BRIGANTINE, N.J. — With its full moon and stacked high tides over multiple days, last week’s nor’easter left Shore towns with some of the worst flooding and erosion since Hurricane Sandy.
In dramatic fashion, the nor’easter produced some feared Shore scenarios: dunes sliced into cliffs, beaches vertically eroded, popular restaurants flooded to the point of closing altogether for the season, water lapping into ground floors, cars ruined. Days later, firefighters were responding to raging electrical fires, at least one of which was linked to a flood-soaked golf cart.
Still, the nor’easter was also a testament of what went right, a test of flood resilience tactics implemented in the 14 years since Sandy — a series of flood pumps in Brigantine, an elevated artery in Ocean City, raised homes throughout the Shore — that prevented a much worse outcome.
During the September 2026 nor’easter, metal floodgates were brought in to the city’s Municipal Boat Ramp by the city of Brigantine to physically block flood waters.John CunnionBrigantine’s municipal boat ramp was previously an entry way to devastating flooding. But city officials installed flood pumps and metal gates to keep the water off the island, and to drain the island between high tides.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
‘Our girl took a beating’
In parts of Holgate, Brigantine, Atlantic City, and North Wildwood, the storm left cliffs six feet or higher, cutting off access to the beach at multiple street ends. Vertical erosion uncovered old structures including rotting old wooden piers.
Streets in Long Beach Township, West Wildwood, and Atlantic City took on water through multiple days of high tide, damaging residential garages and other ground floor spaces.
Abby Mason, of Pottstown, looks at storm damage in Holgate on Thursday.Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
On Sigsbee Avenue, contractor Vincent Allen of B. Grigoletto Contractors was ripping out ruined insulation and dry wall on two houses, both second homes.
He noted that since Sandy, a lot of the smaller homes had been torn down and replaced by elevated homes, where the ground floors are not, technically, living spaces. “Basically, if you lived on the bay, you got water,” he said. “This wasn’t as high as Sandy, nowhere near it.”
Owner Mike Franzoni at what’s left of his BLVD Pizza in Beach Haven, which was flood damaged days before a fire broke out.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
On Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, numerous businesses were mopping up or closing early for the season after flood damage.
“We are truly sick to our stomachs, and it hurts,” Moments at Scannicchios, a restaurant on Fairmount Avenue in Atlantic City, said in a Facebook post. “In the end we will reopen.” The restaurant asked people to help out a nearby corner bodega, El Rinconcito Grocery, it said lacked similar resources.
On Long Beach Island, the ruined insides of the Dockside Diner were strewn across the front of the restaurant. “Our team, our family, is safe,” the owners wrote on Facebook. “But our old girl Dockside took a beating.”
Nearby, Mike Franzoni looked at the charred remains of BLVD Pizza’s Beach Haven location, which suffered flood damage and had a fire a few days later. Another location, in Surf City, was undamaged.
Storm damage in Holgate on Thursday.Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
On Long Beach Island, the beloved “karaoke garage,” belonging to the family of Diane O’Donnell, 80, of Yardley, Pa., took on two feet of water, half of Sandy levels.
Last week, an Indigo Girls song was playing out of the space where Kelly Kolbjornsen and her family would recruit people to stop and sing karaoke on their way down Long Beach Boulevard.
“It’s part of having a beach house, but it’s a little overwhelming,” Kolbjornsen said.
‘A good gauge’
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew brought representatives from FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers to focus on severe damage to ramps from Brigantine’s concrete promenade in the north end and the near breaching of a private retaining wall that was the only line of defense after surging waves destroyed dunes at the promenade’s edge.
But Mayor Vince Sera also pointed out that neighborhoods devastated during Sandy remained mostly damage-free.
“We put floodgates in before the storm came into Brigantine,” he said. “They closed all of the floodgates and prevented a lot of water from coming in. On each low tide, they let the water out to drain, and closed them again for the next high tide.
“Any water that comes into the streets, we have pumps around the island,” he said. “It pushes the water out over the bulkhead and back into the bay. It drains the island.”
Residents near those points of vulnerability took note.
“Without the pumps, it would have been horrible,” said Terri Cunnion, whose home sits on Bayshore Avenue across from the boat ramp, a major thoroughfare of flooding during Sandy (when the previous home on her lot was destroyed). “Without those gates, this block wouldn’t be.”
Through multiple high tides, last weekend’s floodwaters never got past the lip of the garage in the Cunnion’s house, whose living spaces are built 14 feet to new elevation standards.
Ocean City’s newly elevated Roosevelt Boulevard was also credited with mitigating damage from the nor’easter, staying above floodwaters and allowing an evacuation route, said Mayor Jay Gillian. The road was reconstructed so that portions were raised by 12 to 20 inches.
During Hurricane Sandy, bay waters roared right up Brigantine’s municipal boat ramp and surged across Bayshore Road, totaling houses with four feet of water.
Since the installation of eight permanent flood pumps and two portable flood buster pumps, vulnerable spots like Bayshore Drive and the neighborhood around the town’s golf course are newly fortified. In addition, bulkheads were raised.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, together with federal, state, and local officials, tour storm damage in Holgate on Thursday.Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Atlantic City, similarly, installed pumps at its Atlantis Avenue station and rebuilt bulkheads in Chelsea and Chelsea Heights. It has yet to complete similar projects in its Ducktown neighborhood, which saw major flooding last weekend, leaving some businesses with tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and merchandise loss.
Van Drew pointed to other improvements since Sandy that protected utility infrastructure and homes. Homes that were elevated had ground levels that allow water to flow in and then out, he noted. He is advocating a permanent $1 billion “Coastal Trust Fund,” funded by revenue from federal offshore oil and gas leases to provide a stable source of funding for beach fills, dune restoration, and other coastal remediation.
“The good news is we’ve done a lot of good work,” Van Drew said. “We’ve hardened a lot of structures. When you look at electrical substations, in many cases, they’ve been raised. When you look at transmission lines, rather than being on wooden poles, they are now on industrial grade steel lines that are actually put on much, much stronger holes.”
Kelly Kolbjornsen looks at the damaged bar from her garage, where she and her family recuited passers by to sing karaoke, on Wednesday, days after the nor’easter.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
‘Sacrificial sand projects’
On an Oct. 1 tour from Long Beach Island to North Wildwood, Van Drew made the case for continued beach replenishment funding, despite the storm eating through a good chunk of the $99 million in recent beach replenishment, most recently in Sea Isle City, Strathmere, Ocean City, Avalon, and Stone Harbor.
D. Lee Forsgren, the performing assistant secretary for the Army for Civil Works, who oversees the Army Corps, made a point of calling beach replenishment projects “sacrificial sand projects.” He compared the engineered beaches to your car’s “crumple zones” that are made to take the initial beating.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (left) talks with Holgate Mayor Joseph H. Mancini in front of beach erosion in Holgate on Thursday.Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
“We don’t put sand on these beaches to make them pretty beaches,” he said. “They are designed for storm damage reduction.”
Still, he cautioned Van Drew that “the best opportunity to really make progress would be with a supplemental appropriation associated with the storm because there’s not a lot of pocket change sitting around in the core budget.”
That will require a disaster declaration from Sherrill, who toured Brigantine on Tuesday.
Aside from more sand, Van Drew said the towns, state, and Army Corps were looking at funding hard structures — like jetties, groins, and seawall extensions — as ways to keep the elevated tides that accompany storms from overwhelming beaches.
A house on Brigantine’s north end belonging to Clay and Lori Goldsmid and other nearby homes were spared major damage during the recent nor’easter.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
In Brigantine, Mayor Sera rode out the storm at the tip of the promenade, watching railings get blown off, dunes disappear, and the nearby retaining wall nearly buckle. He said city officials had compiled a list of who was in nearby homes in case of an emergency evacuation.
He is seeking to extend the promenade another 250 feet north, and says the state is studying whether adding hard structures to keep the sand in place will help a situation where a sandbar that has in recent years grown into what is now called Horseshoe Island is starving Brigantine of sand.
The city’s flood mitigation efforts since Sandy have resulted in a 25% discount for residents on flood insurance, he said. And he wholeheartedly recommends flood pumps and gates to other municipalities, like Ventnor, whose Ventnor Heights section was cut off at both ends by flooding for hours during high tides.
Sera and other knows the big storms will come again, probably this winter, with the El Niño warming in the equatorial Pacific.
With sea levels rising, some residents who came out to see the federal officials in Brigantine wanted to know about timelines.
“How fast is fast,” interrupted Louise Seitel, of nearby Absecon, as officials spoke of extending the seawall.
“A study is probably going to be 18 months,” Nate Barcomb, an Army Corps deputy district engineer based in Philadelphia, acknowledged.
“Government is tough,” Van Drew said.
Aerial photograph of New Jersey’s Horseshoe Island in June 2021.N.J. Department of Environmental Protection / U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Crime and punishment in colonial America was a brutal business. Incarcerated people were barely fed, were often beaten, and fell ill from unsanitary conditions.
Inspired by the benevolent Quaker tradition, Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin decided, in the late 17th century, to institute a new system through which people in prison could atone by reflecting and reading the Bible.
The catch was they had to be “penitent” all alone, without any human contact. With the birth of solitary confinement, came Eastern State Penitentiary.
Artist Cody Stuhltrager captures the distinctive aesthetic of Eastern State Penitentiary and its enduring presence in Fairmount in this No. 1Cody Stuhltrager courtesy of Colibrí Workshop
Construction started in 1821 and in 1829, the 11-acre institution opened on what was once a cherry orchard situated at the intersection of Fairmount Avenue, Corinthian Avenue, Brown Street, and 22nd Street. Nestled behind a 650-foot stone wall were 250 rooms.
The intention was that every man, woman, and child would have their own cell and would neither see nor talk to another human being.
“Eastern State is considered the first penitentiary in America because it is the first institution that uses solitary confinement for the entire length of the inmate’s incarceration,” explained Kerry Sautner, president and CEO of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc.
America’s first penitentiary — the country’s first true correctional facility — will be remembered Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Eastern State Penitentiary.
The observance is part of the Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts Celebrations. The weekly day parties, or firstivals are part of a yearlong citywide celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
Eastern State Penitentiary’s legacy of torturous solitary confinement makes this a somber celebration.
The institution’s first prisoner was 18-year-old Delaware County burglar Charles Williams. Within a few years after his arrival, Eastern State became a model for prisons and penitentiaries throughout the country, Sautner said. Still, its controversial methods of rehabilitation were considered cruel.
Eastern State Penitentiary cellblock in 1837.Eastern State Penitentiary
During his first visit to America, author Charles Dickens, who toured the penitentiary, wrote, “I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon its sufferers.”
“People quickly learned that solitary confinement was a cruel form of punishment,” Sautner said. “But they didn’t to let it go easily.”
Despite the formation of the Pennsylvania Prison Society — responsible for part of the state constitution that stressed on the rights of incarcerated people — solitary confinement lasted through the late 19th century. It remained a part of the prison’s culture until it was completely removed from the books in 1913.
During the early 20th century, each cell housed two people.
“We have evidence of a proclamation banning solitary,” Sautner said. “And we found evidence of small Christian gatherings celebrations [within Eastern State] of Jewish holy days in September.”
(Although the penitentiary was founded in the Quaker tradition, there is evidence that prisoners worshipped in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths within its walls by the 19th century.)
In 1965, it was designated a national historic site by the federal government. By the early 1970s, Eastern State Penitentiary was immensely overcrowded with more than 2,000 prisoners. It closed in 1971 and its population was moved to Graterford.
Throughout the 1980s, the building remained mostly abandoned except for a few sporadic instances like when it served as the set for the filming of Tina Turner’s 1985 single “One of the Living” from the Mad Max soundtrack.
In the late 1980s, the city began looking at ways to restabilize what many considered an eyesore in the center of Fairmount, a neighborhood that was in the midst of being revitalized. Planners considered turning the space into condos, a shopping center, and even a youth hostel.
Eastern State Penitentiary hosts Halloween Nights, a festival-like attraction with characters dressed as scary clowns, zombies, vampires and other ghouls — but not prisoners or prison guardsEastern State Penitentiary
In 1988, at the urging of a task force of concerned architects, preservationists, and historians, Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode halted the process of selling the site. And in 1994, it opened as a nonprofit historic site offering group tours under the leadership of Sally Elk.
1997 marked the first “Terror Behind the Walls” the annual haunted house attraction. In 2021 it was rebranded as “Halloween Nights,” a less spooky, more gentrified version with a beer garden.
This week’s Firstival is Saturday, Oct. 3, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at Eastern State Penitentiary at 2027 Fairmount Ave
Fleece fragments in a washer flow into a wastewater treatment plant. A plastic bag blows into a stream. A water bottle washes down a storm drain.
All can end up in the region’s waterways as microplastics smaller than a grain of rice and find their way into drinking water and the stomachs of animals and fish.
This kind ofmicroplastic pollution was detected in 22 stream and river segments across the Delaware River watershed, according to a new survey of waterways by the nonprofit advocacy group PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center.
Researchers analyzed water samples from sites along the Delaware River and its tributaries across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York.
The research was conducted in partnership with the nonprofit Environment New Jersey Research and Policy Center. Scientists with the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University helped analyze the results, which were released Wednesday during a news conference at Fairmount Water Works.
Contamination was found in the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers and the Schuylkill. It was found in Neshaminy Creek in Bucks County, Brandywine Creek in Chester County, and Cooper River in Camden County. And it was found along the Christina River in Delaware.
Drexel’s lab analysis confirmed microscopic plastic at every sampled site, highlighting what the researchers say is a widespread environmental threat.
“We can look at a waterway, and it might be free of litter, it might be free of visible plastic pollution, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s clean,” said Faran Savitz, an advocate for PennEnvironment. “The big takeaway is that we should be concerned. The depth, the breadth of this plastic pollution is staggering.”
Faran Savitz with PennEnvironment demonstrates water testing. In the background from right are: Lizzy Mulvenna, with Environment New Jersey Research & Policy Center; David Velinsky, senior scientist, Academy of Natural Sciences; and Derek Ho, microplastics researcher, University of Pennsylvania.Frank Kummer
Where do microfibers come from?
Waterways in and around Philadelphia emerged as significant focal points in the survey results.
Samples drawn from the Delaware River in Philadelphia tested positive for multiple categories of microplastics including microfibers, microfragments, and microfilm, as did other waterways. Microbeads, often found in cosmetic products, were also found in the Christina River.
Microplastics are defined as fragments of less than 5 mm in length.
The synthetic microfibers came primarily from clothing and textiles. Rigid microfragments from items such as fishing line were found in 82% of locations. And flexible microfilm from bags and packaging appeared in 77%.
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Microplastics have been found in humans
Researchers explained that laundering synthetic garments releases millions of microfibers that wastewater treatment facilities are unable to completely filter out before they are discharged into local streams.
However, because plastic does not biodegrade but continuously fractures into tiny fragments, filters capture only a portion of plastic entering a waterway.
Savitz said PennEnvironment’s study did not release the concentrations of microplastics because it did not want to compare one waterwayor state against another.
The findings carry ecological and public health implications, as microplastics can block digestive tracts in wildlife and absorb toxic chemicals like PCBs and PFAS that bioaccumulate up the food chain, the report stated.
On average, humans ingest approximately 5 grams of plastic weekly, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card. Microplastics have been found in human blood, lung tissue, and organs, the researchers said.
Plastics are also routinely found in wildlife, including sea turtles, birds, and whales. About 60% of all seabirds have ingested plastic, with that number rising.
The environmental advocates are urging state and local leaders to enact policies such as producer responsibility for plastic packaging, bans on single-use foam and plastic bags, strict limits on pre-production plastic pellets, and enhanced drinking water filtration systems.
Microbeads once used in personal care products were phased out under President Barack Obama in 2015. But many of those products still linger on household shelves.
File: A glass vial containing water and microplastic pollutionGetty Images
Philadelphia’s drinking water
Philadelphians get their drinking water from the Delaware River and the Schuylkill. Most microplastics are filtered out at the Philadelphia Water Department’s wastewater treatment plants, but some particlesstill get through.
In 2025, PWD removed 4.6 tons of plastic litter from the Delaware and the Schuylkill, alongside an estimated 1,000 tons of plastic extracted through sewer maintenance, the researchers stated.
PWD said in an online report that it is “unclear whether microplastics pose a danger to human health,” noting that the risk could depend on the level of exposure, the type of plastic, and the size of the particles.
But it noted that research suggests some are harmful to fish and animals and can build up in the organs or bloodstream over time.
“PWD is always investigating advanced treatment technologies that may eliminate microplastics and other impurities,” the report stated.
David Velinsky, a senior scientist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, said, “plastics and microplastics are everywhere, from our clothing to the ubiquitous water bottle.”
When plastics and microplastics are not properly disposed of or recycled, he said, they break down into ever smaller pieces.
They “can travel great distances through both the air and in the water,” Velinsky noted.
A plea for ‘producer responsibility’
To combat pervasive plastics, advocates are urging federal and state lawmakers to enact targeted reforms, including the federal Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act currently before Congress, and state-level producer responsibility legislation for plastic packaging.
Savitz emphasized that shifting financial and operational burdens back onto manufacturers is critical to curbing waste at its source.
At least seven states have passed producer responsibility laws, though not all are in effect, according to the Product Stewardship Institute. Those states include Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland, and Maine.
“If we can shift the burden back onto companies that create this waste in the first place,” Savitz said, “we can actually reduce the waste, encourage recycling, and make these broader, more systemic changes.”
In the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, I went to New York to report on a story about Johanna Sigmund, a young woman from Wyndmoor who perished after one of the hijacked planes rammed the north tower.
Over the course of my career, I’ve spent more time than anyone would want writing pieces about people whose lives were cut short prematurely. One of the most memorable was Johanna, whose story and positive spirit remain seared into my soul.
Johanna’s parents invited me, a stranger, into their home at their worst hour. They took the time to tell me about their only daughter, and shared photograph after photograph after photograph — Johanna smiling after she ran the New York City Marathon, Johanna posing with her girlfriends at a wedding, and so on.
One image stood out.
It was a photo of Johanna, 25, and her brother, John, 23, smiling while standing arm in arm at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. The photo was taken two months before the terror attacks. In the background loomed the twin towers.
An article by Paul Davies about Johanna Sigmund in the Oct. 19, 2001, edition of the Daily News.Staff
Johanna’s story has stuck with me for a quarter century, but her life is emblematic of the promise and potential of so many others who were lost. At least 40 people with ties to Philadelphia and its western suburbs were killed in the attacks, including 18 from Bucks County, 11 from Montgomery County, five in Chester County, eight from Delaware County, and three from Philadelphia. It may be impossible for any of us to fathom how many other lives were forever impacted by the horrors of that day.
I wondered how Johanna’s family and friends had fared over the years.
So much has been lost in the 25 years since 9/11. Johanna would have turned 50 on the first day of summer — the longest day of sunlight. Her elegant beauty remains frozen in time, and — all these years later — her life remains a catalyst for good.
A scholarship fund set up in her name continues to help students attend St. Malachy School in North Philadelphia, as well as another at her alma mater, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.
Johanna packed a lot into her brief time here. She was the captain of the field hockey, lacrosse, and squash teams in high school. She studied economics and played field hockey at Fairfield University, and spent a semester in Paris before moving to New York in 1998 with three friends from Philadelphia.
When I met with Johanna’s roommates a few weeks after the attack, they shared stories of her love of cooking, dancing, and listening to U2, often replaying the song “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” that begins, “I’m not afraid of anything in this world.”
From left: Johanna Sigmund, Rory McDevitt, and Kim Ongaro were all bridesmaids at the wedding of their friend, Lexie Beatty, in May 2001. Sigmund was one of the victims in the 9/11 attacks.h
Johanna cared for others. She distributed pizza and McDonald’s to the homeless people in her neighborhood. She helped a woman who was thrown from a taxi get to a hospital. Johanna spent the night by her side and returned home in the morning with blood on her clothes.
Kimberly Ongaro, a roommate and friend from Springside, called her “an angel.”
The toughest interview in the weeks after the attack was with Johanna’s boyfriend, Joe Bonavita. They had dated for several years and had discussed marriage.
Their final weekend together was a whirlwind. They went to the Yankees game Friday night and drove to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., on Saturday, met up with friends, attended the Army football game, and walked through the cemetery for soldiers, which included Gen. George Armstrong Custer.
On Sunday, Johanna competed in a 5K race down Broadway before continuing on as part of her training for the Philadelphia Marathon. She and Joe shared dinner that night.
Johanna Sigmund and her boyfriend, Joe Bonavita, at the wedding of her friend Lexie Beatty Morris.
Johanna did not feel well on Monday, but went to work. When she was still under the weather on Tuesday — Sept. 11 — Joe urged her to stay home.
But she went into the office at an investment firm on the 93rd floor of the north tower.
Joe worked near the Trade Center. As he exited the subway, he saw the first plane smash into the north tower.
A life upended
I located her brother, John, and emailed him. He responded a few minutes later and graciously agreed to speak. When we connected after 25 years, it almost felt like old friends catching up.
John told me how 9/11 upended his life.
He had planned to move to New York after college, but lost interest after the attack. He visited ground zero to commemorate the first anniversary. President George W. Bush greeted families, including John’s aunt, who offered veiled advice regarding the plans to invade Iraq. “I hope you are making a prayerful decision,” she told the president.
Bush was taken aback, but continued shaking hands before circling back to tell John’s aunt that he prayed every day.
A photograph of Johanna Sigmund running in the New York City Marathon in November 2000.
After college, John, a Spanish speaker, spent a year with AmeriCorps teaching literacy to second graders in Kensington. After he explained to one class’s teacher why he wanted to take off for the anniversary of 9/11, she had her students write notes of support. John was struck by how many kids shared stories of loved ones they had lost to violence.
“Everyone has their 9/11,” he said.
Along the way, we all pay a price. Some more than others. But how one responds is a lesson for all as we navigate these trying times 25 years after 9/11.
John said he wonders how his life would have been different if not for Sept. 11. After a year teaching in Philadelphia, he moved to Texas, in part to get away. He earned a master’s degree in art education at the University of Texas in Austin before going on to teach at Say Sí, an after-school arts program in San Antonio.
John’s attempt to get away brought him back to New York. One of his students won an art award that included a trip for the student and teacher to Carnegie Hall. The artwork was displayed at the Winter Garden located near ground zero in May 2010.
“My heart sank,” John said. “I didn’t want to go anywhere near ground zero.”
Even then, nearly a decade after the towers fell, ground zero remained little more than a giant pit with the Freedom Tower slowly rising alongside it. In a macabre daily scene, tourists jammed the sidewalks, gawking and posing for pictures in front of what John could only see as a mass grave, while street hustlers sold photos of the hijacked planes crashing into the towers.
John tried to maintain his composure as he made his way through the gauntlet to the Winter Garden, but a man stepped in front of him and tried to sell him a fiery photo from the attack.
John snapped. He grabbed the stack of photos from the man, threw them in the air, and cussed him out. The two got into a tussle. After the fracas, John tried to gather himself by channeling his sister’s unflappable spirit.
John Sigmund (center) holds a picture of his sister, Johanna, as he and his family run down Kelly Drive toward the finish line of the Philadelphia Marathon in November 2001.d
“Johanna, help me,” he said to himself while overlooking ground zero. “I need to get it together.”
‘Beyond coincidence’
John calmed down and carried on. After the event, he met friends at a nearby bar. John was telling them about the run-in with the street hustler when he suddenly saw Johanna’s old boyfriend, Joe Bonavita, across the bar.
Joe had moved to New Orleans but, in a twist of fate, was in town for a 9/11 event. The two were not close but quickly bonded. John viewed the reunion as his sister’s handiwork.
“Some things are beyond coincidence,” he said.
Eventually, John did move to New York. The city helped him better find himself. After years of worrying about disappointing his parents or adding to their suffering, John told them he was gay. His parents, who have a deep Catholic faith, were supportive.
Twelve years ago, John returned to Philadelphia and fell in love with the city, and especially Fairmount Park.
After running the Philadelphia Marathon in November 2001, John Sigmund holds a photo of his sister, Johanna, and wears two medals around his neck — one he earned after finishing the race and another his sister won after completing the New York City Marathon in November 2000.Courtesy of Tony Webb / Office of the City Representative
But tragedy struck again in September. Three days after the 20th anniversary of 9/11, his father died.
For John, September remains the cruelest month. But he credits a strong support network of cousins and friends for helping him navigate life’s challenges — and added that Johanna always feels close by.
“I have a thing with the wind,” John said. “When I think about her, the wind will kick up.”
After losing his sister and father in September, John and his partner, Jaime, decided to add some positivity to the month. They got married last Sept. 26 and are planning an anniversary party in a couple of weeks.
September is concert season. Summer tours are still going, while fall tours are just getting started. This week in Philly music features both Charli XCX and Rod Wave launching tours in South Philly, plus Lil Wayne in Camden, John Fogerty and Steve Winwood in Atlantic City, Iron Maiden in Hershey, and Margo Price in King of Prussia.
Friday, Sept. 11
Charli XCX
“Yeah, we’re on to the next, I think the dance floor is dead,” Charli XCX sings on the opening track of her new album. “So now we’re making rock music.” The pivot isn’t quite radical for the woman behind the Brat summer of 2024. There is still music you can dance to on Music, Fashion, Film, the whip-smart British pop star’s eighth album, which represents its three titular disciplines with a photo of John Cale, Marc Jacobs, and Martin Scorsese on the cover. What will this tour look and sound like? I can hardly wait to find out. 8 p.m. Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com.
Rapper Lil Wayne performs during the Roots Picnic Philadelphia at The Mann in Fairmount Park on Sunday, June 2, 2024.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne has released 14 albums since making his debut in 1999 with Tha Block Is Hot. Six of those releases have been Tha Carter iterations, most recently with Tha Carter VI in 2025. (The New Orleans rapper’s given name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.) Wayne is calling this concert trek, which has 2 Chainz as the opening act, the “Carter Classics Tour,” meaning he will focus on selections from those six albums, no doubt including cuts like “A Milli,” “Lollipop,” “Mrs. Officer,” and “Money on My Mind.” 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden, freedommortgagepavilion.com.
Mdou Moctar
Nigerien Tuareg guitar hero Mdou Moctar comes to Bryn Mawr for an outdoor show under a gazebo. This solo show is likely to draw from Tears of Injustice, Moctar’s 2025 reworking of his 2024 electric album Funeral for Injustice. Always intriguing Philly guitarist Tim Motzer opens. 7 p.m., Bryn Mawr Twilight Concerts, 9 S. Bryn Mawr Ave., Bryn Mawr, brynmawrtwilightconcerts.com.
John Fogerty & Steve Winwood
Last year, John Fogerty released Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years, an album of new versions of his old songs. That might have seemed cheesy coming from another artist, but Fogerty spent decades battling to regain control of his music, finally winning ownership of his songs in 2023. For the “Legacy Tour,” the “Proud Mary” and “Fortunate Son” songwriter is teaming up with his late-1960s contemporary Steve Winwood, who has his own legacy with the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and his “Higher Love” solo career. 8 p.m., Ovation Hall, Ocean Resort, 500 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, theoceanac.com.
Jeff Bradshaw plays the National Anthem before Sixers play Game 6 against the Celtics in a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. Bradshaw will perform as part of the Atlantic City Jazz Festival this weekend.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Friday, Sept. 11 to Sunday, Sept. 13
Atlantic City Jazzfest
This smooth jazz weekend takes place at Sound Waves at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. On Friday, Memphis sax player Kirk Whalum headlines a show hosted by Patty Jackson. Saturday, Philly trombonist Jeff Bradshaw tops the bill, and on Sunday morning, sax man Reggie E. Harris makes a jazz brunch go down easy. 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. Sunday at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 1000 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, theatlanticcityjazzfest.com.
Margo Price plays Concerts Under the Stars in King of Prussia on Saturday.Yana Yatsuk
Saturday, Sept. 12
Ray LaMontagne
Last week at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Ray LaMontagne collapsed on stage, leaving audience members fearing for his life. But no worries: The cause apparently was dehydration, and the New Hampshire-born rustic rock songwriter, who is on tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of his Trouble album, was back on stage the next night in Louisville. Tara Lindeman’s environmentally conscious Canadian folk-rock band the Weather Station opens. 8 p.m., Met Philly, 858 N. Broad St., themetphilly.com.
Spring Garden Sunflower Fest
This third annual free fest — on Fairmount Avenue, not Spring Garden Street — will feature a full day of bands and DJs. Rising indie songwriter Maxwell Stern & the Good Light Band headline, and the lineup includes Celtic folk and Americana group the John Byrne Band, salsa group Un Toque de Cache, and a performance by the youngsters of Rock to the Future. Noon, Fairmount Avenue between 17th and 19th Sts., springgardensunflowerfest.com.
Margo Price
Margo Price got back to her country roots on Hard-Headed Woman, her 2025 album that includes a George Jones cover called “I Just Don’t Give a Damn.” It also offers some life advice with “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down,”which was written with her husband, Jeremy Ivey, and Rodney Crowell, plus a posthumous Kris Kristofferson credit. Price is calling this her “Wild at Heart Tour,” and Ivey opens the show. 7 p.m., Concerts Under the Stars, King of Prussia, 175 W. Valley Forge Road, King of Prussia, concertsunderthestarskop.com.
Saturday, Sept. 12 and Monday, Sept. 14
Rod Wave
Trap-soul rapper and singer Rod Wave — born Rodarius Green — has been rising so high of late it’s no wonder he’s titled his new album and tour “Don’t Look Down.” The St. Petersburg, Fla., native cites Tupac Shakur and Kanye West as influences on one hand, and Ed Sheeran and Adele on the other. He last played an arena show in South Philly in December, and now is back for two more to kick off the tour in support of the 24-track Don’t Look Down, which came out last month. Philly hip-hop singer Francis Leblanc — better known as Friday — is the opener. 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com.
FILE – Sandra Denton, left, and Cheryl James, of Salt-N-Pepa, perform at the IHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles on March 26, 2026. Salt-N-Pepa play the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion on Sunday. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)Chris Pizzello
Sunday, Sept. 13
TLC, Salt-N-Pepa & En Vogue
This triple bill — dubbed the “It’s Iconic Tour” — teams up three acts that were standout women in hip-hop and R&B beginning in the 1980s and into the 2000s. In their prime, TLC included Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who grew up in the Logan section of Philadelphia and died in a car crash in Honduras in 2002. Some dates on the tour so far have not included TLC’s Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and have gone on with only Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas because Watkins has been ill with what the band’s manager called “a sickle cell crisis.” Hip-hop heroines Salt-N-Pepa, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025, are co-headliners. Vocal group En Vogue opens. 7:30 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, Camden, FreedomMortgagePavilion.com.
Canadian musician Rufus Wainwright returns after speaking to broadcasters outside Christ Church Cathedral for the National Commemorative Ceremony in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, in Ottawa, Ontario, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. He plays three nights at City Winery Philadelphia next week. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)Justin Tang / AP
Tuesday, Sept. 15
Iron Maiden
British heavy metallers Iron Maiden was formed in East London in 1975. Now the Bruce Dickinson-fronted band is on its 50th-anniversary “Run for Your Lives World Tour,” which kicked off last year and makes its way to Hershey on Tuesday. Megadeth opens. 7:15 p.m., Hersheypark Stadium, 100 W. Hersheypark Drive, Hershey, hersheyentertainment.com.
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright is always up to something interesting. There’s Hadrian, his opera about the last day of a Roman emperor, Dream Requiem, the singer and pianist’s work based on a text by Lord Byron, and recent albums like Unfollow the Rules in 2020 and Folkocracy in 2023, as well as projects like Rufus Does Judy (Garland), Rufus Does (Kurt) Weill. (How about Rufus does Kurt Vile? Now there’s an idea.) On Tuesday, Wainwright begins a three-night stand in which he can do whatever he wants. 7:30 p.m., City Winery Philadelphia, 990 Filbert St., citywinery.com/philadelphia.
Toward the end of April, Noah Johnson’s street in Fairmount fills with pink cherry blossoms. The cherry trees may have been planted, he believes, when rowhouses were built in 1876.
Longtime Fairmounters call the block Centennial Boulevard. The homes were designed to showcase the latest trend in residential architecture as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The three-story homes were faced with stucco modeled to resemble stone and had tiled mansard roofs and enviable front gardens. Most houses in Fairmount, then and now, have small backyards but no front yards. Owners compensate with window boxes and planters.
A window box at Burns and Johnson’s Fairmount home.Sarah Silbiger / For The InquirerImpatiens and verdant potted plants line the front steps of the home.Sarah Silbiger / For The Inquirer
Over the last 150 years, the “Centennial” homes have been altered. Some have been re-stuccoed or faced with brick. But they all still have their front gardens.
Johnson and his wife, Charlotte Burns, like their neighbors, have planted their precious plot with flowers and greenery.
The floral motif begins at the east end of the block, where Brian Augustine has painted a mural on the garage wall adjacent to his house. Augustine, a contractor and amateur artist, copied a Claude Monet painting of the garden at Giverny, the famous impressionist’s home in France. Augustine planted white rocktrumpet vines in his garden to complement the white water lilies in the mural.
A mural by Brian Augustine, imitating a Monet painting, is seen in the neighborhood, known as Centennial Boulevard.Sarah Silbiger / For The Inquirer
Farther down the block Sam Cifelli has wound Christmas lights around the handrail going up his front steps next to shrubbery. He adds more lights during the holidays to the delight of Johnson and Burns, who live next door.
The couple purchased their four-bedroom, 2½-bath home in February 2025. Johnson said he let Charlotte do all the gardening.
By summer, Burns’ plantings were so lush a neighbor gave her a flier about the Flowering Fronts of Fairmount Competition sponsored by the Fairmount Civic Association. Burns entered the contest and won a prize. This summer she was a finalist in the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Citywide Gardening Challenge.
A plaque from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society 2026 Gardening Challenge sits in front of some purple liriope.Sarah Silbiger / For The InquirerColeus and Silver King Euonymus, with flowers behind.Sarah Silbiger / For The Inquirer
Burns’ success wasn’t just beginner’s luck. She grew up watching her landscape designer father, Brian Burns, at work. Before moving to Philadelphia she gardened at a house she and her husband rented in Georgia.
Burns kept the English ivy and the heavenly bamboo she found in the garden and purchased annuals including begonias, impatiens, vincas, and multihued coleus at the local Ace Hardware store.
Her father helped Burns choose and plant perennials such as spikes of purple liriope, Silver King Euonymus — which has green, leathery leaves edged in white and speckled with gold dust — red-tinged pieris japonica and glossy abelia.
Gardening is challenging. While Burns’ creeping Jenny, an annual, “grew back this year,” she said, the hydrangea did not bloom, and she had to use a pesticide “for the first time” to remedy a lace bug infestation on the Japanese hosta.
Charlotte Burns waters her prize-winning garden.Sarah Silbiger / For The Inquirer
Besides planting in the ground, Burns has filled window boxes and ceramic pots with colorful plants that line her front steps.
On the brick patio in the middle of the garden red begonias in a blue pot are centered on the white wrought iron table. She found the table and matching chairs at a Bucks County estate sale.
Burns embellished the garden with glass birds from the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire and glass flowers from the Philadelphia Flower Show. A ceramic frog was purchased at the annual Fairmount Flea Market. The cat banner and front door wreath were gifts from her mother, Cheryl Cunningham.
Johnson helps his wife with the heavy lifting, spreading bags of mulch, and moving the pots to the basement for storage in the winter.
Burns, a veterinary anesthesiologist, and Johnson, a battery scientist, met as students at Drexel University and married in 2021.
A frog figurine peeks out from behind caladiums and other greenery.Sarah Silbiger / For The InquirerA rose in bloom among the coleus.Sarah Silbiger / For The Inquirer
The couple had permission to string lights around Mario and Anna Crociata’s oak tree next door.
Burns planted periwinkle and hosta in the tree well and created a miniature village with gnomes and tiny houses. If an enchanted child takes one of the gnomes, Burns will purchase more at the nearby dollar store.
They hope Fairmounters will enjoy the flowering fronts on Centennial Boulevard for another 150 years.
Is your house a Haven? Nominate your home by email (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.
This fall’s restaurant openings reflect an industry hedging its bets: established operators expanding into the suburbs and repurposing familiar spaces, and newcomers pursuing narrowly drawn concepts built around omakase, caviar, Korean barbecue, cocktails, and live-fire cooking.
I count about five dozen restaurants in the region’s pipeline, with Italian concepts (no surprise), all-day service, and experience-driven dining recurring throughout the list. In addition to 60 restaurants opening between now and late December, two other restaurants are expanding: Lovat Square in Chestnut Hill is adding dinners and Palm Vintage across from City Hall is adding nighttime sushi service.
By comparison, last year’s fall roundup covered 53 restaurants. All of those opened except for three that are now a full year behind schedule: Adda in Fishtown is shooting for October, Ayat near Rittenhouse Square is aiming for November, and Brunch Bulls in Point Breeze is targeted for December. (Although this year has seen its share of closings, especially among longstanding restaurants, each of last fall’s restaurants is still open.)
Brand new and notable
Aogami (4343 Main St.): Underground sushi is coming to Manayunk as chef Tom LoMonte joins chef Moon Krapukthong to offer a 16-course omakase in a 20-seat BYOB setting beneath Krapukthong’s Yanako and neighboring Chabaa Thai Bistro, starting Sept. 25. LoMonte — a veteran of Zama, Izakaya by Yanaga, Pod, and Yanaga Kappo Izakaya — will lead the omakases at 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; reserved sushi-bar seatings will run Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays alongside hand rolls and à la carte service. LoMonte describes the atmosphere as energetic and less formal than typical omakase counters. Upstairs, Yanako will continue serving rolls, sushi platters, udon, tempura, and yakitori.
The Buttery (1099 Germantown Ave.): Malvern-based bakery and cafe the Buttery is preparing a Philadelphia location at Piazza Alta in Northern Liberties, near Scusi and Terra Grill. It recently opened a Bryn Mawr location and expanded its original Malvern operation into dinner service with Neapolitan pizza and shareable plates. An opening date has not yet been shared.
Nick & Nora’s Oyster Dive (560 Stokes Rd., Medford): Michael and Jeniphur Pasquarello (La Chinesca, Piccolina) are bringing a raw bar and American kitchen to a corner space with a large deck at Ironstone Village. The broader menu will include steak frites, burgers, fish, vegetables, and small plates, says Michael Pasquarello, who hopes to open in 60 to 90 days.
Chef Chaz Brown (left) is partnered with his brother Clifford Brown (center) and John Skeele in Rumblefish, 1700 N. Third St.Mike Prince
Rumblefish(1700 N. Third St.): Chef Chaz Brown is targeting November for this 900-square-foot, fast-casual Caribbean fish-fry restaurant at Third Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Brown — a Trinidadian American chef whose resumé includes Nobu, Le Bec-Fin, Fatty Crab, and television’s Top Chef — will focus on invasive species such as lionfish, snakehead, green crab, and Chesapeake Bay blue catfish when available. (The catfish turned heads at the recent Oxtail Exchange at Forman Arts Initiative.) Brown uses gluten-free corn flour with Trinidadian spice blends and serves the fish on po’boy-style rolls baked by Angelo’s Bakery in Conshohocken. The mostly takeout operation will have counter seating, a 25-seat covered patio, slaws, fries, sea-moss drinks, and Solo Kola Champagne.
Pennsylvania suburbs
Alessandro’s Enoteca (915 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr): Alex Fiorello’s third restaurant will bring a bar-focused Italian concept to the former Enoteca Tredici space in Bryn Mawr Village in mid-to-late October. Fiorello and culinary director Matt Arcomone, whose resumé includes Osteria, Vetri, and Palladino’s, are planning house-made pastas, wood-fired pizzas, live-fire cooking, and dry-aged meats. It’s intended to have a stronger evening and bar scene than Fiorello’s Wayne restaurants.
Bruzi (281 Montgomery Ave., Bala Cynwyd): Two couples with Calabrian roots plan to open this Southern Italian restaurant in the former Aldar Bistro in late fall. Expect house-made pastas and Calabrian dishes such as fusilli with slow-cooked meat sauce, baked lamb, and grilled tuna, plus cocktails and an opening list of about 100 Italian wines.
Capperini (137 S. Easton Rd., Glenside): Eastern Montco will get an upscale Italian-Mediterranean destination with a liquor license from Ilya Vorobey and partners including members of the team behind Capri in Queen Village. Vorobey is aiming for October or November.
Casa de Fehu, 482 Jacksonville Rd., Hatboro.Michael Klein / Staff
Casa de Fehu (482 Jacksonville Rd., Hatboro): Hatboro couple Anthony Shalamov and Anastasia De Roy are developing this polished restaurant with European-inspired cooking and an upscale atmosphere, possibly with a tie-in to a local brewery that would allow alcoholic drinks. Shalamov is targeting an October soft opening.
Cecilia (266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport): The team behind Blue Bell Inn and the Copper Crow is just about ready to open this contemporary American bar-restaurant in the extensively renovated former Taphouse 23. The roomy property includes a large patio and a wood-burning oven. The menu emphasizes familiar American dishes, positioning this as an all-purpose neighborhood destination.
Donatelli’s (1 Washington Ave., Newtown): Restaurateur Habib Troudi, who owns Panache and Ristorante Castelloin Blue Bell, is behind a top-to-bottom overhaul of the former Rocco’s at the Brick in downtown Newtown. He said he is hoping to open the Italian steakhouse in October.
Rendering of the Garden by Pieri Winery, 127 E. Elm St., in Conshohocken.Courtesy of Christina Pieri
The Garden by Pieri Winery (127 E. Elm St., Conshohocken): Winery owner Christina Pieri and restaurateur Brian Pieri (StoneRose, Bar Lucca, Cerdo) are targeting a mid-October opening of their year-round indoor-outdoor restaurant beside the Schuylkill River Trail, an offshoot of Christina’s Coopersburg winery. A wood-fired kitchen will serve seasonal American food, including brick-oven pizzas, focaccia sandwiches, salads, steaks, and fish, at lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday. The property will include a covered patio, fire tables, a turf area, and pickleball and bocce courts.
The Hungry Hub (11 S. Orange St., Media): Media native Cassidy Moretti and her mother, Glenda, are taking over the former Rivalry Cafe with a family-run breakfast and lunch operation. The Hungry Hub also plans later hours and a late-night menu, broadening its role beyond that of a conventional daytime cafe. An Oct. 1 opening has been announced.
The Iron Oven (58 S. York Rd., Hatboro): Alex Nalbandian’s Southampton bar-restaurant — known for an expansive American menu, cocktails, craft beer, brunch, and dishes ranging from wings and burgers to flatbreads and entrees — is adding a second location in eastern Montco: the former Ross & Co. He’s aiming at November.
Lazy Dog(160 N. Gulph Rd., King of Prussia): The California-based bar, known for Rocky Mountain lodge imagery and a broad American menu, is targeting late 2026 at the King of Prussia Mall.
Luna (129 E. Butler Ave., Ambler): FineLine Hospitality, which recently opened Academy Grill in Fort Washington, is behind a stylish revamp of Dettera in downtown Ambler. Chef Marie Lavizzo-Mourey will base her menu on the 20-plus countries bordering the Mediterranean. The project is on track for fall.
Martini & Roz(523 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne): Fearless Restaurants is turning Wayne’s former Bertucci’s into an ambitious, 300-seat Southern Italian restaurant named for founder Marty Grims’ parents, Martin and Roslyn. Menu will include crudo, oysters, steaks and chops, wood-fired pizzas, house-made pastas, and charcuterie. It will feature two open kitchens, a cheese cave, a tasting counter, and extensive outdoor seating.
Maru (2922 Conestoga Rd., Glenmoore): David Backhus and the team behind the former Oori restaurants are in the early days of a fast-casual Korean-inspired restaurant at their former Collective Coffee & Bakery. Think Korean fried chicken sandwiches, wings, and tenders, supplemented by mochi doughnuts and specialty Collective coffee.
Nudy’s Cafe (122 Park Ave., Willow Grove): Prolific suburban breakfast-and-lunch operator Ray Nudy hopes for late September for his latest diner, across from Marshalls in Willow Grove.
Old Friend (166 E. Lancaster Ave., Wayne): Childhood friends Larry Kagan and Chas McFeely are behind this contemporary American grill, with former Fork executive chef Sam Henzy leading the kitchen. The 86-seat restaurant will center on live-fire cooking in a Josper oven, with dry-aged fish, poultry, and larger proteins intended for sharing. Its compact wine list will be closely tied to the food. A late-fall opening is planned in the Apartments at Wayne Station.
Opus (201 Birch St., Kennett Square): Square Roots Collective will open this 125-seat New American restaurant Sept. 11 in the former temporary home of Hank’s Place, next to the Artelo hotel. Executive chef Matthew Anderson, formerly of Longwood Gardens and Winterthur, plans seasonal dishes, such as Kennett Square mushroom bisque, butternut squash agnolotti, herb gnocchi, and dayboat scallops. The two-story space includes a cocktail lounge, terraces, and work by local artists. Profits will support community projects and nonprofits.
Salt (840 W. Lancaster Ave., Devon): Rich Kim of North Wales’ acclaimed Salt predicts late December for his redevelopment of Devon’s former La Jonquille and Shiraz property into a second Korean barbecue concept, followed in 2027 by Yugo, a carousel sushi restaurant, upstairs.
The Still on State (18 W. State St., Doylestown): Only days open at the Doylestown Inn, this Irish pub-inspired bar/restaurant fills the former Hattery Stove & Still space; it’s paired with an on-site microdistillery called the Tilted Brim.
Taco Heart (120 Coulter Ave., Ardmore): Nano Wheedan is bringing his South Philadelphia breakfast-taco shop to the Ardmore Farmers Market, its first expansion beyond its East Passyunk-area home. Expect Austin-style flour tortillas and breakfast tacos built around eggs, potatoes, beans, bacon, brisket, and house salsas. Opening is set for Oct. 5.
Top Dog Cocktails (110 E. State St., Kennett Square, and 2012 Frankford Ave., Fishtown): Ken Smuckler’s cocktail company plans two vinyl listening rooms this fall inspired by Japanese jazz kissas. Kennett Square’s 750-square-foot space partners with local music venue Kennett Flash, while Fishtown’s 350-square-foot flagship — arguably the neighborhood’s smallest bar — will feature a 15-seat bar, two-turntable DJ station, and retail.
Tusk (50 N. Main St., Doylestown): Mike and Joy Grafenstine, owners of Roberts Block in Glenside and Bonnet Lane Family Restaurant in Abington, are taking over the former Water’s Edge wine bar, combining the martini-and-wine-bar airs of Roberts Block with approachable upscale American comfort food. Target is October.
Vintner’s Table (24 Cricket Ave., Ardmore): Andrea and Marco Folino, behind Kutztown’s Folino Estate Winery, are opening a third location of their Italian-inspired wine bar, salumeria, and lifestyle boutique in downtown Ardmore in October.
New Jersey suburbs
Akira 70 Omakase (249 Marlton Pike, Cherry Hill): Ming “Frank” Zheng is expanding his Japanese holdings — he owns Akira Sushi in Voorhees and Moorestown — with an omakase experience in a former fur salon.
Banjara Indian Bistro (687-689 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd., Sicklerville): Vaneet Chopra, whose family operates Cross Culture in Haddonfield and previously ran Banjara in Chestnut Hill, is bringing the Banjara name to Sicklerville; its dine-in starts Thursday.
Freckled Jawn Brewing(1003 N. Evergreen Ave., Woodbury): Woodbury residents John Wagner and Colleen Gibson are taking over the former Eight & Sand Beer Co., which closed in June after 10 years. Targeting the first week of October, the brewery will introduce new branding and a fresh lineup of approachable beers, emphasizing natural and locally sourced ingredients when possible.
Irishtown Steaks (155 S. Burlington St., Gloucester City): Donkey’s Placealumnus Dave Murphy is targeting Halloween for his steak shop, joining recent Gloucester City entries Lillo’s and Pudge’s Pub. Murphy will use rolls from Boaggio’s, which has a bakery in town.
Penny’s Bagels (212 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield): Chris Fetfatzes and the Happy Monday Hospitality Group (Wine Dive, Grace & Proper) are developing this long-delayed bagel shop in downtown Haddonfield, now with an October target.
Pizzeria Cusumano (872 Haddon Ave., Collingswood): Announced back in September 2021, this passion project from South Jersey’s Sal Cusumano is finally about to start offering his Roman-inspired squares and neo-New York rounds, but “I don’t want to box myself into a certain style.” Cusumano, a third-generation pizzaiolo, is planning a small shop with limited seating. This week, he said it will open in October for sure.
Philadelphia
Adda (1700 Frankford Ave.): New York’s Unapologetic Foods — behind Dhamaka, Semma, and the original Adda — is bringing its energetic Indian cooking to Fishtown, across from the 19125 post office. Expect regional dishes in an informal setting, continuing the restaurant group’s practice of pushing beyond familiar Indian American standards. Originally expected in fall 2025, the Philadelphia location is now targeting an October opening.
Ayat (2021 Sansom St.): Abdul Elenani’s New York-based Palestinian restaurant — first announced in spring 2024 — is looking at a November opening in the former Roxy Theater near Rittenhouse Square. Ayat is known for generous portions of mansaf, maklouba, mezze, grilled meats, and other homestyle Palestinian dishes.
The bar at Bar Caviar, 256 S. 16th St.Kenneth Schutz
Bar Caviar (256 S. 16th St.): Opening in early October in the Dwight D Hotel in Rittenhouse, this bar will pair caviar and seafood with 50 varieties of Champagne and a full wine program in a setting that’s more neighborhood than hushed luxury lounge. Executive chef Greg Vassos’ contemporary American menu, informed by classical French technique and Japanese precision, will feature raw-bar selections, caviar-focused dishes, and seasonal small plates. The restaurant also will operate Parallel, a caviar program emphasizing careful sourcing and extended maturation. In 2027, Vassos plans to follow with Fall Line, a Mid-Atlantic-focused tasting-menu restaurant.
Brunch Bulls (1638 W. Passyunk Ave.): Brothers Derrick “Dee” Long and Jarrick “Jakk” Long are behind this all-day brunch/dinner/dessert restaurant in Point Breeze. They say they’ll be open by December.
Call Your Mother (262 S. 19th St., 1500 Frankford Ave., 12th and Sansom Streets): The lively, Washington-based “Jew-ish” bagel chain is making a three-location push into Philadelphia, starting this week with its Fishtown debut. Menu includes bagel sandwiches, schmears, latkes, coffee, and deli-inspired specials.
Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese (2015 Walnut St.): This week, chef Carolyn Nguyen opens her deeply personal successor to Revolution Taco, which she co-owned in the space for a decade. Her menu brings together her family’s Vietnamese cooking, the seafood boils and Southern food of her Louisiana childhood, French culinary technique, and the freewheeling flavor combinations that defined her earlier ventures. The 33-seat restaurant serves dinner, and alcohol, in a spare, contemporary dining room.
Corte (1175 Ludlow St.):Corio partners Ryan Mulholland, chef David Feola, and James Smith are taking over the former Mulherin’s Pizzeria at East Market, between Iron Hill Brewery and Mi Vida. Feola will lead a menu built around house-made pastas plus proteins, vegetables, and small plates cooked in the large Mugnaini wood-burning oven. Mulholland will oversee daily operations and oversee an Old World-leaning wine list and cocktails inspired partly by forgotten recipes from century-old books. The dark-wood, earth-toned restaurant is targeting a fall opening.
DiDi (3748 Lancaster Ave.): DanDan owners Kevin and Catherina “Cat” Huang say they are “within a month or two” of opening their fast-casual pan-Asian concept at the Triad apartment building in Powelton Village. DiDi will join Kabobeesh, Karak Cha House, Shibam Coffee, Two Locals Brewing, and other businesses in the growing complex at 38th and Lancaster.
Divers Club (733 S. Fourth St.): Queen Village is in line to get a neighborhood wine bar from Susan Freeman, Chris Fetfatzes, and Heather Annechiarico (Grace & Proper, Wine Dive) in a former hair salon that sits on the same stretch as Famous 4th Street, Southwark, Ambra, and Fitz on 4th. Fetfatzes describes the mood as “dark, scrappy, and European — somewhere between a Paris backstreet wine bar and a graffitied Berlin hangout.”
Eggcetera Haus (625 S. Sixth St.): Husband-and-wife team Rey Tamaka and Vina Kencana soon will turn the former Redcrest Kitchen into an all-day bar-restaurant. Tamaka, previously the chef at an Old City brunch restaurant, plans breakfast, lunch, and dinner, moving from specialty coffee and morning dishes into pastas, steaks, cocktails, and comfort food at night. The couple expects daily service, giving the Queen Village-Bella Vista border another full-day neighborhood option.
Field Day (923 N. Second St.): James Beard Award-winning bartender and author Danny Childs and his wife, Katie, have a fall opening targeted for their casual regional cocktail bar in Northern Liberties, next to Cescaphe Ballroom. Childs’ drinks will use locally farmed, foraged, and fermented ingredients. Executive chef Melissa McGrath, known for her work at the idled Sweet Amalia Market & Kitchen, will offer Pennsylvania Dutch-inspired snacks, sandwiches, and tomato pies. Highballs, house-made sodas, boozy gelati, and walk-in seating will help keep the mood informal.
Habibi Supper Club (1515 E. Passyunk Ave.): Miled Finianos is giving his itinerant Lebanese dinner series a permanent home on East Passyunk — possibly by the end of year — serving late breakfast and lunch before he offers ticketed, multicourse suppers.
HYO (1222 Walnut St.): Nightlife veteran Justin Jordan plans an October opening for this Korean tabletop barbecue restaurant behind Hearsay, his indoor-outdoor sidewalk bar and listening lounge. Guests will enter HYO through a phone booth inside Hearsay. The restaurant is part of Jordan’s multilevel entertainment complex, which also includes Celine and the forthcoming Chancellor Room event space and karaoke lounge.
Jean (161 W. Girard Ave.): Emmett chef Evan Snyder and partner Julian van der Tak are going upstairs with a 15-seat tasting menu restaurant opening this fall. Snyder and chef de cuisine Antonio Pizzo will prepare a 12-course menu centered on a 7-foot wood-burning hearth, drawing on Algeria, Tunisia, coastal Morocco, and the southern Mediterranean for culinary influences. A tagine will roast throughout dinner before being served family-style.
Kato (1832 Frankford Ave.): Mei Meichef-owner Jay Ho is taking over the former Izakaya Fishtown space for a restaurant inspired by his Taiwanese father and the food Ho grew up eating. Influences from Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese cooking will broaden the menu. Ho, who hopes to open in late fall, plans to retain the front bar while replacing the rear sushi counter with additional seating that can double as a private dining area.
Lovat Square(184 E. Evergreen Ave.): Former Four Seasons sommelier Damien Graef and journalist Robyn Semien opened this Chestnut Hill wine shop and tasting room in February, offering small-production bottles, wines by the glass, and light fare. The couple, who also own Brooklyn’s Bibber & Bell wine shop, will debut a full dinner menu by the end of September.
Macaluso’s (3101 S. 13th St.): Realtor Joel Gruenke and restaurateur Mark D’Andrea, long-ago roommates at Valley Forge Military Academy, are looking at an early October opening of this white-tablecloth Italian restaurant at 13th Street and Packer Avenue, near the sports complex. D’Andrea’s family owns RoadHouse in Staten Island, N.Y. Gruenke says the moderately priced menu will stick to traditional Italian cooking and offer a full bar. Parking will be available across the street.
Mylar Bar (1636-38 S. Ninth St.): Hospitality veterans Liv Arterbridge and Gina Piccari are turning the former Dino’s Party Center into a festive neighborhood bar inspired by the building’s history. They promise something nostalgic, playful, and deliberately unserious. Drinks will include martinis, punches, classics, and draft beer. Chef Colin White, formerly of Sally and Emmett, will oversee shareable “party snacks,” larger plates, and desserts available late.
Nippy’s on South (1312 South St.): Nurse and first-time restaurateur Nikia Peterson has purchased the former Ms. Tootsie’s building for an ambitious restaurant and bar. Peterson plans a polished setting with seafood towers, steaks, Asian and Caribbean influences, a substantial happy hour, and weekend brunch. The project will revive a prominent South Street property that had remained closed since restaurateur KeVen Parker’s death in 2021.
O’Morrey’s (1720 Sansom St.): Chefs Biff Gottehrer and Kenjiro Omori are developing a cocktail bar on the former site of Genji, the Japanese restaurant created by Omori’s father. The name is a cheeky rendering of the Omori family name. Plans call for a comfortable neighborhood bar in the spirit of the Ripplewood, where both chefs work, with cocktails and a serious food component. Their second joint project, Tako Taco, is months away at the former Bing Bing Dim Sum in South Philadelphia.
Palm Vintage (1414 S. Penn Square): Houston Yang and Mike Beja, who opened this day-to-night cafe and cocktail bar across from City Hall in the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, are close to expanding into a nighttime scene with cocktails, sushi, oysters, caviar, and light food in a lush, tropical-inspired room meant to offer an escape from Center City.
Panco (2300 S. Croskey St.): Chef Ryo Igarashi, whose background includes Tokio Global and Maru Global (noted for its takoyaki balls), is behind a corner shop in West Passyunk whose menu will focus on Japanese cutlets. He says it’s opening soon.
Philly Curio (2240 Frankford Ave.): Tattoo Arts Convention founder Troy Timpel is creating an intimate Kensington restaurant-bar around his private collection of curiosities (think tribal masks, skeletal displays, taxidermy, and glass-topped tables containing preserved animals). Inspired partly by Savannah’s Alligator Soul, Timpel has discussed a Cajun-Creole menu with small plates and unconventional proteins such as rattlesnake. Drinks are expected to include cocktails, wine, bottled beer, and limited drafts. Target is November.
Philly Po’Boy (102 W. Berks St.): Brothers Chris and Greg Lynch are bringing a taste of New Orleans to the storefront beneath the Berks station of the Market-Frankford Line. Chris spent years cooking in New Orleans, while Greg’s Philadelphia background includes Starr Restaurants and LMNO. Plans call for classic powdered-sugar-dusted beignets, gumbo, and a mix of classic and specialty po’boys like fried shrimp, oysters and roast beef “debris,” plus fries, Creole potato salad, and café au lait from coffee roasted by Applied Arts in New Orleans.
Santé Social(1546 E. Passyunk Ave.): Sommelier Daniel Solway is giving his roving dinner series a permanent home across from the Singing Fountain. The approximately 30-seat space will function less like a conventional restaurant than a flexible hospitality venue, hosting wine dinners, tastings, classes, collaborations, private events, and some walk-in service. Cocktails are being developed with Danny Childs of Slow Drinks and Field Day, while changing chefs and collaborators may shape the food programming.
Somedays Bakery (1601 Walnut St.): Hand-laminated croissants are the foundation of this Queens-rooted bakery, which deals in sandwiches, salads, soft serve, and coffee. It’s targeting the end of the month.
Thalassa (918 N. 28th St.): Matt Maltepes is looking at late October or early November for his Greek-inspired cafe in Fairmount that will serve baklava, croissants, and house-made ice cream in flavors that change weekly. Savory offerings will include small plates such as feta grilled cheese with honey, avocado toast, and bagels with cream cheese. The drinks menu will feature European-style coffee preparations, including frappes and Freddo espresso.
Looking ahead
Two major projects are now on the docket for January, as the owners don’t want to compete with the holiday-season madness:the Pelican Club, Stephen Starr’s flashy Greek-themed restaurant taking shape in the former Devon Seafood Grill on Rittenhouse Square, and the yet-to-be-named “punk French” restaurantthat chefs Justin Bogle and Arthur Cavaliere are creating at the former Winnie’s Manayunk.
The long-closed Mermaid Bar in Mount Airy will retain its name under the new ownership of pizzaiolo Dan Gutter and business partner Alex Carbonell of Circles & Squares and Pizza Plus. The project, announced earlier this year, is aiming at a summer 2027 rollout.
The unofficial last weekend of Philly’s summer pop music schedule keeps the heat on. There’s Don Toliver and Kacey Musgraves in South Philly, Kehlani in Camden, Lily Allen in Fairmount Park, Los Lobos in King of Prussia, and the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival in South Jersey.
Thursday Sept. 3
Los Lobos
The great Chicano band Los Lobos is the focus of Native Sons, a documentary that is now making the film festival rounds. It shares a name with the band’s 2021 album of songs of Los Angeles. That album was produced by the band’s one non-Los Angeleno: Cheltenham-native sax and keyboard player Steve Berlin. So this Montgomery County gig is a hometown show of sorts for the band that — if justice is ever served — will one day wind up in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 7 p.m., Concerts Under the Stars, 175 W. Valley Forge Road, King of Prussia, concertsunderthestarskop.com.
Don Toliver performs during the BET Awards on Sunday, June 28, 2026, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)John Locher
Don Toliver
The Houston rapper born Caleb Zackery Toliver brought his “Octane Tour” to South Philly in May and already, he’s back. It’s the second “Nitrous” leg of the trek for Toliver’s Octane album, which features Teezo Touchdown and The Odyssey actor Travis Scott. Chase B. is also on the bill. 8 p.m., XfinityMobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com
Friday Sept. 4
Kacey Musgraves
Kacey Musgraves comes back to country on Middle of Nowhere, the Grammy-winning Texas songwriter’s excellent seventh album. Willie Nelson, Billy Strings, and Philly Music Fest headliner Gregory Alan Isakov drop in. Musgraves also finds common ground with fellow Lone Star State singer Miranda Lambert, with whom she had a longstanding beef, on “Horses and Divorces.” Expect this show to turn into a Dolly Parton celebration. Flatland Cavalry opens. 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com
Dan Tyminski headlines the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival in Pilesgove, N.J., on Saturday, Sept. 5.Courtesy of the Artist
Friday Sept. 4 to Sunday Sept. 6
Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival
Founded at the urging of bluegrass titans Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley in 1972, the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival is a Labor Day weekend tradition that endures.
This year’s three days of music kicks off Friday in Salem County in South Jersey with Kathy Mattea, the country-bluegrass singer who hosts public radio’s Mountain Stage, as headliner. Friday’s lineup also includes the Price Sisters — singing Ohio siblings Lauren and Leanna Price — as well as Virginia guitarist Junior Sisk and the Travelin’ McCourys, sons of bluegrass legend and frequent DVBF headliner Del McCoury.
On Saturday, Dan Tyminski gets top billing. The former member of Alison Krauss’ Union Station has had two moments of extraordinary popularity for a bluegrass musician: 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, on which he sang “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow,” and “Hey Brother,” an unlikely 2013 hit with Swedish dance music producer Avicii.
New Orleans street band Tuba Skinny at the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival in 2022. The band will return to play the Pilesgrove, N.J., fest on Saturday.Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival
New Orleans ragtime street band Tuba Skinny also plays Saturday, as do Critten Hollow, Danny Paisley & Southern Grass, and the Gibson Brothers. The festival winds down Sunday with Black Eyed Suzies — self-described as “the Bluegrass Ladies of Maryland” — as well as Tennessee quintet Blue Highway, Chicago duo Special Consensus, Boone, N.C., roots band Burnett Sisters, and Nashville quintet Appalachian Road Show. Gates open at 8 a.m. each day. Salem County Fairgrounds, 735 Route 40, Pilesgrove, N.J., delawarevalleybluegrass.org.
Kehlani performing during the second day of The Roots Picnic at the Belmont Plateau on May 31, 2026, in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Saturday Sept. 5
Kehlani
Kehlani had the biggest hit of their career last year with “Folded,” which was co-written with Philly producer Andre Harris and won two Grammys. The R&B vocalist celebrated with a performance at The Roots Picnic, and now they’re back for a headlining show in Camden on a tour that includes Durand Bernard, TheArti$t, Wahseel, and Dixson. 7 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, Camden, freedommortgagepavilion.com.
Lily Allen at the Met Philly in April during her show “Lily Allen performs West End Girl.” She returns to play the Highmark Mann on Sunday.Christina Bryson
Sunday Sept. 6
Lily Allen performs ‘West End Girl’
Lily Allen struck a nerve with last year’s West End Girl, a song suite inspired by the dissolution of her marriage to actor David Barbour, that resonated big time with an audience all too familiar with shady doings by unfaithful partners. Earlier this year, the British songwriter, who has displayed a winningly wicked wit going back to her 2006 Alright, Still?, performed West End Girl album in order in a terrific, if brief, show at the Met. Sunday’s show was scheduled for the Xfinity Mobile Arena but moved to the Mann. 8 p.m., TC Pavilion at the Highmark Mann, 52901 Parkside Ave., highmarkmann.com.
Philly tribute to the Clash
Many, including me, have argued that the four sides of London Calling, the 1979 double album by the British punk band the Clash, add up to the greatest album of all time. One side each goes to a Philly band: Citizens Riot, No Good Crowd, the Big Trip, and 2 Tones Clash. Guests on this tribute show include Hannah Taylor, Spoon Ferguson, John Faye, Cowmuddy, Phil Dunn, and Adam Weiner of Low Cut Connie (also playing a Free at Noon in Ardmore on Friday.) 6 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., ardmoremusichall.com
Slowey and the Boats
Fab Philly instrumental quintet Slowey and the Boats’ breezy, light-on-its-feet sound is built around steel guitarist Isaac Stanford. The band’s delightful Slowey After Dark swings sweetly, using the Hawaiian origins of Stanford’s instrument as a starting point. 2 p.m. Wissahickon Brewing Company, 3705 W. School House Lane, sloweyandtheboats.com.
Peter Hook & the Light play Union Transfer on Monday.Adam Kennedy
Monday Sept. 7
Peter Hook & the Light
Bassist Peter Hook was a key player in Manchester, England, in the late 1970s and 1980s as cofounder of Joy Division, New Order, and Durutti Column. Since 2020, he’s played the music of Joy Division and New Order, with his bassist son Jack, who frees him up to sing. He’ll perform New Order’s 2001 album Get Ready, plus pull from the JD and NO catalogs. 8 p.m., Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., utphilly.com
Tuesday Sept. 8
Social Distortion
Longtime Southern California punk band Social Distortion is in fine form on Born to Kill, its first album in 15 years. Leader Mike Ness sounds refreshed after a battle with tonsil cancer, and the band is pushed hard by drummer David Hidalgo Jr., son of the coleader of Los Lobos. Social D’s fellow SoCal punks the Descendents and young Australian punks the Chats also perform. 8 p.m., themetphilly.com
Gary Clark Jr.
At Bruce Springsteen’s Music of America concerts in the spring, Gary Clark Jr. covered “Power of Soul” by Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s Texas shuffle “Further on up the Road.” Those two songs hint at the range of the Austin-based Clark Jr., who has been Texas’ leading guitar hero since he gained nationwide renown with Blak & Blu in 2012. Dumpstaphunk and DJ Kurupt open. 8 p.m. Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside, Keswicktheatre.com
DJ Jazzy Jeff performing at The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia, on May 30, 2026.Tyger Williams
Wednesday Sept. 9
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Jeff Townes has had himself a Semiquincentennial summer. At The Roots Picnic, the West Philly-born and -raised DJ put on a turntablism clinic on Belmont Plateau. Then Townes teamed with Will Smith and The Roots to shut down the Philly 250th celebration on the Ben Franklin Parkway in the wee hours of the morning. Now he’ll display his musical mastery at a Longwood Gardens illuminated Fountain Party. 8 p.m.,1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, longwoodgardens.org.
New Zealand singer Aldous Harding plays Underground Arts on Wednesday.Emma Wallbanks
Aldous Harding
New Zealand songwriter Aldous Harding is touring behind Train on the Island, the fourth album she’s recorded with PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish producing. The songs are in keeping with Harding’s reputation as an inscrutable, willfully strange songwriter but are also rock solid psychedelic folk tunes. Sam Burton opens. 8 p.m., Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., undergroundarts.org.
Eleven years ago, Carlton Williams was, to some, a symbol of government dysfunction.
He was leading the troubled Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, an agency engulfed in controversy over safety lapses and staffing issues following the deadly 2013 Market Street building collapse. The city controller called on Williams to resign, and Jim Kenney, then a candidate for mayor, promised that he’d get rid of him.
And yet Williams remained.
In July, he was named Philadelphia’s managing director, one of the most powerful positions in city government, second only to the mayor. He is assuming responsibility for L&I again, plus dozens of other agencies and thousands of employees who carry out the day-to-day operations that make the city run.
It is perhaps an improbable outcome for a longtime city employee who absorbed a level of scrutiny that could have easily ended his career.
But Williams proved durable, cycling through leadership positions across several departments while establishing himself as a City Hall insider. He has politically powerful allies and a reputation among City Council members as someone who will quickly act on their needs. That goes a long way with 17 politicians who value responsiveness and omnipresence, traits that they did not see in Williams’ predecessor, Adam K. Thiel.
Newly appointed Managing Director Carlton Williams interacts with city officials during a correctional officer graduation ceremony at FOP Lodge 5 in Philadelphia on Friday.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Perhaps most importantly for Williams’ ascent: he is all-in on Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
The ties between Parker, 53, and Williams, 57, stretch back to their childhoods in Northwest Philly — he played football for the Oak Lane Wildcats, and she was a cheerleader. The team remains a part of both of their identities: Williams has led the Oak Lane Youth Association for 20 years, and the mayor often says proudly that she is a “Wildcat for life.”
Later in life, both found allies in the storied Northwest Coalition, a powerful political family. Williams said that he has known for 20 years that Parker would one day sit atop City Hall. And he most recently led Parker’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, overseeing the implementation of some of her key campaign promises.
“I’m bringing the ‘One Philly’ brand to the managing director’s office,” Williams said in an interview, echoing the mayor’s oft-used slogan. “Not to say it wasn’t being done under my predecessor. But I want to make sure it’s completely aligned with the mayor’s goals, because I believe in that vision.”
New Philadelphia Managing Director Carlton Williams speaks at the podium after being announced by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during a July 28 news conference at City Hall.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
His appointment as managing director marks a new stage for the Parker administration that has seen significant turnover at its highest levels. And it is indicative of what Parker values in her inner circle: vast institutional knowledge and loyalty.
For the mayor, trust in Williams’ ability to operate within the bureaucracy and advance her priorities may outweigh his mixed record of management.
“Whenever we had a crisis of any kind in this city, he has been on my speed dial,” Parker said when she announced Williams’ appointment last month. “No matter who’s been leading, I’ve always called him for his counsel.”
Overseeing ‘a very broken’ L&I
Parker’s bet on Williams would have seemed almost unimaginable a decade ago.
A year after Williams was appointed to lead L&I, an excavator demolishing a wall on Market Street in Center City toppled the building onto an adjacent Salvation Army store, killing six people and injuring a dozen more. The inspector responsible for the demolition project died by suicide a week later.
Calls for reform abounded and questions swirled about whether the city’s agencies were responsible. There were multiple investigations launched and commissions convened to probe the disaster, and within days, Council members were pressing Williams to institute reforms that would bolster safety on private construction sites.
In response, Williams sought to hire more inspectors, increase their training, raise demolition standards, and create new specialized units within L&I.
Today, he says the collapse on Market Street was “one of the saddest moments” of his time in government.
“You have to lead through some tough challenges when you’re a leader,” he said. “You don’t get to pick and choose when you lead.”
In this June 2013 file photo, then-Philadelphia Commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections Carlton Williams (second from right) waits in line to attend a memorial service for Anne Bryan, who was among the victims of the Market Street building collapse.JOSEPH KACZMAREK / Associated Press
By fall 2015, then-City Controller Alan Butkovitz was calling on Williams to be fired. He said at the time that L&I had long been troubled, but that his office’s audit of the agency found that Williams had not made enough improvements.
In this 2013 photo, then-Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison (left) and then-Commissioner of Licenses and Inspections Carlton Williams listen to members of City Council during a hearing.TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
Butkovitz now says that he blames former Mayor Michael Nutter instead, and that Williams was “caught between the mayor and me.” He said Williams had promised to provide the controller’s office with documents to assist in an audit, and then did not.
“I took it out on Carlton Williams at the time,” Butkovitz said.“His inclination was to cooperate with me, but at the time, it looked to me like duplicity. And I don’t think it was. I think he was overridden by higher authority.”
Nutter did not respond to a request for comment.
Estelle Richman, a former Philadelphia managing director who has held a variety of roles in local, state and federal government, said L&I is “one of the most difficult city departments.” She noted that past agency leaders have been pushed out, fired, indicted, and jailed.
“We can go back and say ‘maybe [Williams] should have done this or that,’ but the reality is it was a very broken department,” she said. “I think he did more to try to get it restabilized and back on track than any other commissioner at that time could have done.”
‘You have to be accessible’
Before taking the helm at L&I, Williams was a career bureaucrat.
Born in North Philly and raised in West Oak Lane, Williams started with the city at age 19, working in Fairmount Park as one of the first-ever members of the Philadelphia Ranger Corps. The program paid for part of his tuition to attend Temple University and marked his foray into public service.
Jeffrey Montague, who led the Philadelphia Ranger Corp. and has been a mentor to Williams for decades, said that at a young age, Williams showed potential.
“He didn’t try to fit in. He always stood out on his own independence,” Montague said. “He wasn’t trying to fit into a crowd.”
After working as a ranger, Williams spent three years running a Harrisburg youth program for AmeriCorps — the first and last time Williams lived outside the city.
He returned to Philadelphia to work for the Parks and Recreation Department, rising to become a deputy commissioner in both the recreation and streets departments.
Then came the four-year stint leading L&I, and when Kenney took office in 2016, he moved Williams back to his old job as a deputy in the streets and sanitation department.
But it didn’t last. Five months after Kenney took office, the streets commissioner was arrested for assault. Williams ascended to the role, and suddenly, the person who Kenney said he wouldn’t retain to lead L&I was in charge of one of Philadelphia’s most visible departments, overseeing transportation and sanitation operations citywide.
Carlton Williams, then the director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, speaks during a news conference at Bigler and South 15th Streets on July 7, 2025.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
It was there where Williams solidified himself as a City Hall fixture. He said that as an administration staffer,he has “one primary that I listen to” — the mayor — but he has always tried to be attentive to Council.
That may be a key difference between Williams and Thiel, his predecessor. Thiel was the former fire commissioner and a nationally recognized expert in emergency management who was seen as a skilled behind-the-scenes operator.
But Council members said thatThiel did not foster close relationships with members of the city’s legislative body who are often conduits between residents and the mayor’s administration.
In addition, Thiel was often absent during major events in the city and he was frequently on leave — he joined the Army Reserve eight months into his tenure, and held several jobs outside city government, including as a consultant and professor.
That was a departure from prior administrations, when the managing director was often the public face of city operations.
On several occasions during the Parker administration, it was Williams who was in the spotlight. As director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, he played a key coordinating role during the eight-day municipal worker strike that halted city services — most visibly, trash pickup.
And he oversaw the city’s response to a severe winter storm earlier this year that left much of the city encased in ice, despite weather emergencies typically falling under the managing director’s purview.
New Philadelphia Managing Director Carlton Williams (left) stands near the former director, Adam Thiel, before an introduction by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during a July 28 news conference at City Hall.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
City Councilmember Anthony Phillips, whose district includes Northwest Philadelphia, said that prior to Thiel’s resignation, members of Council were “gravely concerned” about his frequent leave.Some members said that, in Thiel’s absence, Williams was their primary contact among Parker’s top staff.
“You can’t get certain things done and you can’t expect an efficient and effective city when you’re not present,” Phillips said. “Carlton is going to be the complete opposite of that.”
Williams said that his role as managing director is his only job aside from volunteering.
“It’s a full-time, 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job,” he said. “You have to be accessible.”
Williams’ coziness with elected officials has also drawn criticism.
A former city employee who previously worked for Williams said his relationships with Council amount to a “favor machine.” The staffer spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to preserve relationships.
“There is this cycle of Council getting calls from constituents, like ‘there’s a pothole,’ and then they get it fixed, and that’s the main work,” the former staffer said. “It’s not actually setting up systems that are solving the problems. It’s reacting to them.”
But Williams said some of his proudest achievements have resulted in systemic change: he led the installation of some of the first spraygrounds in the city, overhauled the recycling program, had BigBelly trash cans placed throughout Philadelphia, and started the annual Philly Spring Cleanup.
“He is probably one of the most well-prepared managing directors that the city has had,” Richman said. “He knows not only how operations work within the city departments, he knows the political structure of the city. And I believe a managing director has to know both.”
John Dougherty, the former leader of the politically powerful Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and his ally, ex-Councilmember Bobby Henon, were on trial for bribery and other corruption charges. Prosecutors accused Henon of taking official actions as a Council member at Dougherty’s behest in exchange for a salaried, no-show job with the union.
One of the schemes prosecutors presented during the trial focused on efforts by union officials in 2015 to halt the installation of an MRI machine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a project that was being completed with nonunion labor. Williams, at the time, was at the helm of L&I.
Department of Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams exits federal court on Oct. 12, 2021, after testifying in the John Dougherty and Bobby Henon bribery trial.Thomas Hengge / Staff Photographer
During the 2021 trial, Williams was called to testify. He told the jury that Henon called him in August 2015 to report that an unlicensed contractor was working at CHOP, and that he dispatched an inspector to investigate.
The inspector, Williams testified, issued a stop-work order on the construction of the MRI machine. But he insisted that he did not direct the inspector to do so, and told the jury that responding to complaints from Council members was a routine part of his job.
Ultimately, L&I reversed the stop-work order, and the MRI machine was built.
Prosecutors said Dougherty paid Henon to be his “man on the inside” in City Hall and used the episode at CHOP to establish evidence of a corrupt agreement between the two.
“You heard what happened,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello told the jury during closing arguments. “Henon contacted Carlton Williams, Carlton Williams sent inspectors out and they issued orders — they issued orders to shut the job down.”
But defense attorneys said one public official asking another to take action doesn’t constitute a crime.
“Carlton Williams was the recipient of information just passed on to him about the MRI and the unlicensed contractor,” said defense attorney Brian McMonagle. “That ain’t a crime.”
During the 2023 mayoral campaign, when a half-dozen Democrats could have plausibly won the party’s nomination, Williams nearly left the city.
He said he got a job as the public works director in San Francisco, but before he accepted, Parker won the primary election. Williams decided to stay.
“I wanted to work for Cherelle Parker,” he said. “I believed in her vision.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is applauded by members of her administration at City Hall on July 9, 2025, hours after reaching a tentative contract agreement with District Council 33 leaders overnight, ending the workers’ strike. At left is Carlton Williams, director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris is behind the mayor at right.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Parker took office in 2024 and created a new role: director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Williams would carry out her campaign promise to rid the city of its “Filthadelphia” moniker by implementing twice-weekly trash collection, an expansion of illegal dumping enforcement, and a biannual citywide program to clean every block.
As managing director, Williams’ portfolio will grow substantially. He will be responsible for the city’s response to public health and homelessness, as well as overseeing large agencies like the fire department and the prisons.
He will also coordinate the city’s strategies in Kensington, the beleaguered neighborhood and the site of an open-air drug market that the Parker administration has spent more than two years working to shut down. Williams said there is inherent pressure that comes with being responsible for addressing such long-entrenched issues.
“But I work best under pressure, and so I take that as a badge of honor,” he said.
Williams said he intends to prioritize communication with residents because they “understand that everything can’t get fixed at one time.”
“But at least we can say what needs to be done, when it’s going to [be] fixed, what’s the timeline,” he said. “I manage through the eyes of everyday citizens. I want what they want.”
One of Fusion Gyms’ five locations is in a strip mall in deep South Philly, sandwiched between a children’s clothing shop and a wig store. In the neon-green glow of the gym’s bright lights, seven Philly sushi chefs stretched on rubber mats, preparing to lift weights set to be as heavy as a fully grown bluefin tuna.
The crew — usually just four or five chefs — meets regularly on weekday mornings, loosely led by Albert Zheng, 34, and Dan Santana, 40, who co-own and run Kiku Sushi in South Philadelphia. (Zheng also owns Javelin in Fairmount and is a partner in the upscale Old City omakase restaurant Ogawa.)
Zheng and Santana are there every weekday. The other chefs drop in weekly or monthly. They exercise to stay fit for their physically demanding jobs, but also just to hang out with each other.
On a recent Tuesday morning, a larger-than-normal group gathered, including chefs from Kiku, Ogawa, and Javelin, as well as Kichi Omakase and Yanaga Kappo Izakaya, which houses the omakase counter 637 Sushi Club.
Sushi chefs work out at Fusion Gyms in South Philadelphia in August. They get together regularly, trading both exercise tips and fish intel. From front to back are Dan Santana; Carlos Wills, Joseph Nguyen, Kevin Yanaga, Albert Zhang, Cai Li, and Alex Jiang.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
They also count among their crew sushi chefs from Sagami and Nakama. “We’re less consistent in summer, when our kids are home from school,” Zheng said. “During the school year, we drop the kids off and meet at the gym right after.”
They work out for two, sometimes three hours at a stretch. “The third hour is usually our jaw workout,” joked Zheng. “And it takes longer when there are more people.”
As they wove through Fusion Gyms’ open-floor plan, they compared ingredient lists andtraded tips about good restaurants and where to get salmon for a better price. These are regular topics ofdiscussion, along with mise en place and sourcing.
Sushi chefs work out at Fusion Gyms in South Philadelphia in August. They get together regularly, trading both exercise tips and fish intel. Clockwise from left: Carlos Wills, Albert Zheng, Alex Jiang, Kevin Yanaga, and Joseph Nguyen (on bench).Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Kevin Yanaga, 55, and Joseph Nguyen, 27 — partners in 637 Sushi Club’s Oma Cafe, which pairs fish with coffee — coached the others through Muay Thai moves while trying to convince the other chefs to join them on a November trip to Vietnam for a three-day Oma Cafe pop-up. “I need help prepping,” said Yanaga.
Sushi chefs work out at Fusion Gyms in South Philadelphia. They get together regularly, trading both exercise tips and fish intel. From front to back are Dan Santana, Carlos Wills, and Albert Zheng.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
At one point, Carlos Wills, 26, who helms the omakase counter at Ogawa, pulled up a list of available ingredients sent by his buyer from Japan’s Toyosu Market, the world’s largest wholesale seafood market, and showed Yanaga the $500 tray of uni and $55 60-sheet packet of nori that he was considering ordering once he was done working out.
On this Tuesday, the chefs were also drinking some of the world’s most expensive coffee, brewed by Nguyen. “It’s Orange Geisha and it’s expensive because it’s so rare and it takes half a pound of beans for me to brew one bottle,” explained Nguyen, who also owns and operates the Coffee Connoisseur Club. The Instagram-based subscription club sources beans from Nguyen’s plots in Vietnam and small farmers in South America. “This is a $250 bottle of coffee,” Yanaga interjected.
“I’m getting kumquat, jasmine, and orange notes coming from it,” said Nguyen. “I like saba [mackerel] paired with this, as the fattiness of it pairs with the bright citrusy notes. Saba with a little bit of wasabi.”
There was no saba in sight as Nguyen held a punching bag while Zheng jabbed, gently coaxing him on where to aim his punches. He did the same for Alex Jiang, 42, from Kichi Omakase. “We have a heavy jab over here!” he proclaimed.
Sushi chefs Joseph Nguyen (left) and Albert Zheng work on boxing at Fusion Gyms.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
When the crew moved on to bench-pressing, Wills said, “You can tell people this is how I prepare to lift a tuna.”
As Wills sat back on the weight bench and lifted the bar, he said, “This is a 60-pound tuna.”
The sushi chefs spot one another and cheer each other on: “One more! Half a tuna more! You’re very strong!”
“I thought about bench-pressing the 281-pound tuna we brought into Javelin for the tuna breakdown last week,” said Zheng. “But it was so slippery.”
Sushi chefs like Albert Zheng and Carlos Wills say they work out to stay in shape for lifting fish like this 281-pound Spanish bluefin tuna at Javelin in Fairmount.Kiki Aranita / Staff /
“When we get a tuna like that, it takes eight of us to lift it,” said Yanaga.
“We got a Spanish bluefin last week,” said Wills. “It was $23 per pound, so just over $6,600. Pretty cheap. The Japanese ones are $31 per pound right now.”
“Who wants to do a whole tuna?” asked Zheng as he and Santana added more weights on to a bar for a round of dead lifts.
Nguyen steps up and dead lifts 315 pounds. “We’re hiring him for the next tuna breakdown,” said Wills.
Sushi chefs (from left) Dan Santana, Alex Jiang, and Carlos Wills work out at Fusion Gyms.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerSushi chefs Albert Zheng (left) and Kevin Yanaga work on planks at Fusion Gyms in South Philadelphia.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
In fact, the chefs do often join up for tuna cuttings, helping one another out even if they aren’t in business together.
But mostly, the crew keeps one another accountable at the gym, welcoming each other even if weeks or months pass between workouts.
Once the coffee was consumed and their muscles were spent, the chefs dashed off in different directions, to their respective sushi counters.
