An End (and a New Beginning) for Honeysuckle

News An End (and a New Beginning) for Honeysuckle Honeysuckle Provisions has closed. Opened by chefs Omar Tate and his wife, Cybille St. Aude-Tate, it was an Afrocentric West Philly market and cafe that did fantastic sandwiches, sold pimento cheese, yam bread, black-eyed pea scrapple (which won a Best of Philly award this year), and homemade pop tarts to the neighbors, and did tasting dinners four nights a week that explored the flavors of the African diaspora using locally-sourced supplies and a poet's mind to create meals on South 48th Street in Philly that echoed the ones that Omar used to cook for Manhattan swells in apartments high above Wall Street in the days before the pandemic.

It was a remarkable spot — grounded, intellectual, delicious, and vital in both senses of the word. But also, it was never really meant to last.

Honeysuckle Provisions was a stop along the path that began with those $300 dinners in New York, transitioned to South Philly pandemic pop-ups and a GoFundMe, and became a local market and sandwich shop that did a tasting menu called UNTITLED. But Omar and Cybille have always had their eye on something bigger. They've always looked toward what's next. In an email sent late last week to their friends and fans, they announced:

Hey Fam,

After 2 years of pastries, yamz molasses lattes, fresh inventive breads, and sandwiches at our West Philadelphia location on South 48th Street... we are ready to be a restaurant in more than spirit alone! We've heard your calls for more seating, more dining options, and even cocktails!

As of October 27th, Honeysuckle Provisions has as we make way for our full dining concept –

"I was never interested in opening a traditional restaurant," Omar told me back in 2020. "Because traditional restaurants have not historically served the community — particularly the Black community."

That was pre-Provisions, pre-UNTITLED. It was during the pop-up days, and we were talking because I was writing a profile of Omar that would hit the stands four years ago last month — a weird time, to be sure, for both Omar (who had just married Cybille a month or so earlier and was still in the middle of fundraising for a project he thought might never get off the ground) and, like, the world.

But Omar had spent most of his life in restaurants. And he'd been teaching himself how a restaurant might actually do that thing that he thought traditional restaurants couldn't. Provisions? That was an intermediate step, all about Black farmers and being part of a community. UNTITLED was the same thing, but made fancy — offering history and education and a direct connection between fine dining and Black American foodways.

That profile, " Remnants On A South Philly Stoop ," was the story of how Omar got from there to here — from a burgeoning career as the world's worst drug dealer to culinary activist with bylines in Esquire and dinners scheduled at the National Museum of African American History and Culture to an itinerant pop-up chef trying to scrape up enough funding to bring joy and jobs and sandwiches back to the neighborhood. What came after (Provisions, UNTITLED) is everything we already know. But what comes next? Well, that's really very much up in the air.

I reached out to Omar to see if he'd tell me what's up. I got this text back in response: Good morning. Sorry, we're not discussing it publicly at the moment. Thanks for reaching out.

And that's fine. If Omar and Cybille want to play this one close to the vest, that's totally cool by me. What I do know is that whatever they're doing, it looks like it'll be fast, will have a liquor license, and will end up as an actual restaurant (with seats and everything). Plus, if I had to guess, I'm guessing it'll still be in West Philly because in that email I mentioned earlier, Omar and Cybille went on to say:

We are excited to blossom our expanded version of Honeysuckle where we can host you, our community and imbibe in specialty drinks and limitless possibilities in experiential dining and events!

We are sad to say goodbye to West Philly and will announce our new location in the upcoming weeks. We understand that this news is a bit abrupt but we've found an opportunity that needed to be secured as quickly as possible.

It's the "goodbye for now" that caught my eye. Especially considering the now was in italics. Plus, they signed off with #westphillyALWAYSbestphilly, and no one does that lightly. Honeysuckle has always been about community, after all. And for years now, West Philly has BEEN Honeysuckle's community.

Omar, Cybille, and the team are reaching for a February 1st opening of their "newly evolved concept," so whatever it is that they're keeping quiet about, none of us will have to be in the dark too long. Everything about the evolution of the Honeysuckle brand has been small steps toward bigger goals. It's all been about history informing the future.

And as happy as I've been for what they've been able to accomplish so far, I really am excited to see what Omar and Cybille do next.