About two dozen No ICE Philly activists gathered Saturday outside a parking garage in Old City, demanding the Philadelphia Parking Authority end an arrangement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
At issue are 16 parking passes at the federally owned garage on Second Street, which is managed by the PPA. The group sang protest songs, held signs, and passed out informational flyers that resembled oversized PPA parking tickets.
“Who doesn’t know what these things look like, you know?” said one activist handing out flyers.
Group organizer Jay Bergen said the rally is meant to pressure the PPA — and to let people know that ICE is using the parking garage.
“It’s scary that you could be parking downtown, and unbeknownst to you, parking next to an ICE agent,” Bergen said.
Bergen, a 34-year old pastor at the Germantown Mennonite Church, pointed to public records showing a $53,520 contract that allows “for parking of government vehicles for ICE Homeland Security investigations” at the garage.
That contract was set to expire at the end of September, but another one, beginning in October and running through at least next September, gives Department of Homeland Security “16 leased parking spaces,” records show. ICE is part of DHS.
PPA spokesperson Martin O’Rourke declined to comment on the contracts.
An activist holds “violations” resembling PPA parking tickets to pass out to people, while a crowd gathers to demand the PPA stop leasing parking spaces to ICE.Brett Sholtis
Bergen said the group opposes ICE for “kidnappings” of immigrants and others, including people who have lived legally in the community for decades. One recent example is a 30-year-old nurse from Delaware County, who was arrested while taking her son to Disneyland.
Bergen said most people detained by ICE did nothing wrong. Some had minor lapses in paperwork or had been convicted of summary or misdemeanor crimes.
“Their goal is terror. It’s not public safety in any meaningful way,” Bergen said.
The local ICE field office did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.
At the rally, protester Akarsh Balaji said that the amount of money PPA makes on the contracts is “less than what they spend every year on salt to de-ice the streets.”
Balaji said he’s seen ICE harass his Puerto Rican neighbors in West Kensington. Puerto Ricans are Americans — so is Balaji, who is of Indian ethnicity — but that doesn’t seem to matter, he said.
“Nobody should have to live in fear, or be told that they’re harmful to society,” Balaji said.
Balaji said he got involved with the group in February after feeling a need to do something, “and be part of a movement that is so much bigger than I was.”
“We want to make it as difficult as possible for ICE to do its job,” Bergen said.
In Philly, ICE has faced obstacles from residents and elected officials. In April, the city adopted some of the nation’s most aggressive polices aimed at restricting ICE. The legislation took effect in July but the federal Department of Justice sued the city over some of its directives.
Bergen said ICE has changed its tactics since early this year, when its Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota — and the killings, captured on video, of U.S. citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti — led to overwhelming public opposition to the agency.
“But the fear has not gone down. I heard this week about someone whose mother is afraid to go to doctor’s appointments, because she’s afraid ICE might grab her,” Bergen said.
Orifice the Awebot rolled down the sidewalk across from the Betsy Ross House last Friday, striking joy, confusion, and mild terror in those who unexpectedly encountered her — and nobody expects to encounter a two-foot-tall, pink, potato-shaped robot with a dangling tongue, blue eyes, and a shock of blond hair.
As I trailed behind the little bot, I could hear people whisper and scream.
“Oh that’s adorable!”
“What did I just see?”
“It’s terrifying!”
Tourists on top of a double decker bus pointed at her. Philadelphians who didn’t have time for whatever this nonsense was steered clear. But after the initial shock of seeing Orifice wore off, most people smiled and laughed, like Justin Lutz of California.
Orifice the AwebotJessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Lutz had already seen the Uber Eats robots on our sidewalks while visiting Philly and he immediately recognized that Orifice, despite being approximately the same size, was something quite different.
“I bet you Betsy Ross never thought a little robot would be scooting around in front of her house,” he said. “I love the personality and it’s super cool. We don’t even have these in California.”
I wanted to tell Lutz there’s a lot of great things we have in Philly they don’t have in California, like all four seasons and Gritty and the Phanatic, but I stopped short.
“Have a great time in our city,” I said, instead. “It’s just this weird here all the time!”
I was invited to follow Orifice around Old City with some folks from the Ministry of Awe (MoA), the interactive and immersive art installation created by Philly muralist Meg Saligman that’s housed in a 19th-century Old City bank.
The “Awebot” was born out of one of MoA’s community Co-Creation Nights as people were bouncing around ideas and discussing the Uber Eats robots that have become ubiquitous in Philly since they descended upon our city in March.
“We thought what if [robots] didn’t just bring things, what if they were used for purposes other than just delivery and business and commerce. Would that somehow let us reflect in a different way?” Saligman said.
Artist Madison Polidoro (aka 10 Ton Fetus), a sculptor and metal fabricator whose human-animal-hybrid creatures like “Skin Horse” inhabit the bathrooms at MoA, brought Orifice to life. She’s affectionately known as the robot’s “mommy.”
“Skin Horse” is one of the sculptures from artist Madison Polidoro that inhabits the bathrooms at the Ministry of Awe. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
“What I find interesting about the Uber Eats robots is that they do create this kind of horror, this dystopian feeling in a lot of people,” Polidoro said. “So I was excited about the idea of making my own robot creature to sort of do an opposite thing where it could inspire something lighthearted and silly and fun and kind of magical.”
Polidoro fabricated Orifice’s base out of aluminum and left an empty vessel in the center, so it can carry things. She made the skin out of weatherproof urethane rubber and included an orifice on the robot’s rear end, which is where it gets its name.
Orifice is driven via a wireless remote but the range of the controller is quite far (at least half a city block), so the driver can remain pretty inconspicuous. The Awebot’s large blue eyes blink independently at intervals, but they can also be controlled by the operator. The dangling tongue, however, remains permanently out.
Artist Madison Polidoro with her creation, Orifice the Awebot.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
“She’s a sweetie pie who’s curious and likes to explore and try new things. And she loves attention. She’s kind of like a dog,” Polidoro said of her creation.
‘They’re gonna fight!’
As a team of folks from MoA, including Saligman and Polidoro, set out with Orifice in Old City last Friday, they didn’t even get a few hundred feet down the block before people stopped to pet the Awebot and ask questions.
“Is this a good hair day or a bad day for it?” a man in an Eagles jersey asked.
“Does it poop?” another guy wondered.
He was assured it did not.
This yellow Labrador retriever was very dubious of Orifice the Awebot. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
As Orifice rolled down the sidewalk, she scared a few dogs, people pulled over their cars to see her, and others ran across the street to take her picture.
An Xfinity van driver sitting in his vehicle looked stunned as we passed. Then we made eye contact, he shook his head, I shrugged my shoulders, and were shared an “only in Philly” laugh.
At one point, Saligman spotted an Uber Eats robot down the sidewalk and ran to stand in front of it and stop it so Orifice could meet it face-to-face.
“They’re gonna fight!” Polidoro said.
Alas, the meeting did not result in a new kind of BattleBots, but it was clear that at one point, a human must have taken control of the Uber Eats robot, because it skillfully maneuvered its way around Orifice and Saligman. I can only imagine what the person on the other end of that camera thought.
An Uber Eats robot rudely ignores Orifice the Awebot on the sidewalks of Old City. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
All the while, MoA staffer Jordan Rampulla — who served as Orifice’s “conduit to humanity” — encouraged people to interact with the robot, handed them fliers for the MoA, and told them to click a QR code on an MoA flag attached to the robot, which leads to a landing page about the creation on the MoA website.
Orifice is not just MoA’s creative response to the dystopian Uber Eats robots, it’s also a inventive marketing tactic. While some people we met had heard of MoA, others had not, and they seemed interested in learning more about the experience after meeting its Awebot ambassador.
‘Bringing delight and surprise’
As the little pink robot passed by the little pink Tarte’s Pastry Shop on Arch Street near Second, owner Teresa Wall popped outside of her business, stunned by what she saw.
“It’s hysterical! We need more of that. I love it,” Wall said. “Any of this in today’s climate is great, any joy and laughter, we need it more.”
When Stephanie Gentle, who was out walking her French bulldog, Frank, first saw Orifice, she worried it might be a new kind of delivery bot. She was relieved to learn it was a creation of the MoA.
“I would much rather have this on the streets than an Uber Eats robot. It’s much less scary and much less evil,” Gentle said. “I’m so happy I ran into this. This made my day.”
A passerby takes a photo of Orifice the Awebot as she roams the streets of Old City. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
I too would rather have Orifice wandering around Philly than those Uber Eats robots any day. She’s the rare kind of robot that connects humans with each other and illustrates the creativity of humanity in a unique way.
“When people see a lot of my creatures they intuitively connect with them through these anchoring points of the eyes and the skin and the hair and the orifices. Those are things that sort of force you to engage with another person when you look at them and meet them,” Polidoro said.
“They also force you to engage with my work in a very specific way, and I think that that’s something that I’ve really been leaning into and enjoying lately in a time of food-delivery-robot-dystopian-level technology that’s sort of separating us all from those very basic, but fundamental, important human connections.”
Polidoro and Saligman have big dreams for Orifice’s future. They’d like to take her to an Eagles tailgate and maybe out to lunch at Parc one day. If it doesn’t rain this Friday, they’re planning on bringing her to Elfreth’s Alley for the 11th anniversary celebration of the destruction of hitchBOT.
Orifice will make special appearances at MoA and her upcoming public appearances around the city will be announced on MoA’s social media channels, though she could pop up anywhere, unannounced, any day.
“She’s part of our bringing delight and surprise and letting it ripple through the city,” Saligman said.
Artist Madison Polidoro with her creation, Orifice the Awebot. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Football and the Eagles are back, and every week fans will be packed into tailgates, living rooms, and watering holes to watch the Birds’ potential path back to the Super Bowl.
Philly has hundreds of spots to catch a game, from breweries with wall-size projectors to restaurants streaming the broadcast over the bar. Here are some of the top picks — big venues, sports bars, breweries, and restaurants — to help you plan your game day.
Eagles fan Justin Ghee (right) gets in the face of his friend Packers fan Ronald Roberts when the Eagles sacked the Packers quarterback in the first half of the Eagles vs. Packers NFL playoff game. The friends were viewing the game at XFINITY Live! Philadelphia on Sunday, January 12, 2025. Both men are formerly from Philly, attended Howard University and now live in Washington, D.C.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Big venues, bigger screens
Live! Casino
Right next to the South Philadelphia sports complex is the fairly new Live! Casino and Hotel, with at least two venues located within the casino to watch the games. Take your pick between the 52-foot screen at Sports & Social, or Luk Fu, the casino’s pan-Asian restaurant with game-day specials.
So close to the Linc that you can hear the stadium roar from the patio, Stateside Live! (formerly Xfinity Live!) has a 58-foot screen and dozens of TVs in its bars.
Watch the Eagles play on a massive HD video wall at BetRivers Sportsbook inside Rivers Casino in Fishtown. Game-day beer specials and giveaways will be available, plus each game brings a chance for fans to win tickets to a forthcoming Eagles game.
Craft Hall is a massive beer hall, with family- and pet-friendly fixtures, equipped with two projector screens and several TVs lining the walls playing every Eagles game. Enjoy $5 draft beers and $15 beer pitchers with under-$20 food specials, including wings and pizza.
Classmates from the Philadelphia area attending East Carolina University in North Carolina meet at Founding Fathers on South Street to watch the Eagles. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Sports bars and breweries
Cavanaugh’s Headhouse & Rittenhouse
Cavanaugh’s sports bars are some of the best venues to be at on game day, with locations in Rittenhouse and Headhouse Square off South Street. The Rittenhouse location will offer Bud Light in $5 cans and in $22 bottle buckets. Headhouse will have $4 draft Michelob Ultras and $20 buckets of Bud Light.
South Street’s premier sports bar with TV-lined walls, an extensive bar-food menu, and a draft beer list that offers popular craft beers and local talent.
Philadelphia’s oldest craft brewery invites you to their Washington Avenue brewery and bar every game day to watch on their wall-size projectors alongside food and drink specials.
📍2118 Washington Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19146, 📞 215-337-3103, 🌐 dockstreetbeer.com
Evil Genius Beer Co.
This Fishtown taproom will treat you to Evil Genius’ celebrated classics and latest craft brews while watching the game on a 16-foot screen. Game-day specials include $42 beer towers and $45 Stateside buckets.
📍1727 N. Front St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19122, 📞 215-425-6820, 🌐 evilgeniusbeer.com
Lucy’s Bar
This Rittenhouse sports bar has a 16-foot screen and game-day deals, including a $40 appetizer platter stacked with wings, cheese curds, onion rings, and pretzels. Drinks include a $6 citywide (dubbed the “buddy system”) and $10 to $12 cocktails.
Philadelphia’s largest brewery is delivering specials every game day at its Spring Garden Street taproom, including $6 Trash Talks, an IPA made especially for the Eagles season.
A block away from the Girard Avenue BSL station is an Asian-fusion sports bar with a curated craft beer list, several TVs playing the Eagles on game day, and a slew of specials: $1 Jell-O shots, $20 beer pitchers, $10 wings, and more.
Manayunk’s Bayou Bar & Grill has been playing every Eagles game for decades. Enjoy its festive atmosphere, and a weekly Eagles merchandise giveaway all season long.
A Center City open-air beer garden with every Eagles game projected onto a big screen along the wall, accompanied by domestic beers on tap, cocktails, and classic pub grub.
Chinatown’s premier sports bar, Bar-Ly carries a whopping 60 beers on tap with TVs and large screens lining the walls. It gets busy on game day, so call ahead to reserve a table.
Every Eagles game day at the Rook in Manayunk, fans can watch the game while taking advantage of the $12 domestic beer pitchers and a $12 “Philly Special” pulled pork sandwich, with broccoli rabe, roasted long hots, and provolone.
Jaffa Bar will be playing every Eagles game on the bar’s TVs and offering a bevy of game-day specials: $12 black lime pepper wings with herbed labneh; $2 raw bar items (oysters, New Jersey top neck clams, and shrimp cocktail), and $6 french fries with tehina ketchup. Plus, $9 specialty cocktails.
📍1625 N. Howard St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19122, 📞 267-857-9944, 🌐 jaffabarphilly.com
Positano Coast
Aldo Lamberti’s Positano Coast in Old City will offer a rotating menu of specials, with games playing across the bar’s TVs.
Patchwork, nestled inside Rittenhouse’s Hyatt Centric, will play the Eagles games all season long, offering $10 citywide, $11 Super Lyte (Blue Chill), and $13 seasoned crinkle-cut fries.
For nearly 40 years, Keith Haring’s We the Youth has been a highlight in Philadelphia’s Point Breeze neighborhood.
The vibrant figures dancing across the facade of a three-bedroom rowhouse at 22nd and Ellsworth Streets is the only collaborative Haring mural that remains intact in its original location.
Now it’s one step closer to being added to the city’s Register of Historic Places. On Wednesday, an advisory group of the Philadelphia Historical Commission unanimously approved its nomination to be included.
If approved at next month’s Philadelphia Historical Commission meeting, the mural will be added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. That would make it the first outdoor mural to be an officially designated and protected landmark in the city’s history. It’ll be only the fifth mural to be designated as such, after The Dream Garden inside the Curtis Center, the New Deal-era murals inside the Family Court building, the frescoed ceiling at Old City’s St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, and Iron Plantation Near Southwark inside the Southwark Station Post Office in South Philly.
Keith Haring, who died in 1990, with his painted carousel. MUST CREDIT: Sabina Sarnitz/Luna Luna/Keith Haring Foundation/Artestar
Haring, the Reading, Pa., native, whose bold drawings and vivacious paintings meld the worlds of graffiti and contemporary art, became one of the defining artists of his generation. He died in 1990, at age 31, due to AIDS-related complications.
In 1987, Haring and a group of 14 Philly and New York students collaborated on We the Youth to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.
In 2013, Mural Arts Philadelphia undertook a massive restoration of the Haring mural, located on a shared party wall at 2147 and 2149 Ellsworth Streets. In recent months, organizations have advocated for the designation of the pop artist’s mural.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the nomination was presented by Alex Till, a historic preservation planner for the City of Philadelphia, who referenced designation criteria A and E because of the mural’s artistic and cultural significance.
“We the Youth” sits at 22nd and Ellsworth Streets, with a small park next to it. Photo from 2013.Steve Weinik / Mural Arts Philadelphia
According to the City of Philadelphia website, criteria A is considered for “significant character, interest, or value as part of the development, heritage, or cultural characteristics of the City, Commonwealth, or Nation or be associated with the life of a person significant in the past.” Criteria E is for the work of a “designer, architect, landscape architect or designer, or engineer whose work has significantly influenced the historical, architectural, economic, social, or cultural development of the City, Commonwealth, or Nation,” according to the website.
Till was joined by Mural Arts Philadelphia founder and former leader Jane Golden; Jenny Greenberg, executive director of the Neighborhood Gardens Trust; and Simon Castets, executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation.
Golden said the mural is a part of the “unique fabric of Philadelphia.”
“There are few opportunities to preserve history while it is still physically present and still connected to our city and our community. This is the moment,” Golden said.
Erica Bryant mimics a Keith Haring figure. “We the Youth,” a Keith Haring mural created in 1987 at 22nd and Ellsworth Streets, has been restored by artists from the Mural Arts Program. Photo from 2013. ( MICHAEL S. WIRTZ / Staff Photographer )Michael S. Wirtz / Staff Photographer
Greenberg said amid the ongoing threat of development and gentrification in this city, it is almost rare to find a mural that has been at the same site for 40 years. And this is why historical designation is necessary.
“The mural’s location reflects Haring’s commitment to making art accessible to the public, regardless of socioeconomic status, and to engaging young people as creative partners,” she said.
The advisory group, comprising architects, historians, and preservation experts, agreed that the mural meets the criteria. After nearly an hour of deliberation, including comments from Philadelphia residents who tuned into the Zoom meeting, the group approved the nomination and recommended it to the commission for next month’s meeting.
The commission will vote Oct. 9. If approved, We the Youth would be the city’s first designated mural in over four years.
A potential historic designation will not affect the larger property and will be restricted to the mural and the wall it is painted on. The building’s owner will be required to maintain the structural integrity of the wall and commit to set obligations, with Mural Arts making any necessary restorations to the mural itself.
If the mural is designated, the building’s owner, listed as “2147 Ellsworth LLC” in city records, will not be allowed to remove or alter the appearance of the mural without the Historic Commission’s review.
While speakers were impassioned by the possibility of historical designation, 2147 Ellsworth LLC manager Ori Feibush, serving as a representative at Wednesday’s committee meeting, opposed the nomination.
Kutztown, Pa., native Keith Haring came back to Philadelphia at the height of his worldwide popularity in 1987 and painted a mural at 22nd & Ellsworth Streets with the help of neighborhood kids from the Brandywine Workshop. This photo, from May 27, 1999, shows the mural before restoration. (Tom Gralish/Staff photographer)
Feibush warned that the designation would impede the building’s renovation efforts, which may require the demolition of the rowhouse’s interior, based on analysis from engineers. Since purchasing the property eight years ago, Feibush said his company has worked diligently to reduce water infiltration and minimize movement to “preserve the mural.”
Despite years of efforts, he said, the mural has delaminated from the underlying salmon brick and is in a fragile condition.
“The removal and, ultimately, reinstallation of the mural here is the only path to create something that can be here long term,” Feibush said.
By gaining historical designation, he said, there will be temporary plans made to preserve the site, rather than long-term fixes that will ensure the mural lasts “another 100 years,” rather than the five to seven he projects.
“We the Youth,” a Keith Haring mural painted in 1987 at 22nd and Ellsworth Streets, was restored to its original vibrancy in 2013 by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. [File Photo]Michael S. Wirtz / Staff Photographer
“This mural we hope will forever be at this location, but the only way this location could have a mural is without a designation,” he said.
Committee member Jeff Cohen was one of several who questioned whether historical designation and preservation could happen simultaneously. He and his fellow member Elizabeth Milroy agreed that both methods should be carefully studied and explored before next month’s commission meeting, ensuring that all scenarios are properly vetted and that all attendees’ views are considered.
The committee then opened the meeting to the public. Several Point Breeze residents, many of whom live within walking distance of the mural, supported the historical designation.
An earlier version of the article misstated the murals included in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. It has been updated to include the frescoed ceiling at St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church in Old City.
Sixty restaurants are on the slate for this fall in Philadelphia and its suburbs on both sides of the river, with cuisines that span the map: Vietnamese, Lebanese, Greek, Caribbean, Cajun-Creole, Palestinian, Mediterranean, and contemporary American cooking, along with bagel shops, bakeries, breakfast concepts, wine bars, and cocktail rooms.
Heavy Metal Sausage was ordered to stop serving dinner. Beatrice Forman says this may spell doom for the acclaimed South Philly butcher shop/restaurant.
The Michelin-starred Friday Saturday Sunday secured a $1.5 million state grant to expand into the rowhouse next door. Beatrice unpacked the process — and the reaction.
When does a tea shop require security guards? When it’s heytea —just one of a slew of hyped Chinese beverage chains hitting Philly. Kiki Aranita reports on the hottest thing going in Chinatown.
There was a lot of crunching going on as critic Craig LaBan tucked into the Vietnamese fried chicken platter at South Philly’s Phở Duyên — which he dubs “my No. 1 food deal for $15 in Philadelphia right now.”
Scoops
Edd’s & Flo’s Artisan Bakery Cafe plans to close its Lancaster operation on Sept. 20 in advance of a relocation to Fishtown next year. Meghan Young and Sebastian Schuck are still working on a lease, so the location is under wraps. Edd’s & Flo’s, which started in their hometown as Wish You Well Bakery in 2021, found its niche in croissants, savory pastries, and weekend brunch. This move will be a Philly comeback for Young, a Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College graduate who worked at Darling’s Cheesecake Cafe, Green Line Cafe, Barbuzzo, Suraya, John & Kira’s Chocolates, and One Shot Coffee. Young and Schuck rebranded in 2024 with a name that’s both a nod to life’s ebbs and flows and a tribute to Young’s childhood cats, named for the musical duo Flo & Eddie. Stay tuned.
You’ve seen the months of construction along Columbus Boulevard at Penn’s Landing for the park that will cap I-95 and link Old City to the Delaware River. The Delaware River Waterfront Corp. just applied for building permits for the Pavilion and Café (rendering above), which will be part of Penn’s Landing Park when it opens in 2029-2030 at Market Street. The project’s operator has not yet been identified.
Restaurant report
While chef-owner Liz Grothe of Scampi in Queen Village travels in Italy, chef RJ Smith of Ocho Supper Club will take over the restaurant for a five-course Afro-Caribbean tasting menu Sept. 18-21. The $130 menu includes curried oxtail, madai aguachile, plantain coco bread with crab, berbere-spiced duck breast, and turmeric tart. An optional Pennsylvania wine pairing is $50. Seatings are at 5 and 8 p.m., and à la carte dishes will be available on the patio. Reservations are on Resy and OpenTable. Smith is still leading his residency at the Rittenhouse Hotel; the space, which was Scarpetta, will become a steakhouse called Ruxton by next summer.
Old Original Nick’s Roast Beef sets up starting Thursday at Live! Casino & Hotel’s 10th Street Market, where it will follow South Philly Barbacoa’s residency. Besides roast beef, Nick’s will deal in roast turkey, roast pork, baked ham, broccoli rabe sandwiches, and long hot peppers. The pop-up will be open from 5 p.m. to midnight (or sellout) Thursday and Friday, noon to midnight Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday, through the fall.
Briefly noted
The Big Dill will mark National Pickle Day with a nine-hour pickle festival Nov. 14 at Stateside Live! in South Philadelphia, closing its 2026 national tour there. More than 50 vendors will offer pickle-themed food and drinks, while 20 pickle brands serve unlimited samples of more than 100 varieties. Entertainment includes the World Pickle Eating Championship, brine-chugging, live music, DJs, games, and mechanical pickle rides. Organizers also hope to break a record by gathering more than 888 people dressed as pickles; the first 1,200 ticket buyers receive numbered costumes. The event runs from 1 to 9 p.m., with early entry at noon. Tickets go on sale Sept. 15 at bigdill.com/tour.
Mish Mish is launching Daydreamers, a quarterly series that will turn the East Passyunk restaurant over to chefs, makers, and other hospitality pros for one-night interpretations of their dream concepts. The first installment, with seatings at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Sunday, features sous chef Koby Epstein serving a six-course, late-summer tasting menu paired with Pray Tell Wines. Seatings, at 5:30 and 8 p.m., are $120 plus tax, tip, and drinks.
Kennett Square’s annual Mushroom Festival is set for Saturday and Sunday with foods and goods from 220-plus vendors, including Aimee Olexy’s Talula’s Table. Signature bite: The restaurant’s so-called “World Famous Riz-Mac,” which places mushroom risotto and mushroom mac and cheese side by side. Festival details are here.
Les Dames d’Escoffier Philadelphia’s Heritage Dinner is 4-7 p.m. Sunday at Glen Foerd, 5001 Grant Ave. More than two dozen chefs will participate, serving Sweet Amalia oysters, chicken mole, seared salmon, Vietnamese vegetable curry, beef tenderloin, and desserts honoring The Cake Bible author Rose Levy Beranbaum. Also honored are Canal House’s Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton and caterer Michele Leff. Tickets start at $200; a $300 ticket includes preferred seating and Beranbaum’s new memoir. Proceeds fund scholarships for women entering culinary and hospitality fields.
Bite for the Fight Food Festival returns for a seventh year from noon to 4 p.m. Sept. 19 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks with tastings, cooking demos, and a silent auction benefiting the Fight On Makenna Foundation, which supports pediatric cancer patients and their families at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Featured chefs are Brian Duffy, Ariane Duarte, Kenneth McDuffie, and David Schorn. Tickets start at $120.
Top Chef winner Nick Elmi will prepare smoked ribs, whole chicken wings, pork shoulder, brisket, cornbread, baked beans, mac and cheese, apple crisp, and soft-serve for the KB Foundation’s fifth annual BBQ Experience, Sept. 24 at the Pump House in Bala Cynwyd. VIP service begins at 6 p.m. with lobster pies, fried chicken with caviar and white barbecue sauce, smoked foie gras mousse, and oyster fritters; general admission starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $175, or $250 for VIP. Proceeds support youth-mentoring programs.
Uchi in Rittenhouse will launch a fall collaboration series Sept. 24 with Kevin Yanaga of Yanaga Kappo Izakaya. He, Uchi head sushi chef Josephine Fry, and chef de cuisine Ford Sonnenberg will serve 10 courses starting at 6 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $175 at the sushi bar, $150 at tables, plus tax/tip; an optional sake pairing will be available. Additional dinners will follow in October and November.
Staff and friends of the recently shuttered Jose Pistola’s have organized a GoFundMe campaign for support (separate from an earlier one created by management).
❓Pop quiz
Name the $88 dish that Kiki Aranita checked out recently at a Philadelphia restaurant.
A) a tasting of New York strip steaks from Urban Farmer
Is ReAnimator Coffee really opening in Manayunk? — Jennie O.
ReAnimator, the Philly-bred coffee brand founded in 2010 by Mark Capriotti and Mark Corpus, has indeed committed to a Manayunk location at 4226 Main St., which was last an art gallery. Capriotti optimistically thinks opening is six months away. “We just opened in Mount Airy and it took us a year,” he said. “But we’re hoping we can learn from our experience.”
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This fall’s restaurant openings reflect an industry hedging its bets: established operators expanding into the suburbs and repurposing familiar spaces, and newcomers pursuing narrowly drawn concepts built around omakase, caviar, Korean barbecue, cocktails, and live-fire cooking.
I count about five dozen restaurants in the region’s pipeline, with Italian concepts (no surprise), all-day service, and experience-driven dining recurring throughout the list. In addition to 60 restaurants opening between now and late December, two other restaurants are expanding: Lovat Square in Chestnut Hill is adding dinners and Palm Vintage across from City Hall is adding nighttime sushi service.
By comparison, last year’s fall roundup covered 53 restaurants. All of those opened except for three that are now a full year behind schedule: Adda in Fishtown is shooting for October, Ayat near Rittenhouse Square is aiming for November, and Brunch Bulls in Point Breeze is targeted for December. (Although this year has seen its share of closings, especially among longstanding restaurants, each of last fall’s restaurants is still open.)
Brand new and notable
Aogami (4343 Main St.): Underground sushi is coming to Manayunk as chef Tom LoMonte joins chef Moon Krapukthong to offer a 16-course omakase in a 20-seat BYOB setting beneath Krapukthong’s Yanako and neighboring Chabaa Thai Bistro, starting Sept. 25. LoMonte — a veteran of Zama, Izakaya by Yanaga, Pod, and Yanaga Kappo Izakaya — will lead the omakases at 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; reserved sushi-bar seatings will run Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays alongside hand rolls and à la carte service. LoMonte describes the atmosphere as energetic and less formal than typical omakase counters. Upstairs, Yanako will continue serving rolls, sushi platters, udon, tempura, and yakitori.
The Buttery (1099 Germantown Ave.): Malvern-based bakery and cafe the Buttery is preparing a Philadelphia location at Piazza Alta in Northern Liberties, near Scusi and Terra Grill. It recently opened a Bryn Mawr location and expanded its original Malvern operation into dinner service with Neapolitan pizza and shareable plates. An opening date has not yet been shared.
Nick & Nora’s Oyster Dive (560 Stokes Rd., Medford): Michael and Jeniphur Pasquarello (La Chinesca, Piccolina) are bringing a raw bar and American kitchen to a corner space with a large deck at Ironstone Village. The broader menu will include steak frites, burgers, fish, vegetables, and small plates, says Michael Pasquarello, who hopes to open in 60 to 90 days.
Chef Chaz Brown (left) is partnered with his brother Clifford Brown (center) and John Skeele in Rumblefish, 1700 N. Third St.Mike Prince
Rumblefish(1700 N. Third St.): Chef Chaz Brown is targeting November for this 900-square-foot, fast-casual Caribbean fish-fry restaurant at Third Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Brown — a Trinidadian American chef whose resumé includes Nobu, Le Bec-Fin, Fatty Crab, and television’s Top Chef — will focus on invasive species such as lionfish, snakehead, green crab, and Chesapeake Bay blue catfish when available. (The catfish turned heads at the recent Oxtail Exchange at Forman Arts Initiative.) Brown uses gluten-free corn flour with Trinidadian spice blends and serves the fish on po’boy-style rolls baked by Angelo’s Bakery in Conshohocken. The mostly takeout operation will have counter seating, a 25-seat covered patio, slaws, fries, sea-moss drinks, and Solo Kola Champagne.
Pennsylvania suburbs
Alessandro’s Enoteca (915 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr): Alex Fiorello’s third restaurant will bring a bar-focused Italian concept to the former Enoteca Tredici space in Bryn Mawr Village in mid-to-late October. Fiorello and culinary director Matt Arcomone, whose resumé includes Osteria, Vetri, and Palladino’s, are planning house-made pastas, wood-fired pizzas, live-fire cooking, and dry-aged meats. It’s intended to have a stronger evening and bar scene than Fiorello’s Wayne restaurants.
Bruzi (281 Montgomery Ave., Bala Cynwyd): Two couples with Calabrian roots plan to open this Southern Italian restaurant in the former Aldar Bistro in late fall. Expect house-made pastas and Calabrian dishes such as fusilli with slow-cooked meat sauce, baked lamb, and grilled tuna, plus cocktails and an opening list of about 100 Italian wines.
Capperini (137 S. Easton Rd., Glenside): Eastern Montco will get an upscale Italian-Mediterranean destination with a liquor license from Ilya Vorobey and partners including members of the team behind Capri in Queen Village. Vorobey is aiming for October or November.
Casa de Fehu, 482 Jacksonville Rd., Hatboro.Michael Klein / Staff
Casa de Fehu (482 Jacksonville Rd., Hatboro): Hatboro couple Anthony Shalamov and Anastasia De Roy are developing this polished restaurant with European-inspired cooking and an upscale atmosphere, possibly with a tie-in to a local brewery that would allow alcoholic drinks. Shalamov is targeting an October soft opening.
Cecilia (266 E. Fourth St., Bridgeport): The team behind Blue Bell Inn and the Copper Crow is just about ready to open this contemporary American bar-restaurant in the extensively renovated former Taphouse 23. The roomy property includes a large patio and a wood-burning oven. The menu emphasizes familiar American dishes, positioning this as an all-purpose neighborhood destination.
Donatelli’s (1 Washington Ave., Newtown): Restaurateur Habib Troudi, who owns Panache and Ristorante Castelloin Blue Bell, is behind a top-to-bottom overhaul of the former Rocco’s at the Brick in downtown Newtown. He said he is hoping to open the Italian steakhouse in October.
Rendering of the Garden by Pieri Winery, 127 E. Elm St., in Conshohocken.Courtesy of Christina Pieri
The Garden by Pieri Winery (127 E. Elm St., Conshohocken): Winery owner Christina Pieri and restaurateur Brian Pieri (StoneRose, Bar Lucca, Cerdo) are targeting a mid-October opening of their year-round indoor-outdoor restaurant beside the Schuylkill River Trail, an offshoot of Christina’s Coopersburg winery. A wood-fired kitchen will serve seasonal American food, including brick-oven pizzas, focaccia sandwiches, salads, steaks, and fish, at lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday. The property will include a covered patio, fire tables, a turf area, and pickleball and bocce courts.
The Hungry Hub (11 S. Orange St., Media): Media native Cassidy Moretti and her mother, Glenda, are taking over the former Rivalry Cafe with a family-run breakfast and lunch operation. The Hungry Hub also plans later hours and a late-night menu, broadening its role beyond that of a conventional daytime cafe. An Oct. 1 opening has been announced.
The Iron Oven (58 S. York Rd., Hatboro): Alex Nalbandian’s Southampton bar-restaurant — known for an expansive American menu, cocktails, craft beer, brunch, and dishes ranging from wings and burgers to flatbreads and entrees — is adding a second location in eastern Montco: the former Ross & Co. He’s aiming at November.
Lazy Dog(160 N. Gulph Rd., King of Prussia): The California-based bar, known for Rocky Mountain lodge imagery and a broad American menu, is targeting late 2026 at the King of Prussia Mall.
Luna (129 E. Butler Ave., Ambler): FineLine Hospitality, which recently opened Academy Grill in Fort Washington, is behind a stylish revamp of Dettera in downtown Ambler. Chef Marie Lavizzo-Mourey will base her menu on the 20-plus countries bordering the Mediterranean. The project is on track for fall.
Martini & Roz(523 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne): Fearless Restaurants is turning Wayne’s former Bertucci’s into an ambitious, 300-seat Southern Italian restaurant named for founder Marty Grims’ parents, Martin and Roslyn. Menu will include crudo, oysters, steaks and chops, wood-fired pizzas, house-made pastas, and charcuterie. It will feature two open kitchens, a cheese cave, a tasting counter, and extensive outdoor seating.
Maru (2922 Conestoga Rd., Glenmoore): David Backhus and the team behind the former Oori restaurants are in the early days of a fast-casual Korean-inspired restaurant at their former Collective Coffee & Bakery. Think Korean fried chicken sandwiches, wings, and tenders, supplemented by mochi doughnuts and specialty Collective coffee.
Nudy’s Cafe (122 Park Ave., Willow Grove): Prolific suburban breakfast-and-lunch operator Ray Nudy hopes for late September for his latest diner, across from Marshalls in Willow Grove.
Old Friend (166 E. Lancaster Ave., Wayne): Childhood friends Larry Kagan and Chas McFeely are behind this contemporary American grill, with former Fork executive chef Sam Henzy leading the kitchen. The 86-seat restaurant will center on live-fire cooking in a Josper oven, with dry-aged fish, poultry, and larger proteins intended for sharing. Its compact wine list will be closely tied to the food. A late-fall opening is planned in the Apartments at Wayne Station.
Opus (201 Birch St., Kennett Square): Square Roots Collective will open this 125-seat New American restaurant Sept. 11 in the former temporary home of Hank’s Place, next to the Artelo hotel. Executive chef Matthew Anderson, formerly of Longwood Gardens and Winterthur, plans seasonal dishes, such as Kennett Square mushroom bisque, butternut squash agnolotti, herb gnocchi, and dayboat scallops. The two-story space includes a cocktail lounge, terraces, and work by local artists. Profits will support community projects and nonprofits.
Salt (840 W. Lancaster Ave., Devon): Rich Kim of North Wales’ acclaimed Salt predicts late December for his redevelopment of Devon’s former La Jonquille and Shiraz property into a second Korean barbecue concept, followed in 2027 by Yugo, a carousel sushi restaurant, upstairs.
The Still on State (18 W. State St., Doylestown): Only days open at the Doylestown Inn, this Irish pub-inspired bar/restaurant fills the former Hattery Stove & Still space; it’s paired with an on-site microdistillery called the Tilted Brim.
Taco Heart (120 Coulter Ave., Ardmore): Nano Wheedan is bringing his South Philadelphia breakfast-taco shop to the Ardmore Farmers Market, its first expansion beyond its East Passyunk-area home. Expect Austin-style flour tortillas and breakfast tacos built around eggs, potatoes, beans, bacon, brisket, and house salsas. Opening is set for Oct. 5.
Top Dog Cocktails (110 E. State St., Kennett Square, and 2012 Frankford Ave., Fishtown): Ken Smuckler’s cocktail company plans two vinyl listening rooms this fall inspired by Japanese jazz kissas. Kennett Square’s 750-square-foot space partners with local music venue Kennett Flash, while Fishtown’s 350-square-foot flagship — arguably the neighborhood’s smallest bar — will feature a 15-seat bar, two-turntable DJ station, and retail.
Tusk (50 N. Main St., Doylestown): Mike and Joy Grafenstine, owners of Roberts Block in Glenside and Bonnet Lane Family Restaurant in Abington, are taking over the former Water’s Edge wine bar, combining the martini-and-wine-bar airs of Roberts Block with approachable upscale American comfort food. Target is October.
Vintner’s Table (24 Cricket Ave., Ardmore): Andrea and Marco Folino, behind Kutztown’s Folino Estate Winery, are opening a third location of their Italian-inspired wine bar, salumeria, and lifestyle boutique in downtown Ardmore in October.
New Jersey suburbs
Akira 70 Omakase (249 Marlton Pike, Cherry Hill): Ming “Frank” Zheng is expanding his Japanese holdings — he owns Akira Sushi in Voorhees and Moorestown — with an omakase experience in a former fur salon.
Banjara Indian Bistro (687-689 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd., Sicklerville): Vaneet Chopra, whose family operates Cross Culture in Haddonfield and previously ran Banjara in Chestnut Hill, is bringing the Banjara name to Sicklerville; its dine-in starts Thursday.
Freckled Jawn Brewing(1003 N. Evergreen Ave., Woodbury): Woodbury residents John Wagner and Colleen Gibson are taking over the former Eight & Sand Beer Co., which closed in June after 10 years. Targeting the first week of October, the brewery will introduce new branding and a fresh lineup of approachable beers, emphasizing natural and locally sourced ingredients when possible.
Irishtown Steaks (155 S. Burlington St., Gloucester City): Donkey’s Placealumnus Dave Murphy is targeting Halloween for his steak shop, joining recent Gloucester City entries Lillo’s and Pudge’s Pub. Murphy will use rolls from Boaggio’s, which has a bakery in town.
Penny’s Bagels (212 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield): Chris Fetfatzes and the Happy Monday Hospitality Group (Wine Dive, Grace & Proper) are developing this long-delayed bagel shop in downtown Haddonfield, now with an October target.
Pizzeria Cusumano (872 Haddon Ave., Collingswood): Announced back in September 2021, this passion project from South Jersey’s Sal Cusumano is finally about to start offering his Roman-inspired squares and neo-New York rounds, but “I don’t want to box myself into a certain style.” Cusumano, a third-generation pizzaiolo, is planning a small shop with limited seating. This week, he said it will open in October for sure.
Philadelphia
Adda (1700 Frankford Ave.): New York’s Unapologetic Foods — behind Dhamaka, Semma, and the original Adda — is bringing its energetic Indian cooking to Fishtown, across from the 19125 post office. Expect regional dishes in an informal setting, continuing the restaurant group’s practice of pushing beyond familiar Indian American standards. Originally expected in fall 2025, the Philadelphia location is now targeting an October opening.
Ayat (2021 Sansom St.): Abdul Elenani’s New York-based Palestinian restaurant — first announced in spring 2024 — is looking at a November opening in the former Roxy Theater near Rittenhouse Square. Ayat is known for generous portions of mansaf, maklouba, mezze, grilled meats, and other homestyle Palestinian dishes.
The bar at Bar Caviar, 256 S. 16th St.Kenneth Schutz
Bar Caviar (256 S. 16th St.): Opening in early October in the Dwight D Hotel in Rittenhouse, this bar will pair caviar and seafood with 50 varieties of Champagne and a full wine program in a setting that’s more neighborhood than hushed luxury lounge. Executive chef Greg Vassos’ contemporary American menu, informed by classical French technique and Japanese precision, will feature raw-bar selections, caviar-focused dishes, and seasonal small plates. The restaurant also will operate Parallel, a caviar program emphasizing careful sourcing and extended maturation. In 2027, Vassos plans to follow with Fall Line, a Mid-Atlantic-focused tasting-menu restaurant.
Brunch Bulls (1638 W. Passyunk Ave.): Brothers Derrick “Dee” Long and Jarrick “Jakk” Long are behind this all-day brunch/dinner/dessert restaurant in Point Breeze. They say they’ll be open by December.
Call Your Mother (262 S. 19th St., 1500 Frankford Ave., 12th and Sansom Streets): The lively, Washington-based “Jew-ish” bagel chain is making a three-location push into Philadelphia, starting this week with its Fishtown debut. Menu includes bagel sandwiches, schmears, latkes, coffee, and deli-inspired specials.
Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese (2015 Walnut St.): This week, chef Carolyn Nguyen opens her deeply personal successor to Revolution Taco, which she co-owned in the space for a decade. Her menu brings together her family’s Vietnamese cooking, the seafood boils and Southern food of her Louisiana childhood, French culinary technique, and the freewheeling flavor combinations that defined her earlier ventures. The 33-seat restaurant serves dinner, and alcohol, in a spare, contemporary dining room.
Corte (1175 Ludlow St.):Corio partners Ryan Mulholland, chef David Feola, and James Smith are taking over the former Mulherin’s Pizzeria at East Market, between Iron Hill Brewery and Mi Vida. Feola will lead a menu built around house-made pastas plus proteins, vegetables, and small plates cooked in the large Mugnaini wood-burning oven. Mulholland will oversee daily operations and oversee an Old World-leaning wine list and cocktails inspired partly by forgotten recipes from century-old books. The dark-wood, earth-toned restaurant is targeting a fall opening.
DiDi (3748 Lancaster Ave.): DanDan owners Kevin and Catherina “Cat” Huang say they are “within a month or two” of opening their fast-casual pan-Asian concept at the Triad apartment building in Powelton Village. DiDi will join Kabobeesh, Karak Cha House, Shibam Coffee, Two Locals Brewing, and other businesses in the growing complex at 38th and Lancaster.
Divers Club (733 S. Fourth St.): Queen Village is in line to get a neighborhood wine bar from Susan Freeman, Chris Fetfatzes, and Heather Annechiarico (Grace & Proper, Wine Dive) in a former hair salon that sits on the same stretch as Famous 4th Street, Southwark, Ambra, and Fitz on 4th. Fetfatzes describes the mood as “dark, scrappy, and European — somewhere between a Paris backstreet wine bar and a graffitied Berlin hangout.”
Eggcetera Haus (625 S. Sixth St.): Husband-and-wife team Rey Tamaka and Vina Kencana soon will turn the former Redcrest Kitchen into an all-day bar-restaurant. Tamaka, previously the chef at an Old City brunch restaurant, plans breakfast, lunch, and dinner, moving from specialty coffee and morning dishes into pastas, steaks, cocktails, and comfort food at night. The couple expects daily service, giving the Queen Village-Bella Vista border another full-day neighborhood option.
Field Day (923 N. Second St.): James Beard Award-winning bartender and author Danny Childs and his wife, Katie, have a fall opening targeted for their casual regional cocktail bar in Northern Liberties, next to Cescaphe Ballroom. Childs’ drinks will use locally farmed, foraged, and fermented ingredients. Executive chef Melissa McGrath, known for her work at the idled Sweet Amalia Market & Kitchen, will offer Pennsylvania Dutch-inspired snacks, sandwiches, and tomato pies. Highballs, house-made sodas, boozy gelati, and walk-in seating will help keep the mood informal.
Habibi Supper Club (1515 E. Passyunk Ave.): Miled Finianos is giving his itinerant Lebanese dinner series a permanent home on East Passyunk — possibly by the end of year — serving late breakfast and lunch before he offers ticketed, multicourse suppers.
HYO (1222 Walnut St.): Nightlife veteran Justin Jordan plans an October opening for this Korean tabletop barbecue restaurant behind Hearsay, his indoor-outdoor sidewalk bar and listening lounge. Guests will enter HYO through a phone booth inside Hearsay. The restaurant is part of Jordan’s multilevel entertainment complex, which also includes Celine and the forthcoming Chancellor Room event space and karaoke lounge.
Jean (161 W. Girard Ave.): Emmett chef Evan Snyder and partner Julian van der Tak are going upstairs with a 15-seat tasting menu restaurant opening this fall. Snyder and chef de cuisine Antonio Pizzo will prepare a 12-course menu centered on a 7-foot wood-burning hearth, drawing on Algeria, Tunisia, coastal Morocco, and the southern Mediterranean for culinary influences. A tagine will roast throughout dinner before being served family-style.
Kato (1832 Frankford Ave.): Mei Meichef-owner Jay Ho is taking over the former Izakaya Fishtown space for a restaurant inspired by his Taiwanese father and the food Ho grew up eating. Influences from Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese cooking will broaden the menu. Ho, who hopes to open in late fall, plans to retain the front bar while replacing the rear sushi counter with additional seating that can double as a private dining area.
Lovat Square(184 E. Evergreen Ave.): Former Four Seasons sommelier Damien Graef and journalist Robyn Semien opened this Chestnut Hill wine shop and tasting room in February, offering small-production bottles, wines by the glass, and light fare. The couple, who also own Brooklyn’s Bibber & Bell wine shop, will debut a full dinner menu by the end of September.
Macaluso’s (3101 S. 13th St.): Realtor Joel Gruenke and restaurateur Mark D’Andrea, long-ago roommates at Valley Forge Military Academy, are looking at an early October opening of this white-tablecloth Italian restaurant at 13th Street and Packer Avenue, near the sports complex. D’Andrea’s family owns RoadHouse in Staten Island, N.Y. Gruenke says the moderately priced menu will stick to traditional Italian cooking and offer a full bar. Parking will be available across the street.
Mylar Bar (1636-38 S. Ninth St.): Hospitality veterans Liv Arterbridge and Gina Piccari are turning the former Dino’s Party Center into a festive neighborhood bar inspired by the building’s history. They promise something nostalgic, playful, and deliberately unserious. Drinks will include martinis, punches, classics, and draft beer. Chef Colin White, formerly of Sally and Emmett, will oversee shareable “party snacks,” larger plates, and desserts available late.
Nippy’s on South (1312 South St.): Nurse and first-time restaurateur Nikia Peterson has purchased the former Ms. Tootsie’s building for an ambitious restaurant and bar. Peterson plans a polished setting with seafood towers, steaks, Asian and Caribbean influences, a substantial happy hour, and weekend brunch. The project will revive a prominent South Street property that had remained closed since restaurateur KeVen Parker’s death in 2021.
O’Morrey’s (1720 Sansom St.): Chefs Biff Gottehrer and Kenjiro Omori are developing a cocktail bar on the former site of Genji, the Japanese restaurant created by Omori’s father. The name is a cheeky rendering of the Omori family name. Plans call for a comfortable neighborhood bar in the spirit of the Ripplewood, where both chefs work, with cocktails and a serious food component. Their second joint project, Tako Taco, is months away at the former Bing Bing Dim Sum in South Philadelphia.
Palm Vintage (1414 S. Penn Square): Houston Yang and Mike Beja, who opened this day-to-night cafe and cocktail bar across from City Hall in the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, are close to expanding into a nighttime scene with cocktails, sushi, oysters, caviar, and light food in a lush, tropical-inspired room meant to offer an escape from Center City.
Panco (2300 S. Croskey St.): Chef Ryo Igarashi, whose background includes Tokio Global and Maru Global (noted for its takoyaki balls), is behind a corner shop in West Passyunk whose menu will focus on Japanese cutlets. He says it’s opening soon.
Philly Curio (2240 Frankford Ave.): Tattoo Arts Convention founder Troy Timpel is creating an intimate Kensington restaurant-bar around his private collection of curiosities (think tribal masks, skeletal displays, taxidermy, and glass-topped tables containing preserved animals). Inspired partly by Savannah’s Alligator Soul, Timpel has discussed a Cajun-Creole menu with small plates and unconventional proteins such as rattlesnake. Drinks are expected to include cocktails, wine, bottled beer, and limited drafts. Target is November.
Philly Po’Boy (102 W. Berks St.): Brothers Chris and Greg Lynch are bringing a taste of New Orleans to the storefront beneath the Berks station of the Market-Frankford Line. Chris spent years cooking in New Orleans, while Greg’s Philadelphia background includes Starr Restaurants and LMNO. Plans call for classic powdered-sugar-dusted beignets, gumbo, and a mix of classic and specialty po’boys like fried shrimp, oysters and roast beef “debris,” plus fries, Creole potato salad, and café au lait from coffee roasted by Applied Arts in New Orleans.
Santé Social(1546 E. Passyunk Ave.): Sommelier Daniel Solway is giving his roving dinner series a permanent home across from the Singing Fountain. The approximately 30-seat space will function less like a conventional restaurant than a flexible hospitality venue, hosting wine dinners, tastings, classes, collaborations, private events, and some walk-in service. Cocktails are being developed with Danny Childs of Slow Drinks and Field Day, while changing chefs and collaborators may shape the food programming.
Somedays Bakery (1601 Walnut St.): Hand-laminated croissants are the foundation of this Queens-rooted bakery, which deals in sandwiches, salads, soft serve, and coffee. It’s targeting the end of the month.
Thalassa (918 N. 28th St.): Matt Maltepes is looking at late October or early November for his Greek-inspired cafe in Fairmount that will serve baklava, croissants, and house-made ice cream in flavors that change weekly. Savory offerings will include small plates such as feta grilled cheese with honey, avocado toast, and bagels with cream cheese. The drinks menu will feature European-style coffee preparations, including frappes and Freddo espresso.
Looking ahead
Two major projects are now on the docket for January, as the owners don’t want to compete with the holiday-season madness:the Pelican Club, Stephen Starr’s flashy Greek-themed restaurant taking shape in the former Devon Seafood Grill on Rittenhouse Square, and the yet-to-be-named “punk French” restaurantthat chefs Justin Bogle and Arthur Cavaliere are creating at the former Winnie’s Manayunk.
The long-closed Mermaid Bar in Mount Airy will retain its name under the new ownership of pizzaiolo Dan Gutter and business partner Alex Carbonell of Circles & Squares and Pizza Plus. The project, announced earlier this year, is aiming at a summer 2027 rollout.
After 20 years of cooking other people’s food around the region, Carolyn Nguyen is finally telling her own story.
Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese opens Wednesday at 2015 Walnut St. with a menu that draws from Nguyen’s personal history: the Vietnamese and Louisiana foods Nguyen grew up eating, the French techniques she learned in culinary school and restaurant kitchens, and the freewheeling combinations that defined her food trucks and Revolution Taco, the fast-casual restaurant she co-owned in the space for a decade.
Chef Carolyn Nguyen adds butter to a pan while cooking curry duck potato gnocchi.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Bánh canh, a thick Vietnamese noodle soup, is presented as a seafood boil with poached shrimp, mussels, fried potatoes, and scallions. Thịt kho tàu, a Vietnamese braised pork dish, becomes slow-cooked grits topped with pork belly, a soft egg, and pickled vegetables. Hoi An chicken comes with ginger dirty rice, braised collards, and herb remoulade.
Other large plates include lemongrass smoked beef short rib with fish sauce-caramel jus, warm potato salad, and cabbage slaw; corn and crab congee with crispy shallots, and herbs; and a salt-and-pepper cornmeal-crusted whole fish with ginger sauce.
Carolyn Nguyen sprinkles Chinese chives onto her potato gnocchi.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Curry duck potato gnocchi with Thai basil pesto carries a memory from Nguyen’s time at Old City’s Fork, where she worked for chef Terence Feury. At midday, she said, they would stop and make gnocchi together.
The small plates ($12 to $22) include tofu hummus, mushroom and leek dumplings, polenta-daikon fries, dry aged beef in betal leaves, chicken liver mousse, and tasso-crab spring rolls.
Pandan bread pudding dessert at Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Large plates are priced from $24 to $46, plus a market-price whole fish. Desserts include coconut rice pudding with bananas Foster sauce and pandan bread pudding with coconut sauce.
“It’s both coming home to the food that I grew up with and then the food that I’ve cooked and learned how to cook,” she said. “It’s food that I love.”
Nguyen was born and raised in Amelia, in Louisiana’s St. Mary Parish. Her parents, Paul and Mai Nguyen, were born in Vietnam but met in the United States. Her father arrived in the late 1960s and later helped Vietnamese refugees settling around New Orleans. He met Nguyen’s mother while driving her to appointments. The family moved to South Carolina when Carolyn was 16.
Lotus root salad with watermelon, corn, heirloom tomatoes, and Thai basil as served at a preview for Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese.Kiki Aranita / Staff
“I always knew I wanted to pursue cooking,” she said. “Unfortunately, in South Carolina, there wasn’t really any fine-dining environment.” When her sister moved to Philadelphia to go to dental school around 2005, Nguyen moved north with her and enrolled in the culinary school at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. The goal was working in New York, “but I fell in love with Philadelphia because of the food environment,” she said.
Her first restaurant job was as a cook at Susanna Foo on Walnut Street. Besides Fork, she later worked at such restaurants as Nectar in Berwyn (also with Feury), Maia in Villanova, and Russet in Center City. At Peachtree & Ward catering, she met her initial business partner, Michael Sultan.
Chef Carolyn Nguyen in her dining room at Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
In 2012, Nguyen and Sultan entered the food-truck business with Street Food Philly. Taco Mondo followed, and in January 2016, Nguyen, Sultan, and Alan Krawitz opened Revolution Taco, whose taco fillings included pork belly, duck, beef tongue, Korean fried chicken, smoked mushrooms, and curried cauliflower.
The other partners moved on, but Nguyen still owns the Revolution location at the Comcast Center’s concourse. Eight months ago, she closed the Walnut Street location but kept the lease, figuring that converting its counter-service format into a full-service experience would be “easy-peasy – maybe a month.”
Instead, the concept and design evolved as Nguyen worked through permitting and paperwork, much of which she handled herself. Carolyn’s has 28 seats at tables and along a banquette, plus five at a counter.
The dining room is spare and contemporary, with cream-colored walls, butcher-block-style tables, black upholstered chairs, and a deep-green banquette. An arched brass-framed mirror and two narrow pieces of preserved-moss botanical art soften the black track lighting.
Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese, 2015 Walnut St., replaces Revolution Taco.Gab Bonghi
Pale-green cloth napkins, metal chopsticks, and wooden rests carry the palette to the tables. The Louisiana connection extends to the soundtrack, with ragtime- and blues-inflected New Orleans jazz by early figures such as King Oliver and Buddy Bolden.
Nguyen wanted the room to feel relaxed and unhurried. Green “represents growth and new beginnings for me,” she said.
The bar will emphasize locally produced wines and spirits. Two cocktails are inspired by Nguyen’s parents: a tropical Mama Mai Tai for her mother and the Ông Xuyên (Mr. Xuyen) for her father, an avid gardener who grows dozens of plant varieties and keeps chickens at the family home.
Her father once returned from a shrimping trip with fish bones and used them to make fish sauce in a barrel. Nguyen plans to put a small amount of house-made fish sauce in his namesake cocktail for a savory undertone.
Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese, 2015 Walnut St.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Carolyn’s will start with dinner Wednesday to Saturday. Nguyen eventually hopes to add Tuesday dinner and a more casual lunch or brunch, potentially with more traditional Vietnamese dishes.
Amanda Parezo, a self-professed “beach bum,” can no longer get onto the sand or lay out a beach blanket on her own.
The loose grains are “just impossible to navigate through” in a wheelchair, she said.
Still, she seizes every opportunity to return to the Shore — an activity that has brought her healing since her childhood in New Jersey.
Parezo loved spending time at the beach while growing up in New Jersey.Courtesy of Amanda Parezo
Five years after a random shooting in Olde Kensington left her paralyzed from the waist down, she participated in “They Will Surf Again,” an adaptive surfing event in August in Wildwood, N.J. Designed for people with physical disabilities, the event was hosted by California-based nonprofit Life Rolls On and sponsored by Jefferson Health.
Volunteers and friends helped her onto an adaptive surfboard that was wider and thicker for greater stability.
The first time she participated in 2022, she was afraid of how her legs might shift while riding. But whenever she fell off the board, volunteers scooped her back up immediately.
Parezo loved the feeling and energy of going fast in the wave. That sensory experience brought her relief as someone living with constant nerve pain.
“You can’t even describe it. It just felt so good,” she said of the summer surf event.
In the years since her life-altering injury, Parezo has had to take similar leaps of faith as she’s worked to rebuild her life.
She now had to worry about how she would shower, use the bathroom, drive, and simply enter public spaces while in a wheelchair. An assistant professor of occupational therapy at Jefferson, Parezo was used to helping patients, not being one herself.
“It was a lot of just mourning who I was before,” she said.
In the process, she has become an accessibility advocate, competed in a pageant for women who use wheelchairs, and taken on adaptive sports from surfing to chair yoga.
She says her former patients are her biggest motivators.
“I think about them every day,” said Parezo, now 40. “I haven’t forgotten a single one of them that I’ve treated in outpatient.”
Amanda Parezo was paralyzed after a stray bullet hit her spine. She is now in a wheelchair.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
The injury
On the evening of the shooting in 2021, Parezo, then 36, had just finished playing a game of kickball at Hancock Playground in Olde Kensington with her friends. They were sitting near the benches, chatting and packing up, when gunshots from a nearby shooting suddenly rang out.
As her teammates ducked for cover, she felt a stinging sensation enter the right side of her body, just below her ribs. Parezo immediately fell backward as a wave of numbness swept from her hips down into her toes.
In that split second, a series of images flashed through her mind.
She saw patients she had treated as an occupational therapist. She saw herself sitting in a classroom, studying a PowerPoint slide about spinal cord injuries. And she imagined herself in a wheelchair.
“There was no doubt in my mind that I had a spinal cord injury, and I knew it was bad,” she said.
She screamed in pain as everything the stray bullet touched started to dysfunction. Authorities have not identified the shooter.
At Temple University Hospital, she would be diagnosed with a complete spinal cord injury, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
“You don’t think you’re going to have to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair the next day,” Parezo said.
Although she knew a yoga studio near her Old City home offered chair yoga, she was intimidated by the idea of going. She worried she would feel upset seeing women whose bodies looked like hers before her injury, wearing the outfits she once wore and attending 6 a.m. yoga classes, as she once had.
Then she attended an open house for the studio.
“They were just phenomenal women,” she said.
Now, she goes every Monday and is good friends with the instructor.
Parezo said she is grateful for the people in her life who encouraged her to get out of bed and do things.
She thought about a patient who had been shot in the head but continued coming to her clinic every other day for occupational therapy. If the patient could remain motivated after such a traumatic experience, Parezo thought, she needed to be motivated, too.
“I am just so grateful for my background, and just the irony of being on the other side of things,” Parezo said.
Advocating for accessibility
Parezo frequently encounters accessibility challenges in her daily life.
But she has turned those stressful moments into opportunities for advocacy, through posting to social media and reporting issues around the city to 311, the non-emergency contact center.
When Parezo arrived at a SEPTA subway station in 2024, she discovered the elevator down to the street level was broken.
The station had three flights of stairs, but no signage indicating that the elevator was out of service. SEPTA’s app also hadn’t marked the elevator as inoperable.
She posted a video to Instagram of her stuck in the station, in tears, frustrated by the lack of accessibility. That post went semi-viral on Instagram and caught the attention of SEPTA, who reached out for a conversation about her concerns.
“As we continue work to improve accessibility across the system, SEPTA is committed to working closely with riders to help them navigate outages and other challenges,” a spokesperson said in a Friday statement.
SEPTA recently began its latest accessibility improvement project at 11th Street Station on the L, and will invest more than $700 million to make Metro and Regional Rail stations accessible.
Her friend Katie Adams recalls seeing Parezo bump off curbs and nearly fall into traffic because of obstacles on the sidewalk.
“Never in my wildest dreams [did I think] anyone in this situation would turn this around and make this not a life-defining moment, but a lifelong work and advocacy,” Adams said about Parezo.
In July, Parezo represented the state of Pennsylvania in the Ms. Wheelchair USA pageant.
In July, Parezo represented the state of Pennsylvania in the Ms. Wheelchair USA pageant.Courtesy of Amanda Parezo
She was named first runner-up and received awards for education and inspiration. She also serves on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission for Women and draws on her experience as a wheelchair user to teach her occupational therapy students at Jefferson.
“Having to live the life of a patient that they might treat [gives] me a perspective I can share with my students that a lot of people probably couldn’t,” Parezo said.
Amanda Parezo serves on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission for Women.Courtesy of Katie Adams
Finding relief in surfing
Life Rolls On founder Jesse Billauer started the “They Will Surf Again” event 25 years ago after a surfing injury left him quadriplegic.
The first time his friends took him surfing after the accident, he experienced “that freedom, that independence, and just joy being on the water.”
The event became his way of sharing that sense of freedom with other people with spinal cord injuries and physical disabilities.
“It just gets people out of their wheelchair, doing things that they never thought was possible,” he said.
Amanda Parezo participated in the They Will Surf Again event in Wildwood in August.Courtesy of Jefferson Health
A little boy born with a spinal cord injury was among the 150 participants at this year’s event in Wildwood.
Parezo, who knows the boy’s mother, hopes seeing older participants with disabilities surfing will inspire him as he grows up.
“There are no limits to what we’re able to do,” she said.
Exton-based Bentley Systems International, the software company with the highest market capitalization in the Philadelphia area, has opened a Center City office as its new base for 150 engineers and other tech and business staff, replacing two smaller outposts in the city.
Bentley customers use what’s now its Cesium Ion mapping platform to show sites and buildings in complex detail on office computers and hand-held devices.
A Penn State grad, who also earned a master’s and taught programming and architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Cozzi says he sees Philadelphia as a “magical place” for tech companies.
“When I was CEO raising capital on the West Coast, some of the investors told me the best tech entrepreneurs want to move to the [San Francisco] Bay area. I said no, we can build a great tech company in Philadelphia,” he said.
Philadelphia was an early computing industry center. ENIAC, the pioneering system built at Penn to help plan World War II artillery attacks, and other early Philly-built computing systems relied on the vacuum tubes mass-produced for radio manufacturers in Philadelphia and Camden.
But by the 1970s, the industry committed to far more efficient silicon-based microprocessors developed in California’s “Silicon Valley.” Investor-rich cities such as Boston, Seattle, and Austin also became important computer hardware and software centers. Few large tech companies are now based in the Philadelphia region.
Cozzi says Philadelphia’s affordability is now an asset.
“We have reasonable cost of living and fantastic schools, graduates who want to stay here, great restaurants and quality of life, it’s an awesome place for the tech community,” he said, as he prepared to welcome Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, State Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Phila.), and 200 other guests to the new space for a grand opening celebration Thursday evening.
Cozzi said neither the city or state provided incentives for the new office.
Invited guests at Thursday’s event include Bentley clients from Center City-based Pennoni Engineering; Ansys, the Pittsburgh-based owner of AGI, and Earthbrain, a Japanese construction equipment and computing joint venture, which uses Philadelphia as a U.S. base.
Bentley went public in its 2020 IPO at $22 a share. The stock peaked in the low $60s the next year and ran almost as high last summer. It has lately tradedaround $35 a share.
It employs more than 5,000 at offices in 42 countries. The company is worth nearly $11 billion on the Nasdaq stock exchange. That compares to around $6 billion for Newtown, Bucks County-based software-outsourcing provider EPAM, $2 billion for King of Prussia tax-accounting software maker Vertex Inc., and $200 million for Blue Bell legacy hardware and software provider Unisys.
Bentley’s 10th-floor space in the Curtis Center includes a public-meeting area to host events.
The building was built in 1910 for Curtis Publishing and its mass market magazines, led by the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies’ Home Journal. Curtis moved its press operations to Delaware County in 1949 and shut both Philadelphia offices and Delco operations by the time of its 1969 bankruptcy.
The Curtis building’s owner, Keystone Development + Investment, has in recent years added apartments, biotech labs, and other specialized units to help fill the block-long complex.
Neither Philly’s Mint nor the website has single coins for sale, so early buyers can get no fewer than 25 coins in a roll for $61. A bag of 100 coins for $154.50 is also available. Households are limited to two orders until Thursday at 2 p.m. when the cap will lift.
The commemorative coins, printed in Philadelphia to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, may be used as legal tender.
Early buyers may also find unique coins with their purchases: 250,000 Trump coins with a special-issue “July 4” mark, minted on Independence Day, have been randomly hidden in some rolls and bags, Willy Wonka-style.
First announced in July by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the coins bear Trump’s face on one side with the words Liberty, In God We Trust, and 1776 ~ 2026. The other side features the presidential seal, with “250″ inscribed on the eagle’s shield.
The coins faced hurdles in production with critics arguing that they violate U.S. code that says “only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency.” In response, Bessent cited historical precedent: In 1926, the U.S. minted a commemorative half-dollar featuring living President Calvin Coolidge.
Although the coins are gold-colored, they are composed mostly of nonprecious metals, including copper, zinc, manganese, and nickel. No actual gold is used in the coins.
In November, the mint stopped producing pennies due to rising costs. According to the mint, it cost up to 3.69 cents to create one penny.
Philadelphia is home to the nation’s oldest mint, built in 1792. Visitors can tour the facility on weekdays. It is the world’s largest coin-making factory, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
