Table Talk | BYO Javier joins growing restaurant group

Robert Sanabria is a man on the move. The Bolivian-born restaurateur - who founded the popular Word of Mouth in Collingswood - last week opened Javier, a high-style Continental BYO, at 208 Kings Highway East in Haddonfield (856-428-4220).

Sanabria also is developing a second Word of Mouth on Broadway in Pitman, which he hopes to open in late January. He said he's also planning a third, in Moorestown. (Salabria and his wife, Elizabeth, made their mark at Food for Thought in Marlton, which they created in the mid-1990s and later sold.)

At Javier, chef Kenneth Merk said that he and partner Scott Allen are doing "flavors people understand." Merk, a South Jerseyan who trained in Italy and south Florida, described one dish as a Yukon gold potato-wrapped tuna ($30), presented vertically on spinach and roasted tomatoes. Desserts are made in-house.

Entrees on the dinner menu range from $20 to $30, while lunches are $8 to $22; it's open Tuesdays through Sundays.

What's coming

Dec. 15 marks the projected opening of the long-delayed Swallow at 1030 N. American St. in the Liberties Walk development in Northern Liberties. The Euro BYO bistro with bold decor is a husband-and-wife project of the much-traveled Jason and Cindy Caminos, most recently in D.C. The name - arguably the silliest attempt at double-entendre since the Smoked Joint - refers to a bird.