With 58 openings and a Michelin star to his name, a renowned chef is bringing his culinary craft to Philadelphia for the first time with two new restaurant concepts.
“Philadelphia is on the map for food,” Chef Laurent Tourondel told What Now Philadelphia. “When you are a New York chef like me for 30 years, you always have an eye on different cities in the United States to see what’s going on. Philadelphia is really a destination for food.”
Chef Tourondel, a native of Auvergne, France, has worked in kitchens across France, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, New York City and Florida. He earned top industry honors, including a spot on Food & Wine’s 10 Best New Chefs list and Bon Appétit’s Restaurant of the Year. His BLT concepts, built on fresh, straightforward ingredients, drew praise from The New York Times and earned a Michelin star for BLT Fish, according to his website.
“When I open a restaurant, sometimes I change everything,” he said. “In New York, I opened a restaurant, all beautifully designed. I came up with the menu. I trained the whole entire staff. The day of opening, I sat down after one service and said, ‘We’re going in the wrong direction. I’m going to work overnight. I’m going to type a new menu.’ Everyone went bananas. A year later, I got one Michelin star.”
After years of hard work and a long-standing interest in Philadelphia, he will debut Scusi Pizza in November, followed by Terra Grill in 2026 in the Northern Liberties neighborhood at Piazza Alta.
Scusi Pizza
Scusi Pizza will offer a warm, modern setting with light wood tables and an open kitchen filling the space with the aroma of freshly baked pies. A colorful mural by New Jersey artist Victoria Tentler Krylor, celebrating pizza, community and featuring Chef Tourondel, brightens the left wall.
“It’s fun! You can come and get a slice, or you can sit down and have a whole pie. We tried to make it relaxed. We have a lot of people living upstairs, a younger crowd, so people can come down, just get delivery, or grab and go,” he said.
The pizzeria will focus on 16-inch pies, with standout options like the Francese, layered with mushrooms, prosciutto cotto, comté, gruyère and pili pili oil, and the Siciliano, topped with anchovies, olives, onions and tomatoes.
“We came up with a non-wood oven with a thinner crust, more crispy. We wanted to make something different, more flat. We’ll offer a variety of pizza other people don’t have,” Chef Tourondel said.
The dough is carefully crafted for each pie, undergoing a two-day fermentation process.
“It’s all about the dough. People like this dough because there is less water, more fluffy,” he said. “It’s a two-day process. We make it the day before so the fermentation has time. Then, it’s half the time outside, half the time in a refrigerator. We avoid it fermenting in your stomach. There’s less yeast, lighter to eat and easy to digest.”
In addition to the pies, Scusi’s will offer sandwiches on housemade breads such as pizza dough, ciabatta and focaccia. The menu also includes small plates and salads, as well as homemade soft-serve in flavors like vanilla with candied orange, pistachio, chocolate-hazelnut with butterscotch and a classic affogato.
The beverage program highlights Italian-inspired cocktails, bottled wine and local beer from Carbon Copy.
Scusi Pizza will officially open on November 21 and will serve customers daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Terra Grill
Terra Grill, located next to Scusi Pizza, will offer a cozy, dimly lit atmosphere with flavors of a wood-fired kitchen.
“It’s sexy, dark wood, a little more of an evening restaurant with a patio outside,” Chef Tourondel said. “I want to make it approachable and understandable. You can come and eat here three times a week and you don’t feel like it’s an event.”
While the food menu is still in development, highlights may include wood-fired burgers and salads such as kale with miso vinaigrette and an Asian-inspired option. The space will also feature a large bar with a curated cocktail menu.
“I’m excited to come up with dishes on the wood grill. The flavor of grilling with wood is fantastic,” he said. “There is a rotisserie on top so you can both grill and roast wood-roasted spit on top. We can do chicken and we have a bigger one where we could do turkey, legs of lamb and pig.”
Those are the early glimpses of Terra Grill, which is expected to debut in late January or early February.
For updates on both restaurants, visit the Scusi Pizza and Terra Grill websites and follow along on Instagram.
