The owners, two restaurateurs buoyed by recent successes, last week signed a lease on the space at Society Hill Towers that last was Sfizzio, after many years as the Copper Penny.
They hope to open Zahav (Hebrew for gold) in the spring.
Zahav will showcase Israeli-Mediterranean cuisine. The two had worked together for more than two years, when the Israeli-born Solomonov became executive chef at Marigold Kitchen in West Philadelphia, which chef-owner Cook opened shortly before.
Solomonov, 29, who cooked at Avenue B, Striped Bass and Vetri in Center City, was one of Restaurant Hospitality magazine's Rising Star Chefs for 2007 and was a nominee for the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef.
Cook, 34, a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, was an investment banker in Manhattan before attending the French Culinary Institute. Under Cook, a veteran of Center City's Salt and Twenty Manning, Marigold was named by Gourmet and Food & Wine as one of the city's best new restaurants.
In January, Solomonov and Cook and chef Dionicio Jimenez opened Xochitl, a Mexican restaurant and tequila bar on Head House Square.
Last Friday, the morning after they signed the lease for Zahav, they met outside the restaurant, at 237 St. James Place. It is near the Ritz Five, across the cobblestoned street from Positano Coast and the Sheraton Society Hill, just south of Second and Walnut Streets.
Eager to get going, they would have loved to go in to take another look around. But Sfizzio had closed two nights before, and the doors were locked; their lease does not begin until Dec. 1.
Solomonov pointed to the cabdrivers - many of Middle Eastern descent - chatting on the street in the taxi zone outside. "These taxi drivers have no idea about the free lunches they're going to get," he said.
"The Making of Zahav" starts today at .
Contact staff writer Michael Klein at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com. See his recent work at http://go.philly.com/michaelklein. 
