Fork Announces Summertime Champagne and Oysters

Beginning on Saturday, July 2, Old City’s landmark Fork restaurant will host Champagne and Oysters, a fun new weekend jazz series, every Saturday and Sunday through September. Fork’s popular brunch menu will “take the summer off” in favor of more casual selections, available from 12 noon until 4 p.m.

In addition, guests will enjoy live jazz from 12:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. on both days. Champagne and Oysters will be limited to an eight-week engagement, and the restaurant will bring back its classic brunch menu in time for Labor Day.

In addition to Fresh Shucked Oysters, guests will choose from breakfast and lunch items, including:

• Seafood Salad with watermelon radish, lemon, parsley and tarragon

• Market Crudité, cured and raw seasonal vegetables from the High Street Market with smoked goot essa cheese dip

• Sam’s Farm Stand Vegetable Quiche with summer salad

• Happy Valley Farm Dry-Aged Beef Burger with Chester County Birchrun Hill Farm cheese and Plowshare Farm Lettuce on a High Street malted bun

• Assorted Pastry Board, daily-changing selections of sweet and savory baked goods

Many of Fork’s staff members are also talented artists: Anthony Demelas painted their gorgeous wall murals, and Nate Mell custom-crafted their ceramic plates.

In that tradition, bartender and musician Jefferson Oatts, the leader of the Jefferson Oatts Quintet, will curate the jazz series, hosting duos, trios and quartets who will perform American standard jazz. Oatts comes from a long line of jazz musicians who have performed with legendary jazz groups including Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Stan Kenton Big Band, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Orchestra. He and co-bartender Harry Jamison, also a musician, developed a special list of jazz-inspired cocktails to complement the music.