Ellen Yin

Years of Participation

As the founder and co-owner of High Street Hospitality Group (HSHG), restaurateur Ellen Yin operates five of the country’s most noteworthy restaurants and bars: Fork, High Street on Market, High Street Provisions and a.kitchen+bar in Philadelphia and High Street on Hudson in Manhattan.
Yin was nominated “Outstanding Restaurateur” by the James Beard Foundation in 2018, and will be the 2019 Honoree of the Philadelphia Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International. In addition, Yin’s enduring landmark restaurant in Old City, Fork, celebrated their milestone 20th anniversary in 2017.

“Yin’s winning combination of business acumen, willingness to take risks and passion for hospitality” has helped her restaurants thrive, wrote Billy Penn’s Danya Henninger. “Yin’s eye for the details of polished professionalism have remained a constant…Fork has matured into one of the most compellingly evolved special-occasion dining experiences in Philadelphia today,” wrote The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Craig LaBan. Food Republic called Yin “the woman who first transformed Philadelphia’s dining scene…one of Philadelphia’s most successful and insightful restaurateurs” and Eater called her “a trailblazer of the farm-to-table movement…Yin’s work ethic is legendary.”

Fork was named one of the “20 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia” by Conde Nast Traveler in 2019, and the publication also named High Street on Market on their list of the “11 Best Brunch Places in Philadelphia.”High Street on Market was awarded The Inquirer’s “Restaurant of the Year” in 2014, and Bon Appetit named it number two in the country in their annual “America’s Best New Restaurants” issue in 2014. Likewise, Travel + Leisure named High Street on Market one of the best new restaurants in the world in 2015. High Street on Hudson earned a coveted “Two Stars” review from The New York Times’ Pete Wells, and the New York Post called it the best new restaurant of the year. Food & Wineincluded it among their 10 best of the year, as well.

Since she debuted Fork in 1997, Yin’s leadership has included overseeing a team of talented professionals in all areas of the restaurant, from the award-winning chefs to the gracious and hospitable managers and front-of-house staff. Yin fosters a creative and welcoming environment in her restaurants, and alums frequently credit her with mentoring them.

Yin is also the author of Forklore: Recipes and Tales from an American Bistro (Temple University Press, 2007), a thoughtful chronicle of her ongoing success at creating and maintaining a definitive American bistro in Philadelphia’s historic Old City and served as the keynote speaker for graduation ceremonies at the Culinary Institute of America. Over the years, she has partnered with a number of dynamic chefs to keep Fork’s menu and concept fresh; since bringing Chef Eli Kulp to Philadelphia in late 2012 (Chef Kulp is now Yin’s business partner in High Street Hospitality Group), Yin has expanded her smartly built family of restaurants to include more top locations and exciting talent. She is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and currently serves on the board of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, the Arden Theater Company and the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Hospital.