The little bird of an idea to open a restaurant circled the blue skies of Fred Mogul’s imagination for many years while he was preoccupied with other passions. The first few decades of his career were spent in journalism, working in print and at wire services from Nebraska to Jerusalem, then in public radioas a news reporter, first at WHYY, followed by 18 years at WNYC in New York.
But that little bird persisted, which is how this cheerfully quirky all-day cafe and restaurant in Chestnut Hill — the Blue Warbler — eventually came to be. Having been steeped so long in the perpetual turbulence of the media industry, Mogul was not deterred bythe famously daunting risks of building a restaurant.
“I wanted to do something else for social good and contribute to the world in having a communal gathering place while feeding people,” he said, conjuring a destination that combined the best attributes of a bakery-cafe, a diner, and a local tavern. “But I also want it to be a little surprising, playful, and unpredictable.”
To open such an intriguing place in Chestnut Hill, especially,would absolutely be a good deed. That neighborhood’s chronically underperforming dining scene, despite its abundance of well-to-do residents and quaint retail district lining Germantown Avenue, is such an enduring enigma that the last time I wrote something really nice about a restaurant there was nearly a decade ago when I reviewed Mica, which sadly did not survive the pandemic.
The dining room at the Blue Warbler on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerThe dining room at the Blue Warbler on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
But here was Mogul’s vision of the Warbler come to life with such vibrant warmth on a Saturday night, and it was as if this bustling three-month-old newcomer had been ensconced at the corner of Germantown and East Willow Grove Avenues for years.
The slate-blue bar trimmed with white oak was lined with customers sipping Cardamaro spritzes, blushing pink Clover Clubs, and sage gose beer from Germantown’s Attic Brewing Co. Meanwhile, eager diners waited patiently near the front door for their turn in the 71-seat dining room, where comfortable banquettes along the window and a cluster of tables on a raised rear platform create a sense of intimacy within the open space.
As a world-beat soundtrack pulsed with tunes from Brazil, Nigeria, and Afghanistan, the Warbler’s eclectic dinner menu — ranging curiously from Middle Eastern meze to smoked arctic char spread, mushroom kebabs, a tuna melt sandwich, and a faux-meatloaf platter — ultimately landed on the table less chaotically than it reads.
The bacalao, salt cod croquettes with green yogurt and lemon relish at the Blue Warbler.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
We swiped rounds of fluffy pita through silky hummus topped with cuminy Moroccan carrots and a spicy-smoky drizzle of harissa crunch. I savored the oceanic tang of warm salt cod fritters against the refreshing coolness of yogurt sauce greened with parsley, dill, and mint.
I’ll admit to the lowest expectations possible for the “meatloaf” made with Impossible meat. But this kitchen, run by chef Daniel Berret (formerly at CO-OP in the Study hotel in University City and Chestnut Hill Brewing Co.), seasoned that loaf nicely with a sweet onion and herb boost, lacquered it with a molasses-ketchup glaze, then added appealing sides of plancha-roasted king oyster mushrooms and fresh-cooked frites with a sriracha mayo dip. It was a comfort winner I’d return for.
Yes, there’s a vaguely retro sensibility to this globe-hopping collection of flavors, as well as the unabashed offering of tofu steaks and wheat meat as entrees in an era when vegetarian cooking has grown into a more vegetable-focused phase. The fact that there is no red meat or poultry on this menu, which does include fish, will be a no go for some.
But as Mogul told my colleague Michael Klein at the Warbler’s opening, he refuses to define this space by “what it lacks” or simply as “that vegetarian place” so much as a neighborhood-centered hub that is inclusive. The handsome dining room and breezy backyard patio are inviting. The service is genuine and outgoing. And the kitchen brings earnestly wrought flavors to everything it makes — including the hand-rolled bagels that anchor much of its daytime cafe menu.
It clearly has the neighborhood’s full attention, as evidenced by the customer who noted that an early version of cinnamon rolls for breakfast was topped with a wave of chai frosting that reminded them of “a Trump combover,” says Mogul. “That image could not be unseen, so we went to DIY schmearing with the frosting in ramekins instead!”
Chocolate hazelnut babka, chai cinnamon roll, and griddled cornbread at the Blue Warbler on June 11. The presentation of the cinnamon roll has since been changed with the frosting served on the side.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
As a restaurant novice, Mogul still has a lot to learn — but he has eagerly embraced input from those with expertise. Just as he turned to Ambit Architecture and In House Studio to tastefully transform the longtime Foster’s Drugstore into its first use as a restaurant (note the salvaged original terrazzo floors and a serious ongoing attempt at soundproofing), he engaged restaurant consultant Arthur Cavaliere to translate his broad vision for the food into workable menus.
It all comes down to execution by Berret and his crew, and for me, the dinner service was the most successful. Aside from the tasty meze nibbles — including salty-sweet haloumi-stuffed dates and a smoky baba ghanoush topped with crispy cornmeal-fried Japanese eggplant — there is an appealing array of grilled skewers to start.
I especially enjoyed the “Chesco” portobello kebab whose long ribbon of mushroom is threaded like an accordion onto the skewer, glazed with date molasses and tamari, then served over a walnut tarator sauce. I also unexpectedly loved another Impossible meat creation: a version of kofta zestily seasoned with onions and garlic in the style of a Balkan ćevapi sausage, garnished with an herbal chimichurri over tzatziki yogurt.
The Chesco skewers at the Blue Warbler on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerThe Balkan kebab skewers at the Blue Warbler on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Such mock-meat successes opened my mind to the panko-crusted, lemon-infused tofu steak. It was not bad, especially over a colorful pile of sauteed asparagus and watermelon radish. But it was a bit boring compared to the most satisfying entree here, a whole smoked eggplant that’s deep-fried into a schnitzel, then placed over a black garlic aioli beneath a juicy tumble of fresh heirloom tomatoes tossed with Thai basil, sesame, and tart sumac.
The grilled whole branzino was a perfectly fine option for those craving fish, but it, too, was ultimately less engaging than that eggplant.
The smoked eggplant schnitzel at the Blue Warbler on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The desserts begin with two solid renditions of crème brûlée, including a classic vanilla custard, stylishly dusted with dried rose petals, and a seasonal variation that has so far ranged from strawberry to matcha and corn. I was most impressed by chef de cuisine Renee Rowlett’s creative deconstruction of a peach crisp into something lighter and more seasonal: A half peach caramelized with demerara sugar was posed over a crunchy mound of brown sugar-toasted almonds and buckwheat groats (a nod to the Ashkenazi Jewish thread woven through the Warbler’s menu) beside creamy maple soft-serve.
The peach crisp at the Blue Warbler on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Breakfast, lunch, and brunch are obviously key to the Blue Warbler’s success as an all-day cafe. And while this corner room soaks in the sunshine and exudes a pitch-perfect laid-back aura — I’d happily hang out here and drink that bold Cuban roast brew from Mayorga — our daytime meal was not the layup it should have been.
I would have loved my well-cooked omelet with zucchini, onion, peppers, and feta (and especially that side of cuminy tomato shakshuka sauce) but the kitchen forgot to add the zucchini. I’ll never pass up a socca chickpea pancake, but the Warbler’s rendition was unfortunately thick and scorched. The classic American-style pancakes with butterscotch were doughy. The cheddar biscuits were dense. Next time, I’ll definitely try the Turkish breakfast of eggs, tomatoes, and cucumbers over labneh with harissa.
Turkish breakfast at the Blue Warbler, in Philadelphia, June 11, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
I’ll give the Warbler bonus points for hand-rolling their own bagels, even if the overly fluffy sourdough interior is not my ideal (not to mention the heat bubbles blistering its crust, which should be smooth). It nonetheless worked well enough as a vehicle for a breakfast sandwich stuffed with cheddar, eggs, arugula, and red pepper aioli. I especially liked that bagel hollowed out and stuffed with zesty green herbal tofu purée and tangy red peppadew peppers for the Herbivore sandwich.
All these flaws can surely be fixed with some tweaks. And considering how well the kitchen infuses seasonal creativity into the grab-and-go items that cycle onto the counter display on the bar throughout the day — from the muffin-shaped herb-and-feta “egg bites” to a fig- and fontina-topped schiacciatta bread still warm from the oven — such modifications are easily within their reach.
Mogul has already been so dialed in to all the details since embarking on making his restaurant dream a reality, I’m hopeful the Warbler will do that soon. There is already so much to appreciate at this promising — and needed — new addition to Chestnut Hill, I’ll look forward to watching it grow.
A schiacciata topped with figs and fontina at the Blue Warbler in Chestnut Hill.Craig LaBan / Staff
Breakfast and lunch 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday, until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Brunch 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. No dinner Monday or Tuesday.
Main plates, $15-$32 (including sharing platters).
Wheelchair accessible.
About a third of the menu is gluten-free or can be modified.
Menu highlights: Dinner: trio of meze dips; bacalao fritters; haloumi dates; smoked arctic char spread; Balkan and Chesco skewers; eggplant schnitzel; Impossible meatloaf; peach crisp. Breakfast-lunch: omelet; the Herbivore; egg bites; schiacciatta.
Drinks: Fresh and fruity takes on classic cocktails — Clover Club, Mai Tai with fresh orgeat, a pear martini, an amaro spritz, a spicy margarita, and fizzy Sgroppino — are worthwhile, alongside a selection of thoughtful N/A options. Local beers on draft and an international selection of well-priced wines by the glass ensure there’s something for everyone.
Owner Fred Mogul at the Blue Warbler, in Philadelphia, June 11, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
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.
Before you can understand Abington Township’s historically African American unincorporated community of Crestmont, you have to understand Willow Grove Park.
Not the mall with that name, but the Willow Grove Park that predates it: One of the largest and most famous amusement parks on the East Coast.
It opened in 1896, built by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co. It had roller coasters, a lake, restaurants, concerts, a massive music pavilion, and crowds pouring in.
It shaped the entire local economy and brought thousands of people out to the suburbs every week. A place like that needed labor. Real labor. Constant labor. And that’s where Crestmont’s story begins.
The “Welcome to Crestmont” sign sits directly across from the Willow Grove Mall.DJ Atkins
I didn’t grow up in Glenside or Willow Grove. I came out here for work, almost 15 years ago, and eventually I moved here. Eight years living in these suburbs gives you time to notice things, to ask questions, to wonder about the layout of the place. And one question kept coming back to me: Why is Crestmont, a mostly Black community, sitting right in the middle of overwhelmingly white suburbs?
If you know the area, you know exactly what I mean. Roslyn, Glenside, Willow Grove, Abington … they’re all majority white, and have been that way for generations.
Then suddenly, right next to the Willow Grove Mall parking lot, there’s Crestmont.
Houses closer together. A different feel. A different history. A different story.
Crestmont’s density, the layout, the architecture, the vibe, the community identity — all of it comes from early working‑class development, limited access to loans, limited access to improvements, township decisions, generational continuity, racial boundaries, economic exclusion, and the strength of the people who lived there, writes DJ Atkins.DJ Atkins
I started talking about Crestmont to people who grew up here. I started learning about Willow Grove Park, looking at the geography, thinking about the era, and the truth became impossible to ignore.
It’s a truth all of us need to hear, because it shows exactly how racism shapes the places we live.
Willow Grove Park opened only 31 years after slavery ended. That was the same year Plessy v. Ferguson legalized segregation. Old newspaper coverage, township references, and public history written about the park all describe a large-scale operation with ties to the trolley company, township officials, police, contractors, and local business owners.
A machine like that needed workers who could show up every day, early, late, and in all seasons. Black workers came to fill Willow Grove Park jobs and stayed because the work kept coming. In line with what the public record shows, people with long family histories in Crestmont talked to me about how common it was for their relatives and neighbors to all work at the park.
A vintage postcard showing the Willow Grove Park midway. Willow Grove Park opened in 1896; it was closed in 1975 and demolished a year later.Courtesy of D.J. Atkins
But many of those workers didn’t have cars, and walking through certain neighborhoods wasn’t safe. Black people weren’t welcome. Renting was restricted, and loans for home purchases were denied. Still, the workers needed to live close. Close to the park, close to the trolley line, close to the commercial strip that fed the park.
Exactly where Crestmont is.
Once a few Black families moved in, the neighborhood took shape. Word spread. More families followed. White buyers stayed away. Black buyers were directed toward the same area. The lots stayed small. The houses stayed close. The community grew through necessity, connection, and resilience.
People who grew up here remember the tensions between high schoolers. They remember buying packaged goods in Crestmont because they couldn’t get them elsewhere. They remember the social boundaries. They remember how Crestmont stood out from the surrounding suburbs. None of that is random. It’s the long-term result of how the neighborhood began.
Crestmont exists because Willow Grove Park existed. Segregation created the boundary. The park created the need. Together, they created the neighborhood.
One of the homes in Crestmont, photographed in 2026.DJ Atkins
Crestmont isn’t unique.
Across the country, Black neighborhoods formed near major employers because segregation blocked housing everywhere else.
In Ardmore, Black families lived near the railroad and the estates they worked in. In Bryn Mawr, the Black neighborhood grew beside the service corridors of the Main Line mansions. In Atlantic City, Black workers lived near the Boardwalk hotels they kept running. In Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Black families settled near the steel mills and rail yards. In Baltimore, Black neighborhoods formed beside the shipyards and factories.
Wherever a big employer needed labor, and wherever white neighborhoods refused to open their doors, a Black community formed in the one pocket where the pressure made it possible — and they look the way they do today because of their origins.
One of the homes in Crestmont, an unincorporated community in Abington Township that owes its existence to Willow Grove Park and to housing segregation in the surrounding communities.DJ Atkins
Crestmont’s density, the layout, the architecture, the vibe, the community identity — all of it comes from early working‑class development, limited access to loans, limited access to improvements, township decisions, generational continuity, racial boundaries, economic exclusion, and the strength of the people who lived there.
It’s not a mystery. It’s not random. It’s not accidental. It’s a product of American racism and Black survival.
People around here know Crestmont. But they don’t necessarily know its origin or see in it an example of how racism shapes geography and how Black communities build life anyway.
Once you see that, you can’t unsee it.
DJ Atkins is a Philly‑area DJ, radio host, and cultural writer. He also works in poetry, blending storytelling, music, and community history in his creative work.
Willow Grove Park Mall is on track to be sold soon.
A representative for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), which owns the Montgomery County mall, said in a statement Thursday that “a lender-directed sale process is underway and expected to be completed in the near term.”
The Philadelphia Business Journal first reported the news, saying that a partnership of New York firms — Namdar Realty Group, Mason Asset Management, and CH Capital Group — were set to buy PREIT’s 725,000-square-foot section of the 1.2 million-square-foot mall, as well as its debt on the property, for an undisclosed price.
The sale would include most of the mall, including Macy’s, Cheesecake Factory, and Nordstrom Rack, but not parcels that house Primark and Bloomingdale’s, according to the Journal, citing marketing materials that have since been removed from real estate firm JLL’s website. JLL did not return a request for comment.
The Willow Grove Park Mall is shown in 2019.TIM TAI / Staff Photographer
The potential new buyers, all based in New York, did not return calls or emails from The Inquirer.
Willow Grove Park Mall would not be their first acquisition in the region.
The Willow Grove Park Mall opened in 1982 at a time when the Philadelphia suburbs were flush with shopping malls. The complex got off to a bumpy start, failing to meet its first-year sales expectations and leading some mall developers to say, as an Inquirer headline read at the time: “No more malls.”
Banners hung over the elevator court in the Willow Grove Park Mall in this 1984 photo.Michael Plunkett / Staff Photographer
PREIT has had a stake in Willow Grove Park Mall since 2000, when it and the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System signed on to buy the center for $140 million.
Northeast Philadelphia’s last traditional Jewish delicatessen will close this weekend, ending a chapter in a food culture that for decades seemed inseparable from the area itself.
Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, in Bustleton’s Grant Plaza, outlasted a food landscape once crowded with Jewish delis, bakeries, butchers, and other specialty shops. Its closing Sunday comes more than nine years after the finale of Jack’s Deli in Bell’s Corner, the Northeast’s penultimate deli. Like Stein’s, Jack’s combined a retail counter with a restaurant.
The deli counter at Steve Stein’s Famous Deli on Aug. 14, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
For Steve Stein, 83, the closing will end a family business whose roots stretch back to the late 1950s, when his family became involved with the Famous Deli location at 6826 Bustleton Ave. in Castor Gardens.
Famous was part of an older Philadelphia deli dynasty. Beginning in the 1920s, the Auspitz brothers launched a string of delis around the city, including the flagship at Fourth and Bainbridge Streets in Queen Village, now owned by Al Gamble.
Around 1960, Stein said, the Auspitzes sold the Bustleton Avenue Famous to Stein’s father, Mike, his brother Arnold, and his cousin Jack. The boys had run the produce concession there. Steve and Arnie, who died in 2010, later ran it side by side. Steve now runs the place with his son, Lee, now 57.
Lee Stein weighs corned beef at his father’s deli on Aug. 14, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Since Stein announced the closing, customers have been stocking up on corned beef, smoked fish, rye bread, and other foods they fear they will not easily replace. Stein has cut prices as he tries to move inventory.
“Nobody’s charging $9.99 a pound for house-cured corned beef,” Lee Stein said.
On Friday, Tracey Lynn of Fox Chase ordered two pounds of corned beef while plucking garlic-perfumed sour tomatoes from a barrel, telling Stein that she planned to freeze some of the meat.
Lynn said she and her husband have been customers since 1993. She is not sure where she will shop next. “I don’t want whitefish salad from BJ’s or from Costco,” she said.
The closing is partly a retirement story. Stein said problems with his legs have made it increasingly difficult to work.
But it is also about labor costs, food prices, succession, and a neighborhood whose demographics have changed dramatically over the life of the business.
As Jewish families moved farther into the Northeast, Famous followed: first, in the mid-1970s, to Krewstown Road (where it had two locations) and, 14 years ago, to Grant Avenue. Stein, who later also had a short-lived store in Holland, Bucks County, sold the Bustleton Avenue store in the mid-1970s.
In that sense, the history of Famous tracks the movement of Jewish Philadelphia itself.
Steve Stein, owner of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, takes a break in his office.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
A suburban diaspora
After World War II, thousands of Jewish families left older Philadelphia neighborhoods such as Strawberry Mansion, Queen Village, and Wynnefield for Oxford Circle, Castor Gardens, Rhawnhurst, and Bustleton in the rapidly developing Northeast. Others moved to Lower Merion and Cherry Hill, which developed large Jewish communities and deli cultures of their own that remain.
By 1970, demographer Ira Rosenwaike estimated, using Census data on Yiddish as a mother tongue, that more than 68,000 Jewish adults 25 and older lived in the Near and Far Northeast.
That population supported an extraordinary density of Jewish food businesses: Abe’s Appetizers, Castor Deli, R&W, Stern’s, Paul’s, Four Lads, Dave’s, Casino, the Nasherei, four Barson-Overbrook locations.
Steve Stein (left), owner of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, behind the counter with his son, Lee.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
To Hasia Diner, a historian and New York University professor who specializes in American Jewish history, the significance of delis was precisely their ordinariness. They were not institutions created to preserve Jewish culture. They were where neighborhood life happened.
“On the one hand, [delis] seem so everyday,” Diner said in an interview. “They’re not great synagogues where religion was expounded, or places where great ideas were pronounced. But they were places where life was lived.”
Some were kosher and others were not. What mattered, Diner said, was that the deli offered a secular Jewish space, rooted as much in neighborhood and food as in religious observance.
By the 1980s, however, those neighborhoods were changing. In a 1987 Inquirer article, Bruce Isakoff of Paul’s Deli, on Castor Avenue near Brighton Street, said his business was doing more lunchtime trade as Jews left the neighborhood and it became a more generic deli. By then, Four Lads, on Castor Avenue at Creston Street in Oxford Circle, had stopped carrying smoked fish and pastrami. Both are long gone.
A ‘kind of shrine’
Many Jewish households moved farther north and into Bucks and Montgomery Counties. A 1996-97 Jewish Federation study found that Philadelphia accounted for 41% of the region’s population living in Jewish households, down from 54% in 1984, while Bucks County’s share had nearly doubled.
The studies used different definitions and geographic boundaries, but the direction was unmistakable: The dense Jewish population that once sustained neighborhood delis had dispersed.
Steve Stein, owner of Steve Stein’s Famous Deli, taking a deli order on Aug. 14, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The movement itself was nothing new, Diner said. American Jewish communities repeatedly established themselves in neighborhoods and moved elsewhere. What changed was the role of the old neighborhood — and of the deli within it.
“The deli was often the kind of shrine to which they went back,” she said.
The old delis offered something beyond nostalgia. In their heyday, Diner said, they were overwhelmingly Jewish spaces where customers did not have to explain themselves or worry about how they appeared to outsiders.
“These places were so rich with a kind of embeddedness, of comfort and security and, again, letting your hair down,” she said.
A sign proclaiming, “Yes, We Have Tongue!!!” at the entrance at Steve Stein’s Famous Deli.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Population was only part of the story. Supermarkets increasingly stock foods that once sent customers to specialty counters: corned beef, pastrami, smoked fish, whitefish salad, herring, rye bread, bagels, pickles, and knishes. But not everything. Signs at Famous proclaim, “Yes, We Have Tongue!!!” Not many others do.
More important, Diner said, is what cannot be sold at a supermarket: the deli as a secular gathering place, where being Jewish required neither religious observance nor agreement about politics. “A pastrami sandwich is a pastrami sandwich,” she said.
Costly ingredients
The traditional deli model itself is expensive and labor-intensive, built around extensive preparation and a sprawling inventory. Famous still cures its corned beef and makes its own turkey, pastrami, whitefish salad, and spice beef.
Steve Stein’s Famous Deli is equal parts market, deli counter, and restaurant.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Steve Stein said finding employees has become increasingly difficult. Lee Stein said prospective workers have easier options, such as driving for Uber or making deliveries for Grubhub.
The deli has about 35 employees, many part-time. Some are placed through SPIN, the Philadelphia nonprofit that supports people with intellectual, developmental, and autism spectrum disabilities.
Survival has also required adapting to the customer base, increasingly non-Jewish. Lee said he remembers when Famous carried a single canned ham, hidden behind the counter. Though few Jewish delis are kosher, pork traditionally has been another matter.
“Nobody was allowed to say the word ham,” he said.
Today, their case holds about a dozen varieties.
Rob Woloshin, 40, owner of Manny’s Deli Stop in Willow Grove, grew up going to Stein’s Famous with his father. His deli represents a leaner version of the old model: counter service, a few tables, online ordering, and delivery, with traditional deli sandwiches alongside chicken cutlets, wraps, and other contemporary offerings.
Cashier Linda DiNenno, who has worked at Steve Stein’s Famous for about 13 years, checks out a customer.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
“We’ve kind of modernized, I guess, as much as the Jewish deli can be modernized,” Woloshin said.
Famous may yet have an afterlife. Lee Stein said he is talking with the landlord about a deal that could keep him in the space, under another name, in time for the Jewish High Holy Days, which begin Sept. 11. If not, he might offer catering from a synagogue kitchen.
For longtime cashier Linda DiNenno, the closing is less about corned beef than the people around the counter. She said she will miss the family atmosphere among employees and customers who have been calling to say goodbye.
“I’ve got customers calling on the phone, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna miss you, Linda,’” she said.
Bananas are trending everywhere, but especially at cocktail bars and cafes, which use fresh bananas, banana liqueur, banana extract, and even banana peel. Kiki Aranita isn’t alone in suggesting it might be “the next pumpkin spice.”
Phillies fans are bringing way more than hoagies and cheesesteaks into Citizens Bank Park. Beatrice Forman winds up and delivers a fun read about the BYO eats you’ll find in the stands. Curried tuna salad, anyone?
Kelly’s Seafood has been a Northeast Philly fixture, serving generations of families — and plenty of snapper soup. Now, as the family prepares to close, longtime customers are returning for one last meal, stocking their freezers, and saying goodbye.
Mazaj, an offshoot of the twin Malooga restaurants, has landed in Willow Grove with Yemeni coffee, Middle Eastern pastries, a drive-through, and a plan to expand.
The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan has plenty of monsters, mayhem, and spectacle — but where’s the feast? Kiki Aranita, a classics scholar in her past life, explains what Homer’s heroes would have eaten, and where to embark on your own culinary odyssey around Philly.
In Crust We Trust has joined the pizza boom now underway in Fishtown. Anyae Wilson-Worley’s pizzeria is offering something none of the others are: a taste of Philly-style Black culture.
In other pizza news: Dave Portnoy, the Barstool Sports founder, visited the Philadelphia area last week to shoot a handful of “One Bite Pizza Reviews,” whose scores in previous years have transformed the fortunes of a neighborhood pizzeria.
What a joy: Dunking chunks of octopus into the almond romesco and black garlic purée at Stina in West Passyunk. For another treat, writes Hira Qureshi, don’t miss the spanakopita.
Scoop
The Pub in Pennsauken, which sits on 6 acres, is being offered for sale for the first time in 26 years. The steakhouse institution is closed now for summer break, but the owner insists that it will reopen next month — unless a deal is magically struck.
Restaurant report
Recipe Philly, whose menu is built around recipes submitted by local home cooks, opens Monday at 1401 Arch St., a splashy, 175-seat redo of the long-ago McDonald’s at Broad and Arch. Funded by retired business executive Ed Baumstein (above), the restaurant will serve lunch and dinner, featuring dishes from 31 cooks who also will appear in a reality TV series now being shopped around.
Among them:
Germantown data analyst Chyan Adams Bentley (above), 30, drew inspiration for her honey-chipotle shrimp tostadas from a rooftop cooking class she took in Guatemala.
Pete O’Byrne (above), 60, of Jeffersonville, contributed a pork chop crusted with Pecorino Romano, panko, and shortbread Girl Scout cookies. “The Girl Scouts are one of my customers,” said O’Byrne, who sells production printers and software. “I know when the truck comes in.”
Nayha Hussain (above), 24, a Spring Garden software engineer who has cooked since age 12, elevated a home-style Pakistani coconut curry with Chilean sea bass. Since Recipe is a 15-minute walk from her place, “it’s my local neighborhood restaurant that has my dish on it,” she said.
You’ll be hearing a lot about Anh Em, which soft-opened last weekend at 21st and Titan Streets in Point Breeze. Anna Huynh and husband Victor Nguyen are behind the 50-or-so-seater specializing in Vietnamese comfort food, mixing classics with home-style dishes (like crispy bánh xèo, above, and the beef carpaccio dish known as bò tái chanh), inspired by what the couple grew up eating. Chef is Nguyen, who managed Tango and once co-owned a Chinatown bubble-tea shop; he oversees a 20-seat bar pouring local beers from 24 taps, plus cocktails. The couple retained the former Madeira Indian Grill’s exposed brick while adding burgundy booths, light-blue accents, lanterns, and shelving built by Nguyen and their son. Here’s the soft-opening menu.
Anh Em, 1252 S. 21st St. Hours: 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Wednesday-Monday. Closed Tuesday.
Briefly noted
The 2026 Michelin Awards will return to New York City for its ceremony. Reminder that its inspectors are scouring Philadelphia in advance of the December announcements.
Heytea, the expanding Chinese tea shop, enters the Philadelphia market Friday at 1001 Arch St. in Chinatown. Drinks will be buy-one/get-one from Friday-Sunday.
With Ember & Ash still closed after a June 24 fire, chef Scott Calhoun will cook at Cartesian Brewing (1326 E. Passyunk Ave.) from 4-8 p.m. Saturday. Using yakitori grills in the courtyard, Calhoun will serve dishes including octopus “dogs,” a Filet-O-Fish-inspired skate sandwich, ’nduja-stuffed piquillo peppers, and sourdough with romesco, along with Cartesian’s beverages.
Javelin (1811 Fairmount Ave.) will host chef Carlos Wills of Ogawa Sushi & Kappo for a maguro kaitai, or tuna-cutting ceremony, Aug. 18. Starting at 5 p.m., Wills will break down a 250- to 300-pound bluefin tuna for a multicourse tasting ($170 plus tax/tip) including sashimi, nigiri, hand rolls, and tuna marrow with uni and caviar. Richie Tray will serve Cambodian-inspired appetizers and cocktails. Reserve via Toast.
Libertee Grounds (1600 W. Girard Ave.) will host a Cooper DeJean look-alike contest on Aug. 27. Doors/registration at 5 p.m., contest at 6:30 p.m. Signup via Instagram.
❓Pop quiz
Why can red Côtes-du-Rhône wines such as Ogier Artésis remain relatively affordable?
A) Rhône producers are prohibited from aging their wines in pricey oak barrels.
B) Grenache can produce large crops of flavorful grapes even in dry conditions.
C) French law limits the markup on Côtes-du-Rhône wines.
D) The wines are made primarily from surplus Syrah grapes, and this is the source of the expression “Qué Syrah Syrah.”
What do you know about the sale of Ardana in Bucks County? — Cindy S.
The Cristou family announced last week that they’ve sold their Ardana Food & Drink location in Newtown, Bucks County, to Rob LaScala after 3½ years. LaScala tells me that the Ardana name and Cypriot-inspired menu will remain for about two months before he transitions to LaScala’s Fire, his semicasual Italian concept. LaScala, who also owns Chicken or the Egg in Marlton and Beach Haven, is on fire with Fire, as there are nearly a dozen locations now, plus New Jersey expansion plans for Freehold, Bridgewater, and Cherry Hill. The Cristous still retain their Ardana and KC Prime Steakhouse, both in Warrington.
📮 Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.
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What started as a halal coffee-and-pastry counter tucked inside a Narberth restaurant has grown into a full-fledged cafe in Willow Grove, with a bakery operation fueled by a mosaic-tiled oven turning out za’atar-topped flatbreads and pizza. And for good measure, the new Mazaj will have a drive-through.
Mazaj, a Yemeni- and Saudi-inspired cafe, opened earlier this month in the former Grandma’s Grotto Pizza on Route 611 near Blair Mill Road.
Owners Mohammed Tashkandi, Mohammed Aqlan, Yousef Muneer, and Omar Alkahily also operate Malooga, the Yemeni restaurants in Narberth and Old City. Mazaj began in March as the coffee bar and bakery inside the Narberth location, where the partners developed its drinks and pastries while spending more than two years searching for a place where the concept could stand on its own.
They deliberately looked beyond the city limits, Tashkandi said. They wanted parking, easy access, and enough room to create the sort of coffeehouse where customers could settle in — without making a quick coffee run difficult.
Manakish are baked to order in a Forno Picone oven near the front of the cafe at Mazaj. The flatbreads can be spread with za’atar and olive oil or topped with cheese or meat.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The Willow Grove location, at 2700 Easton Rd., just north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange, is designed to do both. There are sofas and upholstered chairs for lingering, tables lining the windows, and — unlike Narberth — a drive-through for customers who have no intention of lingering at all. The drive-through is expected to open at the end of the month with premade pizzas and manakish that can be reheated in two minutes.
“Two things can be true at the same time,” Tashkandi said. “Our homemade food, locally roasted coffee, and crafted drinks are intentionally chosen to elevate your day, whether you want to spend time in our spaces or grab something to go as you move through your day.”
A crowd has already formed at the new Mazaj in Willow Grove, Aug. 4, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
That dual identity is wrapped into the name. Mazaj — also spelled mizaj or mizaaj — is an Arabic word for “mood,” “temperament,” or “state of mind” that is also used in Urdu and Persian. The partners were compelled to choose it because of the idea that what people eat and drink can change how they feel.
The menu crosses borders. Tashkandi is from Saudi Arabia, while his partners are from Yemen, but they don’t describe Mazaj strictly as a Yemeni coffee shop, an increasingly popular cafe format. They see it as a broader Middle Eastern cafe.
Honeycomb, Yemeni pull-apart bread, before it is baked at Mazaj, in Willow Grove, Aug. 4, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
There are Saudi coffees and mutabbaq, the flaky stuffed pastry pockets popular in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, alongside Levantine manakish, honeycomb bread, date cake, and other pastries. The contemporary coffee-shop side of the menu brings espresso drinks, ceremonial-grade matcha, and flavored lattes.
Mazaj’s manakish are baked to order in a Forno Picone oven, a striking, mosaic-covered centerpiece near the front of the cafe. The flatbreads can be spread with za’atar and olive oil or topped with cheese or meat.
And now there’s pizza.
Pizza topped with beef pepperoni coming out of the oven at Mazaj, in Willow Grove, Aug. 4, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
It is the major menu addition in Willow Grove, baked in the same oven as the manakish. A separate commercial deck oven handles the cafe’s pastries.
The expansion has turned Willow Grove into the baking hub for the partners’ other restaurants. The owners are shifting production from Malooga to the new cafe, which will supply baked goods to both Narberth and Old City. The company has also begun laying the groundwork for a wholesale operation to sell pastries to other coffee shops and supermarkets, and the partners say they are meeting with potential franchisees.
Head baker Samar Alasbahi leads a baking staff with backgrounds in Yemen and Syria. The pastries are made in-house, and Tashkandi said leftovers aren’t put back into the case the next morning. Unsold baked goods instead go to employees, neighbors, and others in the community.
Customers can linger in the comfy upholstered furniture at Mazaj.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The partners have thoroughly remade the former pizzeria. Olive green and cream set the palette, with patterned tile, geometric motifs, Moroccan-style pendant lights, and a long pastry-and-coffee counter. Faux marble tables and caramel-colored chairs dot the narrow, window-lined dining room, while deep-green upholstered chairs and a sofa make up a small lounge. Behind glass near the front sits the new, dark-tiled brick oven.
For all the Yemeni and Saudi influences behind Mazaj, Tashkandi said the idea is deliberately broader: a cafe where Middle Eastern food traditions overlap rather than stay within national boundaries. “We want the menu to reflect that diversity,” he said.
Mazaj, 2700 Easton Rd., Willow Grove, 267-900-3167, mazajpa.com. Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Marc Kaplin takes “pit bull” as a compliment when it’s used to describe him. The longtime real estate lawyer who has championed property rights for developers in the region takes it to mean “aggressive, prepared, knowledgeable.”
He’s using that tenacity right now in court, battling over whether his client’s plan to redevelop the recently shuttered Exton SquareMall into a mixed-use town center can go forward despite the town supervisors’ denial.
For decades, Kaplin, 82, has been behind dozens of regional development projects, with clientele spanning the Delaware Valley, into the Lehigh Valley, the Poconos, Delaware, and New Jersey.
Kaplin’s interest in real estate law kicked into high gear when his family moved to Blue Bell in 1978, near Wings Airways. It was still “a prairie” with little development, he recalls. The airway owners wanted to expand the runway, challenging the township’s ordinance. He was hired by a group of neighbors to oppose it.
Marc Kaplin, a real estate powerhouse, talked to The Inquirer about the Exton mall redevelopment project and more.Courtesy of Marc Kaplin
That led to his role as township solicitor for Whitpain Township in Montgomery County in the early 1980s. Eventually, he moved into development: First working for his landlord, Bud Hansen of Hansen Properties, which becameone of the biggest developers in Montgomery and Chester Counties.
When Toll Brothers started, Kaplin was there. He’s represented the home construction company for more than 40 years. Other clients, like retail developers Wolfson Group, have also spent decades alongside Kaplin.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
You’ve worked in the city and the suburbs. Where is it easier to get projects done?
They’re both extremely difficult and getting more and more difficult for different reasons.
Philadelphia, if you don’t have a by-right project, you’ve got to go to the neighborhoods, the RCOs [registered community organizations]. You got to spend a lot of time, and it’s more political and satisfying people, than it is complying with every small [thing].
Not only do you have to make sure that all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed in the suburbs, you got to know what to look for.
There’s often community pushback in development projects. What are you hearing now when communities oppose a project?
Just seems like everybody is against almost everything for a variety of reasons. Everybody complains about traffic. That’s the biggest thing. It’s ‘We’re here, we live here, we don’t need any more stores. We don’t need any more of this or that.’ But a lot of times you get a mixed bag.
Now the Exton mall, we got very good reception to the Exton mall. It’s only a small group of people who are against the redevelopment of the Exton mall.
Does the pushback to Exton Square Mall feel representative of larger trends in the region?
It’s an anomaly for a project like that. When you look at the malls that are in really bad shape, townships are reaching out and want them redeveloped. Montgomery Mall. Plymouth Meeting Mall. Some over in New Jersey. I’m working on the Berkshire Mall up in the Reading/Wyomissing area, and we’re getting tremendous cooperation.
These malls are 1,500-pound gorillas. They killed tax base, millions and millions of dollars that were coming in before. … I can’t give you a logical reason why two supervisors in West Whiteland are putting up this fight. I’m waiting for a judge to make a decision.
We’re pretty optimistic that we’ll be able to go ahead, but it ain’t over until it’s over.
You’ve been quoted as saying ‘indoor malls don’t work,’ but we are seeing some success in King of Prussia and Cherry Hill. What do you think sets them apart from places like Exton mall?
They are the super regional malls, and they do work, and Simon controls many, many of them. They work, but the Plymouth Meeting Mall doesn’t work, the Exton mall doesn’t work, the Willow Grove mall doesn’t work, and many, many more.
There’s a whole long history of why that’s so. There were, in the ’60s and ’70s, department stores we no longer have: Wanamakers, Strawbridge’s, Snellenburg’s, and on and on. … And then you had J.C. Penney and Sears, and it was much easier way back then to get three large anchors. Then the Kmarts came along, and the Walmarts, the big boxes that didn’t have all of the infrastructure. The common operating expensesare much less, because you have all interior halls — heating, air-conditioning, and all that.
Members of the Strawbridge family explore the old Food Hall on the first floor of the former Strawbridge & Clothier department store site on the north side of the 800 block of Market Street Dec. 17, 2019.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Because it’s run by the best operator around.That’s my client, Steve Wolfson. It’s had a[n] … anchor for now over 20 years.
In Exton, there was about a 10-year period when there were two supervisors who were against everything. So you didn’t see a great deal more development, but the Main Street at Exton used the new urbanist approach 22, 23 years ago and made huge improvements to the roads. There are great roads there, and it was right in the path of development.
Are there any cases or projects that have shaped Chester County as we know it today?
Exton has always been called the crossroads of Chester County. You’ve also got the Hankin Group that has done all the development in Chester County. … You had very big companies come in — Vanguard — and you had good school systems and relatively decent roads. I think it’s just the continued outward development from Philadelphia.
Many suburbs are facing affordable housing crises. How do you predict municipalities will overcome NIMBYism when it comes to those projects?
It’s a very, very, very difficult problem. There are very few places in the entire country where it’s been solved. New Jersey has the most extensive program in the country to cause the development of affordable housing … that’s really the Mount Laurel doctrine, and where the townships are required not only to make affordable housing available, but also to make it happen.
The market cannot create affordable housing without governmental help. Just can’t be done. It’s not enough land. Regulations are enormous, expensive.
It’s a societal problem that can’t be solved just by municipalities and homebuilders and homebuyers.
Do you think all of the proposed data centers will actually get built?
I’m involved in a couple of data centers. … At first the communities were dead set against more warehouses, particularly up in the Lehigh Valley, and then when this particular community heard ‘data center,’ they were ecstatic — for a whole variety reasons: very little traffic, very few people in schools, high-paying jobs, and now there’s this national swell attacking data centers.
The data centers we’re seeing now, in one fashion or another, are creating their own energy. So my own particular opinion is that it’s just blown up, overblown, over-exaggerated, and we’re going to need all this computing power as we move into the next technology age.
Restaurant group CookNSolo will close three Center City Federal Donuts & Chicken locations and shrink its Goldie falafel chain from four shops to one as owners Steve Cook and Michael Solomonov retrench, citing weakened demand for fast-casual dining, particularly at weekday lunch.
Federal Donuts’ shop at 1909 Sansom St. — designated only months ago as the company’s flagship after the South Philadelphia location closed in February — shut down after business Sunday. Locations at 21 S. 12th St. and 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway are expected to close by July 31, although Cook said staff departures could accelerate the timetable.
Of Federal’s 45 employees, 27 will be laid off, Cook said. Eighteen employees will be retained to staff the two remaining Philadelphia stores, on Fairmount Avenue and on South Street. Federal launched in 2011 in South Philadelphia with a menu of fried chicken, coffee, and hot doughnuts from a robotic fryer.
Federal Donuts founders (from left) Tom Henneman, Michael Solomonov, and Steve Cook at the Federal Donuts & Chicken location at 1776 Ben Franklin Parkway in 2022.Michael Klein / Staff
Goldie, which debuted in 2017 with a menu of falafel, fries, and tehina shakes, will close its restaurants at 1218 Sansom St., Franklin’s Table food hall at 34th and Walnut Streets, and the Whole Foods Market at 2101 Pennsylvania Ave. in late July or early August. The lone remaining Goldie, at 1911 Sansom St., will absorb the chain’s delivery, takeout, and catering business.
Eighteen of Goldie’s 36 employees will lose their jobs. Cook said the company is working to help find former Federal Donuts and Goldie workers other roles. Hourly staffers will not be given severance, Cook said, as is standard industry practice.
Cook said the closures reflect a restaurant landscape that has changed dramatically since the pandemic.
Dozens of fast-casual and quick-service restaurants have opened in recent years. “We feel like we’re oversaturated in the city, given the economy right now and the demand for fast-casual restaurants,” he said. Federal Donuts has experienced “significant” year-over-year same-store sales declines, he said. He hopes the closures stem the losses.
“We have two great brands here that are worth saving, and we feel like economically this is the best way to preserve those brands.”
Falafel from Goldie.Craig LaBan / Staff
The company’s full-service restaurants — including Zahav, Dizengoff, K’Far Cafe, Jaffa Bar, and Laser Wolf — are unaffected by the shutdowns.
“Post-COVID, while we’ve seen really good rebounds in the dinner, more fine-dining side of our business, weekday lunch traffic has never really returned to full strength,” he said. “The $10-to-$15 lunch is an easy thing to kind of do without.”
Cook’s assessment reflects broader industry trends.
Tehina shakes are a signature product at Goldie.Tim Tai / Staff Photographer
While some national fast-casual brands such as Chipotle and Cava continue to post strong results, many regional chains are struggling as consumers increasingly choose prepared foods from grocery stores and convenience stores instead of restaurant meals, according to R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at Placer.ai, a location analytics and foot-traffic company.
While fine-dining restaurants have generally continued to gain traffic through much of 2026, “fast-casual has been more of a mixed bag,” Hottovy said.
Placer.ai’s findings show visits to grocery stores, convenience stores, and wholesale clubs increasing from a year earlier while overall restaurant visits have declined. “Middle-income consumers are increasingly substituting restaurant visits with meals at home,” Hottovy said.
Restaurants also continue to battle rising labor costs while customer traffic softens as menu prices rise. “Price increases are increasingly showing up as lost visits,” he said.
Federal then operated 11 locations and arena concessions, and executives envisioned a franchise system that eventually could reach 150 stores.
The company’s largest franchisee later closed its restaurants in Radnor, Conshohocken, and Willow Grove and returned several Philadelphia stores to the company. In April, Cook and Solomonov announced plans to regain control of those city locations, simplify operations, and improve execution.
At the time, the Sansom Street restaurant was designated as the flagship to redevelop menu items. “I thought we would get a significant bounce in sales [there] and it just didn’t happen,” Cook said.
Cook said NewSpring remains the majority owner of Federal Donuts, while he and Solomonov retain a significant ownership stake and seats on its board. Representatives of NewSpring did not respond to requests for comment.
Under the restructuring, two Philadelphia stores will remain. CookNSolo will take over the location at Seventh Street and Fairmount Avenue, now owned by the company, as a franchisee around Aug. 1.
Federal cofounder Tom Henneman confirmed that he was in talks to operate the location at Sixth and South Streets as a franchisee.
Cook said those stores were chosen because of their historical performance and geographic separation. Consolidating delivery and takeout in two locations instead of five should improve profitability, he said.
Besides the two city stores, Federal will continue operating independently owned franchises in Marlton, Lancaster, and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, along with its licensed airport and stadium locations.
Goldie, unlike Federal Donuts, is owned entirely by CookNSolo.
CookNSolo has also been the focus of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and boycott campaigns since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, 2023. Activists have criticized the restaurant group for raising money for an Israeli emergency medical nonprofit as well as Cook’s and Solomonov’s outspoken support for Israel. The chefs have said their support for Israel was “not unqualified” and have criticized the Netanyahu government’s efforts to thwart a two-state solution.
A group with the Instagram handle @boycottcooknsolo on Monday reported word of the store closings, contending that the boycott had softened sales.
Cook disagreed. “Any time there’s been a protest, it’s always resulted in a short-term increase in business,” Cook said. “This is really an economic decision that goes back many years at this point.”
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