Double Knot

The system behind the small plates

Small plates leave the pass in quick succession, a rhythm Michael Schulson, Chef at Double Knot in Center City, Philadelphia, builds from repetition as much as appetite. His formation runs through The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, where he trained through 1995, then through rooms that asked for different kinds of command: Peacock Alley in New York, Park Avenue Café, Le Bec-Fin, and Susanna Foo. That sequence matters here because Double Knot is not only a kitchen with a Japanese izakaya vocabulary. It is a room built for pace, small plates, drinks, and a steady social current.

Schulson’s work has long moved between Asian cooking traditions and Philadelphia restaurant energy. Tokyo and Thailand sit in the background of that formation, not as borrowed scenery but as part of the method: heat held against freshness, texture set against fragrance, precision left informal enough for sharing. Double Knot, which Schulson founded and owns since 2016, belongs to the later part of his career, when the craft widened from the station to the whole machine. Food, room, beverage, timing, and staff all have to keep the same beat.

Fusion held to kitchen discipline

The menu works in a modern Japanese izakaya register, with small plates, à la carte choices, and a tasting menu all pulling from the same bench. Edamame and truffle dumplings sit beside cheesesteak bao and black cod fried rice, dishes that say plainly what Double Knot is willing to do: let Philadelphia and Japanese reference points meet without pretending they came from the same pantry. The risk in that kind of cooking is looseness. Schulson’s résumé argues for the opposite. Hotel polish, fine-dining service, and high-volume restaurant work all depend on restraint, even when the room feels lively.

The beverage side follows the same logic. Double Knot keeps a curated wine program, a sake program, and craft cocktails, which gives the pass more than one way to land a dish. Dumplings can meet sake; fried rice can meet a cocktail with enough structure; a tasting menu can move through the room without feeling locked into one formal mode.

Below the coffee and cocktail room

The room changes register as the guest moves through the bi-level space. Above, Double Knot carries the surface life of a coffee and cocktail lounge. Below, the underground izakaya takes over, with a basement mood, folklore-inflected design, and a buzz that suits food arriving in waves rather than courses set apart like punctuation. The room is lively, not hushed. That matters for this kind of cooking, because small plates need a different kind of service rhythm than a strict progression. The counter, the pass, and the floor have to absorb movement.

Schulson’s larger body of restaurant work helps explain the confidence of that arrangement. He became Opening NYC chef at Buddakan in New York City in 2007, an environment where scale and atmosphere had to be managed alongside the kitchen. At Double Knot, that lesson feels translated into a Philadelphia key: hidden room, fast appetite, polished surface, and a menu that can hold edamame and truffle dumplings without losing the discipline of the pass.