A Full Plate Cafe

When looking around A Full Plate, The design is emphatically rustic modern. There is a balance where old meets new. The walls are awash in concord grape purple, lime green, and blood orange. The tables are hand-painted with a technique called "vinegar paint" by friend and local artist, Lori Albright, emboldened by a menagerie of chairs. The floor is a hand-laid, slapdash medley of wooden planks. Pots and pans, made from old copper and iron, frame the front doors. We included old wooden doors, windows, antique cooking tools, and bric-a-brac throughout the café. When making decisions about the menu, we wanted our guests to be able to have some control over their meal. Our concept was simple. One owner is a vegetarian and very conscious of the lack of choices here in Philly when you go out to eat with your meat-eating friends. We wanted to create a menu that would make all vegetarians, vegans, and carnivores excited about the selections. So we came up with home cooking, Southern influenced, healthy food. On the whole, our dishes are a la carte, and our list of sides is quite extensive. We encourage you to taste them all and maybe give those Brussels sprouts you hated as a kid another try. We want to introduce people to new ways of eating and preparing food. Whether we feature beets, turnips or salsify, as our root vegetable of the day, we hope that you are trying something new or enjoying an old favorite. We can't talk about the menu without mentioning the fried chicken and waffles. It is our take on an old Southern favorite; served on a Belgian waffle, topped with seasoned breaded boneless chicken tenders, covered with a sweet-and-spicy BBQ syrup. Voted #2 Best Waffle in the City, by the Philadelphia CityPaper, it is one of our most popular dishes.