s doing. I’m happy for him.”
Whisk started as Kruta’s special order cake business—hence the name Whisk, a necessary tool in that trade.
Whisk offers two seatings, 7 and 9 p.m., on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 55 South St. It also serves three-course prix fixe menus and dessert-only three-course meals. Its first nights serving were in mid-January.