by Len Lear

Before the recent pandemic started, David Jansen, chef/owner of Jansen, the upscale restaurant at 7401 Germantown Ave. in a 275-year-old building, one of the oldest in Mt. Airy, had never offered a takeout business.

But necessity if the mother of invention, so Jansen had no choice if he wanted to stay open, which he did. “For us, this is a complete change,” Jansen said last week about finally offering a takeout menu. “Being thrust into doing this has created quite a few challenges.

“At the start of the shutdown, all of our hourly employees were laid off, leaving everything to our management staff. For the first two weeks it was Pat Conroy (pastry chef), Jason Burke (chef de cuisine), Zachary Bourne (general manager) and me. The support that we've been getting from the neighborhood has been overwhelming, with guests really responding early in each week to the family meals we started doing (three-course dinners for four people) and looking for something special with a la carte items over the weekend with selections that change on a weekly basis.

“This is just another challenge, a big one it may be, but just another challenge we are going to have to overcome. And we are going to. Business is slowly increasing, and we have been able to bring back a few of our employees on a part-time basis. We are starting to experiment even more with high-end ingredients and meals...

“I can't thank our guests enough. People have been incredibly generous with donations to our staff, and that will never be forgotten. We are truly blessed to be supported by so many wonderful people, and we will continue to cook and bring our passion to local homes. We will get through this together.”

Jansen got a boost when the CBS-TV10's Sunday Morning Show on Sunday, April 26, did a piece showing him preparing his meals for four. (They misidentified the restaurant as being in Chestnut Hill, not the first time that has happened on local TV stations.)

Jansen, 53, originally from Downingtown, has food genes in his DNA. His grandmom was a pastry chef, his granddad a butcher. His mom’s mom was the first female head of housekeeping for the Bellevue Hotel, and his mom’s dad worked at the front desk. They were straight off the boat from Germany.

David started cooking at the Tabas Hotel in Downingtown at age 14, cutting smoked salmon. He was an executive chef at the West Chester Golf Club by the astonishingly callow age of 20. “I was making good money,” he recalled, “but I told my dad I did not want to keep doing prime rib, stuffed flounder, etc., so I went to the Philadelphia Restaurant  School.” He graduated with honors in 1990.

David then did an unpaid apprenticeship at the Four Seasons Hotel, whose Fountain Room was then one of the city's top two haute cuisine palaces of gastronomy, along with Le Bec Fin. “I consider Jean Marie Lacroix (then executive chef at the Four Seasons) like a father,” he said. In 1999 David himself became executive chef of the Fountain Room, replacing Martin Hamann (now with the Union League), who had replaced Lacroix. Jansen and his Four Seasons colleagues were adherents of the farm-to-table philosophy long before many other chefs hitched a ride on the culinary bandwagon.

David held that exalted position until 2010, not long before the hotel closed. “I saw the writing on the wall and took a hiatus to raise my kids. It's the best thing I ever did.” (David has a son, James, 25, and daughters Hannah, 24, and Addison, 18, who was on the Springside rowing team.)

Jansen has lived in Wyndmoor for 16 years and before that on Bryan Street in Mt. Airy for 10 years. When he was looking for a Northwest Philly location for his new restaurant, what sold him on the location he selected was the outdoor setup, which backs up to the New Covenant Church, with its many acres of greenery, flora and fauna. “When I walked outside, I fell in love with this place.” (It was previously home to the Latino Avenida and before that, Cresheim Cottage Café.)

On June 9 last year, Jansen got married in back of the restaurant to Debbi Gress, a kindergarten teacher at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (with no social distancing). “It took me 50 years,” said David, “but I got really lucky!”

For more information: 267-335-5041 or jansenmtairy.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com