🍦 Stella’s Ice Cream out of Idaho (yes, Idaho) just opened on Front Street in Fishtown/Kensington, and Bea has the early scoop.
🍦 Winners, rocking a feel-good message, is new on South Street in Graduate Hospital. As Kiki Aranita says, Winners’ appeal is more than just the flavors, like Sweet Success S’mores.
🍦Our guide to our favorite ice cream is right here.
Critic Craig LaBan is back from his annual Jersey Shore exploration, and he’s shaking the sand out of his notebook. In Part One of his roundup, he heads to the mainland to find some gems. Read that here.
Looking ahead: Part Two, Craig’s reviews from Long Beach Island and thereabouts, will be online this weekend. On July 11, he’ll share his discoveries from points farther south in Part Three.
Ember & Ash on East Passyunk Avenue will be closed for an undetermined period after smoke and flames shot up through the ventilation last week just after closing time. No injuries were reported.
This weekend will see the debut of Broad Street Beer Garden at LOVE Park, the first phase of a planning reuse of the so-called flying saucer building at 16th and JFK. Here’s the long history of the city landmark.
We munched on fried silverfish that reminded us of French fries in Little Saigon, Argentine empanadas in West Philly, and a vegan po’ boy in Old City that tasted like the original.
Scoops
Intrigue! Albert Zheng, whose holdings include Javelin in Fairmount, is backing a yet-to be-named dual concept on the way to 808 Chestnut St., formerly a Dunkin’ Donuts. In front, the feature will be wagyu omakase, while the rear will be what he calls a Cambodian speakeasy. He says it’s six or seven months out.
Mylar Bar, a cocktail bar inspired by the spirit of South Philly’s Dino’s Party Center, is expected to open later this summer from hospitality veterans Liv Arterbridge and Gina Piccari. They bought the former building at Ninth and Morris Streets where Dino’s sold balloons, decorations, and party supplies for decades before it moved across the street. “We want the whole thing to feel like a party,” Arterbridge said. “Nostalgic, fun, a little silly, intentionally unserious — but not a theme bar,” Piccari said. Cocktails will include martinis, punches, and classic drinks, alongside draft beer and familiar favorites. A full kitchen, led by chef Colin White, formerly of Sally and Emmett, will serve shareable “party snacks” and larger plates. They plan to offer late-night desserts, so food will be available until 1 a.m. with the bar wrapping at 2. Arterbridge, whose resume includes Cry Baby, Poison Heart, and a.bar, met Piccari while working at Boot & Saddle, where Piccari was manager. Piccari is now behind the bar at Le Virtù.
Restaurant report
Sixteen restaurants, bakeries, cafes, and bars — including Lillian’s, shown above — are opening in July. Read on for the rundown.
Penny’s Bagels, on its way (for the last two years) to 212 Kings Highway East in Haddonfield, will hand out 250 red, white, and blue bagels on July 3 at the borough’s parade. The shop is eyeing an August opening, says owner Chris Fetfatzes.
Maru, a fast-casual Korean-inspired restaurant from David Backhus and the team behind the now-closed Oori, is expected to open in August in what is now Collective Coffee & Bakery, which Backhus also owns, at 2922 Conestoga Rd. in Glenmoore. Maru’s menu will feature Korean fried chicken sandwiches, wings, tenders, house-made mochi doughnuts, and specialty coffee, while continuing to serve Collective Coffee and honor existing coffee subscriptions.
Briefly noted
Ota-Ya in Newtown has announced that Friday will be its last day after 30 years with the retirement of owners Jeff Wong and Cindy Tam.
PETA is launching its “Nice Cream Trail,” highlighting 10 shops across the state serving vegan ice cream, and there are five local spots on the list: Dreams Ice Cream Factory in Glenside, Lu & Aug’s in Ardmore, the Main Freeze in Lansdale, Milk Jawn in South Philadelphia and Northern Liberties, and Scoop DeVille in Center City and Queen Village. The first Pennsylvania resident to complete the trail by visiting all 10 participating shops through August will win a vegan ice cream party with PETA’s “iScream” truck for themselves and up to 50 guests. Details are here.
Two local BBQ chefs, Matt Groark (Medford Lakes, N.J.) and Maxwell McGibbon (Newark, Del.), are competing on Food Networks’ Pitmasters, premiering July 13 at 9 p.m.
Diner en Blanc registration is still open. This year’s version of the pop-up picnic is Aug. 20.
Miller’s Ale House, in the shopping center next to the Home Depot in Springfield, Delaware County, closed this week after 13 years, while Fishtown is abuzz with speculation that Bottle Bar East, which opened at 1308 Frankford Ave. around the same time in late 2012, has closed. The phone is down, and owners could not be reached for comment
When is Adda ever going to open in Fishtown? — Rich C.
True, Adda has been a long time coming, since I initially wrote about it in June 2025 with an end-of-2025 target. Adda — from New York City’s Unapologetic Foods, whose establishments are acclaimed for their bold, no-holds-barred approach to Indian cooking — is now looking at a late-fall opening at 1700 Frankford Ave., the new building across from the Fishtown post office.
Corrigendum: Reader Stephanie points out that Kalaya is the third Philadelphia restaurant, not the second, to win the James Beard Award for outstanding restaurant, as I wrote two weeks ago. Zahav was the first in 2019, while Friday Saturday Sunday won in 2023.
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An unsuspecting property in north Camden that had a front-row seat to the American Revolution has become a multimillion-dollar museum.
Elected officials, history buffs, and local organizers gathered at the Benjamin Cooper Inn at 75 Erie St. on Saturday to celebrate the soft opening of the American Revolution Museum of Southern New Jersey. The project was funded by $4.6 million in grants from federal, state, and local sources, with the largest amount coming from the New Jersey Historic Trust.
The 18th-century stone building has taken on many identities, including a private residence, tavern, British Army outpost, shipyard, luxury yacht building site, storage unit, and dumping ground for toxic materials. In the 1760s, the land was witness to the mass auction of enslaved people. Until recently, the building was abandoned.
The museum hasn’t fully opened to the public and likely won’t for at least a little while, but leaders of the Camden County Historical Society, which has a 30-year lease with the building’s private owner, wanted to give people a taste of what the museum will be when it does. Right now, the museum is open for limited tours by appointment only.
The Inn still needs work. The building has a temporary roof installed after a 2012 fire. The floors aren’t finished, and bathrooms have no doors. The second floor, currently sectioned off, hasn’t undergone any renovations, which will require fundraising of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dirt piles and overgrown foliage block any view of the Delaware River.
Visitors explore the exhibits at the soft opening of the American Revolution Museum of Southern New Jersey in Camden on Saturday.Erin Blewett / For The Inquirer
For the past six years, the society has planned to unveil the museum before America’s 250th, said Jack O’Byrne, the society’s executive director, but they kept running into obstacles. The project’s success came years after the society lost the Hugg-Harrison-Glover House, a Bellmawr home that survived the Revolutionary War, to a highway construction project after a preservation battle.
“It’s been a race to the end,” said O’Byrne, who will retire from his role on July 4. “The project probably died like 13 times.”
Zed Fox, the incoming executive director, and the society’s board will determine the future official opening date, hours, and cost. Fox said Monday that the board will meet on Wednesday to discuss those options, but he expects the museum to ready to open at full capacity by fall.
The new museum doesn’t showcase many historic artifacts. Many gems kept in the society’s archives, such as a letter written by George Washington at Valley Forge and a dozen other Revolutionary War-era items, wouldn’t fare well at the Inn with the sunlight streaming through the windows.
But scattered amid walls of weapon replicas and educational text are hints of the real thing.
There’s some 19th-century furniture originally owned by the Cooper family, a British cannon featuring wood blown off an 18th-century Royal Navy ship in Gloucester City, framed New Jersey bank notes from the 1760s and 1770s, and a front door key from when the Inn was a saloon called the “Old Stone Jug.”
A bell hanging in one room rang to announce ferries landing at Cooper Street Ferry in 1800, and a cheval-de-frise, a sharp wooden log, once blocked British ships from sailing the Delaware River.
In the same room, there’s a mantel from Hugg’s Tavern in Gloucester City, salvaged in 1929 before the building was demolished. Betsy Ross married her first husband, John Ross, in front of the fireplace at the tavern in 1773, though the mantel at the museum isn’t the original.
Visitors explore the exhibits at the opening of the American Revolution Museum of Southern New Jersey in Camden on Saturday.Erin Blewett / For The Inquirer
But local historians say the displays aren’t the main attraction.
“The building itself is an artifact,” O’Byrne said. “You know, it’s the most historic building in Camden.”
Before the house was built, a teenage Benjamin Franklin was said to have slept at the property while traveling from Boston to Philadelphia.
In 1734, Joseph Cooper, a Quaker, built a 2½-story Dutch Colonial stone home for his son and daughter-in-law, Benjamin and Hannah Cooper, at what became the historic building. Benjamin Cooper, a ferryman, also used the residence as an inn and a tavern.
In 1777, the Benjamin Cooper Inn was used as a outpost for British Col. Robert Abercrombie. Hessian troops, German auxiliaries to the British Army, marched through Cooper Point during the war, and at one time, local historians say Benjamin Cooper’s sons, Samuel and Joseph Cooper, were jailed in Haddonfield in 1778 on suspicion of being American spies.
But the property has a more troubling past.
In the 1760s, the site was used for the auction of enslaved people. Though some who were forced to stay on the Cooper’s property until being sold managed to escape, “all were pursued and re-captured,” according to the Inn’s 2021 historic preservation plan.
O’Byrne said the museum is working to educate people about that history. One of the museum’s few rooms, which the society has titled “The Declaration’s Promise,” informs visitors about how immigrants, Black people, and the Lenape, who lived in the region before white settlers arrived, shaped South Jersey’s history.
“What we’re trying to do is make this a balanced history and not just about, you know, white people,” O’Byrne said.
Camden’s ‘most historic building,’ under threat
When demolition crews tore down the Hugg-Harrison-Glover House in 2017, the Camden County Historical Society viewed the outcome as a huge injustice to historic preservation.
“That was a gut punch,” said Chris Perks, board president. “We had invested a tremendous amount of time and the community’s time into that site.”
Then, in 2018, a private company, 75 Erie St. LLC, purchased the Benjamin Cooper House from Agathon Realty for $1.1 million without knowing the building’s history. The house was in poor condition and graffitied. The windows were boarded up. It was difficult from the street to even know the building was there, because the house faces the river instead. The waterways were the real highways back then, O’Byrne said.
“When we heard this just got purchased, we were like, ‘Oh, my God, we can’t let Camden’s most historic house go under,’” O’Byrne said. “It took me two years, and I was able to get a 30-year lease.”
A view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge from the newly opened American Revolution Museum of Southern New Jersey in Camden on Saturday.Erin Blewett / For The Inquirer
That lease will last at least through 2051. Perks declined to share how much the historical society will pay monthly.
The 2021 historic preservation plan for the building estimated that if the building opened in 2025 as originally projected, museum operations would have required an operating budget of $300,000 full time, or $132,000 part time.
While several organizations came together to fund the Benjamin Cooper Inn’s restoration, O’Byrne said the society will require more revenue beyond the funding for the restorations to maintain operations. O’Byrne applied for an operating support grant from the state and is working to raise $750,000 to match a New Jersey Historic Trust grant to restore the tavern’s upper level.
“We opened this thing, and it’s a minor miracle that we were able to pull all the funds together and make it in time,” O’Byrne said. “But in some respects, capital fundraising is easier.”
The legendary redheaded drag queen Carlota Ttendant donned a baby-blue Eva Gabor-inspired gown — its plunging neckline revealing tasteful chest hair — and sensible black heels.
At 65, arthritis stifles her strut in stilettos.
“Drag is a young girl’s game,” she said.
This was her swan song. At the close of its 30th season this Pride Month, the man behind the makeup, Michael Byrne, hung up his heels and bid adieu to his drag persona and his longtime gig hosting Gay Bingo, the camp, irreverent, slightly profane, and undoubtedly silly monthly HIV/AIDS fundraiser.
“I know it’s time,” Byrne said. And, “I’m excited to never wear Spanx ever again.”
Across three decades, Carlota Ttendant has called hundreds of games and elicited endless laughs, all while raising millions for people living with HIV/AIDS across the Delaware Valley. She helped steer a community through crisis, providing a respite to those experiencing immense loss and stigma. Even as medicine has advanced and HIV/AIDS has become manageable, she’s crafted a safe space for queer Philadelphians. For one night each month, she’s been an entertainer and an equalizer, responsible for uniting people — gay and straight, from Haddonfield to Phoenixville — around a common goal.
And since Carlota came into Byrne’s life, she’s taught him to lead with courage, practice gratitude, and be unabashedly unafraid. He’s gone from being the “worst waiter ever” and selling cosmetics, to being a performer, licensed clinical social worker counseling older LGBTQ+ folks through their own next phases of life, and president of Philly AIDS Thrift’s board.
“None of it would have been possible without all of you,” Carlota told the 400-person crowd — the biggest turnout in years — at her last Gay Bingo on June 13 in the basement ballroom at Congregation Rodeph Shalom. “In the ’90s there was horror happening, and today there is horror happening.
“But please, let’s do some laughing,” Carlota said.
“Let’s play bingo!”
Michael Byrne, as his drag persona Carlota Ttendant, during Gay Bingo on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.Joe Lamberti / For The Inquirer
Act I
Like so many Saturdays before, Byrne, on June 13, slathered his face with foundation, carved out his cheeks, deepened his eyes, and painted on his red lip. There was haze — from the dusting of loose setting powder, bronzer, and blush — and musk — from sweat and heat and hairspray — in a Rodeph Shalom classroom, which moonlights as a bridal suite and a boudoir for the Bingo Verifying Divas or BVDs. At 10 minutes till curtain, he futzed with his press-on nails, shimmied into a mod swing dress, straightened the back seams of his tights, and dabbed on some glitter. With each gender-bending step, he transformed into his “twin sister,” Carlota.
Michael Byrne transforms into his drag persona Carlota Tendant ahead of Gay Bingo on May 9 at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.Joe Lamberti / For The Inquirer
Like all classy ladies, Carlota’s exact age is lost to time. In the 1990s, Byrne was organizing a fundraiser for Big Mess Theatre, an avant-garde troupe that he helped establish as the spinning axis of Philadelphia’s alternative performance scene, complete with vaudeville acts, an oompah orchestra, and live auction with a striptease routine. Byrne was to host and make his drag debut, and Carlota Ttendant (read as car lot attendant) was conjured up over bourbon and blackjack. (He learned, years later, that there was a ’60s stripper at the famed Trocadero Theatre with the same name.)
Byrne never aimed to create a perfect, feminine illusion with Carlota. He left his chest unshaven and unstuffed, but short, thrifted dresses showed off his long and feminine legs. Carlota’s makeup was an extension of the exaggerated theater paint Byrne, who has been on stages since he was 10, knew; cheap wigs hid his sideburns. Nothing could mask his deep, raspy, anything-but-ladylike voice.
Carlota Ttendant (Michael Byrne) (at left) laughs with friends and fellow performers after Carlota’s final evening cohosting Gay Bingo at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia on June 13. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerMichael Byrne transforms into his drag persona Carlota Ttendant ahead of Gay Bingo on May 9 at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.Joe Lamberti / For The Inquirer
Carlota could be bossy and profane but never vulgar; she could poke fun at audiences without being cruel. She became the “drag queen you could bring your grandma to,” Byrne said.
Around the time Carlota came to be, the number of new AIDS diagnoses and deaths peaked in Philadelphia. In 1992, new AIDS cases surpassed 1,500; in 1994, AIDS deaths topped 900, according to city data.
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Misinformation about the disease, which strips the body of its natural defenses and leaves it vulnerable to life-threatening infections and ailments, was rampant. People alienated gay men, wrongly fearing HIV/AIDS could be transmitted through a handshake, a hug, or across a dinner table, The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News wrote. Diagnostic testing took weeks; what rudimentary treatments were available sometimes made people sicker; and HIV often progressed to AIDS within a few years.
“It was not unusual to have people dying every month,” said Kevin Burns, who as a case manager with the nonprofit ActionAIDS (now called Action Wellness) connected clients to hospice care. Burns later served as Action Wellness’ executive director.
The need for resources was rife, and in 1996, Philly’s nonprofit AIDS Fund set out to supplement the money it made from its annual AIDS Walk, according to Sandra Thompson, former chair of its board of directors. An article in City Paper about an irreverent bingo-drag night sweeping Seattle — which, by one report in the Seattle Times, raised $10,000 a night — caught the attention of Mark “Chumley” Singer, then a fledgling events producer, who pitched the idea to the AIDS Fund. (The fund folded in 2024 due to the decrease in new AIDS cases, and turned ownership of Gay Bingo over to Action Wellness.)
Singer recalled thinking at the time: “I’ve been doing sad, mopey, candlelight vigil fundraisers. … Why can’t we raise money and have fun?”
Singer and Byrne had never met before the latter was tapped to host Gay Bingo, but their chemistry was kismet.
“There was never a show where we weren’t having more fun than everybody,” said Singer, who cohosted until the early aughts. Byrne and Singer left Gay Bingo around that time, but Byrne later returned.
Byrne remembers the magic of those early years of Gay Bingo. He remembers when 600 seats would sell out in 10 minutes, and he remembers doing his glittered red lip from the floor of the Gershman Y’s mirrored dance studio. He remembers two-show Saturdays and how six hours in heels would make him catatonic on Sunday. He remembers riffing with and ribbing Singer and the laughs their off-color jokes and mild profanity elicited. He remembers the constant movement of the bold and bawdy BVDs, on Rollerblades, or the electricity when O-69 was called and hundreds stood up, shaking and shouting with the fervor of their libidos.
But Byrne also remembers the solemn moments: the steelworker who told a documentarian about watching his bodybuilder son become emaciated; the families who sponsored games on the anniversary of their loved one’s death; the pharmacist who learned all he could about HIV drugs; Byrne’s own friends who were infected.
“Our community was in crisis,” Byrne said, “while we focused on it, we also focused on being fun and laughing.
“And we all needed that at that point.”
Act II
The “Rainbow Bombshell” Gay Bingo on June 13 doubled as a Pride extravaganza and an homage to all things Carlota. Her first outfit of the night was crafted from a promotional banner from her years hosting the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Halloween Concert. Alongside her, the BVDs dressed as Big Mess-era Carlota, Norma Kamali-inspired Carlota, Phillies Carlota, and fuzzy caftan-wearing Carlota. Attendees, ushers, volunteers, and even the American Sign Language interpreter wore that signature red bob — wigs that Action Wellness bought in bulk. One wore a T-shirt that read, “Dibs on the ginger.”
In the dressing room, Tess Tickle (Paul Struck) kisses Carlota Ttendant (Michael Byrne) on the head after Rainbow Bombshell Gay Bingo at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia on Saturday, June 13, 2026. “I love him” said Struck as he walked out of the dressing room.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerCarlota Ttendant (Michael Byrne) puts on a favorite crystal ring and fake nails before cohosting Rainbow Bombshell Gay Bingo on June 13. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“Are we ready to win some money?” Carlota said, hyping up the crowd before the first of 12 rounds of bingo. Councilmember Rue Landau, the Philadelphia City Council’s first openly LGBTQ+ member, called the first game:
I-28.
I-26.
G-52.
B-14.
O-63.
B-3.
“Bingo!” someone cried out, as the audience let out an audible wave of disappointment, exasperation, and defeat, and the BVDs rushed over to authenticate.
“Did you just get bingo, girl?” Carlota wisecracked.
For 30 years, these Gay Bingo players have pledged each month to “keep on playing Gay Bingo until this crisis is over.” And today, HIV/AIDS deaths and new diagnoses have stagnated, according to the most recently available health department data, and drug cocktails have made it so people with HIV can live long, healthy lives and may never pass the disease onto others or have their illness advance to AIDS. Preventative medications, like PrEP, can also dramatically decrease the risk of becoming infected.
Michael Byrne, as his drag persona Carlota Ttendant, on May 9 at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.Joe Lamberti / For The Inquirer
But there are still obstacles to ending the epidemic. HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects Black and brown communities and low-income people who experience barriers to healthcare, according to Action Wellness executive director Mary Evelyn Torres. The geographic disparities are also stark: Current drug regimens may be readily available in well-resourced countries, like the United States, but access is scarce in the world’s vulnerable pockets. These problems have only been exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to domestic and foreign HIV/AIDS programs. The withdrawal of American dollars overseas, United Nations officials warned, could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029.
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“We’ve come a long way, but there’s still work to be done,” Torres said, “and that work is being threatened by this administration.”
As the epidemic has changed, so has Gay Bingo: The money raised — more than $5 million since its inception — now goes toward Action Wellness’ social services and programming. The BVDs ditched their roller skates at the Gershman Y (because of the new, carpeted venue). Tickets cost $50-$60, compared to $10-$12 in May 1996, and these days, attendance averages between 150 and 200 a month.
Drag has evolved, too. Spending centuries on the periphery as proto-punk-beatniks and after-midnight acts, queens disrupted and challenged the mainstream with wit and wonder. Then, the exploding popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a drag reality-TV competition, seismically changed the culture, snubbing scrappiness for silicon and kitsch for couture. The show ushered drag into the zeitgeist: Its lingo became commonplace and its contestants turned into social media stars, with businesses, makeup brands, books, and podcasts, as the art form continues to face political bans and threats nationwide.
The show “has taken everything to a whole other planet,” Byrne said, “and that’s amazing and that’s really great.
“That’s also not what I do.”
Carlota was never concerned with “affecting female mannerisms” or “trying to be this woman or this drag queen,” Singer said. To Byrne, she’s come to embody the fiercest, most unafraid, and righteous versions of himself. But “Michael was never far from Carlota,” Singer said.
Janie Lopez of Philadelphia cheers for her friend Carlota Ttendant during Gay Bingo at Congregation Rodeph Shalom.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
To those who know Byrne, Carlota’s come to represent someone purer and more singular, a testament to what joyful resistance and defiant resilience can achieve amid tragedy. Her ingenuity and authenticity have made her synonymous with Gay Bingo, according to Action Wellness event planner and cohost Tim Johnson (otherwise known as Stella D’Oro); her playfulness is what’s engaging, Burns said; the safe space she’s cultivated for the queer community is what keeps people coming back season after season, said regulars Cat Johnson, 47, and Katie Dickerson, 38, of Roxborough.
“It’s going to be really different without Carlota,” Johnson said. “No one’s going to fill her shoes, but I think that the vibe and the energy is going to live on.”
“It’s a lot easier to raise money when everyone is having fun,” said Amber Schlesman, 38, of Point Breeze, who’s been coming to Gay Bingo since its Gershman Y days. “And for the shoes, I’m guessing it’s a size 12.”
All those shoes will be donated to Philly AIDS Thrift soon enough, Byrne said.
Byrne’s voice cracked as he thought of the people who made Carlota’s run possible: the AIDS Fund organizers, Singer, the original cast of BVDs, the volunteers, those who came back monthly, the victims, their families. Many sent her off June 13 with a trove of well wishes, notes that read, “thanks for the memories,” and “so proud of all you’ve done.” They told her, “I love you,” and “hang up those high heels, baby.”
At the end of the night, Byrne’s best friend gifted him a throw pillow.
“Don’t be a lady,” it said. “Be a legend.”
Michael Byrne transforms into his drag persona Carlota Ttendant ahead of Gay Bingo on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.Joe Lamberti / For The Inquirer
Angelo’s Pizzeria owner Danny DiGiampietro has been pursuing two ambitious goals: reviving a landmark Montgomery County bakery and opening a branch of his Michelin-recommended pizza-and-sandwich operation in South Jersey, where it all began.
Both projects now appear to be gaining momentum. While Angelo’s vaunted rolls are being baked at the former Conshohocken Italian Bakery property, which DiGiampietro purchased last year, the long-held plans to reopen the bakery’s counter to retail customers remain on hold. DiGiampietro said the building requires additional work, which he declined to specify. “Every time we fix one thing, something else comes up,” he said.
Danny DiGiampietro (left), owner of Angelo’s Pizzeria, with partner Jared Braunstein at the bakery in Conshohocken in December 2024.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
But Angelo’s is moving into wholesale bread production, the backbone of Conshohocken Italian Bakery’s business under the Gambone family for more than a half-century before its 2024 closing.
A key piece of the puzzle is on the way: a massive Polin oven imported from Italy to give his bakers more flexibility, DiGiampietro said.
The future location of Angelo’s Pizzeria in West Collingswood Heights, previously Di’Nics, on June 18, 2026.Michael Klein / Staff
At “Conshy,” as the Jones Street bakery was known, the Gambone family supplied rolls and bread to hundreds of restaurants and sandwich shops throughout the region. Its closing created a frenzy among customers and competitors.
DiGiampietro said the new oven will allow bakers to create a line of kaiser rolls, potato rolls, steak rolls, and hoagie rolls. Although he will in effect be selling to his sandwich shop competitors, he likens it to giving shops “the canvas to make their art,” DiGiampietro said. “Everyone’s different.”
A return to wholesaling was not in the initial plans for DiGiampietro, who owned a bread bakery in South Philadelphia about 20 years ago. “I went bankrupt the first time. So hopefully I don’t go bankrupt again.”
Meanwhile, demolition and rebuilding are underway at the future Angelo’s Pizzeria location at 310 Black Horse Pike in the West Collingswood Heights neighborhood of Haddon Township, Camden County. The stand-alone building was formerly Di’Nics.
Crews recently gutted the building, which DiGiampietro hopes to transform into a full-service Angelo’s within the next several months.
The project will mark his return to New Jersey. DiGiampietro opened his first Angelo’s in Haddonfield in 2013 before closing it in 2018 to focus on the Ninth Street location in South Philadelphia, which opened in 2019 and helped turn Angelo’s into one of the region’s most sought-after pizzeria and cheesesteak shops.
The Angelo’s in West Collingswood Heights, about 10 minutes from the Walt Whitman Bridge, will include table seating as well as a counter overlooking the kitchen. Initially, DiGiampietro wanted more seating. Then he began talking about a takeout-only operation.
“But people love the show,” he said. “They like to see everything happening.”
The build-out still requires installation of a pizza oven, walk-in refrigeration, and other equipment. Even so, DiGiampietro believes the compact space can work.
“We think we can keep a dining room and still fit everything we need in there,” he said. “It’ll be tight, but we work on Ninth Street in basically a submarine, so how much tighter can it get?”
Tucked away on a bustling tree-lined Collingswood street, James A. Garfield Elementary has been the center of its South Jersey neighborhood for more than a century.
Built in 1915, it is the second-oldest public school in Collingswood and has educated generations of families. Passersby stop in the front yard to reminisce under two giant trees or sit on a century-old bench.
Garfield enrolls about 128 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The teachers know every student by name and parents love the sense of community.
It will come to an end next week when Garfield closes its doors.
“It’s been the best 13 years of my career,” said principal Mark Wiltsey. “Is it sad? Of course. I was all about it. It’s who I am.”
The exterior of James A. Garfield Elementary School in Collingswood.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Facing a $3.3 million budget deficit for the 2026-27 school year, Superintendent Fred McDowell made the difficult decision to close Garfield and transfer students and staff to other schools. With operating costs exceeding available revenues, the district also cut 33 positions and programs.
“No one ever wants to make reductions to staff,” McDowell said in an interview this month. “It has become necessary. It’s just not sustainable.”
Collingswood Public Schools Superintendent Fredrick McDowell at James A. Garfield Elementary School earlier this month. He said budget issues forced him to close the school, which his own child attends.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Collingswood’s state aid for the coming year was reduced by $305,000, while expenses have increased by $4.8 million. The district increased property taxes by 6.4% but still had a budget hole.
The Garfield closing and other cuts struck a nerve in Collingswood, which currently enrolls about 2,500 students in nine schools. The district plans to consolidate its high school and middle school operations, shut down its high school wellness center, and impose fees for some extracurricular activities.
The Collingswood Education Association criticized the decisions and took a no-confidence vote against McDowell. Saying there was an “urgent need for a change in the leadership direction,” the union implored the school board to relieve McDowell of his duties.
The union, which represents about 230 teachers and support staff, said 150 staff members have left since McDowell became schools chief in 2021. Morale has dropped and fiscal decisions have impacted the classroom, the union said.
Garfield Elementary in Collingswood is preparing to close.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
McDowell, whose contract expires in 2027, defended his record and blasted the union for finger-pointing during a budget crisis. Staff turnover follows post-pandemic nationwide trends, and Collingswood’s structural budget deficit has been years in the making, he said.
McDowell will be affected personally by the Garfield closing. His 9-year-old daughter is a fourth grader and a son would have been a kindergartner in the fall.
“In what world does a father want to close his own child’s school, unless there’s no other way,” the superintendent said.
‘Heartbroken’ to lose an elementary school
There were tears and high emotions as word spread that the two-story neighborhood school would close, affecting about 100students and about 15 teachers and support staff. The fifth graders will move to middle school, and the remaining students will be sent to the district’s four other elementary schools with larger class sizes to accommodate more students.
“I feel heartbroken. I feel angry,” said Elizabeth Vukovic Gartlan, whose youngest, Liam, is a fourth grader at Garfield. “It’s such a wonderful school and a beautiful community.”
Gartlan said Liam asked: “Why can’t we have a bake sale” to save the school? He will go to Newbie Elementary in the fall. His mother worries that more cuts could come.
Teacher Samantha Nash Rovner talks with a reporter at James A. Garfield Elementary School on this month. Garfield is closing at the end of the school year.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The closing has been bittersweet for teachers, too, as they pack up years of materials. Fourth-grade English teacher Samantha Nash Rovner will have third graders at Zane North.
“It’s very mixed emotion,” Rovner said. “It’s really sad that Garfield is closing.”
McDowell said no employees will lose their jobs, although some staff may be put in different positions.
Located on Haddon Avenue, Garfield is a hub in Collingswood, known for its quintessential Main Street aura. The schools and the downtown district are walkable, making its quaint shops and restaurants popular destinations.
“It’s just a special place,” said Julie Donato, the mother of two Garfield students. ”Our entire life revolved around this school.”
The school is decorated with colorful murals and inspirational quotes. Framed pictures of students and their families line the walls. A memorial garden out front pays tribute to Michael Jubb, a student killed in an accident, and a sign honors Dolores Bobb, a beloved crossing guard.
Donato said her husband’s grandmother attended Garfield. When his grandmother came to the United States from Italy, Garfield students taught her English, she said. And Donato’s children were especially fond of visiting senior citizens who live next to the school at Collingswood Manor.
Most students are unaware of the school’s history, Wiltsey said. Because the school is often referred to as Garfield, they believe the name comes from the comic strip about a cynical orange tabby cat with the same name, he said with a laugh.
Fifth grade students work in English class at James A. Garfield Elementary School in Collingswood this month. The school is closing at the end of the school year.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Wiltsey said the school receives letters from former students sharing memories of their time at Garfield. They are archived in an album with old photographs.
For a Garfield history project that has been saved at the school, Bonnie Brown Saunders of Colorado recalled enrolling as a kindergartner in 1948. She recalled memories for every year, including first grade when a pretty girl transferred in.
“All the boys liked her — a lot. I learned about two emotions — boys and jealousy. I also learned how to read and become the picture of health,” she wrote.
A photograph of the seventh grade class at James A. Garfield Elementary School on April 24, 1922.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Wiltsey, who will move to the middle school complex as a supervisor, said school officials began preparing students last month for the closing. Tatum Elementary will get the biggest chunk, about 52 students.
There have been walking tours and activities to meet new classmates and teachers, he said. Siblings were assigned to the same school.
Wiltsey compared preparing for the last day of school — June 22 — to the grief process and has experienced a range of emotions. Teacher Jessica Harbridge said the reality will hit in September.
“I’ve accepted it,” Wiltsey said. “We’re all moving on to new challenges.”
Principal Mark Wiltsey talks about the family photographs that line the walls at James A. Garfield Elementary School.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
At a grand-reopening celebration at Stateside Live!, Stateside Vodka president Matt Quigley’s wife, Megan, grabbed his arm and beckoned to the crowd around them in disbelief.
“It was just such a prideful moment of like … we’re here to stay,” Quigley said.
Just a couple years earlier, fellow cofounder and CEO Clement “Clem” Pappas looked around Citizens Bank Park to see as many Surfsides as Miller Lites in the hands of Phillies fans: “Holy s —, this is happening,” Pappas recalled thinking at the time.
At their massive new Center City headquarters last week, Pappas and Quigley said Surfside’s astronomical rise still feels surreal.
In 2015, the area natives founded Stateside Vodka in a distillery near Kensington with their brothers, Zach Pappas and Bryan Quigley. The company started selling canned vodka sodas in 2021. But they launched into a different stratosphere when they debuted their spiked teas and lemonades in 2022.
Stateside Vodka’s taproom near Kensington is pictured in 2017, when it was called Federal Distilling. TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
Branded as lower-calorie, better-for-you booze, the Surfside cans took off. The cofounders said they sold 200,000 cases in the first year, then 1.3 million in 2023, nearly 5 million in 2024, and a whopping 11.1 million cases last year.
The “slammable” 4.5% ABV cans, as Matt Quigley describes them, are particularly popular in the summertime, a three-month period that accounts for about half the beverage company’s retail sales.
So far this year, Stateside is on track for 70% growth in overall sales, and a 65% growth in Surfside sales, according to the company. That comes after a record year in which the company recorded 111% overall sales growth.
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As a private company, Stateside does not have to publicly disclose earnings, and executives declined to share specific sales figures.
While Surfside has accounted for about 90% of sales in the past year, the top executives are bullish on their latest invention, a sports-drink-inspired canned cocktail called Super Lyte. They said the new beverage had sold nearly 400,000 cases in three months, meaning it could outpace Surfside’s early growth.
“The initial response is way beyond our expectation,” Clem Pappas said. “It feels like another hit.”
The company has achieved this success without the backing of an alcohol giant like Anheuser-Busch InBev or Molson Coors, which together manufactures hundreds of brands.
Quigley, 42, and Pappas, 52, said they’ve been approached by nearly every big beverage company, but they have no interest in selling anytime soon.
“As long as you’re still having fun, I see no reason to hang up the metaphorical cleats,” Quigley said.
“I don’t want to sit on the bench. I want to be in the game,” Pappas said. “We still think it’s early days.”
Stateside keeps Philly at its heart amid national growth
A wall at Stateside Vodka’s new Center City headquarters shows a handful of Surfside’s 170 partnerships.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
In Stateside’s earliest days, Quigley recalled confiding in Pappas about a pipe dream: “If we ever get super successful, I want a sick office in a high-rise in Center City.”
More than a decade later, they have moved from a temporary office in Feasterville-Trevose, Bucks County, to a chic new headquarters at 11th and Ludlow Streets in Market East.
The company plans to stay put for at least 10 years, the cofounders said. For now, about 80 employees work there four days a week with room to grow.
On a recent day, the office was humming during a new-hire orientation. While everyday operations include the same mundane tasks required of any business, the top bosses pride themselves on keeping the vibes light. “We’re not selling, like, car insurance,” Quigley said.
The bright industrial-style space occupies 34,200 square feet across two floors. It is centered around a long bar with a backlit Stateside marquee, a replica of the one at the tasting room. Nearby, there’s an open lounge with couches, underneath a miniature Jumbotron. Ads for Surfside, Super Lyte, and Stateside rotate on the screens.
Office happy hours are a given.
“That’s part of the special sauce,” Pappas said. “We’re in the drinks business.”
Philadelphia has always been at the heart of the company. It’s where they landed their first partnership with the Phillies, which fueled Surfside’s rise. At Citizens Bank Park, the cans have been the top-selling spirit since 2023, according to Stateside executives, citing figures from concessions provider Aramark.
Across the city, the cofounders still run the 7,500-square-foot Kensington-area tasting room and distillery, the latter of which they hope to turn into an event venue.
The distillery has been outgrowing its space for a while. But the need intensified in the past year as the vodka’s retail sales increased 120%.
They attribute the boost in part to greater name recognition thanks to Stateside Live! They said they hope to move vodka production to a larger facility somewhere in the Northeast.
Sales of the original Stateside Vodka, displayed at the company’s office bar, have grown 120% year over year.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
The cofounders have also stayed local: Quigley, a Fort Washington native, lives in Kensington, and Pappas, originally of Vineland, is in Haddonfield.
Stateside’s reach, meanwhile, has expanded far beyond the region. The company employs about 340 nationwide, up from around 30 in 2022, executives said, and they sell in all 50 states through a network of more than 200 distributors.
Across the country, Surfside has racked up 170 partnerships, including with MLB teams, music festivals, and colleges. Super Lyte has already acquired more than a dozen partnerships, too, including at Penn State, where they said it will be sold at Beaver Stadium this fall.
A hawker carries drinks, including Surfsides, around the concourse at Citizens Bank Park in 2024. The brand now has 170 partnerships at venues nationwide.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
In many ways, the cofounders said, they’re trying to replicate the strategy that proved successful with Surfside at Citizens Bank Park: Connect with consumers somewhere where it feels only natural to grab a refreshing, familiar-tasting beverage.
“You’re at a hot baseball game,” Pappas said. “You got a hot dog. You got a soft pretzel. You got an iced tea” — or, rather, a Surfside.
Compared to seeing a new canned cocktail at a beer distributor, he added, “It’s more of an authentic, emotional connection.”
A beverage hawker sells Surfside cans during a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park in 2024. Surfside has been the stadium’s top-selling spirit since 2023.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Surfside succeeds with familiar tastes
When customers first sip a Surfside or Super Lyte, the taste is likely familiar, perhaps even comforting. It’s similar to iced tea, lemonade, tea cooler, or Gatorade, drinks that for many have been staples since childhood.
That’s intentional, Pappas and Quigley said, and is one of the reasons they think their products have become so popular.
“If you remember your first beer, it was like, ‘Oh God, who wants that?’ It’s bitter. It’s foreign,” Pappas said. “It’s an acquired taste.”
But when it comes to these canned cocktails, “these are not acquired tastes,” he added. “They’re light. They’re easy.”
Quigley said he got the idea for Super Lyte after years of mixing vodka into Gatorade and throwing the bottles into beach bags on summer vacations. He recalled thinking: “I can’t be the only person in America that’s been doing that for a long time.”
The initial uptake of Super Lyte confirmed that, he said.
Super Lyte launched in March with four flavors: fruit punch, orange, lemon-lime, and blue chill.
Surfside now has 16 variations of iced tea, lemonade, iced tea-lemonade, and green tea. A 12-ounce Surfside contains 100 calories, 2 grams of sugar, and no carbonation, while a 12-oz Super Lyte contains 90 calories, no sugar, and no carbonation.
Stateside Vodka’s new product line, Super Lyte, is displayed at the company’s new Center City headquarters.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
In the alcohol industry, “we’re meeting what was previously an unmet demand,” he said. It’s “all the convenience and the alcohol level of [a light] beer, where you can drink a few of them and you’re not getting sloshed.”
Even younger consumers — who are least likely to drink alcohol, according to recent surveys — are gravitating toward Stateside products, with high sales in some college towns.
Pappas and Quigley said they don’t see drinking rates declining much farther. Instead, they predict an evolution in the market, with an even greater focus on ready-to-drink cocktails.
Matt Quigley (left), Stateside’s president and cofounder, talks about the company’s products with fellow cofounder and CEO Clement Pappas.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
So Stateside’s leaders plan to keep crafting new products, they said, which is one of the reasons they have turned down acquisition offers.
“Big, publicly traded multinational companies just aren’t great at innovating,” Pappas said.
Stateside has now established “enough of the back-end capabilities to really compete pretty effectively,” he said, without losing “that entrepreneurial spirit” and the drive “to innovate and disrupt.”
At the moment, he said, they are working on several beverage ideas, none of which are ready for publication.
But it seems unlikely they’ll dabble in nonalcoholic drinks. As Quigley noted, “then it would just be iced tea.”
When Bucks County-raised pop star Pink began the Tony Awards on Sunday evening, she started somewhere she would be comfortable on stage — in the air.
Suspended from the rafters, she joked about feeling underqualified to host the awards ceremony because she’s never appeared on Broadway. But actor Neil Patrick Harris assured her that she would excel as her entertaining, acrobatic self: “Listen you’re Pink, you’re singular, you’re the best.”
Then she went on to belt “Lady Marmalade” with some of Broadway’s best performers and fit right in.
The night of revelry at Radio City Music Hall celebrated the biggest theater shows with major winners including Death of a Salesman, Schmigadoon!, Ragtime, The Lost Boys, and Liberation. The latter won for best play, recognizing playwright Bess Wohl, who became the fourth woman in Tony history to win that award. (Philly audiences will get a chance to see the show this fall when Liberation runs at Philadelphia Theatre Company in October)
The biggest local highlight was director Bill Rauch, who calls New York home now but spent part of his childhood in Haddonfield, where he participated in productions at Haddonfield Memorial High School. Rauch and his codirector, Zhailon Levingston, won the Tony Award for best direction of a musical for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1982 feline musical, set in New York’s queer ballroom scene.
“Ballroom is about audacity and disruption, in the words of Junior LaBeija, it do take nerve,” said Levingston when the pair accepted the award.
“Finally, ballroom is about chosen family,” said Rauch, getting emotional. “We chose each other, my husband, Christopher Liam Moore, 42 years ago, and you and our kids, Liam and Xava, are at the heart of anything I do that has any value in this world.”
Rauch, who leads New York’s Perelman Performing Arts Center, previously directed the Tony Award-winning production All the Way, about Lyndon B. Johnson during the civil rights era. That production received Tony Awards for best play and best lead actor in a play (spotlighting Bryan Cranston), in 2014.
Rauch credits his high school teacher and mentor Jack Shaw with inspiring him to pursue theater.
“I did six shows directed by Jack Shaw, and they really changed my life,” Rauch told 6abc. “I learned by example what a great director could be, and it made me want to become a director.”
On Sunday night, Shaw hosted a Tony Awards watch party at his home in Voorhees, where he and a group of about 15 of Rauch’s old theater classmates jumped and screamed as they saw him accept the award. The revered drama teacher is still close with dozens of his former students, who reunite often to celebrate Shaw’s milestone birthdays and have created a scholarship at Haddonfield Memorial High School to fund drama students in Shaw’s honor.
One of Shaw’s favorite memories of Rauch was during a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, when the teenager powered through his Malvolio monologue while in the middle of an allergic reaction.
“The poor guy literally ended up on the floor of the stage, going through a long speech [as] his neck and back cramped up,” said Shaw. “Unbelievably, he kept going — the ultimate ‘show must go on’ spirit. He delivered the speech from his knees, still in character, and the audience had no idea …[then] we took him offstage and put him in an ambulance.”
A proud teacher, Shaw was “choked up” seeing Rauch receive the Tony recognition and praised his former student’s “remarkable need to bring theater to lots of people.”
“Theater and the drama club was a place where anybody could come and be accepted. To my way of thinking, that’s my most happy part, and Bill, as a director, has had the same kind of philosophy,” Shaw said.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball was nominated for nine awards and took home three, including best choreography and best costume design of a musical, which went to Qween Jean (who also designed costumes for Liberation). Qween Jean made history becoming the first transgender person to win a Tony Award.
