A man ran from Pat’s King of Steaks after throwing a cheesesteak through its service window around dinnertime Wednesday. But the camera he carried left an online trail behind him.
Philadelphia police said Friday that the man, who turned himself in Thursday, was charged with harassment, a summary offense. Police declined to identify him, and it is not clear what prompted him to surrender.
The video he apparently made of the encounter had surfaced on YouTube and Instagram, where Pat’s owner Frank Olivieri said his information-technology team traced it to accounts filled with pranks, music, and Philadelphia street content.
Surveillance video from Pat’s King of Steaks shows a man throwing his cheesesteak at manager Tom Camardo on Sept. 30, 2026.Courtesy of Pat's King of Steaks
“He wanted to be famous,” Olivieri said. “He got exactly what he asked for. Now, he needs to be accountable for his actions and his words.”
The YouTube account, under the name h4ll0w33n, presented the episode as a food review titled “I Threw This Cheesesteak in His Face Geno’s Steaks,” misidentifying the stand with the name of another landmark eatery across the intersection of Ninth Street, Wharton Street, and Passyunk Avenue.
A screenshot of the video’s thumbnail showed what appeared to be an AI-generated image of a cheesesteak flying into a man’s face, with “THIS CHEESESTEAK SUCKED!” in large type and “YAM TV” beneath it.
By Friday morning, the video was unavailable. YouTube said the account associated with it had been terminated.
An Instagram account using the name @h4ll0w33n___ remained online with about 10,500 followers. The video also appeared on a newly created Instagram account called YAM TV, which described itself as “The Reality Food Critic Show” covering Philadelphia and beyond. Neither account disclosed the man’s name. No one from the accounts replied to The Inquirer’s messages requesting comment.
Olivieri said his IT team searched online using a photograph of the man and found the accounts after he posted his recording.
“How brazen are you to assault somebody and then post it?” Olivieri said. “Thank God for stupidity.”
Olivieri had offered a $5,000 reward Thursday for information leading to the man’s arrest and conviction. On Friday, he said he had allocated the money to someone who contacted him with information.
The episode began shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday, after the customer ordered a cheesesteak with Cheez Whiz and onions.
Surveillance video shows him sitting at a table outside Pat’s, pulling apart the sandwich with his hands without eating it. He later returned to the window, exchanged words with general manager Tom Francano, threw the cheesesteak at him, and ran.
Francano can be seen throwing pieces of the sandwich back toward the fleeing man. He was not injured, police said.
By Friday, Francano was willing to revisit the moment under friendlier circumstances.
Justin Camardo, co-owner of Dough Head Pizza across the intersection, posted an Instagram video with the caption: “We heard Pat’s was throwing food around, so naturally we had to see what all the hype was about.”
The video shows Camardo walking across the street with a slice of pizza and handing it to Francano, who promptly smashes it into Camardo’s face.
Detectives initially investigated Wednesday’s episode as an assault. Olivieri said Friday that he was disappointed that the man had been charged only with summary harassment and questioned whether it would provide the deterrent he sought.
“What are they going to give him, community service?” he said. “Maybe he should come over here and sweep the pavement.”
Pat’s has dealt with thrown drinks, food, coins, and other objects during its 96-year history, Olivieri said. What made Wednesday’s incident different, he said, was the camera — evidence, in his view, that the confrontation had been staged for an audience.
Olivieri said he pursued the case because he feared that allowing the episode to pass without consequences could invite copycats at Pat’s and other restaurants. Businesses already contend with the positive and negative effects of influencers, he said; deliberately provoking employees for online attention crossed another line.
“I not only did this for me,” Olivieri said. “I think it’s for everyone else who has had an issue with a pizza influencer, a hoagie influencer, or whatever.”
A suspect in the cheesesteak-throwing incident at Pat’s King of Steaks has turned himself in to police, according to reports by Fox29 and 6abc.
Charges were pending Thursday night. Police had not identified the suspect.
Video: Man throws cheesesteak through Pat’s window
Earlier Thursday, Pat’s owner Frank Olivieri offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the camera-carrying man who hurled a cheesesteak through the South Philadelphia restaurant’s service window Wednesday afternoon, striking general manager Tom Francano.
Olivieri said he hoped to stop the apparent stunt from becoming the next social-media trend.
The incident occurred shortly before 5 p.m., after the customer ordered a cheesesteak with Cheez Whiz and onions. Olivieri said he believed that the man had paid in cash, so he could not identify him through receipts.
Pat’s King of Steaks at the intersection of Ninth Street, Wharton Street, and Passyunk Avenue.Michael Klein / Staff
Olivieri said surveillance footage convinced him that the encounter had been planned. Video shows the customer sitting at a table, pulling apart the sandwich with his hands without eating it. The man later approached the window, exchanged words with Francano, threw the cheesesteak at him, and ran down the street.
Francano can be seen throwing pieces of the sandwich back toward the fleeing man. He did not report injuries, police said. Detectives initially investigated the incident as an assault.
“His intention was to make a video: get the sandwich, have an argument at the window, film the entire thing, throw the sandwich through the window, and run away,” Olivieri said. “That’s how he gets clicks.”
Francano noticed the man’s camera and took particular care while preparing his order, Olivieri said.
“Everybody here knows that when somebody comes up with a camera, you make sure the sandwich is extra perfect, so there is absolutely nothing they can say is wrong with it,” he said.
Customers occasionally have thrown drinks, food, or other objects through the restaurant’s window during its 96-year history, Olivieri said. In one incident around 2024, he said, a customer threw a handful of coins at employees. But Wednesday’s encounter was different: The man arrived with a camera and apparently recorded his actions.
“It’s one thing if somebody comes to the window, gets into an argument, and throws a soda or some french fries,” Olivieri said. “But nobody has ever intentionally come with a camera and thrown a cheesesteak through the window.”
Olivieri said he wanted consequences for the man because a video of the episode could encourage others to stage similar confrontations at Pat’s or other restaurants.
“If this guy posts the video — or when he posts it — other people are going to come and do it,” Olivieri said. “They’ll be throwing cheesesteaks through the window at my place and everybody else’s place. I feel as though we need to make an example of this person. Nobody should get away with doing something like this.”
Staff writer Henry Savage contributed to this article.
Good day, friends. Cocktail destination Almanac, which has picked up national and local accolades in its first two years, has a new location on the way, and we’ll tell you about it.
No bar has received the attention that’s surrounded Old City’s Almanac in its first two years. Now the team is branching out with a two-level cocktail destination near Rittenhouse Square. Read on for the exclusive.
Black chefs gathered recently at the home kitchen of Shola Olunloyo to celebrate, revive, and update pepper pot, Philadelphia’s signature soup. Don’t call it a comeback, as Craig LaBan writes.
After playing poker at a 55-plus community in Moorestown, a group of retirees decided to raise the stakes steaks. They’ve embarked on a quest to find the ultimate cheesesteak. Sarah Nicell joined them on an outing to discuss rolls and cholesterol.
Talk about wild cards: The Sprouts Farmers Market on South Broad Street wanted to create a fall display that looks like the Phillie Phanatic. But, as Beatrice Forman writes, what is got was an artistic swing and a miss.
The Michelin Guide has loomed over Philadelphia’s restaurant scene for the last year. Charmaine Runes and our data team wondered if prices had risen as a result. They compared menus before and after restaurants received accolades, and here are the findings.
Caramelle, a candy-shaped pasta, gives late-summer corn a rich, funky foil in huitlacoche and black truffle at Fiorella in the Italian Market. Kiki Aranita explains how this Italian-meets-Mexican connection works so deliciously.
Scoops
Chef John Brandt-Lee, who oversees Bar Avalon locations in Bryn Mawr and West Chester (as well as one of the funniest Instagram chef accounts around), is targeting November for the opening of Beef & Bird Public Houseat 30 N. Church St., the onetime firehouse that was last Slow Hand. Brandt-Lee says the approachable menu, a departure from his decades of Italian cuisine, will emphasize beef and chicken, including rotisserie chicken, sandwiches, entrees, and elaborate, family-style meat boards.
Carl Messick, chef-owner of Cape May’s Grana BYOB, will take over restaurant operations at the town’s landmark Peter Shields Inn on Oct. 7, returning to the property where he worked for 11 years before opening Grana in 2022. Messick and wife Megan plan modest upgrades while restoring its focus on high-end dining; Grana will be the more relaxed of the two. He also plans to tailor Peter Shields’ offseason business to local diners. “The goal is to remind people what Peter Shields Inn is all about,” he said.
Restaurant report
Palm Vintage, across from City Hall, is two concepts in one: an airy cafe serving espresso drinks, sandwiches, and bagels by day, and a cocktail lounge by night. Kiki Aranita finds sushi rolls and sashimi sets rivaling some of Philly’s best.
Have Philadelphia’s health inspections intensified lately? The city says no.
YouTube star Ms. Rachel sent crowds to Blended Joe Coffee Bar in Washington Township, Gloucester County, with a social media post. Owner Eric Powell didn’t even know it at first, as Sarah Nicell reports. His phone was dead.
Mel’s Italian in Belmont Hills, which rebooted earlier this year but closed soon after, is on the market. Asking price, which had been as high as $675,000, is now $549,000.
Briefly noted
How to have a perfect Philly day, according to the woman who makes a perfect latte. Beatrice Forman hangs out with Zoe Tanner (shown above), who works her magic at Loretta’s, on Head House Square.
Sorrentino Pasta & Provisions in Ambler may have closed, but Rich Sorrentino’s ravioli is still available. He’s taken the business into the wholesale realm.
A popular food truck from a Camden County nonprofit provides job training for people with disabilities. Lacey Latch explains that ThreeLittle Birds Cafe was initially envisioned to serve primarily as a mobile advertisement for Arc of Camden County, but has evolved into something much larger.
Actor Eric Winter (The Rookie) will sign bottles of Palm Republic rum, which he cofounded, beginning at noon Saturday at the Fine Wine & Good Spirits store at 2426 Chemical Rd., Plymouth Meeting. Bottles go on sale when the store opens at 9 a.m.; aged rum is $44.99 and silver rum is $34.99, with a two-bottle limit. Attendees must purchase the rum at the store that day, and Winter will not sign other items.
Habit Burger previews its new Jenkintown-area location at Baederwood Shoppes (1621 The Fairway) with free meals to the first 200 guests at 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Official debut is Monday.
Standard Tap’s annual Sausage Fest is on through Oct. 4 at the Northern Liberties mainstay with 10 house-made sausages from chef Patrick Bones inspired by flavors from Portugal, China, Scotland, Thailand, Germany, France, Morocco, the Chesapeake, and Philadelphia. Order them all on one platter for $100, and you get a souvenir T-shirt.
A Taste of Britain, the Wayne tea room, marks its 35th anniversary throughout October with a $35 three-course prix fixe menu, with a cut going to the Wayne Senior Center. The menu includes a choice of salad or scone, one of several sandwiches, a toastie or frittata, and orange posset or warm gingerbread for dessert. ATOB is also discounting its full afternoon tea for $35, down from $40, Mondays through Thursdays during October.
Provenance in Society Hill hosts Chicago’s similarly Michelin-starred Esmé for a one-night collab Thursday. Among courses from chefs Nicholas Bazik and Jenner Tomaska: fresh oyster paired with white sweet potato ice cream, celery hot sauce, peanut miso, and caviar; scallop prepared with black truffle emulsion and Meyer lemon; and king crab tart. Seatings at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m., via OpenTable, are $225pp.
Conshohocken’s St. Mary & St. Mercurius Coptic Orthodox Church will host an Egyptian block party featuring homemade food, crafts, and family activities from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. this weekend at Fifth and Fayette Streets. Details are here.
Hi-Lo Taco in Washington Square West will send proceeds to benefit the Jefferson Community Health Collaborative as it marks National Taco Day from 4-9 p.m. Tuesday with $7 double-decker taco trays, half-price appetizers, and $6 house margaritas.
Kalaya in Fishtown is teaming up with London’s Michelin-starred AngloThai for a one-night collaboration dinner Oct. 12, bringing chef John Chantarasak to Kalaya to cook with chef-owner Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon. It’s $165pp plus tax and tip, booked via Resy.
Delicious City’s Hoagie Throwdown was postponed last weekend due to the severe weather. All tickets (as well as any you might order) will be honored on the new date: Oct. 25 at Other Half Brewing in Fishtown from noon-4 p.m..
❓Pop quiz
Cheesecake Factory has been going viral for a particular dish, and it’s been driving staff bonkers. What is it?
A) Cajun salmon
B) Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake, done à la mode
Are there any good vegetarian restaurants in the Center City area? I know many can adapt to vegetarian — but not all — and sometimes, I just want to go to a place where I don’t have to work too hard to figure out what I can eat. — Dorothy V.
There are the upscale vegan places like Vedge and Charlie Was a Sinner, as well as the more casual Bar Bombon, all in Washington Square West. For Chinese, there is Unit Su Vege near the Art Museum. My colleague Kiki Aranita enjoyed the vegetarian dishes at Meet Harbin, a new Chinese spot at 15th and Sansom that replaced Cheng Du and Su Xing House. If you’re looking for something on the quirkier side, there’s Monster Vegan in Washington Square West, which has a “horror show” theme. And how seasonal!
➡️ Readers offer additional recommendations for overall restaurants near Lantern Theater, 10th and Market Streets (“Let’s Eat,” Sept. 16), and Chinatown seems to be a popular option. Suet L. suggests EMei for Sichuan, Ting Wong for “no-frills Cantonese roast meats, rice plates, and Hong Kong noodle soups,” and Spice-C for “homey hand-drawn noodles,” while Susan H. has a soft spot for Tom’s Dim Sum.
📮 Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
The team behind one of Philadelphia’s most acclaimed new cocktail bars is preparing a larger second act in Rittenhouse.
Almanac co-owners Vy To and Victor Ng and bar manager Rob Scott are building a two-level bar in the former Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. space at 112 S. 18th St. A name and opening date have not been announced. Much more work needs to be done, they said, as the space has been vacant since Franklin left in 2021. It later reopened behind the 1715 Rittenhouse Hotel. The new bar is between Cleavers and Byblos and its upstairs lounge, Vango.
Bar manager Rob Scott making a drink at Almanac’s opening in November 2024.Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
To, Ng, and Scott have been riding high on public acclaim since they opened the 23-seat, Japanese-influenced Almanac in 2024 above its sister restaurant, Ogawa Sushi & Kappo, at 310 Market St. in Old City.
To, Ng, and Scott will be partners in the new venture. They started working together in 2024, when the Drexel Food Lab connected To and Ng with Danny Childs, the James Beard Award-winning author of Slow Drinks. Childs recruited Scott, his former colleague at Cherry Hill’s Farm & Fisherman, to run Almanac.
The Rittenhouse bar will divide its personality between two floors, and each will carry its own name. The long, narrow lower level will be calm, dark, and intimate, with a cocktail menu built around a single theme that could remain for 12 to 18 months. Upstairs will be brighter, livelier, and designed to handle more customers.
Its largely fixed beverage menu upstairs will rely on draft, frozen, freezer-door, nitro, and shaved-ice cocktails. Scott said he hopes to avoid conventional shakers, mixing tins, and jiggers upstairs. Most preparation would occur before service, allowing bartenders to pour and garnish drinks quickly while spending more time with customers.
“You can return in a week, a month, or a year, and it will probably still be there,” Scott said of the upstairs menu selections.
The new approach is partly a response to Almanac’s economics. Its hyperseasonal menu and fermentation and preservation work can require hours of preparation, but its size limits capacity. Scott said Almanac’s cocktails cost $19 to $23 partly because labor and ingredient expenses must be divided among relatively few guests.
The new project would preserve Almanac’s distinctive, intimate experience downstairs while increasing volume upstairs to allow more guests to experience Scott’s hospitality without a reservation, To said. Kitchen and preparation employees would work across both floors. The Drexel Food Lab is developing a small-bites menu.
Rob Scott locks the door at the future bar at 112 S. 18th St. on Sept. 23.Michael Klein / Staff
Behind Bars Agency of Oslo is designing a customized downstairs system allowing two bartenders to work independently in the narrow room. Philadelphia designer Ian Chapin, whose resumé includes Middle Child Clubhouse, R&D, and Pub & Kitchen, is handling the interiors; Kylie Silvestri, who worked on Almanac, Ogawa, and Little Water, will oversee graphic design.
The partners plan to divide the downstairs room into smaller lounge areas while preserving sight lines to the bar. Upstairs will feature custom lighting and metalwork. Scott described the contrasting rooms as “two sides of the same coin.”
To said the larger project is intended to turn the hospitality practiced at 12-seat Ogawa and Almanac into a more durable business with enough revenue to create long-term jobs.
“We want our employees to be able to build careers and have a sustainable lifestyle if they choose to remain in this world with us,” she said.
Workers carrying out tables from Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co.’s location at 112 S. 18th St. in May 2021. Franklin later reopened nearby.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Sorrentino Pasta & Provisions may have closed its Ambler restaurant and market last month, but owner Rich Sorrentino is not getting out of the pasta business. He is concentrating on the wholesale operation that had grown alongside the storefront while developing a new shop nearby.
Sorrentino’s business, which opened in 2021 on Butler Avenue near Ridge, combined a dining room, pasta workshop, and Italian specialty market in a narrow storefront next to Alice Bakery. You could walk in and buy fresh and dried pastas by the pound as well as focaccia, oils, vinegars, tinned fish, and cheeses from a small refrigerator. But insiders knew about the 15 restaurant seats under a blackboard in the front, where Sorrentino offered a changing menu of dishes such as pappardelle al cinghiale, casarecce with ’nduja, carbonara, and garganelli with pesto, pistachios, breadcrumbs, and arugula.
Rich Sorrentino, at his Ambler workroom, says he started pasta making years ago “as a kind of relief — something therapeutic.”William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer
Wholesale pasta has been Sorrentino’s bread and butter for the last three years, especially after he acquired a small garage on a nearby side street, which he turned into a production facility. He supplies local restaurants and country clubs.
Sorrentino said the wholesale business offered greater potential than a restaurant — as well as the attraction of a Monday-through-Friday schedule.
“I can’t be in two places at once,” he said. “I weighed the options between the restaurant and the wholesale business and which one I wanted to keep going.”
Bags of Sorrentino’s dried fusilli and capanelle before they are boxed up and sent to stores. William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer
Locally, pasta makers have moved in both directions as their businesses have grown. Scaramuzza’s Pasta Products closed its Clifton Heights walk-in store in 2016 to concentrate on wholesale before later restoring retail at a larger facility, while Settantatré expanded from a combined Milmont Park shop and production space into a larger Berwyn store with a separate gluten-free production facility and event space nearby.
For Sorrentino, the decision ended a five-year run for a business that grew out of his pasta-making hobby. “I come from a big Italian family,” he said. Before opening the shop, he was technical director for a large corporate chain. Given all the travel, “I found myself making pasta as a kind of relief — something therapeutic,” he said.
The hobby eventually took over a room adjoining his kitchen, and small gatherings grew into large dinner parties. “I’d always had the idea of opening a fresh pasta shop,” he said. “Going to Italy as much as I do, I’ve seen a lot of cool concepts over there, and I always thought, ‘Man, this would be cool to do in a town like Ambler.’” He acquired the Butler Avenue building during the pandemic and decided to take the chance. He recently sold the property.
Nick Pfeiffer seals a bag of pasta at Sorrentino in Ambler.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer
Meanwhile, the wholesale operation continues, though Sorrentino says at 1,200 square feet, he is running out of room. With the closing of the restaurant kitchen, he cannot produce and package sauces for now.
Sorrentino’s line covers both dry and fresh pastas, as well as frozen ravioli and his top seller, potato gnocchi.
The company makes private-label ravioli and gnocchi for Weavers Way, the co-op. Sorrentino products are also sold at Corner Stoop in Philadelphia, Dave’s Backyard Farm in Huntingdon Valley, Tredici Market in Wayne, Sam’s Italian Market in Willow Grove, and Skippack Italian Market. The company alternates Saturdays between the Conshohocken and East Falls Farmers Markets and sets up at Horsham’s on Sundays.
Nick Pfeiffer (left), Nais Ryan, and Matthew Brunetto (right) work on mushroom ravioli at Sorrentino Pasta.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer
Expanding retail availability is the next step, Sorrentino said. He is building out a small shop nearby; he’s not sure of the timeline.
“We’re only now slowly getting into the retail world,” he said. “We’ve purposefully been slow about pushing that because we were trying to focus on our restaurant clients. But it’s something we’re going to focus on, now that the store is closed.”
Cheesecake Factory’s Cajun salmon used to be a straightforward order: blackened salmon, Creole sauce, buttered corn, mashed potatoes.
Then, it hit TikTok.
Now, in a social media-driven frenzy that’s spread nationwide, Cheesecake customers are swapping in loaded mashed potatoes, adding shrimp, ordering extra sauce, and turning a single entrée — one of the roughly 250 dishes on the chain’s menu — into a build-your-own production.
And in Philly, at least one local Cheesecake Factory is feeling the heat.
Diners leaving the Cheesecake Factory in Center City in August 2025.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Spawning a Cajun salmon trend
The salmon craze can be traced to Sept. 3, when Shayla Roberts, a nail technician and permanent-makeup artist from Minneapolis, posted a 15-second video showing how she orders the Cajun salmon, opting for loaded mashed potatoes, shrimp on top, a pitcher of extra sauce, and a side of Cajun seasoning.
Roberts, who posts as @slayed_byshayyyy and has about 55,400 followers on Instagram and nearly 39,000 on TikTok, said she had no marketing plan behind the post. “I love to eat, and I feel like when I go to any restaurant, I’m always trying to jazz it up a little bit,” she told The Inquirer. “And so I thought, let me just start recording, because my mom and my aunts were saying, ‘You’re always adding a little razzle-dazzle to stuff. You need to start putting [it online].’”
Her recommendation quickly spread. On Sept. 7, tennis star Coco Gauff posted on TikTok from the U.S. Open in Queens, N.Y., to say that she wanted to try the dish because it kept appearing in her feed.
That got the attention of Cheesecake Factory, which replied to say it had a restaurant in Queens, near the tennis center.
Then on Sept. 11, food reviewer Keith Lee — who has 17.3 million followers on TikTok and 2.7 million on Instagram — stitched Roberts’ video on TikTok while sampling the dish at a Dallas-area Cheesecake Factory. Lee posted to Instagram three days later.
The dish’s popularity exploded from there. The original video eventually drew about 5 million views, while Lee’s posts generated millions more.
“Five million views of attention? I did not expect that,” Roberts said.
Over the weeks, the trend has spawned scores of follow-up videos, from customer reviews to workers documenting the rush. One food runner posted a video from a kitchen, proclaiming: “Out of the 10 dishes ready to go, six are the viral meal. TikTok, you done it again.”
The sudden surfeit of modifications comes with a downside for local staff.
“When I ring it into the computer, there are probably 10 buttons I have to push to put it in the way people are asking for it,” said a server at the Cheesecake Factory’s Center City location, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak for the company.
“And all this extra special stuff is really easy for the kitchen to trip over when they’re making it a thousand different ways.”
The volume is apparently substantial. At that location, at 15th and Walnut Streets, the restaurant sold at least 60 orders of the Cajun salmon one recent night, according to the worker. In previous nights, servers would ring in just a few.
The Cajun salmon is priced at $19.95 at lunch and $29.95 at dinner, but the extras like shrimp can add more than $10.
For workers paid a tipped wage, bigger checks should translate into more money. But the server said that has not necessarily been the case. The trend has particularly attracted younger customers, some of whom seem surprised by the final tab and pull back sharply on tips, the server said: “Some tables will leave $5, no matter what the total is.”
Customers are modifying Cheesecake Factory’s Cajun salmon dish for social media.Courtesy of Cheesecake Factory
The shortfall can average about $50 a night, said the server, who would prefer that management institute an automatic gratuity on all checks.
Cheesecake Factory declined to comment on the impact on workers, but welcomed the attention. “It’s been fun to see the creative ‘hacks’ that our guests are making to this dish as well as several other items across the menu,” chief marketing officer Donald Evans said in a statement.
By now, at the Center City location, some customers don’t even need to name the dish. “People are asking me to get them ‘the thing that everyone is ordering,’” the worker said. “I wonder what’s next.”
For the last eight years, Fridays at Stargazy on East Passyunk Avenue meant fish and chips, a weekly tribute to chef-owner Sam Jacobson’s East London roots.
That ended last month, when a city health inspection forced the English pie and mash shop to discontinue the special.
Stargazy had been cited twice in 2024 for operating its electric double countertop fryer without proper mechanical ventilation. But on Aug. 14, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health went further, citing the fryers as “unapproved” equipment and requiring Jacobson to submit plans for review before they could be used again. Translation: He’d need to install ventilation for his fryer if he wanted to continue slinging fish and chips.
The Friday fish and chips from Stargazy in 2021.Jenn Ladd / Staff
For restaurant owners, the consequences of an inspection can extend beyond whatever corrective action the city requires. Reports of closures, cease-operations orders, or serious violations — especially at popular restaurants — spread on social media, where the conversation often turns to claims that enforcement is unfair or not uniformly applied.
The health department disputes that contention, saying that there is no crackdown.
It’s in the process of rolling out a new Food Safety Inspection Guide, but while the format of the guide has been streamlined, the department said the underlying rules have not changed.
Inspections as a snapshot
Last month at Heavy Metal Sausage Co. in South Philadelphia, a health inspector ordered owners Patrick Alfiero and Melissa Pellegrino to remove the shop’s eight indoor seats and stop preparing food in the basement. Inspectors determined that neither activity was consistent with the establishment’s plan review, approved in 2022.
Heavy Metal had passed previous inspections, including one four months earlier, and its owners told The Inquirer the operation had not changed between the two visits.
Heavy Metal Sausage Co. owners Patrick Alfiero and Melissa Pellegrino preparing for a dinner in 2022.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Health officials interviewed this month said the differing outcomes illustrate a basic principle of the inspection system: Each inspection reflects only a snapshot of what an inspector observes.
During the April inspection, the department said, the inspector did not observe indoor dining or food preparation in the basement. On Aug. 21, both were taking place and could be cited.
More broadly, officials said, the absence of a citation during an earlier inspection should not be interpreted as approval of a practice.
Stargazy had been previously cited
At Stargazy, the record is different. The fryer had been cited before.
Jacobson was in England when the sanitarian — as the inspectors are known — arrived at Stargazy on the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 14. It was the same sanitarian who had cited the fryer during two inspections in 2024.
Owner Sam Jacobson cooking at Stargazy on Sept. 18, 2026. Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
“I did look back at sales reports for the day of the April 5, 2024, inspection and we had a good fish day — so the fryer was definitely on and in plain sight,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson acknowledges that the inspector told him in 2024 that the fryers were “not approved.” That point is noted on the reports. But Jacobson said he did not understand that to mean he had to stop using them.
The Health Department gave a different account to The Inquirer this month. Officials said Jacobson was verbally instructed in 2024 not to use the fryers because they lacked mechanical ventilation.
When the sanitarian found the same fryer still in use at its next inspection more than two years later, the department said, Jacobson was told to install mechanical ventilation, which would require a plan review — a lengthy process. This time, Jacobson removed the fryer in response. (Historically, the health department does not levy fines, preferring that businesses correct violations.)
Jacobson said Stargazy had never undergone a plan review when he opened in 2015 after taking over an existing bakery. He said a city employee advised him at the time to treat the opening as a change of ownership, and the restaurant passed its preopening inspection.
“We never did any alterations or construction before opening,” Jacobson said. “I simply took over the lease of an existing bakery, gave it a lick of paint and some other cosmetic touches, and opened up.”
Besides the fryer, he said the restaurant’s only substantive changes were moving the counter in 2019 to create more room in the dining room and installing a customer hand sink during the pandemic at the city’s direction.
Sanitarians have not received new instructions to interpret the code differently, the department said. The department said it has committed significant resources to uniformity training, intended to ensure that every inspector reviews the same conditions in the same way in all food businesses.
Supervisors and managers also review inspection reports, and sanitarians are not supposed to exercise individual discretion in deciding whether a condition violates the food code.
The new Food Safety Inspection Guide supports the department’s position that the underlying food-safety requirements are not new.
Deputy Health Commissioner Dawn Kiesewetter said the guide has been under development for six or seven months with the Mayor’s Office of Policy Planning and Delivery, the Commerce Department, and business and community groups. It grew out of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s PHL Open for Business initiative, launched in April 2024 to simplify city permitting, licensing, and other requirements for businesses.
Food businesses were an early focus. When Open for Business was announced, city officials said food businesses averaged nearly 24 government approval steps to open and operate. The administration subsequently developed multilingual food-safety materials and other guidance for operators.
The city aims to inspect every food establishment once a year but does not always meet that target, the department acknowledged. About 60 Health Department employees are authorized to inspect Philadelphia’s 10,427 food establishments, according to the department. Reinspections follow violations, while complaint inspections and investigations of possible foodborne illness take place as needed.
Staffing and complaint volume have remained relatively steady in recent years, officials said, while the number of food businesses remains below its pre-pandemic level.
When a repeat problem is ‘new’
Stargazy’s fryer was cited as a “new violation” in 2026, two years after its first citation. The department’s terminology on inspection reports can sometimes label a recurring violation as new. Health officials said that designation is automatically applied when more than a year has passed since the earlier violation.
Jacobson said it would not make financial sense for him to install the ventilation needed to resume frying. A permanent hood would require construction, he said, while a freestanding ventless system could cost more than $20,000.
Stargazy owner Sam Jacobson adding blackberry and fig sauce to his wild mushroom burrata toast, a substitution for his fish fry.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Since removing the fryer, he is considering longer hours and fish-and-chips pop-ups elsewhere to replace some of the lost sales. On Fridays, he has been offering specials that do not require a fryer, including wild mushroom burrata toast.
The city says one purpose of the new guide is to reduce the likelihood of surprises during an inspection.
“The more they understand what they need to do, the more likely they’ll pass,” the Health Department said in a statement. “Our number one goal is to ensure that food businesses can stay open safely.”
“The suburbs are a really tough place to get attention,” pizzaiolo Roberto Carollo was telling Jenn Ladd at his shop, Spuntino, in Doylestown’s Main Street Marketplace. Jenn says his puffy, leopard-spotted Neapolitan pies are worth your time, wherever you may be.
Which got me to thinking about our recent pizza recommendations:
🍕 In Crust We Trust celebrates celebrates Black culture in Fishtown.
🍕 Waltz’s 800-degree wood-fired oven turns out tastiness in deep South Philly, per Craig LaBan.
🍕 Barclay Pies in Cherry Hill sets a new standard for gluten-free pizza in the Philly, Craig also writes.
🍕 Dave Portnoy of the influential One Bite Pizza Reviews visited at least five area pizza shops and seemed to like them all.
🍕 And there are more are on the way, including the Buttery in Northern Liberties, Alessandro’s Enoteca in Bryn Mawr, the Garden by Pieri Winery in Conshohocken, Martini & Roz in Wayne, and Pizzeria Cusumano in Collingswood. They’re among five dozen new restaurants due to open this fall.
Chef Ryo Igarashi, who’s cooked everywhere around here over the last 25 years, is behind Panco, a Japanese comfort-food takeout spot in West Passyunk. Cutlets are his calling card.
Cecilia, a sprawling, stylish restaurant from the team behind the Blue Bell Inn, is just days old in Bridgeport. It’s designed for locals as well as the greater Norristown/King of Prussia corridor.
When Sue’s Produce Market in Rittenhouse shared word that it was struggling, the community jumped in to support. While I visited to report this story last week, a neighbor walked in and handed a $100 bill to owner “Tina” Shin. The GoFundMe is closing in on its $40,000 goal.
Mooncakes, but make them 2026: Kiki Aranita stopped at A La Mousse, where Anna Chen is giving the Mid-Autumn Festival staple a playful spin with Dubai chocolate, Hong Kong milk tea, purple sweet potato, and other decidedly nontraditional flavors.
Scoops
Scarlet on Pine will be a Euro-style cafe and wine bar coming to Washington Square West next spring. Beth DeBruyn recently bought the building at 1108 Pine St., which last housed an art gallery across from Louis I. Kahn Park. With about 50 seats, she plans to serve coffee, viennoiserie, and lunch during the day, then transition to wine-bar service at night. There’s also a brick rear patio. DeBruyn’s husband, Chris, who works in construction and has about 20 years of hospitality experience, is also involved. DeBruyn, 60, who has a public-finance background, was a stay-at-home mother who started her food career as an empty-nester. She trained at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, did stints at Irwin’s, Dirt Candy, Rosemary, and High Street, and previously ran a cottage-baking business called Cakezilla. “When I left Rosemary, it happened to coincide with a time in my life when I could do something like this,” she said. “My dad passed away and left me some money, my kids were grown, and I had both the time and the resources to try to do something on my own.”
Esposito’s Porchetta in South Philadelphia is going hog wild: an expansion to their shop at 10th and Mountain Streets, yielding a walk-in sandwich shop next door in early 2027. Jules Esposito Jr., 38, said he’ll move porcine production into the adjoining former apartment building and convert the current shop to retail, where he’ll sell porchetta — the slow-roasted, Abruzzese-style boneless pork found at block parties — as well as roast beef sandwiches, meats by the pound, and a small selection of homemade and imported specialties. The business traces its roots to Esposito’s grandfather, Elia, himself a second-generation meat man who arrived from Italy in the early 1950s. In 1985, Esposito’s father, Jules Sr., bought the former bakery that became the shop. (The Espositos are cousins of A. Esposito Meats in the Italian Market.) “Everybody has always asked us to make sandwiches,” Esposito said, “and here we are.”
Restaurant report
Craig LaBan has long felt that Chestnut Hill’s dining scene was underperforming. Then he visited the bustling Blue Warbler, where the globe-hopping, meat-free menu may be just what the neighborhood needs.
Focaccia Affair, co-owned by a scion of the Santucci square-pizza family, is turning out sandwiches at Barstool Sansom, the Center City sports bar, as well as Fishtown’s Cannonball, where you can eat while gawking at classic cars.
P.J. Whelihan’s has opened in Pike Creek Shopping Center in Wilmington; it’s the Westmont, N.J.-based group’s first restaurant in Delaware and its 27th overall.
Briefly noted
Shay’s Steaks’ 2½-year run at 16th and Race Streets will end today with a food-and-beverage giveaway from 5-7 p.m. Scott DiClaudio, the judge whose wife is listed as the owner, said the shop expects to relocate nearby. Its departure settles an eviction case with its landlord at Franklin Tower Residences.
Fishtown Seafood x Hi-Lo Taco: Fishtown Seafood and Hi-Lo Taco will mark National Lobster Day with a lobster roll pop-up from 4-7 p.m. Friday at Hi-Lo Taco, 1109 Walnut St. Fishtown Seafood lobster rolls can be preordered in advance, with a limited number also available to walk-ins during the pop-up. The menu also includes Hi-Lo’s Tostilocos ceviche and mango margarita gelati.
Sixers legend Julius Erving will sign prepurchased bottles of American Harvest organic vodka at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Fine Wine & Good Spirits store in Ardmore Plaza. Bottles will go on sale when the store opens at 9 a.m., purchase is limited to two bottles per customer, and the PLCB says Dr. J will not sign any additional items.
Queen & Rook Fantasy Faire Block Party: Queen & Rook Game Cafe’s free Fantasy Faire takes over South Street between Front and Second Streets from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday. More than 40 fantasy and craft vendors will join sword-fighting and fire performances, quests, tarot readings, and other activities. Food and drink will include soft-pretzel swords and potion shots.
Lovat Square, the Chestnut Hill wine shop, will mark Sunday’s Chestnut Hill Fall for the Arts Festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a lamb roast from Erdenheim Farms. Sandwiches will be served on Downtime Bakery rolls; a vegetarian option will pair roasted squash with house ricotta, pomegranate, pine nuts, and radicchio on Downtime focaccia. Other locals will be involved, including Human Robot pouring its Hallertau pilsner and Tmavy Czech-style dark lager, whileLocal Operator will handle fancy wines by the glass.
❓Pop quiz
Amaryllis Rivera Nassar of Amy’s Pastelillos has won a partnership, valued at $250,000, with a Philadelphia sports team. Which?
I know that the Rittenhouse Hotel is getting a steakhouse next year. Where does that leave RJ Smith and his supper club? — Howard S.
Just as your question reached my inbox, I got word that Smith’s Ocho Supper Club residency is sticking around indefinitely at the Rittenhouse Hotel. The 22-year-old Drexel grad is offering his six-course, $160 Afro-Caribbean tasting menus at 5 and 8 p.m. on select Sundays in the Lacroix dining room. Sample dishes: Trinidad doubles, oxtail festivals, madai with hibiscus aguachile, mole negro, scallops, and lamb saddle. Ocho is also expanding beyond the tasting menu to include à la carte dishes downstairs at Bar 210, including escovitch mussels, crab tostadas, braised oxtails, jerk-spiced New York strip, and curry lamb, with several dishes also available through hotel room service. Atlas Restaurant Group, which owns Center City’s Loch Bar, is moving ahead with its planned 2027 opening of Ruxton steakhouse in the Rittenhouse’s former Scarpetta restaurant space.
📮 Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
After 25 years in restaurant kitchens around Philadelphia, Ryo Igarashi was burned out. He left the business, started driving for Uber, and kept thinking about a different kind of restaurant: a tiny place he could largely run himself.
“In Japan, a one-man operation is a real thing,” he said. “You’ll have ramen shops and little places where one person basically runs everything.”
Katsu parmesan at Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St., on Sept. 20, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffKatsu curry at Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St., on Sept. 20, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffCrab cream croquettes at Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St., on Sept. 20, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffOctopus sunomono at Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St., on Sept. 20, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffChef Ryo Igarashi with his daughter, Maya, at Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St., on Sept. 20, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffBeverages at Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St., on Sept. 20, 2026.Michael Klein / Staff
That idea became Panco, the Japanese comfort-food takeout spot Igarashi soft-opened last weekend in West Passyunk. The kitchen is tiny, and the operation is deliberately lean, with his daughter, Maya, a high school senior, working the counter.
Igarashi wants to see what catches on from his yoshoku-style menu before expanding. “I don’t want to become that person who just keeps adding more and more because we can sell more,” he said. “I really want to test the market.”
There’s cold octopus sunomono marinated in sanbaizu, fried jumbo shrimp, and crab cream croquettes with demi-glace to start. Then there’s katsu, Japan’s adaptation of the cutlet: At Panco, chicken, pork loin, or soy-marinated eggplant and tofu are breaded in house-made panko. Igarashi serves them plain, or as katsu curry, with vegetable miso, rice, and pickles; katsu-don, over eggs and rice; or katsu Parmesan, essentially a Japanese take on chicken parm. (This is South Philly, after all.) Mains top out at $22, while appetizers run about $10.
Katsu curry at Panco, 2300 S. Croskey St.Michael Klein / Staff
Dessert is flan with caramel, candied sourdough crumb, and Chantilly — essentially purin, Japanese pudding.
Panco had been in Igarashi’s head since the pandemic, but his restaurant career goes back to 2001. The Tokyo-born Igarashi moved from Seattle to Philadelphia and enrolled at Community College of Philadelphia. He knocked on the door at Hikaru in Queen Village looking for work, starting as a dishwasher before moving up in the kitchen.
His resumé eventually included Raw, Fuji Mountain, Distrito, Amada, Morimoto, and Laurel. At Distrito and Amada, he learned high-volume cooking; at Morimoto and Laurel, he moved further into technique and fine dining. His last major job was as executive sous chef at the thousand-seat Liberty Point on Penn’s Landing.
Panco is intentionally the opposite: small menu, small kitchen, small staff. Igarashi said he wants to bring the same deliberateness to a restaurant category that often gets the short shrift.
“In Japan, takeout food is a really well-established market,” he said. “I’m trying to bring some of that idea here.”
Tiny Bridgeport, tucked off Route 202 between King of Prussia and Norristown, has long had its food landmarks. Since 1955, it’s been the home of Suzy-Jo Donuts and Franzone’s Pizzeria.
Now comes the polished Cecilia, which opened Monday in the former Taphouse 23, following an extensive renovation by Scott Dougherty and Bruce Goodman, whose holdings include Copper Crow in Horsham and the Blue Bell Inn in Blue Bell (featured in The Inquirer’s 2024 edition of The 76).
Lounge at Cecilia, 266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport.Michael Klein / Staff
Chef Peter Sherba, the Blue Bell Inn veteran who oversees the group’s kitchens, created Cecilia’s contemporary American menu. Early favorites during weekend previews included a wagyu French dip sandwich; a tuna tataki appetizer, whose seared rare ahi slices are topped with avocado, ponzu, Fresno chilies, and compressed pineapple; pierogies from Ambler’s Pierogie Kitchen napped in braised short rib, Cooper Sharp sauce, caramelized onions, and roasted long hots; and two hearty, autumnal entrees: a beef bourguignon-style short rib called “Meat and Potato” (the potato here is gnocchi), as well as a 12-ounce apple cider-glazed pork chop over Yukon Gold mashed potatoes. There’s brick-oven pizza, too. Prices range from the high teens for appetizers to just over $30 for mains.
The roughly 300-seat restaurant represents a substantial makeover of Taphouse 23, which closed last year. Judi Goodman, who designs the restaurant group’s interiors, shrank the main bar by about 40%, making room for banquettes and lower dining tables. The partners also installed new lighting, wall coverings, furniture, artwork, TVs, and sound equipment.
Cecilia, 266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport, on Sept. 16, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffLounge at Cecilia, 266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport, on Sept. 16, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffCouscous at Cecilia, 266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport, on Sept. 16, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffGarlic and herb bread loaf with warm goat cheese pesto spread at Cecilia, 266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport, on Sept. 16, 2026.Michael Klein / StaffPierogies with braised short rib and Cooper Sharp sauce at Cecilia, 266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport, on Sept. 16, 2026.Michael Klein / Staff
An adjoining space has been transformed into what the owners call the Greenhouse, with garage doors that can open in warmer weather. The parking lots and landscaping also were redone.
Taphouse 23 opened in 2014 under Bridgeport businessman Gary Johnson — Judi Goodman’s brother — replacing a joint called the Point. After Johnson died in 2021, his family decided to ease out of the restaurant business, Dougherty said. Cecilia is named in tribute to the Johnson children’s mother.
Dougherty said Cecilia will aim to reach beyond Bridgeport to build its customer base, drawing from Blue Bell, King of Prussia, and Conshohocken — all 10 to 20 minutes away.
Cecilia, 266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
