The good times roll at Khyber Pass Pub in Old City, where the menu of New Orleans-style comfort food includes a hearty share of vegan items. The chicken-style po’ boy, for example, delivers crispy, thinly breaded seitan while keeping the classic New Orleans formula intact. Served on a crackly Leidenheimer roll, it’s dressed with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles, vegan mayo, and Creole mustard, delivering a satisfying mix of crunch, tang, and subtle heat. It’s a convincing plant-based rendition that feels like a true po’ boy, not a compromise. Khyber Pass Pub, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888, khyberpasspub.com
— Michael Klein
Fried silverfish — a Cantonese delicacy that’s pretty similar to a French Fry — at Grand Palace, 600 Washington Ave. #3B.Kiki Aranita / Staff
Fried Silverfish at Grand Palace
Weekend dim sum at Grand Palace in South Philly’s Little Saigon is a party where the whole family (second cousins and all) is invited, so the party-sized portions of Cantonese delicacies deserve special attention. The rice-flour-battered and fried silverfish (also known as noodlefish or whitebait) are generously sized and hopelessly addictive. More delicious than any French fry — though similarly salty, crunchy, and thin — the tiny fish are lightly funky and just barely scented with jalapeños and scallions. I haven’t stopped thinking about them since. Grand Palace Restaurant, 600 Washington Ave. #3B, 215-645-0079, grandpalacechineserestaurant.com
— Kiki Aranita
An array of empanadas and a dulce de leche medialuna at Jezabel’s in West Philadelphia.Beatrice Forman / Staff
Empanadas and a dulce de leche medialuna at Jezabel’s
Empanadas are the main attraction at Jezabel Careaga’s eponymous West Philly cafe, where the open-concept kitchen feeds into a dining room that allows customers to watch bakers knead, shape, and pack the dough tight with fillings. The lineup is special, but simple: a stewed chicken empanada lightly seasoned with aji dulce; a vegetarian version stuffed with leeks and gooey white cheese; and a vegan version packed with a summery lentil and corn salad. Careaga’s empanadas are baked — not fried — and so light that it’s easy to snack on several in one sitting.
Even more excellent are the cafe’s medialunas, an Argentinian pastry that sits somewhere between brioche and a croissant. The dulce de leche version is ultra-decadent, its butter crescent-shaped layers peeling apart to reveal a core of caramel cream. When Careaga returns to Fitler Square with a second location — likely opening this fall, I’m told — it’ll still be empanadas and medialunas galaore. Thank goodness. Jezabel’s, 206-208 S. 45th St., 215-554-7380, jezabelsphl.com
Ember & Ash restaurant on East Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia is closed indefinitely after a late-night fire Wednesday sent flames to the roof through its ventilation system, its owners said.
No injuries were reported. Owner Lulu Calhoun said she, her husband and chef-partner Scott Calhoun, and another chef, John Forkin, were leaving for the evening through the kitchen door about 10:20 p.m. when they heard a loud sound from above.
Firefighters positioning a ladder outside of Ember & Ash, 1520 E. Passyunk Ave., on June 24, 2026.Lulu Calhoun
“We didn’t know what it was,” she said. “We thought maybe like a helicopter or a jet.”
Scott Calhoun looked up to see fire on the roof. He grabbed fire extinguishers and ran upstairs to try to put it out, she said.
The couple called 911, and firefighters arrived almost immediately. Ember & Ash is about two blocks from Ladder 11 at 12th and Reed Streets, a fire company that was restored in 2024 after having been shuttered for 15 years. “We’re just so grateful, because it could have been a much, much worse situation,” Lulu Calhoun said.
A charred portion of the ventilation system at Ember & Ash, 1520 E. Passyunk Ave., as seen June 25, 2026.Lulu Calhoun
Thursday morning, the full extent of the destruction was still being assessed, but she said the restaurant was facing professional cleanup for water throughout the building and repairs to the hood and roof. Fire damage was not apparent from the Passyunk Avenue sidewalk. The Philadelphia Fire Department said the fire was under control in about an hour and 20 minutes but had no information on its cause.
“That’s the part that’s the most heartbreaking,” she said. “It’s not only our livelihoods, but our entire team.”
She said the timeline for repairs was not yet known, adding that the duct work had been professionally cleaned recently as part of maintenance.
Ember & Ash, 1520 E. Passyunk Ave., on June 25, 2026.Lulu Calhoun
The hearth at Ember & Ash, a live-fire restaurant built around a custom wood-burning grill made by Grills by Demant, has been the center of the kitchen since the restaurant’s opening in late 2020.
Fires that travel through ventilation systems can sideline a restaurant for months because damage is not always immediately visible and insurance claims can drag on. Kampar in Bella Vista has been closed since a February 2025 fire and has not announced a reopening date. Black Sheep in Rittenhouse has been closed since a May 18 fire. Tequilas in Center City was shuttered for about two years after a 2023 fire, though owners spent some of that time creating a second restaurant, La Jefa, in its rear dining room.
Calhoun said Ember & Ash was contacting customers with bookings along with parties that had reserved private events in July and August.
Bolts of lightning from the ceiling, a Ferris wheel behind the bar for top-shelf pours, and the idea of a glamorous night out: Here’s a first look at the new Mr. Edison at the Bellevue.
But first:
😋 Have a fun food day. Take advantage of early-bird pricing right now on tickets to The Inquirer’s Food Fest.
Halal restaurants: Eight can’t-miss spots throughout the region.
Love and hot dogs:A restaurateur decamps to the Jersey Shore.
News: I have an exclusive preview of Known Associates (the cocktail bar from Forsythia chef Christopher Kearse, opening Friday). Read on for the first word of a luxe Korean restaurant on its way to Center City.
Jeffrey Chodorow has opened splashy restaurants all over the world. Here’s his latest, Mr. Edison, opening Thursday in his hometown. And it’s a dazzler.
Here’s some McGillin’s lore: If it’s McGillin’s Olde Ale House, why does the sign spell it “Old”? Pub historian Irene Levy Baker explains: It opened in 1860 as Bell in Hand, and the original wooden hand holding a bell still hangs inside. Founder “Pa” McGillin ran it until his death in 1901, when Catherine “Ma” McGillin took over. For the 50th anniversary in 1910, she renamed it McGillin’s Old Ale House — which regulars were calling it anyway (presumably because it was old even back then). The “e”was added in the 1990s for effect, but since the neon sign is a reproduction of the earlier version, it still reads “Old.”
Center City’s newest bar is The Monto (above), which opened Saturday at 226 Market St. in Old City under the stewardship of Fergus “Fergie” Carey and Jim McNamara. Alas, there’s a bit of drama unfolding. N.A. Poe of Poe’s Sandwich Joint, who was attached to the project to meld Philadelphia sandwich culture with Irish pub fare, has apparently bowed out. You’ll see they’ve opened up the old Mac’s Tavern by shifting the bar to the middle of the room. It’s open at noon daily.
The historic City Tavern, which closed six years ago, is back. Outside, anyway. It’s hosting a summertime pop-up in its garden, including food, drinks, historical interpreters, lawn games, and special events.
Hillary Bor, who co-owned Pumpkin BYOB in Graduate Hospital for two decades, has a new love and a new food business in Margate. Amy Rosenberg says Dock Dogs also has a stellar view.
Tacos al pastor at a little corner spot in Old City, a crispy bibingka waffle in the Fairmount area, and a soft-shell crab offered as a ritzy BLT in Rittenhouse were among The Inquirer Food team’s favorite bites last week.
Scoops
Arirang, an upscale Korean restaurant, is in the earliest stages of development at 1219 Locust St., in the former Papery of Philadelphia space next to Vedge in Washington Square West. Linda and Myung Kee Hwang, who own the Old Nelson delis around town as well as the building, are planning a traditional menu, as well as a liquor license to serve Korean spirits. “When we started looking at the Korean restaurant landscape in Center City, we realized there really wasn’t anywhere that, as Koreans ourselves, we would go for a truly authentic Korean meal,” Linda Hwang told me. “Everyone does Korean barbecue, and beyond the fact that it’s overdone, we simply didn’t want the grilling and smoke inside the building. The food will be very traditional. No fusion, no shortcuts.” The name is the folk song that is Korea’s unofficial anthem. There’s no timeline yet.
Take a first look inside Known Associates, the cocktail bar from chef Chris Kearse of Forsythia, opening Friday at the former Varga Bar in Washington Square West. Read on for the details.
Restaurant report
Il Gusto. Now open at 114 Chestnut St., Il Gusto brings a Southern Italian-leaning BYOB menu and white-tablecloth atmosphere to the Old City storefront that previously housed Karma.
Chef-owner Tony Krupa delivers big-portioned Italian American and Southern Italian standards and, he says, “nothing trendy”: grilled octopus with cannellini beans and artichokes, fried calamari, mussels, clams, and fried mozzarella, along with a full slate of pastas, and chicken, veal, and fish entrees such as salmon Livornese as well as barramundi with shrimp, capers, and cherry tomatoes over capellini (shown above). Entrees are in the $20s.
Il Gusto, 114 Chestnut St., 215-518-9092. Hours: noon-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Briefly noted
Trattoria Totaro in Conshohocken reopens today, nearly three months after a fire.
The Buttery, the popular Main Line bakery/cafe, opened its third location last weekend in Bryn Mawr. There’s at least one more on the way, the owners told Denali Sagner.
Villa Nuova in Deptford will close soon after 26 years in business, as owner Peppe Scotto announced on Facebook.
Surfside has taken over the U.S. alcohol industry. But its founders told Erin McCarthy that the brand’s base is staying put in Philly.
Aneu Kitchen’s new location at Ardmore Farmers Market in Suburban Square will open at 8:30 a.m. Monday with comp samples of her YEU On-the-Go bites.
South Philly Barbacoa, James Beard-winning chef Cristina Martinez’s business, is now set up inside Triple Bottom on Spring Garden Street, writes Hira Qureshi. That means tacos, chips and guacamole, and sweet tamales on a permanent basis.
The H Mart in Cherry Hill has been expanded, and Hira offers a tour of the emporium, aisle by aisle.
Cult of Trees’ nonalcoholic spirits are packaged by hand in Kensington. Sande Friedman explains that at local bars, they’re already a hit.
❓Pop quiz
Wine writer Marnie Old believes that one country might be on its way to overtaking France as the pinot noir capital of the world. What is it?
Is Angelo’s Pizzeria ever going to open that new place in New Jersey? — Scott P.
Many of my articles are inspired by readers’ questions. Here’s a follow-up to a story I wrote last July, when Angelo’s owner Danny DiGiampietro said he was taking over the shuttered Di’Nics in West Collingswood Heights. Construction has just begun, and DiGiampietro believes that it will open in about two months. Meanwhile, Angelo’s is getting into the wholesale bread business out of its huge bakery in Conshohocken. Here is the update.
📮 Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com.
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Veteran restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow has spent decades in and around Philadelphia without ever opening a restaurant here.
That changes Thursday at the Bellevue, where the mind behind such destinations as China Grill and Asia de Cuba is opening Mr. Edison, a supper club-style restaurant and bar built around dinner, drinks, and live music.
Jeffrey Chodorow (left) with chef Matt Levin at Mr. Edison at the Bellevue.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Mr. Edison is also a throwback: a large, theatrical restaurant built as much for occasion as for dinner.
The room, in the former Polo Ralph Lauren store, announces itself immediately from the new Walnut Street entrance just west of Broad Street: a two-story space topped by a dense canopy of suspended Edison bulbs, clustered in branching formations that cast the dining room in a warm amber glow.
The ceiling seems to split open in places, allowing lightning bolt-like streaks of light through — all the work of Manuel Clavel of Spain’s Clavel Arquitectos. Behind the bar is a 12-foot-tall Ferris wheel, its dozen spokes each carrying a bottle of wine or spirits and turning the backbar into something like a stage set.
Caviar service at Mr. Edison.Courtesy of Mr. Edison
Building owner Dean Adler, who is investing millions in the Bellevue as part of its redevelopment, put the 160-seat restaurant’s price tag at $10 million. “I think I got my money’s worth,” he said Tuesday. Adler also plans to install a library bar off the Bellevue’s lobby on the Broad Street side, where the Palm was before its closing in 2020.
“I love history, so to take a genre — a 1940s-type environment — and bring it into 2026 has been really exciting,” said Chodorow, who of late has been shuttling between his Bucks County home and Miami Beach, where he opened China Grill Bar Harbour two weeks ago.
Mr. Edison — named for Thomas Edison, who helped bring electricity to the Bellevue in 1904 — is calibrated to the building’s long identity as a grand social address. It also carries a personal connection for Chodorow. In 1982, when he was a lawyer at Blank Rome, he rented the roof for his own Rio-themed engagement party to celebrate with his wife, Linda.
“This is not a tiny little neighborhood restaurant,” Chodorow said. “This is a place where you come to have a night.”
Bottles glow inside niches at Mr. Edison.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Chodorow built his reputation on restaurants that function as entertainment as much as dining. He rose in the business in the 1980s and ’90s with New York hotspots, such as Asia de Cuba, Kobe Club, and Red Square, and said he long avoided opening in the Philadelphia area because he wanted to keep work separate from family life.
With his children grown, that changed. At the Bellevue, Chodorow said, he saw an opportunity to build destination dining — a place where patrons might stop in for cocktails and snacks or settle in for dinner and stay long into the evening. The room is arranged to support both. A large bar runs along one wall; tables and banquettes wrap around in multiple zones and along a mezzanine; and a piano with an old-fashioned microphone sits on a platform to one side.
Chef Matt Levin at the stove at Mr. Edison.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
“We’re trying to create an experience,” he said. “Not just a restaurant.”
To run the kitchen, Chodorow recruited chef Matt Levin to come back downtown. Levin, who made his name at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse and later at Adsum in Queen Village, has spent much of the last decade in catering, consulting, and Bucks County restaurants. Chodorow found him at Pineville Tavern in central Bucks County, where Levin had been consulting and where owner Andrew Abruzzese is an old friend and neighbor.
Mr. Edison is more interested in reworking the classics than experimentation. Levin and Chodorow drew on dishes from Philadelphia landmarks, including the crab galette from Le Bec-Fin, where Levin worked for several years, the Milan salad from Jimmy’s Milan, and duck with orange sauce from La Panetière.
Edison bulbs provide the lighting at Mr. Edison.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Levin said the menu is a way of tapping into Philadelphia’s dining memory. “I think Philadelphia has a lot of shared history,” he said. “I think people will remember bits and pieces and say, ‘Oh, I remember that — let me try it.’”
The challenge, Levin said, was to build a menu flexible enough to support several kinds of nights at once. “You want to be able to have people come in and just have a drink and a couple of things,” he said, “but also have the people who are coming in to really have dinner.”
Jeffrey Chodorow in front of the bar and Ferris wheel at Mr. Edison.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Chodorow said average tabs would be $100 to $110 per person for a dinner experience. He said roughly 25 dishes can work as a grazing menu, alongside larger-format entrees, raw-bar offerings, seafood, and steaks. Levin also brought over a foie gras tartlet with cherries and pistachio, adapted from a dish he served at Moonlight.
The beverage program leans into the Edison theme with cocktails named for his inventions, including Patent Pending and Filament No. 6.
Filament No. 6 at Mr. Edison.Courtesy of Mr. Edison
For Chodorow, the point of Mr. Edison is straightforward: “I wanted something that felt special,” he said.
“I wanted people to walk in and say, ‘Wow.’”
Mr. Edison opens Thursday at the Bellevue, Broad and Walnut Streets. Hours are 4:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4:30 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The bar will remain open later.
When chef Christopher Kearse was planning Forsythia, the French restaurant he opened in Old City in 2019, he had two ideas that could not fit into the same room.
One was Forsythia. The other opens in Washington Square West on Friday, seven years later.
Phoebe Schuh of PS & Daughters (left) with owners Lauren and Christopher Kearse toast on a banquette at Known Associates.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
It’s a 40-seat cocktail bar called Known Associates, taking over the corner space at 10th and Spruce Streets that previously housed Varga Bar. The concept is built around cocktails and a compact food menu rather than full dinner service, though the fare is substantial.
For Kearse, the opening is another chapter in a career that began far from cocktail bars and French dining rooms. He grew up in Levittown, one of eight children, and learned to cook while recovering from a serious car crash at 16 that left him with severe facial injuries. During that long recovery, he cooked for his parents and siblings. He later worked in some of the country’s most exacting kitchens — Charlie Trotter’s and Alinea in Chicago, and the French Laundry in California — before returning to the Philadelphia area to become sous chef at Lacroix and Blackfish, followed by 2½ years as chef de cuisine at Pumpkin. In 2012, at 28, he opened Will BYOB on East Passyunk Avenue, closing it to move uptown to open the French restaurant Forsythia in the former Capofitto space in Old City. Forsythia earned a Michelin recommendation last year.
The tile floor is one of the few elements saved from Known Associates’ previous incarnation, Varga Bar. Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Known Associates is not intended to be an extension of Forsythia. Kearse and his wife, Lauren, who is also an owner, said the concept came into focus during their honeymoon trip through Europe, traveling by train from Zurich to Florence and spending time in smaller bars and cafés in places like Lake Como and Milan.
Lauren Kearse said one nearly empty bar in Como became the image they kept returning to: quiet, low-key, hospitable, and free of the sort of self-conscious “experience” building that now attaches itself to so many cocktail bars.
The bar at Known Associates, chef Chris Kearse’s new cocktail bar on 10th and Spruce streets, on Tuesday, June 16, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
That idea is reflected in the room itself, which was rebuilt almost entirely. Phoebe Schuh of PS & Daughters, who also designed Forsythia, said the black-and-white tile floors were among the few elements retained from Varga, an unassuming gastropub with serious beer chops that closed after the unexpected death of owner Rich Colli in February 2025.
The Varga Bar murals painted on the ceiling — the “Varga girls” that were part of the bar’s identity for years — were salvaged and may be auctioned, with proceeds going to a fund in Colli’s memory, Schuh said.
Crudite with potato puffs and caramelized sour cream and onion dip at Known Associates.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The finished room is emphatically café lounge, not neighborhood drinking den. Floral wallpaper wraps the walls. Patterned banquettes line marble-topped tables. Mustard velvet chairs sit beneath wall sconces, with checkerboard flooring underfoot and a red-and-white striped canopy treatment stretched overhead. The overall effect is layered and slightly theatrical.
Schuh said her working relationship with Kearse is built on familiarity. “Chris and I just kind of speak the same language because we’re both artists,” she said. “We’re not that great at talking about our work, but we’re great at producing our work.”
The location — within blocks of Jefferson, Wills Eye, and Pennsylvania Hospitals — also helped shape the project. Lauren Kearse said they envisioned a room that could work for after-work drinks and dinner-adjacent snacking as much as destination cocktail traffic.
That balance shows up on the food menu, which is limited to 10 savory dishes and two desserts. Kearse said the kitchen’s role is to support the bar rather than turn it into another restaurant. Still, the menu is more ambitious than standard bar snacks and has some of Forsythia’s cheffy feel.
Cool ranch peas at Known Associates.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The burger that is a signature at Forsythia appears at Known Associates as burger au poivre, topped with Comté, cut in half, and served cut-side down in a pool of peppercorn reduction ($20). Char siu duck legs ($22) come on a pretzel milk bun with fish sauce and pickles. There’s also a chicken club ($23) with green goddess dressing and Benton’s bacon.
Lighter dishes include black-eye pea falafel with muhammara and green-scallion hummus ($15); hamachi toast with hard-boiled egg and piri piri ($22); pomme frites with Comté cheese foam ($10); and freeze-dried cool ranch peas meant for snacking with drinks. Seasonal crudité ($12) comes with potato puffs and a caramelized sour cream and onion dip. Desserts ($12) are limited to two: toasted rice milk ice cream with sesame and peanut brittle, and triple chocolate mousse with dulce de leche and toasted hazelnut.
The kitchen is led by chef Brandon Brokenbough, formerly of Enswell and Scarpetta.
Chefs Christopher Kearse (left) and Brandon Brokenbough at Known Associates.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Beverage director Chris Harrop’s cocktails are built around prep work and technique. The TNT ($18) — tomato and tonic — uses clarified tomato water made from tomato, red bell pepper, shallot, fennel, and cucumber. The solids left behind after clarification are dehydrated and served as chips alongside the drink. Harrop said the same clarified base can also be used as a zero-proof savory soda.
The Bittered in Bond ($20), a Boulevardier variation, is made with a house mezcal amaro, Bonal Gentiane, Cappelletti Aperitivo, Licor 43, and salt. It is bottled in a small flask with a batch number and bottling date and poured tableside, a nod to bottled-in-bond whiskey labeling.
Between Harvest ($19), meanwhile, is a Martinez variation with Hayman’s Old Tom gin, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, Nardini Rabarbaro, and muddled cucumber. Harrop said the name came from a Forsythia customer’s observation that rhubarb and cucumber almost never overlap in season — one fading as the other begins. For summer, he said, the bar has a frozen zombie ($19) assembled to order, with the rum blend kept separate from the slush machine so each drink can still be measured and built fresh.
The name Known Associates carries a passing wink to spy movies — the Kearses are fans of Bond films — but Lauren Kearse said the bar is not built as a themed concept.
“We have no interest in doing that,” she said. “We wanted something punchy that had a little bit of mystery to it.”
Known Associates, 941 Spruce St., opens June 26 and will be open daily from 3 p.m. to midnight.
As Philadelphia prepares to welcome visitors for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, one of its most notable historic sites will stir back to life — at least outdoors.
Historic Philadelphia Inc., through an agreement with Independence National Historical Park and in partnership with event company Cescaphe, plans to open the Garden at City Tavern on June 25, transforming the shaded plot behind City Tavern into a seasonal destination featuring food, drinks, historical interpreters, lawn games, and special events.
The garden behind City Tavern, Second and Walnut Streets, on June 18, 2026.Michael Klein / Staff
The garden will operate from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday to Sunday through Labor Day on the grounds behind the shuttered restaurant at Second and Walnut Streets, offering visitors a chance to gather at a site that played a prominent role in Revolutionary-era Philadelphia.
What visitors will not find, though, is a reopened City Tavern.
The restaurant inside the three-story brick building has been dark since October 2020. Though the closure became associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, former chef-proprietor Walter Staib said the building’s mounting physical problems were the larger issue.
City Tavern chef/proprietor Walter Staib serving Ralph Archbold, portraying Benjamin Franklin, on Dec. 21, 2005.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“COVID was the perfect excuse to close, but it wasn’t the real reason,” Staib said Thursday. “The tavern would have closed anyway. The liabilities had become too great.”
The National Park Service sought a long-term operator in 2023, but no successor has been announced. “Lease negotiations are in process, which we hope to conclude by the end of summer,” park superintendent Steven Sims said in a statement to The Inquirer.
For now, Historic Philadelphia is concentrating on the garden.
“We really wanted to activate City Tavern itself,” said Amy Needle, president and chief executive officer of Historic Philadelphia. “The garden has always been a gorgeous space. For now, we’re focusing on that.” She said the seasonal run could be extended if demand remains strong and hopes to bring the pop-up back each summer.
City Tavern, on Second Street near Walnut, on Jan. 26, 2023.Michael Klein / Staff
Founded in 1773, City Tavern served as a gathering place for merchants, politicians, and many of the nation’s founders. Delegates to the First Continental Congress dined there, while George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin were among its patrons.
The original structure was damaged by fire in 1834 and demolished two decades later. The current building is a reconstruction commissioned by the park service and opened in 1976 as part of the nation’s Bicentennial celebration.
For decades, City Tavern operated as both a restaurant and a living-history attraction, eventually becoming closely identified with Staib, the German-born chef, historian, and television personality who took over the operation in 1994. Under his stewardship, the restaurant gained national recognition for menus inspired by colonial recipes and traditions, helping launch cookbooks and the PBS series A Taste of History.
Chef Walter Staib is shown at City Tavern in 2013.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Staib said many people still contact him, especially around patriotic holidays, asking when the tavern will reopen. “I tell them, ‘I’ve got nothing to do with the tavern,’” he said.
He said he declined an invitation to appear at the garden’s opening, but he would be delighted to advise a new operator. At 80 years old, he said, his days of restaurant ownership are history.
Among the building’s challenges, Staib cited the lack of a sprinkler system in dining rooms, aging infrastructure, and the absence of an elevator. Even before the closure, he estimated that bringing the property into compliance would require millions of dollars. “Add another six years of deterioration,” he said, “and it’s even more expensive now.”
The garden behind City Tavern, Second and Walnut Streets, on June 18, 2026.Michael Klein / Staff
Historic Philadelphia, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to bring activity back to the property. Backed by a grant from the Connelly Foundation, the organization upgraded the garden with new landscaping, seating, and other amenities. It also enlisted Cescaphe — Historic Philadelphia’s partner in other ventures, including Franklin Square — to operate the seasonal pop-up; financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.
Despite the historic setting, the food and beverage offerings are decidedly contemporary. The menu includes turkey sandwiches, wraps, charcuterie boards, pretzels, beer, wine, and canned cocktails with names such as Patriots Punch, Birthday Brew, and Liberty Lemonade. Cescaphe will use an off-site commissary rather than City Tavern’s dormant kitchens. Unlike the former restaurant, staff will not wear colonial-era clothing.
City Tavern, Second and Walnut Streets, opened in 1976 on the site of a former colonial tavern.Michael Klein / Staff
Historic Philadelphia’s “History Makers” interpreters will appear regularly at the site, and the organization’s Independence After Hours tours will conclude at the garden on Saturday evenings. During the Historic District’s Red, White & Blue To-Do celebration on July 2, the garden also will host live music.
Needle said the project reflects Historic Philadelphia’s broader mission of bringing activity to public spaces and historic sites.
“The garden is already used by neighborhood residents,” she said. “People walk their dogs there, and visitors come through as well. Part of our mission is bringing these places to life, so we’re excited to do that here.”
Angelo’s Pizzeria owner Danny DiGiampietro has been pursuing two ambitious goals: reviving a landmark Montgomery County bakery and opening a branch of his Michelin-recommended pizza-and-sandwich operation in South Jersey, where it all began.
Both projects now appear to be gaining momentum. While Angelo’s vaunted rolls are being baked at the former Conshohocken Italian Bakery property, which DiGiampietro purchased last year, the long-held plans to reopen the bakery’s counter to retail customers remain on hold. DiGiampietro said the building requires additional work, which he declined to specify. “Every time we fix one thing, something else comes up,” he said.
Danny DiGiampietro (left), owner of Angelo’s Pizzeria, with partner Jared Braunstein at the bakery in Conshohocken in December 2024.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
But Angelo’s is moving into wholesale bread production, the backbone of Conshohocken Italian Bakery’s business under the Gambone family for more than a half-century before its 2024 closing.
A key piece of the puzzle is on the way: a massive Polin oven imported from Italy to give his bakers more flexibility, DiGiampietro said.
The future location of Angelo’s Pizzeria in West Collingswood Heights, previously Di’Nics, on June 18, 2026.Michael Klein / Staff
At “Conshy,” as the Jones Street bakery was known, the Gambone family supplied rolls and bread to hundreds of restaurants and sandwich shops throughout the region. Its closing created a frenzy among customers and competitors.
DiGiampietro said the new oven will allow bakers to create a line of kaiser rolls, potato rolls, steak rolls, and hoagie rolls. Although he will in effect be selling to his sandwich shop competitors, he likens it to giving shops “the canvas to make their art,” DiGiampietro said. “Everyone’s different.”
A return to wholesaling was not in the initial plans for DiGiampietro, who owned a bread bakery in South Philadelphia about 20 years ago. “I went bankrupt the first time. So hopefully I don’t go bankrupt again.”
Meanwhile, demolition and rebuilding are underway at the future Angelo’s Pizzeria location at 310 Black Horse Pike in the West Collingswood Heights neighborhood of Haddon Township, Camden County. The stand-alone building was formerly Di’Nics.
Crews recently gutted the building, which DiGiampietro hopes to transform into a full-service Angelo’s within the next several months.
The project will mark his return to New Jersey. DiGiampietro opened his first Angelo’s in Haddonfield in 2013 before closing it in 2018 to focus on the Ninth Street location in South Philadelphia, which opened in 2019 and helped turn Angelo’s into one of the region’s most sought-after pizzeria and cheesesteak shops.
The Angelo’s in West Collingswood Heights, about 10 minutes from the Walt Whitman Bridge, will include table seating as well as a counter overlooking the kitchen. Initially, DiGiampietro wanted more seating. Then he began talking about a takeout-only operation.
“But people love the show,” he said. “They like to see everything happening.”
The build-out still requires installation of a pizza oven, walk-in refrigeration, and other equipment. Even so, DiGiampietro believes the compact space can work.
“We think we can keep a dining room and still fit everything we need in there,” he said. “It’ll be tight, but we work on Ninth Street in basically a submarine, so how much tighter can it get?”
🍜 Kalaya, the Thai destination from chef “Nok” Suntaranon in Fishtown/Kensington, is the Beard’s Outstanding Restaurant for 2026. Kalaya is only the second Philly restaurant to win this national honor, after Friday Saturday Sunday brought it home in 2023, the same year Suntaranon won for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic.
🍣 Chef Jesse Ito of Royal Sushi & Izakayaand Dancerobot, winner of the Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic, proves that nine times can be the charm. (Yes, this was Ito’s ninth nomination, after years of recognition dating back to a Rising Star Chef nod in 2018 and a string of Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic noms.) “I came to Chicago 99% certain that I was going to lose,” Ito told us. Well!
📸 Inquirer photographer Monica Herndonwon the 2026 Beard award for narrative photography last Saturday for an assignment where she followed native hunters in the Canadian Arctic. (When I called her Monday to congratulate her, she had to cut it short because she had to photograph Wawa tacos. The life of a newspaper photographer!)
💡 Here’s your chance to know more about the winning chefs. Critic Craig LaBan and photographer Monica Herndon traveled with them. Check out their articles:
⏲️ Chef Justine MacNeil of Fiore in Kensington was a Beard finalist this year for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Beatrice Forman explains how her approach stands out in the era of social-media bakeries.
🧑🍳 Chef Cristina Martinez, who won the Mid-Atlantic’s Outstanding Chef prize in 2022, has set up a counter to sell her celebrated South Philly Barbacoa inside Triple Bottom Brewing, 915 Spring Garden St. Hours: 3-9 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 1-9 p.m. Saturday.
Roxanne, the Michelin-recommended Queen Village bistro that the city shut down over the spring for operating without licenses and inspections, said on Instagram that it would reopen today. Beatrice Forman reports that chef Alexandra Holt is also advertising lunch, though hours and days are unclear.
South Jerseyans seem confused over a rumored impending closing of the Brio Italian Grille in Cherry Hill and an alleged plan for Brazilian steak chain Fogo de Chão to move in. Sarah Nicell unpacks this tale.
Global supplies of Chartreuse are dwindling. But, as Kiki Aranita reports, some Philadelphia bars have figured ways to work around this and concoct their own version of the coveted spirit.
In a story that’s more “pop culture 2026″ than “food,” I recount how an influencer has refashioned the life of former alleged Philadelphia mob kingpin “Skinny Joey” Merlino. His new career includes a podcast and cheesesteak businesses.
This Cavatelli Amatriciana at a new Montgomery County Italian restaurant was a tasty riff on an old favorite. It’s among our top bites, including pastries from a pop-up, drinkable yogurt in Chinatown, and a “walking snack” in South Philly.
Scoops
Wawa is on a small liquor-license binge in the burbs, applying to Harrisburg this week for its soon-to-open Super Wawa stores at 799 Valley Forge Rd. (near White Horse Road) in Schuylkill Township and at Valley Forge Road and Sumneytown Pike in Upper Gwynedd.
David Jansen, who closed his eponymous Mount Airy restaurant last year to become chef at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club in Lafayette Hill, is now on the beach, as they say. He and the club acknowledge that they’ve parted company. Jansen, who spent 22 years at the old Fountain at the Four Seasons Hotel under Jean-Marie Lacroix, said he is taking time off before jumping back in. (The upshot: He will again cook for the general public.)
Soft-shell crab season is upon us, and here are 10 restaurants that have them on the menu.
Restaurant report
Let’s take a first look inside the Blue Warbler, arguably the most ambitious bar/restaurant/cafe to open in Chestnut Hill in years. Shown is the chopped meze salad, featuring smoky baba ghanoush and creamy lemon-garlic hummus, topped with baby greens, watermelon radish, carrots, spicy pickled carrots, harissa crunch, and crispy chickpea. Read on for the story.
Saffron Cafe, a Manayunk newcomer, delivers samosas and viral dot cakes as it bridges Indian and American culture, writes Hira Qureshi.
➕ The week’s openings include: The Monto, the Old City Irish bar at 226 Market St. from Fergus Carey and Jim McNamara, with food by N.A. Poe, debuts at 5 p.m. Saturday). The Huntingdon Valley branch of the revived Iron Hill Brewery opens at 11 a.m. Monday.
Briefly noted
The Hart of Catering in Center City is leaning into a case of mistaken identity with a Kevin Hart look-alike contest set for July 6 — comedian Kevin Hart’s birthday — at its cafe at 2101 Sansom St. Owner Kevin Hart, who says he has spent years fielding confusion over his famous namesake, will host the event beginning at 6 p.m. Contestants will be judged by a panel of comedians, and the winner will receive a catered party package valued at $5,000. Participants can dress as either comedian Kevin Hart or owner Kevin Hart, and birthday cake will be served. Registration is available through Eventbrite.
The Wine Cup, a tasting event featuring wine, beer, and spirits producers, is set for noon-8 p.m. Saturday at the Navy Yard, at the foot of Broad Street in South Philadelphia. Organized by Shakia Williams of Cyrenity Sips Winery, Keyanna Wilson of Aurora’s Vines, and Kevin Lewis of KiRae Wines, the event will include tastings, cocktails sponsored by Tito’s Vodka, nonalcoholic cocktails, food trucks, retail vendors, and a cigar lounge. Tickets, starting at $28.50, are via Eventbrite.
Pennsylvania has reprised its Scooped: An Ice Cream Trail, through Sept. 7, at 59 PA Preferred ice cream destinations. Participants can sign up for a free digital passport and earn points by visiting participating locations and making a purchase. Each stop provides a check-in code that allows travelers to collect points toward prizes, such as a branded insulated bag and an entry to a drawing for a package including a Merrymead Farm tour and an overnight stay at Normandy Farm Hotel & Conference Center. Details are here.
Fishtown Taps offers discounts on food and drinks from 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays through Sept. 29 at participating locations throughout 19125. Details are here.
The Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festivalis back at Franklin Square through Aug. 16, transforming the park into a glowing showcase of culture, artistry, and light. There’s also a huge slate of food throughout from local vendors Chickie’s & Pete’s, Humpty’s Dumplings, Oishii, Sang Kee Noodle House, and Square Burger. The menu is here. Notable: Korean meatballs from Oishii, the dan dan noodles from Sang Kee, and the beverages served inside whole pineapples and coconuts. Kids will like the five different cotton candy selections (example shown above).
Herr’s is out with three new flavors of Philly-inspired chips as it rolls out another season of its Flavors by Philly promotion. Here’s what we thought of them.
❓Pop quiz
Rita’s Water Italian Ice is offering a new flavor for a month. What is it?
What’s happening with Fiesta III Pizza in Chestnut Hill? — Wade J.
Fiesta III Pizza at 8339 Germantown Ave., which closed in October 2024 after more than four decades, is coming back at the hands of brothers Chris and Argyris (“Ari”) Mountis, who along with their father, Tom, were longtime employees of founder Sam Thomas and his wife, Gloria. In 1966, the Thomases founded the original Fiesta in Upper Darby. In 1982, they opened in Chestnut Hill with oldest son Peter, who took over responsibility following Sam’s retirement in 2012. The Mountises, upgrading the place throughout, now operate Jean’s Pizza in Mayfair. Their goal is a fall reopening.
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“Johnny Cash singing Nine Inch Nails.” That was Fred Mogul’s shorthand for the restaurant he had long wanted to build: familiar but surprising, rooted in tradition, yet willing to scramble expectations.
On Monday, that vision arrived at one of Chestnut Hill’s most prominent corners with the opening of the Blue Warbler at Germantown and Willow Grove Avenues. The all-day operation combines a bakery, café, bar, and restaurant, drawing from Mediterranean, Jewish, Persian, Balkan, and American influences.
The bar at the Blue Warbler during staff training on June 11.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Although the menu is entirely vegetarian, vegan, and pescatarian, Mogul does not want the restaurant defined by what it lacks. “I don’t want to be ‘that vegetarian place,’” he said. “There’s so much you can do without meat.”
The Blue Warbler arrives as Chestnut Hill’s dining scene shows fresh signs of life, despite last year’s closing of Iron Hill Brewery. Earlier this year, Lovat Square opened as a wine shop and gathering place on Germantown Avenue; it is a few weeks from starting its full dinner menu and opening its patio. New restaurants are planned for the former Campbell’s Place and Petit Matines spaces, while former employees of Fiesta Pizza III are planning to reopen the neighborhood institution that closed in 2024.
Owner Fred Mogul at the Blue Warbler.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Against that backdrop, the Blue Warbler is arguably the neighborhood’s most ambitious restaurant project in years.
Its day begins at 7 a.m. with house-baked pastries and coffee before expanding into breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner. Dishes include a shakshuka-inspired “shakshukaccia” with labneh and house focaccia, a Turkish breakfast plate, and the Full Emilio — named for the building’s developer, Emilio Lorenzon — featuring eggs, a latke, mushroom bacon or Santorini sausage, salad, and bread.
Dinner offerings include bacalao with green yogurt and lemon relish, halloumi-stuffed dates with hazelnuts, grilled branzino, pan-fried lemon tofu, and smoked eggplant schnitzel over a tomato-Thai basil salad.
Mogul envisioned the Blue Warbler as a place where different influences could coexist comfortably through unexpected combinations that somehow feel natural. Playlists jump between genres and decades, as you can see from its Spotify (Jimmy Cliff, the Roots, the Cranberries, Aretha Franklin). Artwork, poetry, and design elements pull from a range of traditions and references.
“The idea is to constantly surprise people,” he said, “and bring together things that are a little removed from what they’re familiar with.”
Ara Nasari at the Blue Warbler.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
That vision required a top-to-bottom renovation of a space that had never before housed a restaurant. Industry veterans repeatedly advised Mogul to take an easier path and retrofit an existing dining room for his first restaurant. His reply: “We fell in love with it,” he said.
The restaurant occupies the century-old Lorenzon Building, which was Foster’s Drugstore for decades. (The gray-beige terrazzo floor is a tipoff.) More recently, it housed the photography gallery of Wendy Concannon. Mogul said landlord Richard Snowden shared his belief that the space could become a neighborhood gathering place.
An out-of-the-way seating area at the Blue Warbler.Michael Klein / Staff
Inside, Ambit Architecture and In House Studio transformed what Mogul described as a stone- and glass-heavy interior into a warmer environment defined by reclaimed oak floors, quarter-sawn oak tabletops, walnut accents, custom millwork, and locally selected artwork. The restaurant seats 71 guests, including 15 at the bar, and includes a patio and a private-event room known as the Perch.
For Mogul, the opening marks an unlikely second act.
A longtime journalist, he worked at newspapers in Kansas and Nebraska before moving to Philadelphia in 1999. He freelanced for WHYY radio and television, contributed to NPR, worked as a stringer for The New York Times and Time magazine, and produced historical documentaries before later joining WNYC in New York, where he covered public health, politics, education, and government.
His 18-year tenure there ended in 2021, after the newsroom’s new manager accused him of using Associated Press copy without attribution, sparking a station-wide uproar and petition drive. Mogul sued the station for defamation and received a settlement whose terms he would not disclose, except to say that the Warbler rose from the ashes of tumult at WNYC.
The idea of opening a restaurant, however, had been percolating for years.
A view from the elevated dining room seating to the bar at the Blue Warbler.Michael Klein / Staff
“I like being a reporter because I like telling people’s stories, schmoozing, having a deadline, and producing something tangible,” Mogul said. “Restaurants felt like another version of that — feeding people, creating a place, making something every day.”
After considering locations in other cities, he settled on Philadelphia. “Opening a restaurant in Brooklyn felt like starting a podcast,” he said. “There are so many, and how do you get heard above the fray?”
Mogul assembled a team of restaurant veterans for the project, which was originally known as AM/FM, a nod to his radio career. After he and his family settled in Chestnut Hill, they were workshopping names of birds to connect with the nearby Wissahickon: “There were two weeks where it was ‘the Purple Finch.’ Then someone said, ‘There’s Spice Finch [restaurant near Rittenhouse Square]. I said, ‘Oh, I think there’s only room for one finch.’” They settled on Blue Warbler. One day, Mogul said, he hopes to see one in the wild.
Executive chef Daniel Berret most recently worked at the Study at University City and previously helped develop the menu at Chestnut Hill Brewing Co. Chef de cuisine Renee Rowlett’s résumé includes Picnic, Society Hill Hotel, and Eva in Kensington. General manager Andy Boyask has worked at Tria, Parc, Johnny Brenda’s, PYT, and Zahav, while restaurant consultant Arthur Cavaliere, a Starr Restaurants alumnus who operated In Riva in East Falls for more than a decade, helped shape the project.
The Blue Warbler, in Philadelphia, June 11, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Weekdays begin with walk-up breakfast and lunch service, while dinner is initially offered Wednesday through Sunday. Additional nights will be added. Weekend brunch shifts to full table service. Among the dishes Berret is most excited about are smoked Arctic char served over sourdough bagels, salt-cod fritters, house-made pastries, and a mushroom-focused dinner dish.
The bar program includes a balanced draft and canned-beer list with an emphasis on local breweries, including a dedicated line for nearby Attic Brewing. The wine list was built around the restaurant’s vegetable- and seafood-focused menu, leaning toward acid-forward bottles, lighter reds, island wines, rosés, orange wines, and whites. Cocktails are intended to be approachable rather than fussy, with riffs on classics such as a Mai Tai made with fresh orgeat and a frothy Clover Club. The restaurant also plans to build out its nonalcoholic offerings.
The Blue Warbler, 8001 Germantown Ave. Opening hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Before Philadelphia’s chefs, bakers, restaurateurs, and bartenders take center stage at tonight’s James Beard Awards in Chicago, one Philadelphian has already brought home a medal.
On Saturday night, Inquirer staff photographer Monica Herndon won the 2026 James Beard Media Award for Narrative Photography for “The hunt for life-giving ‘country food’ in the Canadian Arctic,” a photo essay documenting Inuit food traditions in the remote northern Québec community of Inukjuak.
The Inquirer’s Monica Herndon, winner of the Narrative Photography Award, speaks during the 2026 James Beard Media Awards on June 13.Jeff Schear / Getty Images for the James Beard Foundation
The project accompanied reporting by Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan and chronicled how residents hunt, prepare, share, and preserve traditional foods, including seal, beluga, and caribou. In October 2024, Herndon and LaBan followed filmmaker Kirk French of Penn State to the region as he screened a documentary.
“There was this moment, at the end of the trip when I was leaving, when one of the elders pulled me aside and whispered, ‘You know you’re very lucky to be here,’” Herndon recalled in a chat Monday before she photographed tacos for a food article. “It sent chills down my spine.”
A father and daughter walk near the Innuksuak River in Inukjuak, Quebec.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
A native of Annapolis, Md., Herndon has worked at The Inquirer for nearly seven years. She won a 2022 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award and Best in Show recognition from the National Press Photographers Association’s Northern Short Course contest for her work on The Inquirer’s “Wildest Dreams” project, a mini-anthology of storytelling about Black cultural inheritance, legacy, and joy.
Now the attention turns to the restaurant and chef awards, which will be presented tonight at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Philadelphia enters the ceremony with seven finalists, one of the strongest showings of any city in the country. Kalaya is nominated for Outstanding Restaurant, while Emmett is a finalist for Best New Restaurant. The Lovers Bar at Friday Saturday Sunday is in the running for Outstanding Bar.
In individual categories, Justine MacNeil of Fiore is a finalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. The hotly contested Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category includes three Philadelphia contenders: Jesse Ito of Royal Sushi & Izakaya, Amanda Shulman of Her Place Supper Club, and Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate of Honeysuckle.
Philadelphia already has one James Beard honor secured this year.
In February, Center City’s Oyster House received a James Beard America’s Classics Award, recognizing restaurants with timeless appeal and deep roots in their communities.
