Coming through the rye -- slowly cooked corned beef, juicy and marbled in enough fat to make it appear as if it's drooling; cole slaw so temptingly tangy they sent it to the moon with the astronauts; and Russian dressing -- aah, the Russian! -- so smoothly creamy, even Putin wouldn't protest. Got you hungry? Take a number! Built on...

Robert Halpern is so at home in the kitchen that he's literally made it his home; he lives above the restaurant reopened in September under his ownership. Marigold Kitchen, he says, has done well in the past three months, as both a destination spot and a neighborhood draw. The 33-year-old Jewish chef, who grew up in Villanova but spent years...