Taco Heart, South Philly’s hub for Texas-style breakfast tacos, is set to open in the Ardmore Farmers Market in October, bringing its fresh flour tortillas and Tex-Mex fare to the Main Line.
Nano Wheedan, Taco Heart’s owner, said coming to Ardmore “seemed like the perfect next step for us” as the restaurant navigates its first expansion beyond South Philadelphia.
Taco Heart’s menu is anchored by the tastes and textures familiar to anyone who’s stepped into a Texas-style taco restaurant before: egg, cheese, avocado, jalapeño, queso, refried beans, pico de gallo, steak, brisket. In addition to tacos, customers can order bowls served with house-made chips, quesadillas, sides of queso, desserts, and beverages, such as cucumber limeade and cold-pressed juice.
Wheedan and his wife, Carinne, a Texas native, relocated to Philly during the pandemic. It was during the height of lockdowns that Wheedan set up a stand outside of his South Philly home, hawking breakfast tacos to neighbors. The ad hoc taco project later got the name Nano’s Tortillas, and Wheedan found a spot in the Bok Building, where he could cook and serve pickup orders. During this time, Wheedan also became an investor and business manager at Korshak’s namesake bagel joint, Korshak Bagels. (Korshak is now working on building Korshak Picnic Provisions, a corner shop built around hot dogs and house-made sourdough biscuits.)
In 2022, Taco Heart opened its doors in a polychromatic corner building on Seventh Street and Passyunk Avenue.
Nano Wheedan, owner/chef Taco Heart, in 2022. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
For Wheedan, introducing Philadelphians to the Texas-style breakfast taco has been a tall task, but he’s been heartened by the reception, both from Philly locals and transplants from the Lone Star State, or “Tex-pats,” as he calls them.
“There’s so many people with a connection to this food who have been missing it, and I am so grateful and moved when Texans tell me that they’ve finally found a piece of home at Taco Heart,” he said.
It was in the last year that Wheedan felt Taco Heart finally “had its feet under itself,” and he began to think about what it would mean if he “took advantage of economies of scale” and opened a second location, using Taco Heart’s South Philly flagship as a prep kitchen at night. He was looking into opening his next location in the River Wards when the Ardmore Farmers Market approached him. The market offered a fully-functional kitchen setup, a solid base of foot traffic, and exciting culinary neighbors. He signed on.
Taco Heart’s Morning Bowl. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Large swaths of the market, located at Suburban Square, were left vacant earlier this year after Di Bruno Brothers shuttered multiple locations, including its outpost in Ardmore.
Wheedan is planning to serve most of the same items in Ardmore as he does in South Philly. While some items like salsas, quesos, and refried beans may be prepared in South Philly and transported to Ardmore, Taco Heart’s signature flour tortillas will still be made fresh.
Wheedan also hopes the expansion will allow Taco Heart to move into the world of catering: In Austin, getting breakfast tacos for the office is the equivalent of the East Coast bagel breakfast, he says.
Taco Heart is set to open Oct. 5 at the Ardmore Farmers Market (120 Coulter Ave.).
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Northeast Philadelphia’s last traditional Jewish delicatessen will close this weekend, ending a chapter in a food culture that for decades seemed inseparable from the area itself.
Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, in Bustleton’s Grant Plaza, outlasted a food landscape once crowded with Jewish delis, bakeries, butchers, and other specialty shops. Its closing Sunday comes more than nine years after the finale of Jack’s Deli in Bell’s Corner, the Northeast’s penultimate deli. Like Stein’s, Jack’s combined a retail counter with a restaurant.
The deli counter at Steve Stein’s Famous Deli on Aug. 14, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
For Steve Stein, 83, the closing will end a family business whose roots stretch back to the late 1950s, when his family became involved with the Famous Deli location at 6826 Bustleton Ave. in Castor Gardens.
Famous was part of an older Philadelphia deli dynasty. Beginning in the 1920s, the Auspitz brothers launched a string of delis around the city, including the flagship at Fourth and Bainbridge Streets in Queen Village, now owned by Al Gamble.
Around 1960, Stein said, the Auspitzes sold the Bustleton Avenue Famous to Stein’s father, Mike, his brother Arnold, and his cousin Jack. The boys had run the produce concession there. Steve and Arnie, who died in 2010, later ran it side by side. Steve now runs the place with his son, Lee, now 57.
Lee Stein weighs corned beef at his father’s deli on Aug. 14, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Since Stein announced the closing, customers have been stocking up on corned beef, smoked fish, rye bread, and other foods they fear they will not easily replace. Stein has cut prices as he tries to move inventory.
“Nobody’s charging $9.99 a pound for house-cured corned beef,” Lee Stein said.
On Friday, Tracey Lynn of Fox Chase ordered two pounds of corned beef while plucking garlic-perfumed sour tomatoes from a barrel, telling Stein that she planned to freeze some of the meat.
Lynn said she and her husband have been customers since 1993. She is not sure where she will shop next. “I don’t want whitefish salad from BJ’s or from Costco,” she said.
The closing is partly a retirement story. Stein said problems with his legs have made it increasingly difficult to work.
But it is also about labor costs, food prices, succession, and a neighborhood whose demographics have changed dramatically over the life of the business.
As Jewish families moved farther into the Northeast, Famous followed: first, in the mid-1970s, to Krewstown Road (where it had two locations) and, 14 years ago, to Grant Avenue. Stein, who later also had a short-lived store in Holland, Bucks County, sold the Bustleton Avenue store in the mid-1970s.
In that sense, the history of Famous tracks the movement of Jewish Philadelphia itself.
Steve Stein, owner of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, takes a break in his office.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
A suburban diaspora
After World War II, thousands of Jewish families left older Philadelphia neighborhoods such as Strawberry Mansion, Queen Village, and Wynnefield for Oxford Circle, Castor Gardens, Rhawnhurst, and Bustleton in the rapidly developing Northeast. Others moved to Lower Merion and Cherry Hill, which developed large Jewish communities and deli cultures of their own that remain.
By 1970, demographer Ira Rosenwaike estimated, using Census data on Yiddish as a mother tongue, that more than 68,000 Jewish adults 25 and older lived in the Near and Far Northeast.
That population supported an extraordinary density of Jewish food businesses: Abe’s Appetizers, Castor Deli, R&W, Stern’s, Paul’s, Four Lads, Dave’s, Casino, the Nasherei, four Barson-Overbrook locations.
Steve Stein (left), owner of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, behind the counter with his son, Lee.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
To Hasia Diner, a historian and New York University professor who specializes in American Jewish history, the significance of delis was precisely their ordinariness. They were not institutions created to preserve Jewish culture. They were where neighborhood life happened.
“On the one hand, [delis] seem so everyday,” Diner said in an interview. “They’re not great synagogues where religion was expounded, or places where great ideas were pronounced. But they were places where life was lived.”
Some were kosher and others were not. What mattered, Diner said, was that the deli offered a secular Jewish space, rooted as much in neighborhood and food as in religious observance.
By the 1980s, however, those neighborhoods were changing. In a 1987 Inquirer article, Bruce Isakoff of Paul’s Deli, on Castor Avenue near Brighton Street, said his business was doing more lunchtime trade as Jews left the neighborhood and it became a more generic deli. By then, Four Lads, on Castor Avenue at Creston Street in Oxford Circle, had stopped carrying smoked fish and pastrami. Both are long gone.
A ‘kind of shrine’
Many Jewish households moved farther north and into Bucks and Montgomery Counties. A 1996-97 Jewish Federation study found that Philadelphia accounted for 41% of the region’s population living in Jewish households, down from 54% in 1984, while Bucks County’s share had nearly doubled.
The studies used different definitions and geographic boundaries, but the direction was unmistakable: The dense Jewish population that once sustained neighborhood delis had dispersed.
Steve Stein, owner of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, taking a deli order on Aug. 14, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The movement itself was nothing new, Diner said. American Jewish communities repeatedly established themselves in neighborhoods and moved elsewhere. What changed was the role of the old neighborhood — and of the deli within it.
“The deli was often the kind of shrine to which they went back,” she said.
The old delis offered something beyond nostalgia. In their heyday, Diner said, they were overwhelmingly Jewish spaces where customers did not have to explain themselves or worry about how they appeared to outsiders.
“These places were so rich with a kind of embeddedness, of comfort and security and, again, letting your hair down,” she said.
A sign proclaiming, “Yes, We Have Tongue!!!” at the entrance at Steve Stein’s Famous Deli.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Population was only part of the story. Supermarkets increasingly stock foods that once sent customers to specialty counters: corned beef, pastrami, smoked fish, whitefish salad, herring, rye bread, bagels, pickles, and knishes. But not everything. Signs at Famous proclaim, “Yes, We Have Tongue!!!” Not many others do.
More important, Diner said, is what cannot be sold at a supermarket: the deli as a secular gathering place, where being Jewish required neither religious observance nor agreement about politics. “A pastrami sandwich is a pastrami sandwich,” she said.
Costly ingredients
The traditional deli model itself is expensive and labor-intensive, built around extensive preparation and a sprawling inventory. Famous still cures its corned beef and makes its own turkey, pastrami, whitefish salad, and spice beef.
Steve Stein’s Famous Deli is equal parts market, deli counter, and restaurant.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Steve Stein said finding employees has become increasingly difficult. Lee Stein said prospective workers have easier options, such as driving for Uber or making deliveries for Grubhub.
The deli has about 35 employees, many part-time. Some are placed through SPIN, the Philadelphia nonprofit that supports people with intellectual, developmental, and autism spectrum disabilities.
Survival has also required adapting to the customer base, increasingly non-Jewish. Lee said he remembers when Famous carried a single canned ham, hidden behind the counter. Though few Jewish delis are kosher, pork traditionally has been another matter.
“Nobody was allowed to say the word ham,” he said.
Today, their case holds about a dozen varieties.
Rob Woloshin, 40, owner of Manny’s Deli Stop in Willow Grove, grew up going to Stein’s Famous with his father. His deli represents a leaner version of the old model: counter service, a few tables, online ordering, and delivery, with traditional deli sandwiches alongside chicken cutlets, wraps, and other contemporary offerings.
Cashier Linda DiNenno, who has worked at Steve Stein’s Famous for about 13 years, checks out a customer.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
“We’ve kind of modernized, I guess, as much as the Jewish deli can be modernized,” Woloshin said.
Famous may yet have an afterlife. Lee Stein said he is talking with the landlord about a deal that could keep him in the space, under another name, in time for the Jewish High Holy Days, which begin Sept. 11. If not, he might offer catering from a synagogue kitchen.
For longtime cashier Linda DiNenno, the closing is less about corned beef than the people around the counter. She said she will miss the family atmosphere among employees and customers who have been calling to say goodbye.
“I’ve got customers calling on the phone, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna miss you, Linda,’” she said.
Chinatown’s Wizard of Ducks did not come from poultry royalty. Chuien Liu was born to a long line of Fujianese fishermen on a rural island beside the East China Sea.
“Going out every day to catch fish, shrimp, and crabs? That was a necessity,” says his son, Kenneth Liu, translating for his father. “But making duck was his passion, mostly because he liked to eat it.”
In that respect, Chuien Liu scored big-time when he came to Philadelphia in the mid-1990s, following a wave of immigration from Fujian Province, on China’s southeastern coast, to the United States. He landed a spot beside the roasting oven at Chinatown’s iconic Sang Kee Peking Duck House, and he remained there as the master of ducks, soy sauce chicken, and crispy pig for 25 years.
And then we, the voracious duck eaters of Philadelphia, became the lucky ones. Liu and his family went independent in 2019 to claim their own little slice of Chinatown at Lau Kee, a cozy 20-seater with no decorations on the walls, but an absolute masterpiece display of Cantonese-style roasted meats hanging in the spotless front window.
Lacquered brown ducks dangle temptingly from hooks beside paper-wrapped bundles of whole chickens, pink-edged hunks of sweet char siu pork shoulder, and tawny sheets of pork belly, whose slow-rendered layers of pale meat, pearly fat, and cracker-crisp skin are simultaneously so moist, tender, and shatteringly crunchy, taking merely one bite is not an option.
The three meat platter over rice at Lau Kee, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff PhotographerOutside street view of Lau Kee, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
There are other, larger, better-known duck houses in Chinatown with long-established and devoted patrons, from Ting Wong to M Kee, takeout-only Siu Kee, and, of course, Liu’s alma mater, Sang Kee.
But with more than 31 years of experience and nearly half a million birds beneath his cleaver, Liu, now 55, is currently Chinatown’s longest-tenured duck chef — and also my vote for Philly’s best. As one of the very few chef-owners in the neighborhood, there is also an exceptional consistency in his insistence on doing things right.
Just preparing the ducks is a laborious, dayslong process, beginning with inflating them with air to separate the meat from the skin. A gingery marinade with chee hou sauce (a fermented bean paste that’s less sweet than hoisin) comes next, followed by a hot water bath to open the skin’s pores, then a dunk in a vinegar-sugar glaze that dries overnight. The following day, the ducks are hung in a vertical oven over an open flame to roast low and slow as juices collect below for a final basting. And that’s just for the Hong Kong-style roasted duck, which always comes chopped on the bone.
Chuien Liu, Owner of Lau Kee, is taking out the cooked ducks from the oven in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff PhotographerA platter of Peking duck at Lau Kee, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The Peking-style duck is yet another process, involving a slightly sweeter marinade with a more pronounced five-spice savor plus a longer roast time to give that skin a delicate snap. At $30 for a half duck or $47 a whole bird, the sliced meat, served boneless alongside pancakes and scallions, is a delicious centerpiece for a sharing meal.
If that’s too much of a commitment, Lau Kee makes appetizer-size duck rolls out of its copious duck trim — the perfect balance of tender meat, crunchy scallions, and dark hoisin — folded inside a soft pancake. A generous helping of shredded duck also stars in a stir-fry of snappy green beans tossed with ground pork and XO sauce. The earthiness of sliced duck and the roasted flavor of its skin also fully infuse the bowls of congee, whose rice porridge is regularly beaten to a snowy white mist and refreshed throughout the day so its texture remains airy and light. (“It’s almost fluffy,” opined my Inquirer colleague, Kiki Aranita, a noted congee scholar.)
The shredded duck with string beans is pictured at Lau Kee in Philadelphia’s Chinatown on Thursday, April 1, 2021.TIM TAI / Staff PhotographerThe salt-baked chicken wings at Lau Kee are juicy, crisp and crackling with spice.Craig LaBan / Staff
Other popular congee combinations contain thousand-year egg and pork, or sliced flounder mingled with ginger threads and scallion — options that are standard at a dozen other Cantonese kitchens across Chinatown.
But it’s the subtle details of execution that make the difference in Lau Kee’s various soups, dumplings, stir-fries, and crispy delights. The battered crust on its salt-and-pepper shrimp in five-spice flavor might look heavy, but it’s as airy and crisp as tempura. Lau Kee’s juicy “salt-baked” chicken wings — which are actually perfectly fried — crackle with the spice of a crust infused with turmeric, cooking wine, and chili oil and easily rank among the city’s best.
The broth in Lau Kee’s wonton noodle soup is crystalline gold yet complex, drawing subtle smoky depth from a lightly charred salt fish that steeps for five hours with chicken bones. The poached yu choy greens that bolster the soup are snappy yet toothsome, and Lau Kee’s wontons, made by Liu’s wife, Fannie Qiu, are special. The addition of mushroom adds tenderness to a shrimp-and-pork stuffing that elsewhere can become overly bouncy. Top the soup with any of the meats, but char siu is my favorite, the star anise sweetness of the pork’s glaze adding even more layers to the brew.
Wonton soup with greens and roast pork at Lau Kee.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Those wontons are also perfect splashed with the vibrant orange house chili oil, defined more by its fragrance ofdried chilies than numbing Szechuan peppercorns.
Lau Kee’s shrimp dumplings are memorable, reminiscent of Sang Kee’s but softer, thanks to the addition of bamboo, and more fragrant from a pinch of curry. The West Lake beef soup is also one of my favorites, its hearty pairing of ground beef and silky tofu batons bobbing in broth sparkling with white pepper, delicate egg drop ribbons, and crunchy cilantro greens.
Lau Kee’s dry noodle dishes are solid, though less exciting. The minimalist scallion noodles, bright with shredded fresh ginger, is one of my two picks. The sesame oil-laced crispy noodle basket topped with morsels of flounder is another, notable for its delicacy and dual-textured noodles, both crunchy around the edges and soft in the middle from a velvety whitegravy. Other noodle standbys were fine but forgettable: a serviceable Singapore noodles, and a beef chow fun that lacked the smoky singe of wok hei.
Fresh cut char siu pork shoulder at Lau Kee, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff PhotographerThe Mongolian beef from Lau Kee in Chinatown.Craig LaBan / Staff
That whiff of caramelized char was absolutely present on the Mongolian beef, whose frizzled onion laces and dried chile heat added umami and sneaky spice to the sweet hoisin. It’s a specialty that traveled well by takeout, along with some good Americanized classics, including General Tso’s chicken, whose tender nuggets were glazed in a sweet sauce that also flickered with chili oil.
As a small business that needs every order (beyond the 250 ducks Chuien Liu sells each week), Lau Kee caters to the demands of a broad audience, and, to my mind, does many familiar dishes better than most.
But there’s an uncommon specialty on this vast menu that points to a niche of Fujianese specialties I wish Lau Kee would embrace more fully. Liu’s wife has mastered the Fujianese art of fermenting Qinghong, a wine made from sticky rice laced with red rice yeast.
The red vinasse before processing to turn it into sauce at Lau Kee, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
As Kenneth Liu notes only half-jokingly, “My dad does not share his wine.” But the leftover lees, a crimson paste noted on the menu as “red vinasse,” is a valuable condiment that carries a fruity, fermented note and yeasty tang. It’s a transformative addition to Lau Kee’s stir-fry of chopped pig stomach with bamboo shoots. (The squeamish can order it instead with shredded pork meat.) There’s a toothy-yet-tender snap to the offal and an earthy undertone that harmonizes with the lightly boozy lees for a far more rewarding dish.
The pig stomach with red vinasse at Lau Kee, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Considering the sizable community of Fujianese entrepreneurs who’ve moved to this region over the past two decades and opened everything from Americanized Chinese takeout windows to sushi restaurants and, yes, excellent Cantonese duck houses, there are precious few places showcasing traditional Fujianese food, an underrated regional cuisine. Since the closure of both Ming River Side Walk House and my other longtime 10th Street favorite, simply called “Chinese Restaurant” (aka Tai Jiang), I can no longer find delicate noodles in peanut sauce, fried taro cakes studded with pork, wok-fried baby oyster omelets, and Fujianese wonton soup with tiny dumplings no larger than a penny.
Lau Kee doesn’t make them either, sadly, and even recently dropped another Fujianese specialty, drunken ribs, when Qiu’s brother retired from their kitchen. “[Fujianese cuisine] is not the fanciest food, and not everyone is willing to try,” says Kenneth Liu.
Businesses are reflected in a window in front of roasted ducks at Lau Kee in Philadelphia’s Chinatown on Thursday, April 1, 2021.Tim Tai / Staff Photographer
And yet, perhaps Philly’s diners would try if only they knew more of Lau Kee’s abilities to so beautifully represent their home region? My own enthusiasm was at least genuine enough to convince chef Liu to share a sample of his Qinghong wine stash.
“Don’t drink it all at once — it’s strong!” he warned, showing me the small bowl from which he sips a chilled cup of Qinghong daily.
I took a sniff. It was tart like crushed red berries. I took a taste: a fruity tang but also dry and pleasantly funky, not unlike a refreshing sherry. I took another sip, and one more. And I understood. No matter what Lau Kee’s menu says, or how many perfect ducks Chuien Liu roasts for his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, this descendant of Fujianese fishermen will never forget the taste of home.
Qinghong, a Chinese wine made from fermented red rice, is made by Fannie Qiu for her husband, Chuien Liu, the chef-owner of Lau Kee in Chinatown, who used the leftover solids from the process to make Fujianese-style stir-fries.Craig LaBan / Staff
Lau Kee
934 Race St., 215-201-3511. Menu is posted on delivery apps.
Open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday for dine-in; until 9 p.m. for takeout.
Wheelchair accessible via a small portable ramp.
Not ideal for gluten-free diners. A small portion of the menu can be made gluten-free, but none of the roasted meats.
BYOB
Menu highlights: Roasted meats: Hong Kong-style roast duck, (boneless) Peking duck, char siu pork, crispy pig, soy sauce chicken; Peking duck rolls; sliced beef in scallion pancake roll; wonton noodle soup with roast pork; shrimp dumpling noodle soup; West Lake beef soup; congee with roast duck; ginger-scallion noodles; shredded duck with string beans and XO sauce; Mongolian beef; pig stomach with red vinasse; salt-baked chicken wings.
The platter of Peking duck at Lau Kee, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The tables at Mamma Maria’s have not been pushed aside for dancing in years, but the disco ball still hangs overhead.
Still there, too, are the kitchen where Santa Maria “Mamma Maria” Chiavatti turned out feather-light gnocchi, the dining room where waiters carried trays of flaming sambuca, and the upstairs studio where Chiavatti taped a TV cooking show whose first guest in 1999 was Mayor Ed Rendell.
Santa Maria Chiavatti and family enjoyed a 28-year run at Mamma Maria’s.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Now the collection of buildings that housed the East Passyunk restaurant for nearly three decades is for sale, marking the end of one of the Avenue’s more colorful links to its ′90s/’00s Italian-restaurant resurgence.
The former restaurant, closed for six years, is spread across three adjoining buildings on Passyunk Avenue and Jessup Street, all with apartments above. The asking price for 1637 E. Passyunk Ave., which houses one of the dining rooms, and 1632 S. Jessup St., which contains the kitchen, is $1.5 million. The building housing the other dining room, at 1639 E. Passyunk Ave., is offered for $2 million.
“The kitchen is still set up,” said Albert Perry of Century 21 Advantage Gold, who has the listing with Dave Lombardo. “When we went to the property for the listing appointment, I was sent home with food.”
A portrait of Claudio and “Mamma Maria” Chiavatti hangs in the shuttered restaurant.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Mamma Maria’s, which opened in 1992 and expanded into the adjoining property the following year, closed in 2020. But the Chiavattis said they couldn’t bring themselves to sell until now.
“We want to give somebody the chance to have what we had, but with their vision,” said Maria’s daughter Paola Chiavatti. “Our era is ending, and a new era can begin.”
A ‘vacation’ stop in Philadelphia
The Chiavattis’ Philadelphia era began almost by accident.
Maria and her husband, Claudio, came to the United States from Italy in 1992 for what their children believed was a vacation. The couple had already spent years in the restaurant business in Italy and Canada, and the family thought they had retired.
Maria Chiavatti serving food outside of the East Passyunk Avenue restaurant in 2012. Glamorosi
Then, while visiting relatives in Philadelphia, Claudio spotted a closed restaurant on East Passyunk Avenue and noticed the municipal parking lot across the street.
“I said, ‘Yes, but it isn’t your parking lot,’” Maria recalled.
Claudio’s answer was simple: “But it is there.”
The couple rented the building and opened Mamma Maria’s. Three months later, Claudio questioned why they were paying rent when they could buy it.
“That’s exactly what we did,” Maria said. “We bought it and made it beautiful.”
Photos of Santa Maria Chiavatti and her daughter Paola on the mantel at Mamma Maria’s.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
They built the menu around the food Maria knew from Abruzzo.
Paola, meanwhile, was still in Italy, working as an interpreter and language teacher. Her sister, Myrna, and brother, Gianni, came to visit their parents. Before long, everyone in the immediate family was in Philadelphia, except Paola.
That same year, her parents invited her over, ostensibly for a relative’s birthday party. Claudio picked her up at the airport and drove her to East Passyunk Avenue. She walked into the restaurant and saw a banner: “Welcome, Paola, to Mamma Maria’s.”
Mamma Maria’s memorabilia in the restaurant.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Claudio told her that he and Maria had fallen in love with the neighborhood and the city. The restaurant, he said, would be something for their old age.
Paola said she understood what was expected of her. Arrivederci, Italy.
“Thirty-four years later, here I am,” she said.
The rise of Mamma Maria’s
Mamma Maria’s was a family operation in the most literal sense. Maria cooked. Claudio hosted, baked, prepped, and made sauces. Paola and Myrna worked the dining room.
For much of its run, Mamma Maria’s was known for an enormous fixed-price meal: antipasto, soup, multiple pastas, meat and seafood entrees, salad, vegetables, potatoes, and a dessert cart loaded with cakes, cannoli, and other sweets.
Wine was complimentary. So, at first, was flaming sambuca, served while an accordion player named Mario circulated among the tables.
“You sat down and you felt like you were having Christmas dinner or New Year’s Eve dinner at your house,” said Lilla Amico-Carlomango, Maria’s oldest granddaughter, who worked at the restaurant with sisters Dalia and Chiara Amico. “The staff, the clients, everybody was so happy to be here that it created one big family.”
Shortly after it opened, Inquirer food critic Elaine Tait described the cooking as “homey, not haute, cuisine, the likes of which you might find cooked by someone’s talented Italian mom.”
The column by Jim Quinn in The Inquirer’s Sunday magazine on Aug. 9, 1992, that helped launch Mamma Maria’s.Newspapers.com
Inquirer columnist Jim Quinn was similarly enthusiastic. Maria didn’t know Quinn from Adam when someone told her there was a man from the newspaper in the dining room. “I said, ‘So what?’” she recalled.
After he returned three days in a row, she finally approached him.
“Sir, you really love my place,” she told him.
In 1997, an electrical fire forced the restaurant to close for eight months.
“In the restaurant industry, eight months is murder,” Paola said.
Mamma Maria’s reopened with a fundraiser for the Leukemia Society of America.
Santa Maria Chiavatti in September 1999 on the set of her food show during its launch party. The show aired throughout the Philadelphia region. Michael S. Wirtz / Staff Photographer
But one tradition did not return. The blaze was unrelated to the drinks, but Paola had lost her enthusiasm for open flames in the dining room, and the flaming sambuca was 86ed.
Two years later, Mamma Maria’s expanded to television. In 1999, the family bought a weekly half-hour slot on the Food Network for a self-produced program, Cooking With Mamma, Old World Secrets.
The show was taped in a studio kitchen above the dining room, with Rendell as Maria’s first guest. Maria used her maiden name, Di Marco, because the family thought it would be easier for viewers to pronounce.
A video of “Mamma Maria’s” cooking show, featuring Mayor Ed Rendell, was televised during the 1999 launch party at the restaurant.Michael S. Wirtz / Staff Photographer
Back at the restaurant, the fixed-price format endured. Claudio’s death in 2005 hit the family hard, as did the recession in 2008. In 2010, after 18 years of belt-stretching meals, Mamma Maria’s began allowing à la carte dining Monday through Thursday.
Life after the restaurant
Then the pandemic arrived.
Mamma Maria’s closed in 2020, along with the family’s food-truck operation. By the time restrictions had eased enough for the family to consider reopening, Maria’s health had become the priority.
Paola faced a choice: return to the all-consuming work of running a restaurant or help care for her mother.
“Restaurants, we’ve had many in our lives,” she said. “Mother, you only have one.”
The family hosted private events in the meantime. Now 79 and feeling fine, Maria is preparing to sell the property and, with her family, take Mamma Maria’s into another form.
Santa Maria Chiavatti (right) with three generations (from left): Great-granddaughter Paolina Carlomango, granddaughter Lilla Amico-Carlomango, and daughter Paola Chiavatti in the restaurant on Aug. 5, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
She has boxes of handwritten recipes, including dishes passed through the family for generations. She is working on an Italian-language cookbook, while Paola and Lilla are helping to translate, organize, and photograph the recipes. They envision a series of cookbooks and possibly a line of pasta, sauces, and Maria’s homemade limoncello.
That last item would be a particularly natural extension of Mamma Maria’s, Perry said.
“When you went to Mamma Maria’s, you were drinking limoncello whether you intended to or not — and usually you wanted to.”
For Maria, selling the buildings means giving up the restaurant, not the work that grew out of it.
“Just because the restaurant is finished,” she said, “doesn’t mean I’m finished.”
“Just because the restaurant is finished doesn’t mean I’m finished,” says Santa Maria “Mamma Maria” Chiavatti.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
White-tablecloth restaurants in Eastern Montgomery County are few and far between nowadays, which makes the recent arrival of Academy Grill in Fort Washington something of a throwback.
Tucked off Bethlehem Pike near Germantown Academy, the restaurant took over the building that for years housed Cantina Feliz. (Last year, the Mexican restaurant left Fort Washington for Ambler, 10 minutes away.) The sleek Academy Grill is taking a decidedly different approach: polished, contemporary American cooking with chef Jeffrey Power in the kitchen.
Power is no stranger to the area. He was the longtime chef at Dettera, the ambitious Ambler restaurant that closed earlier this year, and before that worked at Blackfish in Conshohocken and Le Bec-Fin downtown. Though Power is turning out steaks and seafood at Academy Grill, one other dish connects those chapters of his career.
Power’s chicken roulade — once a staple at Dettera — traces its roots back more than 20 years to Le Bec-Fin, though the technique has evolved. Power completely debones a whole chicken, removes the legs and thighs, and wraps the breast in its skin around a chicken mousseline studded with sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, basil, parsley, and scallions.
At Le Bec-Fin, the roulade was rolled, tied in the old-school fashion, then pan-seared. Power now forms it into a cylinder using cellophane and cooks it sous vide, setting the proteins and helping the roulade hold its shape. It is then deep-fried to evenly crisp the skin around juicy chicken and herb-flecked mousseline.
The dish is unabashedly rich, but its accompaniments have changed with its surroundings. At Dettera, Power plated it with English peas, smoked fingerling potatoes, and cremini mushrooms. At Academy Grill, pillowy potato gnocchi and earthy truffle crema add to its lushness. Cauliflower brings sweetness, while fava beans provide a fresh counterpoint — green, slightly nutty, and mildly bitter.
In that sense, the roulade is both a new Academy Grill dish and a snapshot of Power’s career: a Le Bec-Fin idea refined at Dettera and carried into his latest kitchen.
Academy Grill, 424 S. Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington, 610-424-5000, academygrill.com.
The owners of two Port Richmond restaurants plan to open a moderately upscale Mexican restaurant in Old City, banking in part on the impact of the forthcoming Park at Penn’s Landing, which will cap I-95 and — they hope — send crowds to their doorstep.
“It was an opportunity, and we decided to take a chance,” said chef Jesus García, a former executive chef at Lucha Cartel, which occupied the building at 207 Chestnut St. from 2013 until it closed last year. It was Philadelphia Fish & Co. from 1983 to 2009.
Chef Jesus Garcia (center) and Alejandro Fuentes (right) with Jasper Alivia at their restaurant Nemi in 2019. Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
García and Alejandro Fuentes, his partner in the Mexican restaurant Nemi and the cross-cultural La Roma, bought the property this week and plan to open a yet-to-be-named Mexican restaurant similar to Nemi, which Inquirer critic Craig LaBan has praised, particularly for its creative tacos.
Fuentes and García opened Nemi at Ann and Thompson Streets in 2018, and followed in 2022 with La Roma at Allegheny Avenue and Mercer Street, where the menu crosses Mexican, Italian, and other influences.
Their new restaurant will enter a pocket of Old City that already has several Mexican restaurants. La Catrachita Taqueria opened next door in May. Across Second Street, Buena Vista Mexican Restaurant & Bar opened last summer at 123 Chestnut St., while South Street’s Las Bugambilias moved to 15 S. Third St. in 2021.
Fuentes and García’s purchase of 207 Chestnut marks the end of a saga that had entangled the property in competing efforts to resurrect the name of Tun Tavern, considered the birthplace of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Montgomery Dahm, the Marine veteran who has operated a Tun Tavern in Atlantic City since 1998 and owns the trademark to the name, moved into Old City amid a trademark fight with the nonprofit Tun Legacy Foundation, which was planning its own historically accurate re-creation of Tun Tavern nearby.
In September, Dahm announced an agreement to take over Lucha Cartel at 207 Chestnut, about 400 feet from the foundation’s proposed site around the corner on Second Street. He told The Inquirer that he intended to spend $2.5 million to $3 million to turn the property into a Tun Tavern.
In November, Dahm added bunting and lightly renovated the restaurant for a party commemorating the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary. Less than three months later, in February, Dahm and the foundation settled their trademark dispute. Dahm subsequently decided not to proceed with the Tun Tavern at 207 Chestnut, leaving the property available.
Billy Creagh of National Realty Commercial brokered the sale, whose terms were not immediately disclosed.
Fuentes and García’s timing coincides with one of the largest public-space projects in the city’s recent history. The Park at Penn’s Landing, being built over I-95 and Columbus Boulevard between Chestnut and Walnut Streets, will reconnect portions of Old City and Society Hill with the Delaware River waterfront for the first time since the 1970s. The project, anticipated to be completed in 2029, is expected to create nearly 12 acres of parkland and dramatically change the pedestrian approach to the waterfront.
For 207 Chestnut, the significance is geographic: The restaurant will sit only a few blocks from the new park, along one of the principal east-west streets connecting Center City and Old City with Penn’s Landing.
The Old City project will put Fuentes and García in a considerably different restaurant market from Port Richmond, with heavier tourist traffic, historic attractions, nightlife, and increasing competition for Mexican food.
“I think it’s a great neighborhood, even if sometimes it has some ups and downs,” Fuentes said. “But there are a lot of local customers, and there are also a lot of tourists who visit Old City.”
If you didn’t know better, you could be convinced — as you slide a spoonful of lightly breaded crab cake out from its stuffed shell, gaze at the soft light pouring through stained glass windows, and sip a frosty martini — that Waltz, at Front and Ritner, has been dancing on this corner of deep South Philadelphia for decades.
Cue the crowds that reliably fill the bentwood chairs in its wood-paneled downstairs bar and the bustling upper dining room even on weekdays. Forks angle through heaping platters of spaghetti while the Delfonics, O’Jays, and other Philly soul greats croon in the background. The vintage vibes here are pristine — except for the fact that Waltz is not vintage at all, but a five-month-old passion project thatunpretentiously delivers a style of polished Italian American dining that’s been on the slow fade for decades due to demographic shifts and changing tastes.
Celine Tobin and Joey Dougherty work at Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerThe bar at Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
This restaurant’s charm is more than just a wistful nod to “they don’t build ’em like that anymore” nostalgia. Waltz is anything but stale from the moment you’re greeted warmly at the maître d’ stand, most likely attended by manager Celine Tobin, who also happens to be co-owner Joey Dougherty’s girlfriend. A wood-fired oven beckons from just beyond in the partially open kitchen, where the 800-degree hearth fuels a menu built around pizzas, roasted meats, and house pastas.
The menu, conceived and implemented by consulting chef Eric Leveillee, formerly of Lacroix at the Rittenhouse, is key to Waltz’s allure, offering a familiar repertoire of popular dishes, then raising the bar with added elements of craft. The mozzarella is hand-pulled from Caputo Bros. Creamery curds just before service, so the milky white burrata — its core stuffed with rosemary-infused mascarpone — is extra sweet when draped with salty pink curls of prosciutto, juicy cantaloupe, and peppery green olive oil. The pizzas are made from sourdough, which lends their crusts an extra crackle, complexity, and tang.
The burrata with prosciutto, melon, and olive oil at Waltz on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Thehouse-extrudedpastas gain extra vibrance from their springy texture. There’s noticeable resilience in the wide lumache elbows, for example, whose bounce stands up to a spiced blush sauce that’s not simply rich with cream and fistfuls of crab, but boosted by the depth of a freshly steeped crab stock. That pasta, as well as the signature appetizer of crab cakes, is a nod to the hard-shell history of this address’ previous occupant, Anthony’s Crab House.
Waltz is a wordplay tribute to the Whitman neighborhood at the city’s southeasternmost corner, an area near the port bordered by railyards and strip malls rich in casual dining options (John’s Roast Pork, Wolf Burger, Oregon Diner, and the newly opened Angelo’s location), but slim on date-night draws. Dougherty aimed to answer that need by rehabbing this corner haunt, which had fallen into disrepair a block from his family’s contracting business, Dougherty Electric. As such projects often go, an intended modest facelift turned into a major renovation: The Doughertys created a wider opening between the dining rooms in two adjoining properties, restored the exterior brick by brick, and completely rebuilt the interior, down to the framed collage of 1924 editions of The Inquirer that had been used inside the walls as insulation.
The stuffed crabs at Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerThe interior of Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Based on the craftsmanship of the fixtures, from the millwork of the wood paneling to the barroom tiles, vintage pendant lights, and even the beautifully outfitted marble bathrooms downstairs, it’s clear the Doughertys used many of their professional contacts here.
They might want a rebate, though, from their HVAC guy. The air-conditioning in the nautical-themed upper dining room cut out halfway through a meal with my boss on a 100-degree day, awkwardly leaving us sweatyover our peperoncini-spiked martinis and the crisply fried fritto misto.
The interior of Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerThe sourdough piccante pizza at Waltz includes pepperoni, soppressata, hot honey, and onion agrodolce.Craig LaBan / Staff
It’s a tribute to the kitchen that our table remained upbeat despite the sticky heat. The carbonara pizza — a white pie with béchamel and fontina scattered with salty nuggets of guanciale and a golden glaze of egg yolk — was my favorite pizza of that first visit. The piccante — a red pie with pepperoni, soppressata, hot honey, and sweet-tart onion agrodolce — was my pick on a return meal when the AC, thankfully, was working again.
The pastas at Waltz are also consistently excellent, including deftly folded tortellini stuffed with mushrooms in Parmesan cream sauce, and the ruffled-edge ribbons of pappardelle that cradled rustic duck ragù. The snap of fresh noodles lend the already irresistible silver platter of spaghetti with meatballs and sausage in red sauce extra oomph. It was so zesty, I couldn’t help but wonder how this Sunday gravy became a treasured tradition of the Dougherty family in this historically Irish enclave of South Philly.
The tortellini at Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerThe spaghetti and meatballs at Waltz on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“We call it ‘Gus’ gravy,’” says Dougherty, noting that his father, Donald “Gus” Dougherty, also a partner at Waltz, learned the recipe in 2008 from some Italian friends he met while he was serving 18 months in federal prison at Fort Dix for defrauding the IBEW Local 98 electricians union, formerly run by his close (but unrelated) associate, John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty. “He’s made it every Sunday since.”
That gravy also features prominently on the chicken Parm, although that is one dish here I found unexciting. Yes, the sharing portion is gigantic, which, at $30, is a reminder that prices here are very fair. But the breading had gone so soggy in all that red sauce the exterior was almost fluffy, leaving this Parm one-dimensional. Your best bets for the handful of large-format sharing dishes emerge from that wood hearth; the heat-blistered silver skin of a butterflied whole branzino, for example, is fantastic over the tangy vinaigrette — called sauce vierge — of fresh tomatoes, capers, and a splash of chili oil that makes it glow.
The superbly tender 14-ounce strip steak, meanwhile, roasted to a perfect medium-rare in that pizza oven, was one of the more memorable cuts of beef I’ve eaten this year. It arrivedfanned over a silver platter beside shatteringly crisp fried fingerling potatoes and a head of sweet roasted garlic glossed in a black peppercorn jus that’s a telltale perk from Leveillee’s years of sauce work in French kitchens.
The 14-ounce New York strip steak with smashed fingerling potatoes, roasted garlic, and black pepper jus at Waltz on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerThe whole branzino at Waltz is roasted in the wood-fired oven and paired with a tomato and caper vinaigrette.Craig LaBan / Staff
Between that steak, the crab cakes, pastas, and the retro tavern vibe, I can see why some have likened Waltz to a combination of the Saloon and the newly revived Bomb Bomb Bar. Waltz’s still-evolving repertoire isn’t quite that proven or deep yet, even if I have little doubt executive chef Sergio Mateo — an alum of Ambra, Whetstone, and Lacroix who’ll be carrying the menu forward once Leveillee’s consultancy is finished — has the skills to get there.
Waltz’s drink program has a bit further to go. The cocktails offer some trendy twists to classics but occasionally landed shy of their promise (the weak foam on the Fluffy Negroni Sour, for example, had deflated by the time it arrived). The potentially clever concept of a cocktail list organized by glass shapes fumbled over its own format: The Centerbe-spiked Waltz Whit Me camein a large martini coupe instead of the Nick and Nora tulip touted on the menu.
The Blush Sour and the Pepperoncini Tini at Waltz on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
At a very reasonable $15 or less a cocktail, however, it’s hard to complain loudly. Joey Dougherty is admirably determined not to overprice Waltz for a neighborhood that currently doesn’t have many upscale dining options. The small wine list is also full of basic Italian wine values for $13 a glass or less, and a tiny reserve bottle list for a Super Tuscan or Brunello di Montalcino. Dinner as a whole is fairly priced considering the quality, with check averages of $55 to $65 including beverage, before tax and tip.
Dinner finishes up strong with good scratch versions of common desserts. The made-to-order tiramisu, whose lady fingers are dunked to order in coffee then layered with sweet cheese, is somewhat controversial among traditionalists who expect it to be already fully saturated, but I enjoyed the faint crunch of those biscuits softening while we ate. There were no quibbles over the lusciously rich chocolate mousse, which is made with 70% Valrhona chocolate and served with raspberry compote and amaretto whipped cream.
The lusciously rich chocolate mousse, made with 70% Valrhona chocolate and served with raspberry compote and amaretto whipped cream, at Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Waltz’s finest finishing moves are the exceptional gelati, which are spun daily before service so the textures remain spoonably soft and vivid of flavor. The pistachio is always my go-to, and didn’t disappoint here, but I could also taste the real Tahitian beans (not extract) steeped into the vanilla. I was thoroughly charmed by the Andes Mint flavor topped with a dusting of the grated chocolate-and-crème de menthe candies. Even better was the strawberry sorbetto, which doubled down on berry flavor with a crimson glaze of strawberry compote.
If you’re going to build a new restaurant that feels like an old soul inspired by another era, these are just the kinds of fresh touches required to appeal to diners today.
Pistachio gelato at Waltz on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Pizzas and pastas: $16-$24; larger sharing plates, $30-$50.
The bar dining room is wheelchair accessible through a side door, but the bathrooms, located in the basement, are not.
About 50% of the menu is gluten-free or can be modified, including availability of gluten-free pastas.
Menu highlights: House burrata with prosciutto and melon; stuffed crabs; fritto misto; pizzas (carbonara, piccante); lumache pasta with spicy crab vodka sauce; tortellini; pappardelle with duck ragù; spaghetti with meatballs and sausage; New York strip steak; branzino; house gelati (pistachio; Andes mint); strawberry sorbetto.
Drinks: Classic cocktails with modern twists are categorized by glass shape (highball, coupe, Nick and Nora) but perplexingly not always served in the advertised glass. The drinks themselves are solid, not spectacular, but fairly priced at $15 or less. The small wine list offers affordable Italian basics, including a Pecorino white and a plush Piemonte Rosso I’d drink all night for $11 a pour.
The owners of Waltz restaurant in South Philadelphia made a collage of articles from a 1924 Inquirer that was found during renovations in the walls of the building at Front and Ritner, where it was used for insulation.Courtesy Waltz restaurant / Joey Dougherty
Bananas are trending everywhere, but especially at cocktail bars and cafes, which use fresh bananas, banana liqueur, banana extract, and even banana peel. Kiki Aranita isn’t alone in suggesting it might be “the next pumpkin spice.”
Phillies fans are bringing way more than hoagies and cheesesteaks into Citizens Bank Park. Beatrice Forman winds up and delivers a fun read about the BYO eats you’ll find in the stands. Curried tuna salad, anyone?
Kelly’s Seafood has been a Northeast Philly fixture, serving generations of families — and plenty of snapper soup. Now, as the family prepares to close, longtime customers are returning for one last meal, stocking their freezers, and saying goodbye.
Mazaj, an offshoot of the twin Malooga restaurants, has landed in Willow Grove with Yemeni coffee, Middle Eastern pastries, a drive-through, and a plan to expand.
The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan has plenty of monsters, mayhem, and spectacle — but where’s the feast? Kiki Aranita, a classics scholar in her past life, explains what Homer’s heroes would have eaten, and where to embark on your own culinary odyssey around Philly.
In Crust We Trust has joined the pizza boom now underway in Fishtown. Anyae Wilson-Worley’s pizzeria is offering something none of the others are: a taste of Philly-style Black culture.
In other pizza news: Dave Portnoy, the Barstool Sports founder, visited the Philadelphia area last week to shoot a handful of “One Bite Pizza Reviews,” whose scores in previous years have transformed the fortunes of a neighborhood pizzeria.
What a joy: Dunking chunks of octopus into the almond romesco and black garlic purée at Stina in West Passyunk. For another treat, writes Hira Qureshi, don’t miss the spanakopita.
Scoop
The Pub in Pennsauken, which sits on 6 acres, is being offered for sale for the first time in 26 years. The steakhouse institution is closed now for summer break, but the owner insists that it will reopen next month — unless a deal is magically struck.
Restaurant report
Recipe Philly, whose menu is built around recipes submitted by local home cooks, opens Monday at 1401 Arch St., a splashy, 175-seat redo of the long-ago McDonald’s at Broad and Arch. Funded by retired business executive Ed Baumstein (above), the restaurant will serve lunch and dinner, featuring dishes from 31 cooks who also will appear in a reality TV series now being shopped around.
Among them:
Germantown data analyst Chyan Adams Bentley (above), 30, drew inspiration for her honey-chipotle shrimp tostadas from a rooftop cooking class she took in Guatemala.
Pete O’Byrne (above), 60, of Jeffersonville, contributed a pork chop crusted with Pecorino Romano, panko, and shortbread Girl Scout cookies. “The Girl Scouts are one of my customers,” said O’Byrne, who sells production printers and software. “I know when the truck comes in.”
Nayha Hussain (above), 24, a Spring Garden software engineer who has cooked since age 12, elevated a home-style Pakistani coconut curry with Chilean sea bass. Since Recipe is a 15-minute walk from her place, “it’s my local neighborhood restaurant that has my dish on it,” she said.
You’ll be hearing a lot about Anh Em, which soft-opened last weekend at 21st and Titan Streets in Point Breeze. Anna Huynh and husband Victor Nguyen are behind the 50-or-so-seater specializing in Vietnamese comfort food, mixing classics with home-style dishes (like crispy bánh xèo, above, and the beef carpaccio dish known as bò tái chanh), inspired by what the couple grew up eating. Chef is Nguyen, who managed Tango and once co-owned a Chinatown bubble-tea shop; he oversees a 20-seat bar pouring local beers from 24 taps, plus cocktails. The couple retained the former Madeira Indian Grill’s exposed brick while adding burgundy booths, light-blue accents, lanterns, and shelving built by Nguyen and their son. Here’s the soft-opening menu.
Anh Em, 1252 S. 21st St. Hours: 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Wednesday-Monday. Closed Tuesday.
Briefly noted
The 2026 Michelin Awards will return to New York City for its ceremony. Reminder that its inspectors are scouring Philadelphia in advance of the December announcements.
Heytea, the expanding Chinese tea shop, enters the Philadelphia market Friday at 1001 Arch St. in Chinatown. Drinks will be buy-one/get-one from Friday-Sunday.
With Ember & Ash still closed after a June 24 fire, chef Scott Calhoun will cook at Cartesian Brewing (1326 E. Passyunk Ave.) from 4-8 p.m. Saturday. Using yakitori grills in the courtyard, Calhoun will serve dishes including octopus “dogs,” a Filet-O-Fish-inspired skate sandwich, ’nduja-stuffed piquillo peppers, and sourdough with romesco, along with Cartesian’s beverages.
Javelin (1811 Fairmount Ave.) will host chef Carlos Wills of Ogawa Sushi & Kappo for a maguro kaitai, or tuna-cutting ceremony, Aug. 18. Starting at 5 p.m., Wills will break down a 250- to 300-pound bluefin tuna for a multicourse tasting ($170 plus tax/tip) including sashimi, nigiri, hand rolls, and tuna marrow with uni and caviar. Richie Tray will serve Cambodian-inspired appetizers and cocktails. Reserve via Toast.
Libertee Grounds (1600 W. Girard Ave.) will host a Cooper DeJean look-alike contest on Aug. 27. Doors/registration at 5 p.m., contest at 6:30 p.m. Signup via Instagram.
❓Pop quiz
Why can red Côtes-du-Rhône wines such as Ogier Artésis remain relatively affordable?
A) Rhône producers are prohibited from aging their wines in pricey oak barrels.
B) Grenache can produce large crops of flavorful grapes even in dry conditions.
C) French law limits the markup on Côtes-du-Rhône wines.
D) The wines are made primarily from surplus Syrah grapes, and this is the source of the expression “Qué Syrah Syrah.”
What do you know about the sale of Ardana in Bucks County? — Cindy S.
The Cristou family announced last week that they’ve sold their Ardana Food & Drink location in Newtown, Bucks County, to Rob LaScala after 3½ years. LaScala tells me that the Ardana name and Cypriot-inspired menu will remain for about two months before he transitions to LaScala’s Fire, his semicasual Italian concept. LaScala, who also owns Chicken or the Egg in Marlton and Beach Haven, is on fire with Fire, as there are nearly a dozen locations now, plus New Jersey expansion plans for Freehold, Bridgewater, and Cherry Hill. The Cristous still retain their Ardana and KC Prime Steakhouse, both in Warrington.
📮 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.
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The Michelin Guide is taking its Northeast restaurant awards back to New York.
Michelin said Tuesday that its 2026 Michelin Guide Northeast Cities ceremony will be held Dec. 14 at the Glasshouse in Manhattan, where it will disclose its latest restaurant selections for Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten and chef Marc Vetri greet each other as Megan Vetri looks on during the cocktail hour at the Michelin Guide announcements at the Kimmel Center on Nov. 18, 2025, in Philadelphia.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Restaurateurs should treat this as a reminder that Michelin’s famously anonymous inspectors are on the prowl.
The 2025 ceremony was held at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, as Philadelphia and Boston joined the guide for the first time. Michelin, which hosted ceremonies in New York in 2023 and 2024, said last year that it planned to hold the annual ceremony in different cities.
A representative of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau was not immediately available Tuesday to say whether Philadelphia had sought to host the event again.
Last year’s ceremony, attended by culinary glitterati from around the world, gave Philadelphia its first Michelin stars. Friday Saturday Sunday, Her Place Supper Club, and Provenance each received one star, while 31 other Philadelphia restaurants — including three cheesesteak shops — received Michelin recognition. Ten earned Bib Gourmands, Michelin’s designation for restaurants offering good food at a good value, while 21 were Recommended. Pietramala, the vegan restaurant in Northern Liberties, also received a Green Star for its sustainability practices. (Don’t expect more Green Stars this year; the award category was retired in May.)
The Philadelphia chefs flooding the stage at the Michelin Guide announcements on Nov. 18, 2025.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Michelin’s stars denote increasing levels of distinction: One star signals very good cooking that is “worth a stop,” two stars indicate excellent cooking “worth a detour,” and three stars represent exceptional cuisine “worth a special journey.”
The French tire company introduced its first North American guide in New York in 2005 and has expanded rapidly since. Chicago followed in 2011 and Washington in 2017, while California, Florida, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado, Atlanta, Mexico, Texas, and Québec were added in subsequent years.
The expansion has accelerated recently. Michelin added the American South, Boston, and Philadelphia in 2025 and the Southwest and a statewide Florida guide in 2026. An American Great Lakes guide is scheduled to debut in 2027.
Philadelphia’s inclusion is part of a partnership with the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has not disclosed how much it is paying Michelin.
What started as a halal coffee-and-pastry counter tucked inside a Narberth restaurant has grown into a full-fledged cafe in Willow Grove, with a bakery operation fueled by a mosaic-tiled oven turning out za’atar-topped flatbreads and pizza. And for good measure, the new Mazaj will have a drive-through.
Mazaj, a Yemeni- and Saudi-inspired cafe, opened earlier this month in the former Grandma’s Grotto Pizza on Route 611 near Blair Mill Road.
Owners Mohammed Tashkandi, Mohammed Aqlan, Yousef Muneer, and Omar Alkahily also operate Malooga, the Yemeni restaurants in Narberth and Old City. Mazaj began in March as the coffee bar and bakery inside the Narberth location, where the partners developed its drinks and pastries while spending more than two years searching for a place where the concept could stand on its own.
They deliberately looked beyond the city limits, Tashkandi said. They wanted parking, easy access, and enough room to create the sort of coffeehouse where customers could settle in — without making a quick coffee run difficult.
Manakish are baked to order in a Forno Picone oven near the front of the cafe at Mazaj. The flatbreads can be spread with za’atar and olive oil or topped with cheese or meat.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The Willow Grove location, at 2700 Easton Rd., just north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange, is designed to do both. There are sofas and upholstered chairs for lingering, tables lining the windows, and — unlike Narberth — a drive-through for customers who have no intention of lingering at all. The drive-through is expected to open at the end of the month with premade pizzas and manakish that can be reheated in two minutes.
“Two things can be true at the same time,” Tashkandi said. “Our homemade food, locally roasted coffee, and crafted drinks are intentionally chosen to elevate your day, whether you want to spend time in our spaces or grab something to go as you move through your day.”
A crowd has already formed at the new Mazaj in Willow Grove, Aug. 4, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
That dual identity is wrapped into the name. Mazaj — also spelled mizaj or mizaaj — is an Arabic word for “mood,” “temperament,” or “state of mind” that is also used in Urdu and Persian. The partners were compelled to choose it because of the idea that what people eat and drink can change how they feel.
The menu crosses borders. Tashkandi is from Saudi Arabia, while his partners are from Yemen, but they don’t describe Mazaj strictly as a Yemeni coffee shop, an increasingly popular cafe format. They see it as a broader Middle Eastern cafe.
Honeycomb, Yemeni pull-apart bread, before it is baked at Mazaj, in Willow Grove, Aug. 4, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
There are Saudi coffees and mutabbaq, the flaky stuffed pastry pockets popular in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, alongside Levantine manakish, honeycomb bread, date cake, and other pastries. The contemporary coffee-shop side of the menu brings espresso drinks, ceremonial-grade matcha, and flavored lattes.
Mazaj’s manakish are baked to order in a Forno Picone oven, a striking, mosaic-covered centerpiece near the front of the cafe. The flatbreads can be spread with za’atar and olive oil or topped with cheese or meat.
And now there’s pizza.
Pizza topped with beef pepperoni coming out of the oven at Mazaj, in Willow Grove, Aug. 4, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
It is the major menu addition in Willow Grove, baked in the same oven as the manakish. A separate commercial deck oven handles the cafe’s pastries.
The expansion has turned Willow Grove into the baking hub for the partners’ other restaurants. The owners are shifting production from Malooga to the new cafe, which will supply baked goods to both Narberth and Old City. The company has also begun laying the groundwork for a wholesale operation to sell pastries to other coffee shops and supermarkets, and the partners say they are meeting with potential franchisees.
Head baker Samar Alasbahi leads a baking staff with backgrounds in Yemen and Syria. The pastries are made in-house, and Tashkandi said leftovers aren’t put back into the case the next morning. Unsold baked goods instead go to employees, neighbors, and others in the community.
Customers can linger in the comfy upholstered furniture at Mazaj.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The partners have thoroughly remade the former pizzeria. Olive green and cream set the palette, with patterned tile, geometric motifs, Moroccan-style pendant lights, and a long pastry-and-coffee counter. Faux marble tables and caramel-colored chairs dot the narrow, window-lined dining room, while deep-green upholstered chairs and a sofa make up a small lounge. Behind glass near the front sits the new, dark-tiled brick oven.
For all the Yemeni and Saudi influences behind Mazaj, Tashkandi said the idea is deliberately broader: a cafe where Middle Eastern food traditions overlap rather than stay within national boundaries. “We want the menu to reflect that diversity,” he said.
Mazaj, 2700 Easton Rd., Willow Grove, 267-900-3167, mazajpa.com. Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
