Tag: Cantina La Martina

One bar is finally firing up its kitchen and another is switching food vendors as irreverent sandwich maker N.A. Poe parts ways with his second business partner in three months.

Poe’s Sandwich Joint is out as the food vendor at Human Robot after seven years at the original Olde Kensington brewery, and a little over a year at its Brewerytown outpost. His last day at both locations is Sept. 3, Poe — whose real name is Richard Tamaccio — confirmed to The Inquirer.

Tamaccio’s menu of chicken cutlet hoagies and loaded fries will be replaced by Cantina La Martina, the acclaimed Mexican restaurant from James Beard-nominated chef Dionicio Jimenez and his wife, Mariangeli Alicea Saez. The move is a both an expansion of the couple’s relationship with Human Robot — Cantina La Martina has been serving brunch, tacos, and enchiladas at the brewer’s Jenkintown location since 2024 — and a homecoming.

Jimenez and Saez opened Cantina La Martina in 2022 at the corner of D Street and Kensington Avenue, where the restaurant was hailed as one of Philly’s “most thrilling” Mexican eateries and a pillar of the community for its festivals and fundraising efforts. When the pair announced they were closing the restaurant in November 2025 over mounting safety concerns, they said they wouldn’t abandon Kensington.

“We really wanted to be back” in the neighborhood, Saez told The Inquirer. “We built really strong relationships with the community and lifetime friendships” while on Kensington Avenue.

Cantina La Martina’s menu at 1710 N. Fifth St. will include a mix of burritos, tacos, wings, and nachos, plus the return of its popular weekday happy hour, which featured $1 tacos alongside $2 wings, ribs, and empanadas. At 2711 W. Girard Ave. in Brewerytown, Cantina La Martina will run a burrito bar.

Both locations will have a grand opening Sept. 13.

Poe’s exit from Human Robot coincides with a switch-up at the Monto, Fergus Carey’s new Irish pub in Old City. Tamaccio was supposed to run the kitchen before quitting after just two days of business.

Starting Sept. 1, chef Jake Bukowski will reopen the kitchen at the Monto with a menu that Carey described as “modern Irish food”: Think black pudding sliders, cheesy chicken fillet rolls, and spice bags, the viral Irish-Chinese takeout staple popular in Dublin.

Bukowski is a Temple grad who previously worked at the long-closed Belgian Cafe (also owned by Carey) and, most recently, as the culinary director of the Havertown gastropub Brick & Brew. Bukowski was best-known for the Galley, the residency he ran for six years from a window inside Garage Fishtown, where he served handmade pierogis alongside wings and burgers.

Why is Poe’s leaving Human Robot?

Tamaccio’s abrupt split with Human Robot played out publicly over Instagram, when the brewery announced that it had renewed its lease in Olde Kensington. Poe’s would not be staying on, however.

“We are thrilled to kick off this new chapter with a brand-new food partner at both our 5th St & Girard locations,” the brewery captioned their post. “Before we look ahead, we want to send a massive thank you to Poe’s Sandwich Joint for being our food partner for nearly 7 years. Thank you, Poe and team, for slinging some amazing sandos and even better memories.”

The same day, Tamaccio posted a video on his Instagram account, where he continues to digest the messy breakup.

“I guess we’re looking for a new home,” Tamaccio says, while puffing on a joint. “Poe’s is getting booted from Human Robot.”

In the video, Tamaccio explains that Human Robot’s lawyers sent him a letter earlier this month that said the brewery was terminating its contract with Poe’s “immediately” over his behavior on social media.

Human Robot co-owner Ken Correll told The Inquirer that the decision to part ways was precipitated by an Aug. 3 meeting to discuss concerns about Tamaccio’s behavior, to which Tamaccio showed up “late and alone” instead of with his investors, as discussed. “Given the lack of an active lease with Poe’s and his failure to uphold previous promises, we decided to move on,” Correll said.

In an interview Monday, Tamaccio told The Inquirer that the termination letter, sent Aug. 4, centered on a series of Instagram stories he posted in July after leaving the Monto. They included, among other things, an antisemitic quote from The Sopranos, a homophobic slur, and an AI-generated image of Carey engaging in indecent acts with a phallic potato.

“I was very angry at the time,” Tomaccio said, adding that he sees himself as a provocateur. “Comedy has always been the way that I process or deal with anything … I know what I’m doing, I crossed the line, and this is the result.”

Before gaining a reputation for his cult-favorite hoagies, Tamaccio, 47, was known for well-documented marijuana activism under his pseudonym. In 2017, he organized a warehouse party in Northeast Philadelphia that ended in the arrest of 22 people. Instead of jail time, Tamaccio took a plea deal in 2018.

Later that year, he opened the first iteration of Poe’s Sandwich Joint at 1429 Marlborough St. It closed months later in 2019 due to what Tamaccio characterized as a dubious business loan. He resurrected the business at Human Robot that fall, when the brewery first opened.

Tamaccio has long used social media to promote his sandwiches alongside a near-constant stream of controversial memes on his Instagram story that ranged from 9/11 conspiracies to off-color jokes about politicians. Most of his content, he said, doesn’t reflect his actual beliefs.

“Everything I’m saying is a joke. I’m not a serious man,” Tamaccio said.

The sandwich maker said he felt blindsided and “gaslit” by Human’s Robot decision, which he worries will impact his 10 employees across the Brewerytown and Olde Kensington locations.

Poe’s kitchen staff at both Human Robot outposts have been offered jobs with Cantina La Martina, a representative for the restaurant said.

What happened at the Monto?

This is Tamaccio’s second business partnership to dissolve this summer.

In February, Carey and Tamaccio announced they were going into business together at the Monto, an Irish pub at 226 Market St. There, Tamaccio would serve a mix of Poe’s signature sandwiches alongside more traditional pub fare like shepherd’s pie.

But just two days after the Monto’s June opening, Tamaccio resigned. “I was very excited about the project,” Tamaccio said. “But when it came down to the actual execution in a high-pressure environment, I just couldn’t do it.”

Tamaccio said he decided to leave the Monto after working without a contract, a claim that Carey disputes: “He quit after preparing for six months. That’s totally on him.”

Carey — who never saw the image of himself with the potato — said that Tamaccio has since apologized for the post. He’s choosing to look at the humor of it all.

“I think it’s the funniest twist to the story you could imagine,” said Carey. “One of my partners said, ‘Karma didn’t take very long this time.’ I don’t feel like that at all. I wish him well.”

Tamaccio believes Poe’s Sandwich Joint has a future, either with a new partner or in a storefront of its own, where he can “do and say” whatever he wants.

“Maybe I went too far,” he said. “But what is happening to free speech? Most people don’t even get in a position to be able to own their own business, and then when you do, you just need to shut up to make money.”