As you may know, a new version of Rx will return this summer when new owners and chefs Ross Scofield and Danielle Coulter reopen the restaurant at 4443 Spruce Street in mid-July.

Under the new moniker Rx The Farmacy, the culinary couple and The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College graduates will revamp the once-busy corner BYOB that closed in 2011 into a home-style farm-to-table eatery. Their brunch, lunch and dinner menus will feature a smorgasbord of fresh ingredients tapped from Pennsylvania and New Jersey farm networks, and sausage and bacon made in-house. They’ll also steer away from GMO-saturated products, opting for peanut oil instead of the much-maligned corn and canola oils.

In other words: box pasta and frozen fish need not apply.

Don’t expect the “farm-to-table” catchphrase to monopolize Rx The Farmacy’s attention, though. It’s more of a lifestyle than an attraction—a hushed marriage between local, healthy, sustainable food and the laid-back dining experience. But if you consider Scofield’s childhood in Woodstown, New Jersey, this inconspicuous approach makes sense. After all, growing up in South Jersey’s farming community meant harvesting fresh vegetables right in his Greek family’s own backyard and using them in every meal.

“We’re not stuffing it in your face. It’s just smart food,” said Scofield, who leased the space on impulse three weeks ago after a chance—even cosmic—visit to their old neighborhood. “Yea, we’re doing farm-to-table but this is not fine dining. It’s casual.”

The “fine dining” label is likely why the previous tenant, Rimedio, failed, the 31-year-old former Culinary Institute of America student theorized. In Scofield’s eyes, the Italian restaurant that opened briefly in Rx’s space in 2012 was far removed from West Philly’s character.

Pushing the point, Scofield assured they won’t “bring in something that’s not West Philly”— no fine dining or molecular gastronomy, even if they have the knowledge to do so. Instead, they’re appealing to the community’s permanent bohemian charm by stripping the space of Rimedio’s complex fine-dining past. The bill of fare will be simple and humble, the tables will be varnished and bare, and the four walls will receive splashes of bright orange, greens, and yellows. Plants and herb gardens will also thrive at Rx The Farmacy, both indoors and out.

For what works in the ‘hood, the self-described “passive” chef points to Honest Tom’s off of 44^th and Spruce Streets. The duo admitted to eating at the relished taco hole-in-the-wall at least seven times since acquiring Rx’s keys over a week ago. They described it as an “awesome place” where you “could wear whatever you want, sit down, get ridiculously good food and you leave.”

“We were sitting there for 15 minutes, and I bet you the guy did $300 worth of business in 15 minutes, and that’s because it’s not some stuffy, pretentious thing. It’s about good food,” Scofield told West Philly Local.

Rx The Farmacy will operate much in the same way— informal attire, excellent fare, pompous attitude checked at the door. More importantly, though, the menu will also offer wholesome food at affordable price points — a necessary consideration for an emerging neighborhood of mixed incomes and mixed philosophies.

Both Coulter and Scofield understand this first-hand. During their stints at the Restaurant School a couple of years ago, the pair, who lived on 50^th and Spruce Streets, sometimes had little money to eat out. With that tight of a budget, their only food options were greasy joints not conducive to healthy living.

The couple now lives in Swarthmore after moving back in January from Connecticut, where they helped launch friend Chef Colin Sepko’s American restaurant, The Commoner. They plan to return to West Philly “soon.”

Hinged on fresh fixings, Rx The Farmacy’s menu will offer sandwiches, a burger, salads, a mostly-vegetarian soup of the day, desserts, and vegetarian carte du jour. Particularly, guests can expect a charcuterie board, cheese board, fried pickles, hummus, lobster and truffle mac & cheese, a half chicken entrée, chicken confit, steak frites, pomme frites topped with egg, paleo sweet potato pancakes, and a fried chicken on a biscuit with sausage gravy and a fried egg. Servers will also be trained to know everything that goes into the menu, and whether an item will spark an allergy, said Scofield.

“Every day there will be things that appeal to every single person,” he said. “We have some things that kind of stepped over the line where people are gonna be like, ‘This is either really good or this is slowly killing me.’”

“But at least its antibiotic-free, hormone-free, free range,” added Coulter.

Rx The Farmacy’s menu is also open to interpretation. Scofield happily disclosed he’s more than willing to alter a dish upon a guest’s special request if he has the goods to do so.

“I say this because this is the most radical thing in the world but it pretty much let’s people know how serious I am about it: If you come in to eat here and you see on the menu French toast, a breakfast burrito, and shrimp & grits, if you want French toast and shrimp & grits mashed into a breakfast burrito, tell my server,” he said. “That’s gonna happen. That’s gonna go into your face.”

Rx The Farmacy will open Tuesday – Thursday from 11 a.m. – 9 p.m., Fri – Saturday from 8 a.m. – 10 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

–Annamarya Scaccia