After 15 years in its West Philadelphia location, Manakeesh Cafe Bakery & Grill has built a loyal customer base, general manager Adam Chatila said.
But when the Lebanese restaurant announced it was closing its location at Walnut and 45th Streets, Chatila did not anticipate the outpouring of support on social media.
Longtime customers asked what they could do to support the business.
“You have been such a pillar of our community and neighborhood,” one typical commenter wrote on Instagram. “Is there anything we can do to help? We love you guys.”
“I was really touched by that,” Chatila said.
While the location is closing, the business isn’t. Manakeesh will continue online with a smaller menu, as the owners scout out a new location.
Chatila said the closing was not by choice – the business was leasing its space, and the rent had become too high.
While Manakeesh wasn’t the first restaurant offering this cuisine in the area — Saad’s Halal Restaurant is across the street — it introduced the community to a wider range of options for breakfast and lunch, with its namesake manakeesh flatbreads being a customer favorite.
“It’s a social hub, you know, they would come and have their meetings and dates and … to come hang out,” Chatila said. “Manakeesh is kind of like a Lebanese Panera.”
He said that while it’s had its ups and downs, business has largely been consistent in recent years. Customers kept coming back for staples, like hummus and baklava, as well as specialties like chicken tawook kabob, which is grilled in front of patrons.
“We really put our heart into our dishes; we’re not just, you know, taking something that someone else prepared for the most part and just like repackaging it and selling it. We make our dough from scratch. We get a lot of our Lebanese ingredients imported from Lebanon, like the za’atar,” he said.
Chatila said the business is looking for a space in the same neighborhood, though it may not be as elegant as the former bank building that has been its home since his father, owner Wissam Chatila, opened the restaurant in January 2011. Adam Chatila described what they’re hoping for:
“Something similar, maybe a slightly smaller scale operation but it gives off the same effect of, you walk in and you feel like you’re in a different country, in the Lebanese country,” he said.
While Manakeesh will become a “cloud kitchen” in the short term, Chatila said, it will continue to deliver out of a physical location — the family’s other restaurant, Toomi’s Shawarma, a fast-food-style place in Upper Darby. It won’t have the entire menu, Chatila said, but it will have many of the most popular dishes.
Chatila said the restaurant has relied on many of its staff members for years, including one since the day it opened.
“We treat them like a family, so we’re going to do our best to try to retain the workforce,” he said. “We’re going to see how things go the first month, and try to accommodate for them, and hopefully we’ll be able to make it work.”
Chatila said he teared up at the decision to close the location.
“And then to notice (on social media) that they also had that feeling: It makes us feel like we were not just a restaurant. We are community members.”
The closing on Sunday, marked by a party, comes just ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and prayer, and a special time of year for Manakeesh, which would open at sunset to serve many customers when they break their fast with special Ramadan dishes.
New Jersey Shore communities are forecast to see minor flooding Sunday, as an offshore storm is expected to bring high winds that will also cause another bitterly cold night for Philadelphia and its suburbs.
The biggest concern is the high winds, which are expected to bring gusts of up to 40 or even 50 mph in Cape May County, as well as Sussex County, Del., according to Amanda Lee, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office. Sustained winds are forecast to be 20 to 25 mph.
“There’s potential for some minor coastal flooding with the high tide cycles,” Lee said. Sunday morning’s high tide looks to carry the greatest risk, she added, with the potential for more with the Monday morning high tide.
The threat of flooding is the result of two factors: the wind pushing water closer to the coast and the full moon.
“When we’re in full moons and new moons, the astronomical tides are higher as well,” Lee said. “So the combination of those factors are leading to the potential for the coastal flooding.”
While wind and flooding are the chief concerns, the Shore could also receive some snow — up to half an inch, she said.
Philadelphia and the region
The storm’s impact is expected to be felt much less in Philadelphia, with no snow and lower winds. But breezes could push the wind chill to minus 10 degrees, Lee said.
“It’s still certainly going to be a breezy day, particularly on Sunday. We’ll potentially see wind gusts up to around 30 miles an hour or so,” she said.
Sunday morning’s low is forecast to be in the high single digits to around 10 degrees, with winds picking up later in the day to keep things frigid.
“Again, still very much the same pattern we’ve been in: very, very cold,” Lee said.
Atlantic City gears up
Lee said that while any flooding along the Shore should be minor, that could still mean some full road closures. Conditions may be worse along the bays, where winds could push ice onshore.
One community gearing up for any high winds and floods is Atlantic City, said Scott Evans, the fire chief and emergency management coordinator. He said the city is expecting minor flooding, which may mean water on a few streets.
City public works crews have been out clearing drains, and were ready to salt icy roads, Evans said.
“Just a couple of our low-lying areas are going to experience what we call our nuisance flooding, but this … will be compounded because the temperatures will be well below freezing,” he said.
Evans encouraged Atlantic City residents to take steps, as they would ahead of other potential emergencies.
“Make sure you have your emergency preparedness kits, make sure you have your medications, your flashlights, extra batteries, cell phone chargers, and some of your basic things, some food and water, some other things should your power go out,” he said.
“Let’s hope for the best here,” Evans said.
The coming days
Beyond Sunday, it will remain cold this week, Lee said, “but in some ways a little bit warmer than we have been now.”
But not “warm” warm.
“We’re actually looking at potentially cracking above freezing, most likely on Tuesday,” Lee said. But even then, the highs will only be in the lower 30s. And another shot of cold is forecast for later in the week into the following week.
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday will end with the coldest temperatures of the season so far, the National Weather Service has forecast, after a snowy weekend.
The day was to start with overnight lows in the high teens and a wind chill that would feel like the low teens, said Paul Fitzsimmons, lead meteorologist with the weather service.
“The roads could still be icy in spots and any slush is going to … freeze,” he said.
Monday’s highs are forecast to stay in the low to mid-30s.
“With wind, it’s going to feel more like the 20s, even at the warmest part of the day,” Fitzsimmons said.
Temperatures are expected to dip into the mid-teens Monday night, which along with a breeze will feel like the mid- to high single digits, he said. In a word: bitter.
Recent weather patterns have kept things cold.
“Basically, we just have a pattern where there’s a persistent upper-level trough over the eastern part of North America, and that’s just a favorable pattern to get reoccurring incursions of this Arctic air,” Fitzsimmons said.
Lou Kratz and his daughter Jules, 10, walk along Umoja Park in Swarthmore on Sunday, after the second snowfall of the weekend. Cleveland, their half sheepdog, half mutt rescue from Texas, is a “Christmas dog,” Jules said.
Philadelphia saw less than an inch through Sunday afternoon but was forecast to finish the day with around 2 inches, according to the weather service. Some suburbs saw higher snowfall, with much of Bucks County seeing the highest totals, above 2 inches.
Things won’t be getting better on Tuesday.
In fact, the weather service forecast a Tuesday night low of 9 degrees. The good news: “There won’t be as much wind,” Fitzsimmons said. “So in terms of the actual real feel, it may not be quite as bad Wednesday morning.”
Richard Codey, a former New Jersey acting governor and longtime state senator, has died at 79, his family announced Sunday.
The Democrat represented an Essex County-based district in the Assembly from 1974 to 1982 and the Senate from 1982 to 2024, the longest combined service in state history. His family said he died peacefully at home Sunday after a brief illness.
He was the New Jersey Senate president from 2002 to 2010.
After Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned in 2004, Mr. Codey served as acting governor for the remaining 14 months of McGreevey’s term, until Jon Corzine was elected and succeeded him. Under a state constitutional provision in effect at the time, Mr. Codey concurrently served as governor and Senate president.
In a statement on Facebook, Mr. Codey’s family said he served with humility and compassion. “He made friends as easily with Presidents as he did with strangers in all-night diners,” the family’s statement said.
Legislators who served alongside Mr. Codey reacted to his death on social media.
“New Jersey has lost a remarkable public servant who touched the lives in meaningful ways of everyone who knew him,” Scutari said in a statement on Facebook.
State Sen. John McKeon served the same district as Mr. Codey in the Assembly for 22 years before succeeding him in the Senate.
“Observing firsthand his empathy, humility, and advocacy for those who could not speak for themselves have had a profound and enduring influence on my professional life,” McKeon said on Facebook.
Known for his feisty, regular-guy persona, Mr. Codey was a staunch advocate of mental health awareness and care issues. The Democrat also championed legislation to ban smoking from indoor areas and sought more money for stem cell research.
As acting governor, Mr. Codey passed and signed a state law that limited public contracts for vendors who make campaign contributions.
Mr. Codey operated his family’s funeral home before entering politics.
Mr. Codey routinely drew strong praise from residents in polls, and he gave serious consideration to seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2005. But he ultimately chose not to run when party leaders opted to back wealthy Wall Street executive Jon Corzine, who went on to win the office.
Mr. Codey would again become acting governor after Corzine was incapacitated in April 2007 due to serious injuries he suffered in a car accident. He held the post for nearly a month before Corzine resumed his duties.
After leaving the governor’s office, Mr. Codey returned to the Senate and also published a memoir that detailed his decades of public service, along with stories about his personal and family life.
His wife told the Associated Press that Mr. Codey was willing to support her speaking out about postpartum depression, even if it cost him elected office.
“He was a really, really good guy,” Mary Jo Codey said. “He said, ‘If you want to do it, I don’t care if I get elected again.’”
The Codey family said it would share information about his funeral in the coming days.
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
There’s a chance of snow for the Philadelphia region late Monday night into Tuesday, turning to rain by Tuesday morning, according to forecasters.
It will come at the end of what is forecast to be a relatively tranquil day on Monday, according to Zack Cooper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The weather service forecast cool weather with highs in the upper 30s to lower 40s, with an increase in clouds late in the day, Cooper said Sunday evening.
Cooper said the precipitation could move in around 1 a.m. Tuesday. It may start as snow, but by daybreak, it’s would turn into a mix of rain and snow before ending as rain later in the morning ending by around 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Any snow may not stick much.
“It’s possible we can see basically a coating but under an inch expected areawide,” Cooper said.
That may affect some drivers Tuesday morning, but the weather service didn’t forecast widespread problems as of Sunday evening.
“It’s possible for sure that we have overnight lows that are below freezing,” Cooper said. “So if we were to get a period of snow, there could be a few slippery spots out there, but overall it looks to be relatively minor event.”
A woman and an infant were shot in West Philadelphia’s Carroll Park neighborhood early Sunday, according to police.
The shooting happened in the 1500 block of North Robinson Street at 4:05 a.m. Sunday, police said.
The woman was shot “multiple times throughout her body” and was taken to Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was in critical condition, police said.
A baby girl was shot once in her left leg, was taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and was in stable condition, police said.
Police said the shooter was unknown and the Shooting Investigation Group is investigating.
Philadelphia police are investigating two hit-and-run crashes that left a pedestrian and bicyclist dead.
At 3:44 a.m. Saturday, a bicyclist was struck by an SUV as he turned on to North 56th Street from Lancaster Avenue, police said.
Following the impact, the SUV appeared to swerve and continued on Lancaster Avenue, police said.
Philadelphia Fire Department medics responded to the scene and took the bicyclist, a 54-year-old man, to Lankenau Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 4:47 a.m., police said.
At approximately 8:56 p.m. Friday, a 63-year-old woman was struck by a car headed northbound on Whitaker Avenue as she crossed in a crosswalk at Wyoming Avenue, police said.
Police said the driver of the car, a white 2012 Infiniti M37, briefly looked at the victim and then fled the scene, continuing northbound on Whitaker Avenue.
The woman was taken by a medic unit to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:34 p.m.
The car was later found unoccupied in the area of A and Loudon streets and will be seized for further investigation, police said.
The police Crash Investigation Division is conducting ongoing investigations into both incidents.
The victims’ identities were not immediately available Saturday.
As Jews around the world celebrate Hanukkah, a deadly attack in Australia has shocked Jewish communities in the Philadelphia region, leading some to increase security at services.
Authorities said two gunmen opened fire at an event on Bondi Beach in Sydney at 6:45 p.m. local time, killing at least 15 people.
Rabbi Yitzchok Kahan of the Chabad in Medford said the attack on a Chabad Hanukkah celebration in Australia was devastating.
Kahan’s son Yosef is studying in and running youth programs in Melbourne, and had communicated with one of the victims shortly before the attack. A yeshiva student who was later shot in the attack had asked Yosef Kahan to deliver menorahs to Melbourne residents, Yitzchok Kahan said.
“The fact that it comes as we Jews are beginning the holiday that conveys just the opposite of what this did — it conveys light. It conveys positivity. It conveys making a difference in a good and kind way,” Yitzchok Kahan said. “So the message we must take from it: not to capitulate to darkness, not to capitulate to hate; rather to strengthen our commitment, our dedication to who we are as Jews.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, said the story of Hanukkah is “a story of resilience and strength in the face of adversity, and one that reminds us to be proud of our faith. Those lessons are so important today.”
Shapiro was the target of an assassination attempt in April, when a man set the governor’s mansion ablaze while Shapiro and his family slept, hours after celebrating Passover. Cody Balmer, who told investigators that he harbored a “hatred” for the governor, pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the attack.
On Sunday, Shapiro urged Pennsylvanians to “pray for the loved ones of those killed and for a full recovery for those injured in Australia and continue to bring light into the world.”
The frigid weather in Cherry Hill did not dissuade some 100 people from coming out to the Barclay Farms Shopping Center for Chabad Lubavitch of Camden County’s 32nd annual Hanukkah celebration with a menorah lighting ceremony, car parade, latkes, hot chocolate, and LED sticks.
Rabbi Mendel Mangel, founder and codirector of the Chabad, addressed the crowd of bundled-up families alongside his son Laizer Mangel and his father, Nissen Mangel, a survivor of the Holocaust who lives in Brooklyn.
“I spent two years beginning my rabbinical ordination in a yeshiva in Sydney, Australia, and I know some of those friends, some of those fellows, [whose] lives were cut short today, no different than it was 2,000 years ago,” he said, referencing the origins of the holiday. “But my friends, we know we never back down in the sight of evil. While they take out the fires of AK-47 we take out the fire of light, of holiness and goodness.”
Cherry Hill Mayor David Fleisher and other local officials joined the event as well.
“Very simply, I want you to know that we will light the menorah as a celebration,” said Fleisher. “Tonight, we will light the menorah with determination, and tonight, we will light the menorah in defiance of hate and in the belief that life will prevail.”
They prayed for the recovery of those injured in Australia.
Rabbi Laizer Mangel helped organize the event, and said it was particularly painful to learn of the attack on another Chabad, which is a Jewish outreach organization with local affiliates around the world.
The audience watches the lighting of 18 ft. menorah by Chabad Lubavitch in Cherry Hill Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025.
Mangel said Cherry Hill police planned to provide additional security for the celebration.
The Cherry Hill Chabad has increased security over time as a result of previous antisemitic attacks, Laizer Mangel said. Its security team met Sunday to discuss taking further steps as a result of the Australia attack, though hadn’t made a final decision on what they would be, he said.
For Jonathan Bloom, 57, a Cherry Hill resident who works in finance, it was an emotional evening that brought him to tears. It was his first time attending the menorah lighting ceremony.
“There’s not a lot of Jewish people in the world, so it’s important that I show strength,” Bloom said.
Danielle Margulis, 42, a financial planner in Mount Laurel, brought her 6-year old daughter Raya to participate in the car parade for a third year in a row. They had already planned to attend, but following the Sydney events, she felt it was “even more important” to show youth “that you have to persevere,” she said.
“Light in the face of darkness is a lot of what Judaism is about,” Margulis added.
Mendel Mangel founded the Chabad Lubavitch of Camden County in 1993, shortly after he studied in Sydney in the late 1980s. One of the victims in the shooting was the son-in-law of a close mentor.
“It’s very, very painful, but you know, I’m sure I hold hands with people around the entire world — Jews, non-Jews alike — who are disgusted by this kind of evil, this absolute hatred for no reason,” said Mendel Mangel. “In a day like today, when there’s so much darkness, in the last year, too, and the pain and the suffering, evil, and cruelty — the message is that light can dispel all of that.
“I would add how proud I am of our community to come out and celebrate. It’s very impressive to see that we all get together and hold hands and support each other, and generations support each other. We’ve overcome hardships in the past, and we will overcome hardships again.”
An 18 ft. menorah is lighted for Hanukkah by Chabad Lubavitch in Cherry Hill Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement he was horrified by the attack, adding that antisemitism is a growing global problem that must be condemned forcefully and unequivocally.
Murphy said that while there were no specific threats to New Jersey at this time, “out of an abundance of caution, we are boosting security at synagogues and community Hanukkah celebrations throughout the state.”
Murphy directed state officials to meet Sunday with rabbis concerned about the safety and security of their houses of worship.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia said in a statement it and other Jewish federations were “on full alert” for holiday celebrations in their communities, and working with local law enforcement.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to make sure our communities are safe and that our lights burn all the brighter,” the statement read.
In Montgomery County, Chabad of Penn Wynne planned a menorah lighting Sunday at the Penn Wynne Library.
“Darkness does not win by force — it loses when light appears,” said Rabbi Moshe Brennan.
A Philadelphia city police spokesperson said the department is actively monitoring the situation after the Australia attack, and maintaining communication with law enforcement partners.
“We will continue to be vigilant in safeguarding our local Jewish places of worship to ensure the safety of all community members,” the spokesperson said, adding that there is no known connection to Philadelphia with the attack.
Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this report.
Philadelphia police have arrested a suspect in the Dec. 5 killing of 93-year-old Logan Dailey, police announced Sunday.
Coy Thomas, 53, was arrested at the intersection of North 22nd Street and Lehigh Avenue and charged with murder, police said.
Dailey was found dead in his home on the 4500 block of North 16th Street when medics were called there.
Police identified Thomas as a suspect a week later.
Dailey had suffered a laceration to the chest and trauma to his head, police said. A medical examination found he died from multiple stab wounds.
Police found that Dailey’s wallet, keys, and vehicle were missing from his home. They found his car, a white Chrysler 300 sedan, several days after his death.
Philadelphia has recorded 209 homicides this year, through Saturday. That’s 39 fewer than through the same date last year, and more than 60% less than a similar time period in 2021, the recent high year for homicides in the city.
Philadelphia’s first significant snowstorm passed through the region on Sunday, but there will be a new weather challenge to deal with Monday, as temperatures plummet overnight and create icy roads for the morning commute.
While temperatures were in the upper 20s on Sunday afternoon, they’ll be very different when commuters set out on Monday.
“We are expecting a pretty strong blast of Arctic air moving in,” leaving temperatures in the mid-teens, said Alex Staarmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
Philadelphia schools and Archdiocesan high schools and parish and regional Catholic elementary schools in the city will operate on a two-hour delay Monday.
While some plowed streets and shoveled sidewalks may have been cleared by Sunday afternoon, cold winds on Sunday night into Monday morning may blow a thin layer of snow back on to roads, Staarmann said.
Winds are forecast to pick up, from 10 to 20 miles per hour, with gusts up to 35, he said. That could make for dangerous conditions.
“If there’s any slush or snow melt on the roads or pavement from today, it certainly could refreeze if it’s not treated,” he said.
The region saw varied snowfall amounts as the storm moved through, with totals ranging from the official tally of 4.2 inches at Philadelphia International Airport to reports of 7 or even 8 inches in some suburbs, Staarmann said.
Monday afternoon is forecast to be warmer but still below freezing, with temperatures in the mid to high 20s.
Without much snow melt by Tuesday morning, dropping overnight temperatures could mean more trouble for some commuters for a second day.
“That could still produce some spotty black ice or refreezing of snow melt,” Staarmann said.
Higher temperatures on Wednesday should help remaining ice and snow to melt. But AccuWeather senior meteorologist Chad Merrill said changing weather conditions later in the week could pose a problem for some regional commuters: A new front may bring rain Thursday night into Friday morning.
“Sometimes when you have this Arctic air mass that lingers, even though the temperatures are going to warm up this week, the ground is still very cold,” Merrill said.
That’s a recipe for a different challenge.
“So, there is some potential that when this front comes through Thursday night and Friday morning, that there could be some limited visibility due to fog,” Merrill said.
