Table Talk: New steak house to open in Downingtown

The team behind Radnor's 333 Belrose has ventured to a former paper mill on the banks of the Brandywine Creek with a steak house called Firecreek (20 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, 610-269-6000).

Opening is expected next week.

Developers Tom Deignan and Kevin Silverang, partnered with chef Carlo DeMarco and Robert Donaldson, hired designer Lauren Thomsen, who used some of the mill's stone, as well as cogs and wheels, in the contemporary decor, which features an open kitchen. An outdoor deck awaits warm weather. Firecreek is part of Deignan and Silverang's Paper Mill on the Brandywine, a mixed-use development.

Menu (starters $6 to $15, entrees $15 to $32) is mostly locally sourced, as is the beer list (Phoenixville's Sly Fox). Wine list will range from familiar (a Napa cabernet) to harder-to-find (an Oregon Marsanne).

Hours will be lunch and dinner daily.

A comeback

In 2007, Bill Papatolis' landlord declined to renew the lease for his diner, Spring Garden Restaurant, as the entire building at Fourth and Spring Garden Streets was to become a supermarket. After 23 years, he shut down and gutted the place. More than a year later, he got a call: The supermarket was not as large as planned. How about coming back? The Spring Garden (400 Spring Garden St., 215-922-6254) reopened last week - all new everything, but with the same staff - delighting workers from the Social Security Administration office across the street. It's open from 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays, till 2 p.m. Saturdays, and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays.

What's coming

Aversa's Bakery in Blackwood, which supplies rolls to such eateries as Pat's King of Steaks, Copabanana and Iron Hill, will open a retail branch, including Italian prepared foods, at 9309 Ventnor Ave., Margate, in May.

Green Parrot Restaurant Pub, with an upscale-Irish theme, is looking to open soon at Goodnoe Corner, where Goodnoe's was (240 N. Sycamore St. in Newtown, Bucks County). Chef Rick Narasaki, formerly at Trump Plaza's EVO, will cook most dishes in a wood-fired oven.

Briefly noted

The management at Maia in Villanova has bitten the bullet and closed the upstairs dining room, which in January had trimmed its operation to Thursdays through Saturdays for dinner. Management says the plan is to redo it into something more affordable. The concept was too similar to the bistro menu downstairs.