The developer of a controversial apartment project at 106 Jamestown Ave. in Manayunk requested that the Zoning Board of Adjustment delay its Wednesdayhearing.
The six-story, 73-unit building would replace the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s pop-up beer garden that currently leases the space.
Neighborhood backlash against the project from developer Dan Greenberg has been intense.
Critics say the project doesn’t provide enough parking; offers no commercial space; and would eliminate the beer garden, a popular community gathering place.
“It was prudent that he postponed,” said Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who represents the area and recently came out in opposition to the project.
Jones’ opinion is relevant because the project is seeking to build taller and denser than current zoning rules would allow, and the zoning board heavily weighs the opinions of neighborhood groups and the district City Council member. (The project is 60 feet tall, above the height limits imposed by the Main Street Manayunk overlay.)
Greenberg also needs permission to build apartments in an area that is not zoned for residential development.
A rendering of the proposed 73-unit apartment building for 106 Jamestown Ave. in Manayunk.Barton Partners
“Fortunately for him, he’s not finally purchased it yet because zoning is an essential part of the sale,” said Jones. The delay “gives them the opportunity to talk to the community, but as it stands, I cannot support it.”
Greenberg’s team declined to comment, but a city staffer confirmed that Wednesday’s delay stemmed from the real estate company. A new hearing is not yet scheduled.
“This means that the applicant will contact us to reschedule the next hearing date,” wrote Ian Hegarty, a Planning Commission staffer who advises the zoning board, in a message to a questioner on the board’s Zoom on Wednesday.
The Manayunk Neighborhood Council led opposition to the project, submitting a petition against it to the zoning board with more than 500 signatures.
A community meeting earlier this year attracted 200 attendees, 97% of whom were opposed to the project, according to the neighborhood council.
“Even we are a little surprised at the universal opposition,” said John Hunter, the council’s zoning chair, in an email.
The Jamestown Avenue proposal also faced criticism from the Civic Design Review committee, an advisory-only city body.
In a June meeting, the board asked the developer to consider adding commercial space, criticism of the project also raised by the neighborhood council.
A rendering of the paused 73-unit apartment development from under the railway bridge. Barton Partners
At that meeting, Hunter criticizedthe plan’s 36 parking spaces, arguing that the standard in Manayunk is one parking space for every housing unit. The notoriously hilly neighborhood is less walkable and has fewer transit options than neighborhoods closer to Center City.
The developer’s team has repeatedly declined to speak publicly, but at a meeting in June, lawyers for the project indicated that compromise is possible.
“There have been, and there still can be [modification to this project],” Adam Laver, a land-use attorney with Blank Rome who represents the developer, said at the June design committee meeting. “This team remains very interested … in hearing your feedback and continuing to make this project, which we believe in, as good as it can possibly be.”
For now, the beer garden will remain in place until the end of the season. Although PHS says it does not yet have a final closing date, the organization typically ends its outdoor pop-ups in October.
PHS declined to comment further on the future of the beer garden in light of the project’s delay. Itopened the garden in 2020 as a temporary pop-up.
“He should consider if he can reduce the scope of the project to preserve the garden,” said Jones.
The project is part of a wave of apartment development on and around Main Street in Manayunk, with 1,800 units in the pipeline. That includes more than 800 homes slated for Venice Island, the flood-prone spit of land next to Manayunk in the Schuylkill.
The people who built 3.0 University Place, an eight-story lab and office complex that covers a landscaped block of West Philly, had a problem: During the biotech slump after their 2023 opening, security costsescalated faster than occupancy.
“We had 80 Siemens cameras in there,” remotely monitored from a suburban surveillance office, and were “paying more than $150,000 a year for guard shifts,“ said Anthony Maher, the University Place Associates president.
But the building’s New York owners were still getting midnight calls for nonevents. Meanwhile the human video watchers missed incidents of concern — the stranger who had taken to sleeping on a tenant’s canopy at night, the fired contractor who sneaked back into the building one weekend.
Investors pressed them for a better way.
Maher and his partner, Scott Mazo, went hunting for an artificial-intelligence solution — an AI-era automated security system to collect and analyze camera, physical, and human-observed surveillance data; rank threats; sort out false alarms; open or shut locks; and quickly notify law enforcement, emergency services, management and owners’ groups as needed.
They rang an entrepreneur they’d met five years earlier at a Drexel University pitch meeting: Matias Klein, founder of Manayunk-based Kognition AI.
Kognition specializes in what Klein calls “cyber-physical threat detection systems,” which link and analyze digital security video, activate remote locks and sensors, load key data into formulas matching clients’ priorities and requests, sort and sharecommunications to alert the right people and agencies, and update responses based on results.
“You hang the cameras; we network the building systems,” as Klein puts it.
100 North American buildings
At 3.0 University Place, “Matias’ system gave us full access to the best 25 cameras, every floor, all times,” said Maher. The system caught incidents, routed them to the right people, and suggested simpler warning paths.
“They keep teaching us to manage the building, telling us, for example, about our people coming in when they didn’t really need to,” he said.
It worked so well “we told the owners to take the security-guard line-item out of the budget,” though they still use guards on occasion. It helps that the building’s big new tenant is the city police forensics unit: “We have a lot of cops coming here,” Mazo added, laughing.
More than 100 North American properties use Kognition AI, from Scotia Plaza, one of the largest office buildings in Toronto; to Pa.-based Benco Dental locations in several states.
A growing sector
Kognition, founded by Klein in 2017, was one of a handful of Philadelphia-area AI start-ups that presented to local investors at a June gathering. Investors included Osage Capital, MissionOG, and Susquehanna International Group’s SIG Growth Equity Fund.
“The AI landscape is changing so fast, it’s hard to tell what will be supplanted in a few months,” said Ellen Weber, who runs Robin Hood Ventures, and attended the meeting.
Robin Hood is a Philadelphia investors’ group whose members include start-up veterans. Members’ portfolio of local AI-dependent start-ups include Center City-based Deepwave, which makes laser weapons guidance systems for Air National Guard jets and other military projects; University City-based GreenIRR, which uses AI to speed carbon-emissions detection for truckers; and Proscia, which digitizes biotech images for fast diagnosis and pharmaceutical drug trials.
Thomas P. Dwyer, a partner at the law firm Troutman Pepper Locke who organized the June meeting, said Philadelphia trails other AI hotbeds.
“Philly has a lot of potential and opportunity here, especially if some of its larger companies get involved, as they do in Silicon Valley,” he said.
AI, he noted, is still seen as a threat by many local companies. They worry, “Can someone armed with Claude overtake your business, duplicate your software, and compete with you immediately — without having to hire people?”
And veteran investors are “gun shy” about AI profitability, he said.
Which, he added, leaves opportunity to those investors who make the “leap of faith” to promising AI start-ups
Operating on ‘the edge’
“An AI product makes itself better” the more it is used, said Kognition AI founder Klein.
Some of the best-known (and most-feared) AI image-and-data applications are based on giant AI companies’ mass sorting of millions of individuals’ information into ever-improving, readily searchable central databases at big new data centers — raising familiar privacy worries, as seen in the recent controversy over the alleged misuse of Flock digital camera data that police have used in attempting to quickly identify drivers.
By contrast, Kognition is one of the firms that operates at the “edge” of big networks, Klein said in an interview at his firm’s Manayunk meeting space. “We don’t send customers’ data throughout our network, and we don’t preload that information,” he said. “We don’t flow data back to a central monitoring station.”
Rather, the goal is “to give people control over the spaces where they live or work or worship, so they can get into a defensive posture fast, if they ever need to.” Custom, localized, focused solutions are “a big area of value creation” for AI start-ups, according to Klein.
Customized experiences
Kognition AI’s custom sharing limits and options are part of its appeal to Ravi Kalidindi. He was tasked by leaders of Bharatiya Temple, a Jain and Hindu religious congregation inMontgomery County, with setting up a system “that gave us control of our doors” without intimidating visitors or compromising members’ private information.
Kalidindi turned to Kognition as a locally based provider.
The system at Bharatiya starts with security cameras at the main entrance and stairways, integrated into a software and communications platform. “They check if our doors are closed. They tell us where there is human traffic. We can let the cleaning crew in without a key. It has mobile device control. It can even work on fobs,” Kalidindi said.
Kognition also has capabilities the temple has not used: “It has a weapons-detection system we have not enabled. It has additional sensors that can ID what people are carrying. It can tell us if we are seeing an above-average or above-expected crowd, make a note of the faces of people who are entering for the first time, and trigger an alert.”
There is a sense of user control of the AI systems that Kalidindi finds reassuring: ”We want to enhance the sense of security, that our facilities are being monitored, but also that everyone with good intent is allowed to enjoy the premises.”
Since the beginning of 2025, nearly a dozen bagel shops have opened or leased space in Philadelphia and its suburbs, bringing new locations from local operators as well as fast-growing out-of-town brands that see the region as fertile ground for expansion.
Jacob and Alexandra Cohen, owners of Kismet Bagels, at their location on Girard Avenue in Fishtown in 2024.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Kismet Bagels has opened its fourth and fifth shops, in Manayunk and Collingswood. Bart’s Bagels, which has shops in West Philadelphia and Bella Vista, recently expanded to the founders’ hometown of Bala Cynwyd. PopUp Bagels, the Connecticut-born chain that built a following on social media, made its local debut in Ardmore this spring and has signed a lease for a Rittenhouse shop as part of a larger regional expansion.
And Washington, D.C.-based Call Your Mother is preparing three soon-to-open Philadelphia locations — in Fishtown (due first), Rittenhouse, and Washington Square West — committing to all three before serving its first Philadelphia bagel.
Call Your Mother bagel sandwich shops have a subtropical feel.Courtesy of Call Your Mother
That tally doesn’t include all of the stores that could follow. Florida-based Jeff’s Bagel Run has announced a 10-unit development agreement for Eastern and South Central Pennsylvania, while PopUp franchisee Brian Harrington is scouting additional territory in the Philadelphia suburbs.
All this raises an obvious question: How many bagels can Philadelphia eat?
Plenty, apparently — at least for now.
Jacob Cohen, who started Kismet six years ago with his wife, Alexandra, said the company has seen sales increase even as new bagel shops have entered the market. “I don’t think they’re just dividing the same customer base, because we’ve already had new shops open in Philadelphia and we haven’t seen a decrease in sales,” Cohen said.
But Cohen, who rapidly expanded Kismet before putting thebrakes on growth earlier this year, also sees a limit. “More is not always better,” he said. “I obviously don’t have a crystal ball, but I have a feeling that some of these private-equity bagel companies coming are going to learn that the hard way.”
Bagels are having a moment
Philadelphia is part of a much broader bagel boom. The U.S. bagel market generated an estimated $3.17 billion in revenue in 2025 and is projected to reach $4.51 billion by 2033, according to Grand View Research, a market-research firm. That represents annual growth of about 4.6%. Worldwide, the firm values the bagel market at $5.8 billion in 2025 and projects it will reach $8.6 billion by 2033.
Customers lining up for the grand opening of PopUp Bagels in Ardmore in March.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Mike Kostyo, vice president of Menu Matters, a Vermont-based food-industry consulting firm, sees the current surge as the convergence of several trends rather than the sudden discovery of a new food. Artisan baked goods have been rising in popularity for years, he said, after the pandemic produced a generation of home bakers and pop-ups experimenting with sourdough and bagels. At the same time, café culture and the rise of the “little treat” have made consumers more willing to spend on premium versions of everyday foods.
“At its core, the bagel has always been a blank canvas for lots of flavors and toppings,” Kostyo said. “But now, instead of sesame seeds, you see them topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.”
The traditional formula — bagels by the dozen, cream cheese, lox, and coffee — also has evolved into something closer to a breakfast-and-lunch fast-casual restaurant.
The Ramen Thing bagel sandwich from Cleo Bagels in West Philadelphia.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Bagels become vehicles for egg sandwiches, smoked salmon, avocado, specialty cream cheeses, and elaborate combinations that can command substantially more than a plain bagel and schmear. And operators increasingly are looking beyond breakfast.
“The sandwich factor is so important,” Kostyo said. “You need something that you can sell across multiple occasions, not just to commuters in the morning.”
That versatility helps explain why investors have noticed.
“Investors are always looking for that next category that could blow up,” Kostyo said. “They want Call Your Mother or PopUp Bagels to be the next 7 Brew or Dutch Bros.”
From pandemic project to expansion vehicle
Some of the brands now expanding grew directly out of the pandemic.
The Cohens started Kismet as a pandemic project before turning it into a brick-and-mortar business and eventually growing to five locations — down from seven after the company shuttered a stand at Reading Terminal Market in 2025 and closed a shop in Ventnor earlier this year.
Jacob Cohen of Kismet Bagels holds an everything bagel.MONICA HERNDON / Staff Photographer
PopUp followed a similar trajectory. Founder Adam Goldberg began baking bagels at home during the pandemic and developed the idea into a business built around an unusually stripped-down concept: hot bagels and schmears, rather than the sprawling sandwich menus associated with many modern bagel shops.
Customers are encouraged to “grip, rip, and dip,” tearing apart the bagels and dipping them into containers of cream cheese.
The company’s first Philadelphia-area shop opened in the spring in Suburban Square in Ardmore. Harrington, the franchisee developing PopUp in this region, said sales have remained strong even through the summer.
“We anticipated a little bit of pullback with a lot of our core [teen] clientele getting jobs in Avalon and down the Shore, and with vacations and things like that,” Harrington said. “But it’s been very, very steady.”
In more than 25 years in the restaurant business, Harrington said, he has typically seen sales soften in late June, July, and early August. “We’ve not seen that,” he said.
PopUp has signed for the former Starbucks at 1709 Chestnut St. in Rittenhouse, as reported by the Philadelphia Business Journal. Harrington said he has a deal for a location in Lawrence Township, N.J., near Princeton, that is awaiting its permits. Another South Jersey deal is close, he said, and he sees additional potential in Montgomery County.
Despite the influx of bagel shops, Harrington said he believes PopUp occupies a somewhat different niche.
“We’re not making sandwiches,” he said. “So far, people have found us and enjoyed the way that we do it, and it doesn’t preclude them from going and getting a bacon, egg, and cheese somewhere else.”
Three stores before the first bagel
Call Your Mother is making an even larger initial bet on Philadelphia. Founded in Washington in 2018 by Andrew Dana and his wife, chef Daniela Moreira, the self-described “Jew-ish” deli has expanded beyond the Washington area as New York investment firm Invus acquired a majority stake in the company in January 2025.
Call Your Mother has signed three Philadelphia leases: 1500 Frankford Ave. in Fishtown, the former Metropolitan Bakery at 262 S. 19th St. near Rittenhouse Square, and 12th and Sansom Streets in Washington Square West. Dana said the decision to enter Philadelphia was considerably less scientific than the three-store commitment might suggest.
“My mom grew up there, my grandparents lived there, and I’ve been there so much visiting my friends,” Dana said. “I’ve been in Fishtown on a Sunday when it’s popping, and I’ve been in Rittenhouse Square when it’s super-crowded on the weekend and the market’s going. A lot of it is just gut and feel.”
Dana does not believe Philadelphia lacks good bagels. On a recent trip, he tried Bart’s and came away impressed.
“I think a lot of people are doing a great product in Philadelphia,” he said, “but there’s always room for a different bagel shop. At least I hope so.”
Dana also rejects the idea that taking investment inevitably leads to runaway growth or declining quality.
He described Invus as “patient capital” and said the investment agreement carries no requirement that Call Your Mother open a prescribed number of stores.
“We’re going to do what we can do while still keeping the quality of the food and the service top-notch,” Dana said. “And if that ever slips, we have the ability to hit the pause button.”
Local operators dig in
For some Philadelphia bagel operators, however, the arrival of heavily financed brands is cause for skepticism.
Cohen, at Kismet, is particularly wary.
“I think it’s the rare exception when private equity marries itself to a food brand and they continue to do good things,” he said. “I’d like to keep private equity out of bagels.”
He stressed that Kismet remains owned solely by him and Alexandra, financed through bank loans rather than outside investors.
David Fine, owner of Schmear Bagel Parlor, is also watching the expansion. Fine entered the business in 2013 with his Schmear It food truck and has since acquired the shops owned by Philly Bagels, giving the company eight locations in Philadelphia.
David Fine of Schmear with his son.Courtesy of David Fine
Fine said those stores have not appeared to steal business from one another.
He thinks part of the bagel’s appeal is almost mundane: It is familiar, relatively accessible, portable, and infinitely customizable.
“They’re comfort food at their very core, and they can really appeal to such a wide variety of customers,” he said.
He is less certain about the economics behind the rapid expansion of some competitors.
“The buildouts are expensive,” Fine said. “You have to be quite profitable for quite some time just to recoup that investment.”
Schmear is expanding, too, Fine said, renovating its original brick-and-mortar location at 36th and Market Streets. But he believes that being local gives the company an advantage as more national and regional shops arrive.
“There’s a keen allegiance to local brands,” Fine said.
Built for the feed
Bagels also have another quality particularly suited to the moment: They look good on a phone.
Kostyo points to the now-familiar image of a bagel sandwich sliced in half and held toward the camera, its fillings and schmear exposed.
“The visual factor is also so important in today’s social media age,” he said. “That picture … is the type of indulgent food that people go out of their way for today.”
The lines themselves become part of the marketing. A crowd outside a shop signals that the food is worth leaving home for, he said, while arguments over the proper density, crust, schmear, toppings, and even whether a respectable bagel can be made outside New York keep the category in the conversation.
“In the end, it’s all advertising and marketing,” Kostyo said.
But social media enthusiasm is fickle — witness the rise and fall of cookies and cupcakes — and Kostyo sees the flood of investment and expansion as carrying the seeds of an eventual shakeout.
“This is a pretty classic bubble where some of these brands that are doing a great job and really resonate with people will survive, but a lot will overexpand and shut down in the next few years,” he said.
Cohen, meanwhile, has decided not to test Kismet’s limits.
After years of opening shops, Kismet entered 2026 determined to improve what it already has rather than add more locations. The company is focusing on consistency, profitability, new products, employees, and customers, he said.
He is happy to see Philadelphia’s bagel culture growing and says he does not regard every new shop as a competitor. Years ago, Cohen recalled, Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan told him that Philadelphia did not have enough bagels per capita.
“We might be starting to get there now,” Cohen said.
Restaurateur Bruce Cooper is big on dates. He opened Jake’s in Manayunk on Oct. 19, 1987 — Black Monday, the day the stock market crashed.
He’ll close it on Oct. 19, 2026, the start of its 40th year on Main Street.
In between was another financial crisis, an expansion that reflected changing tastes, a devastating flood, a pandemic — and nearly four decades in which Jake’s evolved along with Manayunk itself.
Cooper, 72, is selling the side-by-side Main Street properties that house what is now Jake’s & Cooper’s Wine Bar. Before the final night, he plans to turn the wind-down into a reunion. Past employees will get a 50% discount on Sundays and Mondays, and the restaurant will extend its September restaurant week (Sept. 14-20) pricing through the final day. On Oct. 19, a party will empty the bar and kitchen, with proceeds going to a local charity.
“I just wanted to get to [the start of] 40 years,” said Cooper. “I wanted to get out two years ago.”
Bruce Cooper with his son, Bruce Joseph Cooper II, inside the wine bar at Jake’s & Cooper’s Wine Bar.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Cooper, a Culinary Institute of America graduate from Upstate New York, had spent a decade as executive chef at Lankenau Hospital before deciding that he wanted a restaurant of his own. He took business courses at Community College of Philadelphia and St. Joseph’s University and spent years looking at properties before a real estate agent showed him a former print shop in Manayunk in early 1987.
Cooper didn’t commission traffic studies. While walking along Main Street, he noticed Jaguars and other expensive cars rolling up to a posh restaurant called Jamey’s, which had opened a year and a half before. Otherwise, as he remembers it, “there were practically tumbleweeds floating down the street. You could find parking on a Saturday.”
That spring, Cooper bought 4365 Main St. and assembled a group of investors to open Jake’s, his then-wife Helena’s nickname.
Jake’s was conspicuously ambitious: white tablecloths, contemporary artwork, an extensive wine list, and Cooper’s refined cooking, including pastas from scratch. Dishes included crab cakes with raspberry butter, scallops with red pepper and papaya sauces, and duck breast with tangerine sauce.
The restaurant’s whimsical facade depicted an oversize table setting, with food spilling from a plate and wine pouring into a glass, surrounded by flowers, flatware, linen, and crystal — designed to suggest both fine dining and a sense of fun.
The exterior of Jake’s & Cooper’s Wine Bar in Manayunk on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. The bar is closing after 39 years.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Many early customers came from the Main Line, crossing the Schuylkill over the Green Lane Bridge into the former mill town.
Business grew quickly. When Cooper had put together his business plan, his accountant told him his projected sales were impossible for a 65-seat restaurant. Jake’s reached the projection in its second year, Cooper said.
By the 1990s, Main Street was crowded with boutiques and similarly high-aiming restaurants like Sonoma and Kansas City Prime.
In a 1998 review, Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan described a room of cushioned banquettes, contemporary design, and a stylish but unstuffy clientele. He called out the veal dumplings with caramelized ginger, seared tuna with sticky rice, foie gras with grilled mango, and the barbecued salmon — a signature.
Craig LaBan’s first review of Jake’s, from July 1998.Newspapers.com
And then there were the mashed potatoes. One version paired Yukon gold potatoes with buttermilk and roasted corn. Another, served beneath medallions of veal, was infused with lobster and cream. Patrons, LaBan reported, had taken to calling the latter “sex on a plate.”
LaBan awarded Jake’s three out of four Liberty Bells, the rating system he used at the time. “That’s when it really started to take off,” Cooper said.
Manayunk’s overall success brought its own problems. Friction between residents and the expanding restaurant and bar scene in the late 1990s led then-City Councilmember Michael Nutter to push for a five-year moratorium on new restaurants in the district.
Julia Child with Bruce Cooper at an event in 1996.Courtesy of Bruce Cooper
Cooper, who later served as president of the Manayunk Development Corp., believes that the moratorium lasted too long and helped push Main Street toward nightlife. He later helped develop agreements among restaurateurs, landlords, the business association, and neighborhood groups that placed operating restrictions on new restaurants.
Meanwhile, the style of dining that had made Jake’s successful was changing. White tablecloths were giving way to small-plate menus.
Which leads to another consequential date: March 14, 2008, on the eve of another financial crisis, when Cooper bought the former clothing store next door at 4367 Main St. and opened Cooper’s Brick Oven Wine Bar. Cooper’s is a markedly different restaurant, drawing a younger crowd and serving pizza, small plates, craft beer, and less expensive wines.
The dividing line quickly blurred, Cooper said. Customers at Cooper’s wanted food from Jake’s, and Jake’s customers wanted dishes from Cooper’s. The restaurants shared a kitchen, and Cooper eventually merged their menus and identities as Jake’s & Cooper’s Wine Bar.
Head bartender Carrie Hice chatting with patrons at Cooper’s Wine Bar in 2023.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Then came July 17, 2016.
Cooper got a middle-of-the-night phone call that a city water main had ruptured outside the restaurant, sending water through the building and destroying the kitchen and the apartments above. He gutted and rebuilt, with business-interruption insurance helping carry the restaurant through a six-month closure.
The experience changed the way Cooper thought about the business.
“When you stop a business and then restart it, there are people who had been coming every week, and then they stopped,” he said. “They got into another routine. They went elsewhere.”
Even months after Jake’s reopened, Cooper said, customers would walk in surprised to discover it had reopened. “That’s when I started looking at things differently,” he said.
Cooper considered selling, but a real estate adviser urged him to wait as residential development accelerated in Manayunk and Roxborough. Three years later came the pandemic. His extended time at home spoiled him, he said.
Chris Campana (left), with help from Bruce Joseph Cooper II, choosing a wine from the wall in 2023.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Three years ago, Cooper moved to Delaware. His son, Bruce Joseph Cooper II, 37, now manages the restaurant day to day, while the senior Cooper comes north once or twice a week to handle scheduling, wine orders, and other duties.
In June, Cooper put the properties, including four upper-level apartments, on the market for an undisclosed asking price. Cooper said he wants a clean break rather than passing the restaurant to his son, though neither rules out working together on another project someday.
The closing will end one of the longest remaining restaurant runs from the era that transformed Manayunk. Pitchers Pub (1987) and Zesty’s (1993) are still at it; U.S. Hotel Bar & Grill has been open irregularly since Bill Green, the former mayor and congressman, reopened it in 1986.
For Cooper, that history encompasses more than the people who ate there. “When you look back, you think about the generations of customers —in a lot of cases, we’re talking about three generations,” he said. “But it’s not just the customers. It’s all the people behind the scenes: the banker, the produce person, all those people who helped you get through things.”
Bruce Joseph Cooper II, then 11, helps chef Bill Murphy carry food from Jake’s basement to be loaded into a truck for a 1999 holiday dinner by Philabundance. Vicki Valerio / Staff Photographer
Cooper’s son grew up at Jake’s, handing out cookies at holiday meals his father helped organize through North Light Community Center. He joined the restaurant full-time during the pandemic, starting as a food runner and eventually taking over management.
Purveyors and other restaurateurs have approached Cooper Jr. with potential job offers, he said, and he would consider working with whoever buys the properties. He once imagined taking over Jake’s himself but is no longer certain that is what he wants.
His father understands.
The restaurant business, the senior Cooper said, demands long hours and constant attention. One lesson he would give a new restaurateur is the one that helped him survive both the flood and the pandemic: Own the real estate if you can.
“If I didn’t own this real estate during COVID, I would have owed the landlord,” he said.
Cooper has begun informally advising other restaurateurs about the economics of getting into, staying in, and getting out of the business. After nearly four decades, he said, he is ready to find out what comes next.
His son thinks about Jake’s in more personal terms.
“Even in my almost five years working as a manager here, I’ve seen kids go from being in the womb to toddlers, and they know me as Uncle Bruce,” the younger Cooper said. “That’s one of the greatest feelings in the world — being able to say, ‘I knew you before you were born, little one.’”
Bruce Joseph Cooper II (left), general manager, and Bruce Cooper (right), owner, inside Jake’s & Cooper’s Wine Bar in Manayunk.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
You say you want a revolution? That’s not quite what SEPTA’s proposing. This weekend, the region’s transit agency will roll out the first phase of its New Bus Network, the bus system’s first significant update since the agency was formed in the 1960s.
Sound familiar? Once dubbed Bus Revolution, the project began in 2021 after transit agencies around the country saw massive declines in ridership. SEPTA’s Bus Revolution was set to launch in 2025 but faced significant community pushback and coincided with the state funding crisis that halted many planned transit initiatives. It was officially shelved in November 2024.
Later phases of the plan, which will roll out in 2027, will impact other neighborhoods. The number of bus routes in SEPTA’s system will drop from the current 124 to 106 when all four phases are complete.
SEPTA says the changes are needed to modernize the system and make it easier to use.
To help you navigate the changes that will impact how you navigate the city, we’re here to breakdown down all 30 impacted routes.
This route remains the same but with reduced service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 16-25 minutes
Every 30 minutes
Saturdays
8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 22-25 minutes
Every 30 minutes
6
Cheltenham-Ogontz to Olney Transportation Center
On weekdays, route 6 will have increased service during peak hours, but a reduced service otherwise.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 11-13 minutes
Every 10 minutes
Weekdays
9 p.m. to midnight
Every 20 minutes
Every 30 minutes
Weekdays
midnight to 4 a.m.
Every 30-40 minutes
Every 60 minutes
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
17
Front-Market to 20th-Johnston
Route 17 will be shortened and no longer operate on its old route from 20th Street and Johnston Street down to the stadium complex or the Navy Yard. SEPTA recommends Navy Yard commuters take route 45 instead.
This route will also operate with reduced service overnight.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
midnight to 5 a.m.
Every 30 minutes
Every 60 minutes
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
25
Frankford Transportation Center to Front-Spring Garden
Route 25 is essentially being cut in half. The old route ran down Delaware Avenue to Columbus Commons. The new route will terminate at the Spring Garden Market-Frankford Line station. The old route from Spring Garden to Columbus Commons will be serviced by the new route 76.
Route 25 will now operate for 24 hours a day, as part of SEPTA’s late-night OWL network.
This route will also have increased service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 20-30 minutes
Every 15 minutes
Weekends
6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 30 minutes
Every 20 minutes
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
32
Broad-Carpenter to Ridge-Lyceum
Route 32 will have slightly reduced service with fewer buses overall. All route 32 buses will terminate at Manayunk, as opposed to the previous schedule where half would terminate at 33rd Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. There’s also a slight route extension into Roxborough for school service.
35
Manayunk Roxborough Loop
Route 35 will be discontinued on Aug. 23. SEPTA recommends riders take route 61.
According to SEPTA’s operation statistics, route 35 is the seventh most expensive bus based on the average cost per passenger.
39
Richmond-Cumberland to 33rd-Dauphin
Route 39 will remain the same but with reduced service on weekdays and slightly increased service on Saturday evenings..
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 20-30 minutes
Every 30 minutes
Saturday
5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 40-60 minutes
Every 30 minutes
44
Front-Market to Ardmore
Route 44 will no longer run along its old route that would sometimes terminate at Gladwyne. Beginning Aug. 23, all 44 buses will run to Ardmore, with select trips stopping at Narberth.
This route will also have reduced service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Every 15-30 minutes
Every 60 minutes
Weekends
6 a.m. to midnight
Every 30 minutes
Every 60 minutes
45
Navy Yard/Broad-Oregon to 12th-Noble
Route 45 will be extended to the Navy Yard to cover for the changes to route 17.
After 9 p.m. the route will have reduced service on weekdays.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
9 p.m. to midnight
Every 20 minutes
Every 30 minutes
46
58th-Baltimore to 63rd-Malvern
Route 46 will have increased service on weekdays.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Saturdays
9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Every 20 minutes
Every 15 minutes
Sundays
9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Every 30 minutes
Every 20 minutes
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
47
Whitman Plaza to 5th-Godfrey
Route 47 will merge with route 47M and have increased service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 8-9 minutes
Every 7-8 minutes
All days
Midnight. to 5 a.m.
Every 45 minutes
Every 30 minutes
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
47M
Whitman Plaza to 7th-Spring Garden via 9th
Route 47M has been discontinued and will now be served by a more frequent route 47.
The merger of these two routes includes a realignment so that the northbound 47 runs on Seventh Street, as opposed to Ninth Street. Southbound buses will still run on Eighth Street.
49
33rd-Dauphin to 40th-Baltimore
Route 49 will look very different from its old route. It will no longer serve Gray’s Ferry. SEPTA recommends riders take route 79 instead.
Route 49 will also operate on many different roads. The most notable change is taking 33rd Street instead of 29th Street. in Strawberry Mansion and Brewerytown.
These changes are paired with generally reduced service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Every 18-22 minutes
Every 30 minutes
Saturdays
8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 22 minutes
Every 30 minutes
Sundays
9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Every 22 minutes
Every 30 minutes
52
49th-Woodland to Wissahickon Transportation Center/50th-Parkside
Route 52 will no longer follow its old route to Gladwyne. SEPTA cites low ridership and doesn’t offer an alternative route.
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
53
Carpenter Station to Richmond-Westmoreland
Buses on route 53 will no longer follow the old route that terminated at Sedgwick Street and Wayne Avenue. Instead, service will end at Carpenter Regional Rail station. There are additionally a bunch of small differences across the route. For example, route 53 will now serve Roosevelt Boulevard. on the western side of Hunting Park.
The 53 will also continue past G Street and extend into Port Richmond.
54
Richmond-Cambria to 33rd-Dauphin
Buses on route 54 will have reduced service during weekdays and increased service during evenings.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Every 15-18 minutes
Every 20 minutes
All days
9 p.m. to midnight
Every 45 minutes
Every 30 minutes
57
Whitman Plaza to Fern Rock Transportation Center
The old route 57 occasionally would terminate at Packer Marine Terminal, that service will be discontinued.
During weekends the route 57 will run at a reduced service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekends
All day
Every 10-12 minutes
Every 15 minutes
Service along Crescentville and Cheltenham Avenues will be reduced to every hour.
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
60
Wissahickon Transportation Center/35th-Allegheny to Richmond-Westmoreland
Most of route 60 will continue to go down Allegheny Avenue, but it will not follow its old route where some buses stopped on Delaware Avenue and Lewis Street.
The 60 will occasionally take an extended route and continue to the Wissahickon Transportation Center. The schedule is roughly split 50:50 whether a bus will continue to this new terminus or stop early at 35th Street and Allegheny Avenue.
Route 60 will also see increased service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Every 10-15 minutes
Every 10 minutes
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
61
9th-Market to Ridge-Summit
Route 61 will be extended to Upper Roxborough. This is primarily to cover for the discontinued route 35.
62
9th-Market to Andorra
Route 62 will be discontinued. SEPTA recommends riders take routes 9, 27, or 61 as an alternative. According to SEPTA, route 62 was the fourth most expensive route to operate, costing an average of $45 per passenger.
64
50th-Parkside to Pier 70
Previously, route 64 would occasionally terminate at 49th Street and Woodland Avenue. Under the new network, all trips will terminate at Parkside Loop. The 64 will also no longer take the old route’s detour into Grays Ferry.
Route 64 will operate at a increased service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
All days
6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Every 12-18 minutes
Every 12 minutes
All days
9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Every 20 minutes
Every 15 minutes
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
72
Cedarbrook Plaza to Frankford Transportation Center
72 is a brand new route that mostly operates on Cheltenham Avenue and will run every 30 minutes.
73
Frankford Transportation Center to Richmond-Westmoreland
Route 73 will now run at a reduced service from every 20-25 minutes to every 30 minutes.
Additionally the route 73 will no longer be part of the OWL network, ending 24-hour service on the line. SEPTA recommends riders take route 25 for overnight buses.
76
Rising Sun-Olney to Columbus Commons
Route 76 is a brand new route that will mostly run along Delaware and Frankford Avenues every 30 minutes. This route replaces service removed from the newly aligned route 25.
78
Express from Cornwells Heights to Center City
Route 78 will be discontinued due to lower ridership. SEPTA does not recommend an alternative bus.
According to SEPTA figures, the 78 was the most expensive bus to operate in their network. It has an average of 2.4 passengers per hour, costing the agency $394 per rider.
79
Columbus Commons to 29th-Snyder/40th-Market
Route 79 will occasionally be extended into West Philadelphia. Roughly every other bus will continue to 40th and Market Streets, instead of the current terminus of 29th Street and Synder Avenue.
SEPTA also rolled out new signage that identifies certain routes as “frequent red”, indicating a bus is scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes or less on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
80
Express from Horsham to Olney Transit Center
Route 80 will be discontinued. SEPTA stated that “ridership has declined significantly since 2019 and the same connection can be made with a transfer on local routes 22, 51, and 310.”
According to SEPTA data, route 80 was the third most expensive route to run, costing the agency $50 per passenger.
89
Front-Dauphin to Arrott Transit Center
Route 89 will be discontinued. SEPTA says route 89 is “duplicative of other routes,” and offers “routes 3, 5, 25, 39, 41, 43, 53, 56, 75, 76, and K as alternatives.”
105
Paoli/Rosemont to 69th Street Transit Center
Route 105 will extend to Paoli for roughly every other bus, essentially merging with the now discontinued route 106.
The old route that serviced Suburban Square will no longer operate. There are also minor alignment changes in Overbrook.
Route 105 will operate at a increased service.
Days
Times
Previous
Now
Weekdays
All day
Every 30-60 minutes
Every 30 minutes
Weekends
All day
Every 60 minutes
Every 30 minutes
These changes will take effect on Aug. 24.
106
Paoli to 69th Street Transit Center
Route 106 will be discontinued on Aug. 24.
Do you still have questions about the changes to SEPTA’s bus network? Read our Q&A guide for details on how to contact SEPTA, information about future alterations in 2027, and much more.
Methodology
The animating buses on the diagram are an approximation of the number of buses active at 9 a.m. on a weekday schedule.
Old routes are accurate to SEPTA’s bus network on Aug. 4.
For simplicity, if a route can have different terminuses, we show all possible paths the bus operates on.
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Staff Contributors
Design, Development, and Data: Sam Morris
Reporting: Sam Morris and Erica Palan
Editing: Cynthia Henry
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An unusually visible collection of Philadelphia-area restaurant institutions is reaching a turning point at the same time — with some closing for good and others seeking buyers as a generation of longtime owners reaches retirement age.
At Kelly’s Seafood, the end is definite. The Northeast Philadelphia restaurant will close this month as its owners retire, ending a run spanning three generations of the Kelly family. So will Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, whose history in the Northeast also reaches back nearly 70 years.
Elsewhere, the outcomes are less certain.
Cherry Street Tavern has been around for a century at 22nd and Arch Streets.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The Pub, the sprawling Pennsauken steakhouse known for its open hearth, medieval decor, and thousand-plus seats, is on the market. The restaurant, which dates to 1951, is not closing: It is on its customary summer break and is scheduled to reopen Sept. 18.
The owners of Cherry Street Tavern, the Logan Square bar that has operated for more than a century, are looking for a buyer after 50 years of stewardship by the Loughery family. The buildings that housed Mamma Maria’s, the East Passyunk Italian restaurant that opened in 1992, went up for sale this month. Aldar Bistro in Bala Cynwyd has been sold after 34 years and will give way to an Italian restaurant called Bruzi.
McGlinchey’s, the Center City dive that closed last year after nearly 90 years, is back on the market after a prospective buyer walked away from a deal for the building.
McGlinchey’s, at 259 S. 15th St., after its closing in August 2025.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
And the nearly 40-year-old Jake’s & Cooper’s Wine Bar in Manayunk is being marketed for sale as owner Bruce Cooper looks toward retirement.
Restaurants have always turned over, and the recent activity does not appear to reflect a restaurant market in retreat. The Inquirer counted 86 Philadelphia-area restaurant closings in 2025, while more than 100 new restaurants and bars were on the drawing board for 2026. What distinguishes many of the businesses now closing or being sold is their longevity: They survived for decades, weathering the pandemic and recent increases in food and labor costs, before their owners reached retirement.
‘The gray wave’
People in the restaurant, liquor, and real estate businesses say the turnover is part of a broader generational transition among small businesses as longtime owners reach retirement without children interested in taking over.
Jim Creed, handling Jake’s listing, calls it the “gray wave.”
“You’ve got operators who have been in business 40 or 50 years, and they don’t have heirs who want to take over the business,” said Creed, a senior vice president with CBRE.
His father, also Jim Creed, knows the issue from the other side. He opened Creed’s Seafood & Steaks in King of Prussia in 1982 and, at 78, has no immediate plans to sell. “I go to the restaurant every night,” he said. “It’s actually fun.” But when he does decide to close, he said, his children don’t want to take over.
For the counterexample, consider McGillin’s Olde Ale House in Center City. Open since 1860, it has survived through generations of owners; the Spaniak family has run it since 1958, with Chris Mullins Jr. now the third generation involved. There are no plans to sell. “It’s part of my DNA, part of our customers’ DNA, part of our staff’s DNA,” Mullins told The Inquirer this year.
Irene Levy Baker and Chris Mullins Jr. lead a toast at McGillin’s on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026 in Philadelphia. Attendees gathered for a book talk on “Cheers to McGillin’s: Philly’s Oldest Tavern” on Tuesday.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Ed Taraskus has watched generations of restaurant and bar owners come and go over 50 years of practicing liquor licensing law. He could not say whether the current number of sales and closings constitutes a statistical trend, but said the succession problem is familiar.
“The parents retire and the children don’t want to get into the business — because it’s a hard business,” he said.
Taraskus said the hours can be punishing for small family operators. His clients also complain about finding employees willing to work nights and weekends. Drinking habits have changed, he said, and some businesses are still feeling the effects of the pandemic.
Taraskus knows the succession question personally. His South Philadelphia family owned a small restaurant and tavern, but his father discouraged him from entering the business. When his parents retired in the 1960s, they sold.
Real estate on the line
Retirement can present a second question for operators who own their buildings: What, exactly, are they selling?
A restaurant may have value as a going business, but decades of appreciation can make the underlying real estate a substantial part of an owner’s nest egg. Sometimes the economics favor a different restaurant — or an entirely different use.
Douglas Green, a principal at commercial real estate brokerage MSC, said the value of restaurant real estate is closely tied to the sales a location can support and, consequently, the rent an operator can afford.
“The more volume they do, the more rent they can pay,” Green said.
That means a location can be worth more to another restaurateur if the existing operator is underperforming. And in some cases, Green said, a restaurant may no longer be the property’s most valuable use at all.
“At some point, perhaps the building becomes obsolete,” Green said. “Perhaps the highest and best use of the real estate is no longer a restaurant.”
Those possibilities are playing out among the region’s longtime establishments.
The Pub restaurant near the former Airport Circle in Pennsauken in 2024.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
At the Pub, the Gelman family is seeking a buyer for the restaurant and its roughly 6.3 acres on Kaighns Avenue near the former Airport Circle. The family has operated it since Marc Gelman bought it in 2000.
“I don’t think there’s one thing in general why we’re selling, but it’s time for a new steward — if you will — of the business, or the property,” Marc’s son David Gelman said.
At Cherry Street Tavern, at 22nd and Arch Streets, the Loughery family hopes to find a buyer who understands what generations of regulars value about the place.
McGlinchey’s illustrates the other possibility. Its nearly 5,000-square-foot property at 259 S. 15th St. is listed for $2.45 million, including the liquor license, bars, and McGlinchey’s name, as either a turnkey bar and restaurant or a redevelopment opportunity.
Decisions for buyers
Creed said longevity itself can tell a prospective buyer something about a restaurant property.
“Anytime you have operating longevity, that speaks to the real estate,” he said. “When you have a concept that has been in operation for 40 years, clearly the real estate has something to do with that, too.”
The retirement of one operator does not necessarily mean the end of restaurant use.
The former Mixto space is set to become the revival of South Philadelphia bar Toll Man Joe’s.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
Mixto closed July 12 after nearly 24 years at 1141 Pine St. Within weeks, restaurateur Lori Penrose bought the property and announced plans to revive her former South Philadelphia sports bar, Toll Man Joe’s, there.
The exterior of Marra’s Restaurant on East Passyunk Avenue is due to become a branch of Dan Tsao’s burgeoning restaurant group. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“There are pros and cons to both,” Tsao said of taking over an existing restaurant rather than starting with a new space. “But with an existing restaurant space, especially a legacy restaurant, it already has a place in the neighborhood, and a place in the memories and hearts of generations of customers.”
Such properties may also have much of the expensive infrastructure required to operate a restaurant.
But for Tsao, the attraction isn’t purely economic.
“I also like the idea of preserving some of that history,” he said, “while giving the space a new chapter.”
On the last Thursday of July, during Manayunk’s summertime Stroll After Hours event, throngs of young families pushing strollers and couples walking dogs roamed the business corridor.
Some stopped at art vendors with frames sprawled across the sidewalk, while others meandered down Grape Street to grab a bite from a food truck or claim a seat at the outdoor screening of Toy Story.
On such an evening, Main Street Manayunk’s evolution is on full display.
The riverside neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia has seen many eras, from textile mills in the 19th century to chain retailers in the 1990s, to today’s collection of local upstarts.
“It’s the best it’s ever been,” said Jen Wankoff, 51, of Roxborough, who turned out to Stroll After Hours with her friend, Jen Filip, 50.
“It used to be a lot more commercial. There was a Banana Republic, a Pottery Barn, but then once one left, they all left,” said Filip, who has lived in Roxborough since the early 2000s. “Now it’s all small businesses.”
More changes are coming to Manayunk. Even as apartment development has slowed in much of Philadelphia, over 1,800 new residential units are proposed along or adjacent to Main Street. All that additional population stokes neighborhood anxiety about traffic and parking, but retailers expect it will be good for business.
Kim Albanowski of Philadelphia pushes her dog, Koda, across Main Street in “his chariot” as Jason Pepin looks on.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“There’s probably going to be 1,600 new people living in those units, and they’re all going to come to Main Street to shop and eat,” said Dan Neducsin, 83, who has long been the largest property owner on Main Street and helped shape the identity of the corridor.
“The restaurant scene has been strong [since the 1990s], and now I think it’s even going to get stronger,” said Neducsin, who has sold 12 of his properties in recent years to long-term tenants and small-business owners like Tim Spinner, owner of Taqueria Amor.
“I just want to see the people who I have in there now do well, and my tenants have welcomed the opportunity,” said Neducsin, who emphasized that his company is not closing or selling all its holdings. But “it does make sense now for some new people to come in and take advantage of what’s here.”
Manayunk’s Main Street appeal
In the past two years, 12 new businesses opened along Main Street.
One of them is Riptide Tavern, opened in June by Spinner, who also owns Taqueria Amor next door.
Spinner said he wanted to open a neighborhood bar with creative cocktails and a cheap beer menu — much like a dream restaurant he conceived for a culinary school project years ago.
“I wanted to be in the Caribbean or down the Shore, but along the Schuylkill River with the canal back there is close enough,” Spinner said.
The Riptide Tavern in Manayunk is packed on a Thursday during Stroll After Hours.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Eleanor’s Consignment is set to open on Main Street in October. Owner Emily Mannix, aformer paralegal who has lived in Manayunk for two years, named the consignment store after her late mother, who died in 2023. They shared a love of secondhand-shopping.
“This has been something that has been on my mind for the past four years,” Mannix said. “Life is short, and I might as well jump in and try.”
It’s not a bad place to do that. Realtor Christine Ertz notes that while rent is not low, it’s more affordable than in areas like South Street and Queen Village.
“Manayunk has the demographic businesses want,” said Ertz. “It has the younger folks, but also the more mature folks that have expendable income, and we’ve got the 27-to-35-year-olds that really enjoy the niche, smaller stores.”
The apartment boom in Manayunk promises to add even more. Many of the new developments have smaller units, which are likely to attract single people or younger couples. The price points of the new rentals, while lower than Center City or Northern Liberties, also suggest that tenants will have disposable income.
Those changes haven’t been without controversy. The Manayunk Neighborhood Council has pushed back against development it deems as out of scale with the community, and that’s often lacking new commercial space, affordable housing, and parking while being weighted to small apartments.
John Hunter, an architect and zoning chair of the Manayunk Neighborhood Council, says few of the new buildings have commercial space to add to the neighborhood’s daytime vitality. He disagrees with the idea that the apartment boom will boost local businesses.
“We have heard that misrepresentation for years now — that new apartments will generate pedestrian traffic along Main Street,” Hunter said. “Fifteen years of those promises has proved that is not the case.”
But some neighborhood observers see the development interest along Main Street as a concrete example of the area’s ability to attract people and investors.
“We’re seeing a diverse group of experienced, well-regarded developers all making independent decisions to put their capital and time into Manayunk,” said Veronica Blum, a retail broker with MPN Realty who has been working with Neduscin on leasing and sales.
“When that many smart people come to the same conclusion about a neighborhood, it says a lot,” said Blum. “It’s a real vote of confidence in Manayunk’s future, and I think we’re just beginning to see what’s possible.”
Nervous Nikki and the Chill Pills perform during the Stroll After Hours event on July 30.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The cost of staying open
Still, the commercial corridor has seen turnover and closures.
Pizza Jawn closed andKismet Bagels came in its place — Pizza Jawn’s owner bought the former Manayunk Tavern down the street, which became Bar Jawn. Smiley’s closed and Blu Zone Cafe moved in; and Iron Works Fitness opened up in the former Kismet Cowork.
A large restaurant space sat empty for months after Winnie’s closed last November. But, two Roxborough natives recently leased the space for a new “punk French” restaurant, planned to open in late fall.
Joan Boroff Denenberg, who does marketing and retail strategy for the Manayunk Development Corp. (MDC), said a few storefronts remain empty because the property owners aren’t local and are backed up with other projects throughout the country.
Neduscin says he isn’t struck by an unusual number of vacancies along Main Street. But maybe that’s because when he began buying properties there in the late 1980s, much of the commercial strip was vacant to the southeast of Cotton Street.
“Anytime I saw a property that was available in Manayunk I ended up buying it because I thought if I owned enough properties, I could kind of set the direction of the street,” Neduscin said. “I got to handpick who my potential tenants would be. I tried to bring tenants that I thought would bring additional people here.”
Insomnia Cookies is one of the few remaining chains with a presence on Main Street in Manayunk.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The bustle of Main Street now extends all the way down to Shurs Lane, roughly double its occupied length when he started.
Neduscin also says he really tried to find independent entrepreneurs to lease to — “I didn’t want a McDonald’s on Main Street” — and those restaurateurs and small-business owners gave Main Street a unique identity.
More than 30 years later, that’s why he wanted to sell some properties to one-time tenants like Spinner.
Still, business owners say myriad challenges remain. The permitting process is notoriously slow, especially if a trip to the Zoning Board of Adjustment is necessitated. That can leave business owners paying rent without being able to open their doors as they wait for permission.
“When it takes longer, you have to have deeper pockets, and I think that does scare some prospective businesses,” Neduscin said.
Further, owners on Main Street face the macro challenges affecting small businesses throughout the region. Brandy Deieso, who opened the gift boutique the Little Apple in 2010, said the cost of goods has increased due to tariffs, shipping costs, and rising gas prices.
“Being a street full of locally owned small businesses is great,” said Melissa Walter, co-owner of Love City Brewing, which just opened a second location in Manayunk. “But as we all know, running a small business is really hard.”
Building a business community
The bubblegum pink Cupid’s Bookshop storefront has built a following and even attracted customers from Baltimore and New York since opening last year. Now, it’s upgrading to a bigger location on Main Street.
“The growth we’ve had, it’s been amazing,” said owner Tina Long.
Cupid’s capitalized on the insatiable demand for bodice rippers and love stories, and Long says the bookshop benefited immensely from the MDC’s incubator program. Cupid’s was the first participant.
The program allowed Long to lease a storefront at 106 Grape St., owned by the business association, for a below-market monthly rent of $1,000 for up to three years, and the MDC provided guidance and support. With her new storefront opening in August and a five-year lease, she’s graduating from the incubator space early.
The “Welcome to Main Street” sign hangs over Main Street at Ridge Avenue in Manayunk.Michael Klein / Staff
“We loved the idea, but it turned out beyond our wildest dreams,” MDC executive director Gwen Mccauley said. “She’s now becoming part of the fabric of our district.”
Baby Face Studio also ended up on Main Street in part because of the MDC.
Artist and owner Kim Canefield in 2022 applied for the MDC’s emerging artist tent at the Manayunk Arts Festival, where she could set up shop for $100 instead of operating a $500 tent on Main Street. The festival draws over 300 artists and 150,000 visitors each June, McCauley said.
She set up a full-time vendor tent at the next three Arts Festivals. Each time, she was stationed in front of an art gallery, not knowing that the same space would eventually become Baby Face Studio.
“I just kept looking at it, and peeking through the window,” Canefield said. “The whole time I was staring at the future of what the studio was going to be.”
Love City Brewing already has a foothold in Callowhill, but saw Manayunk as a place to grow. Its second spot opened in the former Fat Lady Brewing. When searching for a new location, co-owner Walter was attracted to Main Street’s critical mass of small, independent businesses.
“Seeing them succeed, we thought: ‘Oh, we’re a small, local Philly business too,’” Walter said. “We can make it work there.”
The Phillies tell me they sell more than 40 brands of beer, priced from $6.99 for a 12-ounce can of nonalcoholic beer to $17.69 for a 24-ounce premium can. Beer is everywhere at Citizens Bank Park, including at a humongous walk-through cooler on the main level.
I recently strolled into that cooler and found a lager — at $38.48 for two 19-ounce cans — that paired nicely with chicken fingers and the Fightin’ Phils. OK, so 64 ounces of the exact same beer costs $11.99 at Acme, but you can’t watch the Phils live from Acme, can you?
“Sometimes, things become clichés because they’re true: A cool beer on a warm summer day at the ballpark is among the great joys of fandom,” says the avuncular Glen Macnow, the former Inquirer reporter (and colleague) and sports talk-show host whose What’s Brewing PA beer show appears on the NBC Sports Philadelphia networks.
Macnow — who is, full disclosure, also the part-owner of Conshohocken Brewing Co., which vends two of its brands at the ballpark — adds: “I’ve spent many an afternoon (or evening) with a beer in one hand, a hot dog in the other, juggling both so I can fill out the scorecard balanced on my knees.
“Those are simple and eternal pleasures. Baseball isn’t designed for trendy cocktails in a can; it’s designed for the tradition of leisurely enjoying a cold brew over several innings as you try to convince the guy in the next seat that the manager (whoever he is) is the dumbest one in Phillies history.”
OK, but just in case you don’t care for a brewski, the Phillies also sell about a dozen different trendy cocktails in cans, with prices running from $14.55 to $23.99. These are no bargains, either, but consider the alternative: The Phillies used to not sell booze at all.
Baby boomers like me vividly remember the towering, then-state-of-the-art right field scoreboard at Connie Mack Stadium, topped by a gigantic advertisement for Ballantine Beer (and its three-ring logo, for Purity, Body, and Flavor).
A handmade model of the iconic Ballantine Beer scoreboard at Connie Mack Stadium by Phillies fan Bernie Valente.Courtesy of Bernie Valente
Well, that scoreboard was erected in 1956, five years before beer was sold there.
The Phillies first legally sold beer inside Connie Mack Stadium, their musty old park in North Philadelphia, on Aug. 7, 1961, when they put seven local brands of bottled beer on sale for 35 cents, first poured into a paper cup by eight vendors working the aisles.
The paper cup was a vital part of the transaction, because, prior to legal sales, Phillies fans used to sneak in cans of beer, often sold in “cold packs” at nearby bars like Charlie Quinn’s Deep Right Field Cafe at 20th and Lehigh.
Beer cans were heavier in those days, so they tended to become missiles when the umpires missed a call, or if the Phillies stank, which was quite often.
The low point probably came on June 12, 1959, when a twi-night doubleheader against San Francisco was halted after five innings because of rain. The Phillies were no-hit — but even worse, fans were denied rain checks to both games because the first game was official.
As Frank Fitzpatrick, the now-retired Inquirer reporter who attended the game as a 9-year-old, recalled in the paper in 2016: “Suddenly, one empty can fluttered toward the field. A second followed quickly. Soon, it was a dangerous deluge. So many were tossed that cans obscured the tarp, from the mound to the batter’s box.”
That was not good news for Robert R.M. Carpenter, the Phillies owner, who dearly wanted a new ballpark for his team. Plans had been drafted for a 45,000-seat, $8 million stadium in the Torresdale section of Philadelphia, with an adjoining theme park, yacht basin, and bird refuge park adjacent to I-95. Beer sales would bring in some cash for that amazing project.
On June 20, 1961, the Pennsylvania Senate passed a previously approved bill by the state House that would permit the sale of beer every day but Sunday at sporting events at stadiums in the state that seated more than 25,000. (The Pittsburgh Pirates also happened to be looking for a new ballpark.)
But they faced stout foes. After voting against the bill earlier in 1961 that would have enabled the Phillies to sell beer, a Democratic state assemblyman from Philadelphia, Charles Heavey, predicted that the sale of beer would actually “contaminate” youngsters.
So … first the beer had to be poured into a paper cup before drinking, preventing another beer can pileup on the field like the one in 1959. And there would be more than one starting pitcher: Schmidt’s, Esslinger, Old Dutch, Horlacher, Neuwiler and, yep, Ballantine were all included in the original sudsy rotation.
A 1962 newspaper advertisement for Ballantine beer.
Larry Merchant provided statistics in his Daily News column the next day: A total of 3,739 beers were served to 5,586 who attended that Aug. 7 game, a 3-1 Pittsburgh victory on a Monday, which was also the Phillies’ 10th straight loss. No bottles or cans were thrown on the field, he reported, but fans did pop the cups and try to throw those onto the field — often in vain.
“For serious drinkers, it was about a four-beer game, just two and a half hours long,” Merchant joked. “For serious Phillies fans, it was a six-beer job. They look better that way.”
Merchant made note of signs at the entrances that read, “Bringing in of canned beer or bottled beverages will be a cause for ejection from the park.” Nonetheless, he reported, seven would-be beer smugglers were caught at the gate, their brews returned when they left the park.
Those 1961 Phillies were so lousy that their losing streak grew to 23 games, still a modern record. After the Phillies beat Milwaukee, 7-4, on Aug. 20 in the second game of a doubleheader, their flight home was welcomed by 500 fans at 1 a.m. the next day at the airport.
About 500 Phillies fans welcomed the team home at the airport like conquering heroes after the club broke a 23-game losing streak in August 1961.
“They are selling rocks at $1.50 a pail,” Phillies pitcher Frank Sullivan, looking out of the plane, joked to his teammates.
He then wisecracked: “Leave the plane at five-minute intervals. That way, they can’t get us all with one burst.”
In truth, the beer ploy sales did not seem to provide much of a boost to the 1961 Phillies, who lost 107 games and finished last in the National League in home attendance in 1961, averaging only about 7,600 per home game. But a door, or many brewskis, had been cracked.
Beer would not be sold at Sunday home Phillies games until 1972, after the Phillies moved to Veterans Stadium, following the amendment of the ancient Pennsylvania Blue Laws, intended to curtail activities on Sundays (including Phillies and A’s home games until 1934).
“My parents didn’t drink, so I always associated the public consumption of alcohol as something dark and troubling,” Fitzpatrick told me recently. “That feeling was confirmed in spades at that 1959 game.
“By 1966, the summer I worked at the ballpark, I felt differently. I was a soda vendor, and beer suddenly was a precious commodity. Now I envied the beer sellers, because they made the most money and had the least amount of walking. Occasionally, rowdy fans would harass young vendors like me, hurling popcorn containers or wadded-up cups at us, [but] it definitely was comforting to know you wouldn’t have to dodge metal cans. On the other hand, in ’66 the smell of spilled beer now permeated the place. I don’t remember that same aroma when fans brought their own.”
Carpenter never did get his Torresdale stadium. After a one-year delay because of construction, however, the Vet opened in 1971 in South Philadelphia. A few fans grumbled about paying 75 cents for a 12-ounce beer served there by a vendor, perhaps because those same items were 40 cents and 60 cents, respectively, at Yankee and Shea Stadiums in New York.
Gene Mauch managed the Phillies during their historic 107-loss season in 1961. That team dropped 23 straight contests.
The pricing was actually meant to be sort of a deterrent. Bud Vye, the Connie Mack stadium manager, told The Inquirer, “At these prices, they’ve got to bring a bankroll just to get bombed out.”
But beer stuck around. A 1998 Daily News exposé into how Ogden Entertainment, then the vendor at the Vet, was caught skimming a half million dollars in annual beer sales led to a price reduction. Local brands, kicked to the side by the national brews, were sold again when the Phillies moved to Citizens Bank Park in 2004. (Large premium drafts then sold for $6.)
Cups were eventually discontinued, and most beer at the ballpark is sold in much lighter cans (which, it should be noted, are opened by the cashier, lest someone try to hurl a full can on the field). Dozens of different brands of beer can be spotted at any Phillies game.
“A big part of this is marketing,” Macnow tells me. “Beer at the ballpark is no longer poured into paper cups, so there’s a long-term benefit to seeing people walking around the park holding cans of your beer. Labeling becomes important. Naming beers becomes important.”
And so is the vessel itself. The Phillies continue to sell “beverage bats,” large hollow plastic souvenir baseball bats that can be filled with any beverage. Those are not cheap, either. Phillies fans may be held captive by the prices, but beer and baseball are inseparable.
Dave Caldwell lives in Manayunk and covered sports for The Inquirer from 1986 to 1995.
On a humid Wednesday morning in Manayunk, movers in sweat-soaked T-shirts hauled three movie chairs, each at least 100 pounds, up two flights of a spiral staircase in a three-story home about to welcome its new owner.
Kevin Boras,a recent Temple University graduate working at Gentle Giant Moving Co. for the summer, has learned some tricks of the trade. As he tilted the widest chair on its side to squeeze through the entrance and over the railing, he explained, “Sometimes you gotta puzzle-piece it up the stairs.”
After the unwieldy seats were handled, the movers looked to the next item — a thin floor lamp.
Boras grabbed and huffed his way up the stairs, joking, “I don’t know if I’m gonna make it!”
For most homeowners and renters, moves are stressful — once ranked more stressful than getting a divorce — but for the city’s professional movers, it’s just another day at work. Between parking troubles on tight South Philly streets and narrow doorways in historical trinity homes, these crews encounter and overcome Philly-specific challenges daily.
But, as Sultans of Schlep owner Tom Brouillette said, most of the city’s biggest moving obstacles can be overcome.
“Not everything is possible, but most things are,” Brouillette said.
So, larger, modern furniture is often a mismatch in these older homes, according to Jay Leone, a managing partner at EverSafe Moving Co. Sometimes, it’s unrealistic for a Samsung refrigerator to fit inside the entrance of a trinity.
“There’s only so much you can do in terms of disassembling something to buy yourself an extra inch of space,” Leone said.
An aged setting isn’t helped by the sizable items many Philadelphians own. James Dawkins, a regional manager at Two Men and a Truck, said his movers have faced retro pinball machines, pianos, and gun safes weighing more than 600 pounds. “People have a lot of fun toys in their house,” he said.
One time a customer had Two Men and a Truck movers transport a casket inside a residential home. Once they confirmed it was empty, no further questions were asked.
Fred Meder (right) holds the elevator door while John Wulffen loads in furniture during a July move in the city.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Often, the solution to small entrances can be hoisting larger items through a balcony or window. Sometimes, it’s more complicated.
Fred Meder of EverSafe recalls an especially tricky move into a four-story South Philly home. Since its tiny staircases couldn’t accommodate the customer’s bulky furniture, Meder hoisted it in pieces up to the third and fourth stories through literal holes in the floor — the home had been designed with 5-by-5-foot trap door-esque openings in the floorboards of each level.
“That was an interesting and tough scenario that I’m glad we don’t run into very often,” Meder said.
Devin Latimore, owner of No Stress Movers, said older, mid-rise apartment buildings present additional challenges. While these buildings have elevators, the elevator shafts were typically built first, Latimore said, and the building was constructed around it “with no mind for modern, bigger furniture.” The elevators also tend to be manually operated, slowing down the moving process.
“If the operator has to go to the bathroom, we’re stuck,” he said. “We have to wait for him to come back in order to do anything.”
Still, stairs are not always the preferred option. Latimore once carried a 350-pound office printer up 184 stairs and said it was one of the hardest jobs he’s ever accomplished.
“It feels like gravity gets stronger the higher you go,” he said. “We were trying not to drop it, and not die at the same time.”
Parking troubles
Parking in Philadelphia can be difficult for any driver on a regular day. It’s a nightmare for professional movers.
South Philly’s narrow streets were not designed for big trucks — “You could lay across the street and touch both curbs,” Lattimore said — and one must be an experienced truck driver to navigate the area.
For a recent South Philly move, Dawkins’ team had to park at the end of the block because they couldn’t get their truck to the house. The farther the truck is parked from the house, the longer and more strenuous the move.
Manayunk is another challenging neighborhood for parking: “The worst of both worlds,” according to Latimore. Not only does it have tight streets, but traffic comes from both directions.
For the Gentle Giants recent move in Manayunk, the moving truck was parked across the street, but the home was at a busy three-way intersection. The movers rolled furniture on top of dollies on the crosswalks, avoiding oncoming traffic like a game of Crossy Road.
To reserve a parking zone, movers can obtain temporary permits from the city’s Department of Streets that bar other vehicles from parking in a specific area. But these permits aren’t foolproof.
“It’s almost a 50-50 shot in Philly as far as whether the locals will abide by those parking permits, or even notice them,” Leone said. “We’re hoping nobody takes our spot before we get there.”
Tom Martin of EverSafe Moving Co. moves furniture into his company truck for a Philly customer in July.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Moving tips
For a seamless move, Latimore emphasized the importance of hiring movers early. He said a majority of customers reach out only two weeks before a move and are quickly surprised and stressed by pricing and availability.
“Start earlier than you think,” Latimore said. He recommended collecting estimates up to six months before a move, as costs increase closer to the moving date.
Nearby parades, road closures, and block parties also are a factor to consider when choosing a moving date, as they can make a movers’ job near impossible.
“You have so much happening in the city, and everyone is always celebrating something,” Dawkins said. “Sometimes it can throw a wrench in your plans.”
When creating an estimate, movers will want to discuss a home’s challenges so the company can allot the correct amount of time and muscle. It’s important to be straightforward about all potential roadblocks.
“Moving is one of the most challenging things; no one’s excited for it,” Dawkins said. “We try to make it as easy as possible.”
High Street Hospitality founder and James Beard Award winner Ellen Yin is just about ready to hit Rittenhouse with Bar Cicci, an all-day drop-in for espresso and pastries by morning, sandwiches by day, and spritzes, cicchetti, and small plates by night. Join Beatrice Forman on Sansom Street for your first look.
Shore season isn’t done yet, and neither are farmers markets, which have seen an uptick in business locally in the midst of a cyclospora outbreak. Hira Qureshi maps out where you can buy local produce, baked goods, and more at markets down the Shore.
Besides Bar Cicci, a half-dozen new restaurants are on tap this month, including Recipe Philly in Center City, Cecilia in Bridgeport, and Mixteca in East Kensington, where the red, white, and green of la bandera figures into the signature cocktail.
Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore, one of the Main Line’s busiest commercial strips, is now home to two new dessert shops. Denali Sagner explains that one specializes in tea, cakes, and buns, while the other celebrates the mango.
Canned-cocktail brand Top Dog is setting up listening rooms in Kennett Square and Fishtown, embracing the Japanese jazz kissa model — a music cafe or bar that’s focused on listening to vinyl records. Brooke Schultz chatted up Top Dog’s Ken Smukler, who aims to deliver an “analog feel in a digital world.” The Fishtown location is tiny. It used to be an ATM.
The handmade tarts from Market Day Canelé layer summer tomatoes over a corn custard with cremini and button mushrooms, herb-roasted cotto ham, eggs, and Gruyère in a flaky crust. Kiki Aranita says you have to act fast to snap one up.
Scoops
Two chefshave made big professional strides from their roots in Roxborough, and now they’re coming home to Manayunk to take over the Winnie’s space with a “punk French” eatery.
Aldar Bistro in Bala Cynwyd is giving way after 34 years to a white-tablecloth Southern Italian restaurant called Bruzi.
Does a spateof restaurant-closing announcements — such as Hiroki, Federal Donuts & Chicken,and the Lodge by Two Robbers — portend industry doom? No, and I’ll explain why not.
Restaurant report
Gabriella’s Vietnam in South Philadelphia is counting down to closing in mid-December as the new owner of her building is planning a restaurant of their own. Chef-owner Thanh Nguyen told Kiki Aranita that she is looking for a new spot.
Side Eye, the Queen Village bistro, gets a bit of side eye from critic Craig LaBan, who likes the vibe and pricing but thinks the execution could be sharper.
New drive-thru coffee option: The syndicated 7 Brew has opened at 4000 Woodhaven Rd. in Northeast Philadelphia’s Knights Road Shopping Center.
More bagels are coming round: Central Florida-based Jeff’s Bagel Run — schmeared with private-equity investment — has cinched a franchisee for 10 stores from the Harrisburg area east through Reading and the Lehigh Valley to suburban Philadelphia. No leases have been signed, the company announced in a press release.
Briefly noted
Cantina la Martina’s fourth annual Cemita Festival returns from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at the Garden Center across from Mural City Cellars (1825 Frankford Ave). Six restaurants will each serve interpretations of Puebla’s iconic cemita sandwich for $16: Cantina la Martina, Gilda, Bolo, Vientiane Bistro, Cinteotl Tamalli, and Los Cuatro Soles Restaurant. Also: beverages from Mural City Cellars, DJ Cali Rumba, dance performances by Danza Tonantzin Cultura, face painting, and artisan vendors. It’s pay-as-you-go. Some cemita vendors are cash only.
Post Haste in East Kensington will become Philadelphia’s only participant in the inaugural Global Pay What You Can Day on Aug. 26, joining restaurants from Mexico City to Mumbai in a one-day effort to make dining more accessible. Guests can order whatever they’d like and pay what they can (excluding alcohol), building on chef Ari Miller’s weekly pay-what-you-can program launched earlier this year. (Miller is married to Inquirer staff writer Kiki Aranita.)
The Fishtown Pickle Project is taking its annual pickle-themed dinner outside of Fishtown for the first time. The Aug. 27 edition will have founders Niki Toscani and Mike Sicinski in Rittenhouse to collaborate with Uchi on a nine-course, pickle-centric tasting menu (e.g. oysters with giardiniera, yellowtail with pickled peach, salmon with pickled enoki, and a dessert featuring pickle jam). Seatings: 6 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
Chef Chaz Brown, in partnership with Forman Arts Initiative, will present the third annual Oxtail Collective from 1-5 p.m. Aug. 30 at the Substation in Kensington. Titled “The Hercules Posey Celebration” — after George Washington’s enslaved chef — the event will bring together Black chefs, historians, artists, and entrepreneurs to explore the intersections of food, culture, business, and history while serving as an early public introduction to Forman’s future 100,000-square-foot arts campus. Participating chefs include Chad Williams of Friday Saturday Sunday, Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate of Honeysuckle, and Shola Olunloyo of Studiokitchen. PBS NewsHour’s Geoff Bennett will moderate panels, and the program also includes tastings from 15 chefs, cooking demos, and a marketplace featuring Black-owned businesses. Tickets ($92.55, including fees) are on sale.
Delicious City Philly Podcast’ssecond annual Hoagie Throwdown has a date: Sept. 27, from noon-4 p.m., at Other Half Brewing in Fishtown, drawing 20 chefs, restaurants, delis, and sandwich makers to compete. There will be unlimited hoagie samples, beer/soft drinks, and pro wrestlers grappling. (Last year’s outing was a scene: The Inquirer’s Craig LaBan, in a Zorro mask and big hat, went through hoagie-making boot camp.) The podcast has made 500 tickets available and early pricing starts at $55.
❓Pop quiz
Which Pennsylvania farm crop is in the crosshairs of the U.S. Department of Commerce?
What is going on at 117 Chestnut St.? The restaurant 117 is closed already and it just opened. — Chris D.
Old City restaurant 117, which opened only last November, posted a note on Instragram last week that it had closed “due to circumstances beyond our control.” According to Philadelphia court records, the restaurant was evicted over back rent.
The space’s previous occupant, the Avery, also had a very short run last year. Previous occupants had better luck: 2nd Story Brewing Co. closed in 2024 after a decade and was the last to use the brewing equipment installed by Triumph Brewing Co. for its own run from 2007 to 2014.
Adding intrigue now is the liquor license application that was filed at 117 Chestnut St. last week in the name “Finish Your Champagne LLC.” Finish Your Champagne is the name of the long-in-the-works Columbus Boulevard cocktail bar project from Kevin Dolce, owner of Center City’s Taste Cheesesteak Bar and Savù. Dolce declined comment.
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