Grace Tavern Has a Burger Worth Knowing
An English muffin, a nod to two neighborhood restaurants, and a $13 price tag give Fitler Square a burger worth paying attention to.
By Yianni
Before a burger leaves the kitchen at Grace Tavern, its English muffin is fork-split.
It would be faster and cleaner to use a knife. But the uneven surface created by the fork leaves behind the muffin’s familiar nooks and craggy edges, small pockets where the burger’s juices and house-made aioli can collect.
The detail is intentional. So is the English muffin itself.
When the Tavern Group took over Grace Tavern and reopened it last September, it inherited a neighborhood spot with regulars and expectations.
The burger was a staple before and is now balancing that history with something new.
Its house aioli, for example, takes inspiration from the remoulade once served with Grace Tavern’s blackened green beans, one of the dishes longtime customers were most concerned about losing.
“Everybody we talked to at Grace mentioned the blackened green beans,” recalled David Sposato, executive chef of the Tavern Group. “That was something we knew from day one we had to do well.”
The team eventually obtained the original blackening-spice recipe and adapted the beans for the new kitchen. The aioli carried that connection onto the burger.
The English muffin has a different origin.
London Grill, which closed in 2019, served its burger on an English muffin. Grace Tavern owner Randal Mrazik remembered it when the team began developing its own version.
“What made it special was the English muffin,” Sposato said. “Every burger comes on a soft bun. There’s something nice about that, but we wanted to be a little different.”
The choice was not universally convincing.
After Grace reopened, commenters in the PhiladelphiaEats subreddit questioned the unconventional bun. One wrote that they were initially “a little skeptical,” while another wondered whether the English muffin was only temporary.
English muffins can be denser and less forgiving than a traditional burger bun, which makes the choice less obvious. Grace splits and toasts each one before serving. For Sposato, the payoff is texture: a crispness that contrasts with the softer ingredients inside.
The patty is a chuck, brisket and short rib blend topped with cheddar, lettuce, pickled shallots and the house aioli. Shoestring fries are cut in-house each morning and fried to order.
Grace’s small kitchen also shapes the menu. Ingredients are used across dishes to reduce waste and help the kitchen maintain consistency.
“You gotta give people the same thing day in and day out,” Sposato said.
The burger cost $13(+$3 for fries) and are half-price during weekday Happy Hour.
That is how Sam Carchidi, a local realtor who stopped into Grace between showings looking for a quick meal, came across it.
“Amazing deal for happy hour burger,” he said. “Was not expecting the English muffin, but it just works.”
Sposato said keeping the menu approachable is part of making Grace somewhere neighbors can return regularly, even as food and operating costs rise.
“We want to extend our home,” he said. “It’s people coming in to join us.”
Grace Tavern is still settling into that role. The group hopes to eventually renovate the building’s upper floor and is working with the city to bring more seating back beneath the outdoor pergola. Neither project has a firm timeline.
At $13, and half that during Happy Hour, Grace Tavern’s burger feels less like a destination dish than something designed to become a regular order. The English muffin is the unusual part. The neighborhood-tavern logic behind it is not.
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