Founder Danielle Jowdy announced in December 2024 that she planned to end her 14-year run at the end of 2025. She called the wind-down a “grand closing” to allow customers to enjoy a final full season of scratch-made scoops and staff time to prepare for transitions. But as Jowdy considered the future, she decided to try selling the business to someone with roots in the neighborhood.
Zsa’s Ice Cream Shop, 6616 Germantown Ave.
That someone is Liz Yee, a pastry chef at the nearby Catering by Design who also creates desserts for Doho restaurant, also in Mount Airy. Yee plans to reopen Zsa’s (6616 Germantown Ave.) on Saturday, Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.
For Yee, the opportunity was both personal and professional. From the moment she saw the sale announcement over the summer, she began exploring the idea of keeping Zsa’s alive, not just as a retail store but as a community hub.
Keeping the business in Mount Airy was a major part of the appeal for Yee, who lives in Roxborough. “I work down the street, and I’ve always loved coming here,” she said. “It’s just special.”
She plans to keep it as Zsa’s — a nickname that Jowdy and her sister, Rebecca, shared since childhood — and will offer the same menu, plus twists and specials. Yee also wants to bring back the wholesale business.
For Saturday’s return, Yee will lean into her pastry background, offering fresh croissants paired with cereal-milk ice cream. She’s also bringing back favorites such as Black Magic (coffee ice cream with chocolate cake swirled in).
Erica Dixon, 38, of Mount Airy, Pa., is with her son Owen Redmond-Dixon, 4, enjoying some ice cream at Zsa’s along Germantown Avenue.
“I know when people sell a business, there are often mixed feelings, but I’m honestly over the moon right now. It feels terrific,” said Jowdy, who will work with Yee during the transition. Jowdy said she was still deliberating her next professional steps but hopes to stay involved in food and community work.
Jowdy fell into ice cream years ago. When she and her mother were packing up the family home in Connecticut for sale, they found a hand-cranked ice cream machine the parents received as a wedding gift in 1980. As kids, Jowdy and her brother, Christopher, poured in skim milk and Hershey’s syrup “and we’d have at it,” she said.
Jowdy brought the machine back to Philadelphia and, armed with a 1980s-era Ben & Jerry’s cookbook, began making ice cream to take to parties and cookouts. She was working at a stained-glass studio as her dessert hobby grew. When she was laid off 14 years ago, she went professional.
Yee’s path to Zsa’s is equally windy. Back in the 2010s, she was studying math at Drexel University when she decided to turn her baking hobby into a career. She headed the pastry department at the Rittenhouse Hotel and in 2018, she joined Walnut Street Cafe as executive pastry chef and baker before she joined Catering by Design six years ago.
Yee, whose 6-year-old son and 7-month-old daughter enjoy Zsa’s, said she would fit the business in with her personal and professional lives. “I work down the street and I run like a little 10-mile circuit around [the area],” she said.
Zsa’s, 6616 Germantown Ave., 215-848-7215, instagram.com/zsas. Winter hours starting Feb. 7: 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, or sell-out.
Twenty years ago this month, chefs Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby opened what they hoped would become Philadelphia’s signature vegan restaurant.
Horizons debuted in Bella Vista in February 2006 in a former nightclub called Goosebumps on Seventh Street near South Street. It was a reboot of their groundbreaking Horizons Cafe, which Landau opened in a Willow Grove strip mall in 1994.
“At the time there was no signature upscale vegan dining experience in Center City, so we decided to go to where our crowd was and make the move downtown,” Landau said last week.
From the start, Landau and Jacoby signaled that Horizons would not resemble the plant-based restaurants many diners expected. It was not meant to be a manifesto or a niche experiment.
“There will be no granola, alfalfa sprouts, or wheat germ anywhere on the menu,” Landau said in 2006. Instead, the kitchen focused on globally influenced, technique-driven dishes, such as spicy red chili-cauliflower rolls and Caribbean udon with caramelized chayote and hearts of palm.
Chef Rich Landau in the kitchen at Vedge in 2019.
Horizons, which served vegan beer and wine, enjoyed a solid five-year run at 611 S. Seventh St. — earning a three-bell review from Craig LaBan out of the gate — before the couple closed in 2011 to open the far more exclusive Vedge in the grand former rowhouse at 1221 Locust St., which used to house Deux Cheminees.
Landau and Jacoby went on to open and close other restaurants, including the casual V Street and Wiz Kid in Rittenhouse and Fancy Radish in Washington, D.C. Last June, they sold their well-received Vedge spinoff, Ground Provisions, in West Chester. (Ground Provisions was on the inaugural edition of The 76, The Inquirer’s list of the area’s most essential restaurants.)
A 2012 Inquirer article by Vance Lehmkuhl, director of the American Vegan Center, credited Horizons alumni with launching some of the region’s most notable vegan restaurants. That piece cited Nicole Marquis (HipCityVeg, Charlie was a sinner. and Bar Bombon), Mark Mebus (20th Street Pizza), Ross Olchvary (the now-closed Sprig & Vine), and Rachel Klein (Miss Rachel’s Pantry) as examples of the couple’s reach. (Disclosure: Rachel Klein is my daughter).
Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby of Vedge at the Michelin Guide announcement event at the Kimmel Center on Nov. 18, 2025.
Landau is a six-time James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic (2015 to 2020), while Jacoby was a semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and also a semifinalist for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic in 2014. In November, Vedge was added to Michelin’s list of recommended restaurants.
“Twenty years later, it’s hard to not look back and smile and feel so much gratitude that the city of Philadelphia embraced us and vegetable cuisine,” Landau said. “It’s amazing to see how much it’s taken off. Sure, there’s lots of new vegan restaurants.
“To me, the most remarkable thing is the change in mainstream restaurants,” he said. “Back in the ’90s and early 2000s, you would go to a restaurant and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the menu, where you would see the gnocchi or the pasta primavera. Nowadays, there are original and creative vegetable dishes in every mainstream restaurant in the city. That was our goal — to have what we do be taken seriously.”
Also this month in Philadelphia restaurant history
February 1996: Martini Cafe opened at 622 S. Sixth St. on the Queen Village-Bella Vista line, replacing Ristorante Mona Lisa. It closed in the early 2000s. (The building’s most recent occupant was Isot, which closed in December.)
February 2001: Capital Grille opened at Broad and Chestnut Streets, replacing a concept called Heritage that lasted nine weeks. Capital Grille was Center City’s seventh chain steakhouse at the time, following Ruth’s Chris, Morton’s of Chicago, the Palm, the Prime Rib, Smith & Wollensky, and Davio’s. … Chef Yong Kim, previously at August Moon in Norristown, opened Bluefin in a strip center on Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting. He moved it in 2012 to its current quarters in East Norriton.
Chef Yong Kim behind the sushi counter at Bluefin, 2820 Dekalb Pike, East Norriton, in 2023.
February 2006: Chestnut Grill in Chestnut Hill turned the entire restaurant, including its bar, smoke-free – a bold move at the time. … Flo’s Diner opened at 20th and Arch Streets; it lasted a little over a year. That site (1939 Arch St.) had housed St. George Restaurant/St. George’s Diner in the 1960s before shifting into nightlife mode — Tom Hagen’s Tavern, the Bamboo Lounge, and Cascamorto Piano Bar. After Flo’s, it became the simply named Indian Cuisine. Since 2018, it’s been Thanal Indian Tavern.
February 2011: Chef Pascual “Pat” Cancelliere, formerly of Butcher’s Cafe (where Alice is now, at Ninth and Christian), opened 943, an Argentine-Italian BYOB, in an Italian Market storefront at 943 S. Ninth St. (Paesano’s is there now). Cancelliere, who closed it a year later, shortly after heart surgery, worked at other restaurants (Morgan’s Pier and Route 6) before he died in December 2023.
Pascual “Pat” Cancelliere in 2011.
February 2016: Downey’s, which opened in 1976 at Front and South Streets, closed amid tax problems. … The posh Le Castagne at 1920 Chestnut St. (now Veda), closed after 14½ years; executive chef Michael DeLone now owns Michael Coastal Italian Grille in Collingswood.
February 2021: “Ty” Bailey, who hosted countless romantics over 28 years at the Knave of Hearts on South Street before it closed in 2003, died of complications related to heart surgery at age 69. … The month’s roster of openings included the food hall at Live! Casino & Hotel in South Philadelphia and Stove & Tap’s location in downtown West Chester.
For restaurants, however, the cost of doing business has not come down. Labor prices are up. So are food prices, particularly beef. Rents continue to climb. But the old solution — raising menu prices — has become increasingly risky as owners worry about alienating customers who are already cutting back.
Korean tacos at Harvest Seasonal Grill are made with the trimmings of New York strip steak.
This was happening at Harvest Seasonal Grill, a farm-to-table bar-restaurant with eight locations between Lancaster and Moorestown. “Every time check averages went up, guest counts went down,” said founder Dave Magrogan. “Revenue stayed flat, but we were serving fewer people.”
Rather than raising prices further or shrinking portions, Harvest moved in the opposite direction last summer. First, the restaurants added a lower-priced, three-course supplemental menu, which Magrogan said caught customers’ attention.
A New York strip steak with roasted potato, haricot verts, and cabernet reduction at Harvest Seasonal Grill.
Then last fall, Harvest cut prices across the board while tweaking dishes to eliminate frippery like microgreens and most garnishes, which Magrogan said customers pushed to the side of the plate anyway.
The seared scallops had to go. As recently as a few years ago, Harvest offered four New Bedford scallops — the picture-perfect, 10-to-a-pound “U-10” beauties — atop a pool of risotto for $34. When the wholesale price began creeping up, Harvest bumped it to $38. When another price increase took it to $43, Magrogan said, “guests complained: ‘Four scallops for $43? I don’t see the value.’”
Harvest chief operating officer Adam Gottlieb said the company went back to its seafood supplier, who offered scallop pieces — the same scallops, though broken during harvesting — for about half the price. “Instead of putting these seared scallops on top of the dish, we sear the pieces, fold them into the risotto, and make a shrimp and scallop risotto that we can offer for $34 instead of $42,” Gottlieb said. “Guests like it more, and it sells for less.”
Harvest also changed its prime steak. “For a while, we were buying individually cut steaks from a big farm operation with a great story behind it [Niman Ranch],” Gottlieb said. “But the prices kept climbing. We found a purveyor that sources all-Pennsylvania prime beef, and now we’re bringing in New York strip loins instead of individually cut steaks. By buying whole loins by the case, we’re able to lower the cost of the dish and use the byproduct for other menu items.”
Harvest’s across-the-board price drop was scary at first, Magrogan said. Check averages dropped from $44 to $36 while guest counts remained flat.
But then, word spread of the lower prices. Traffic is up 10% to 14% year over year while check averages have crept back up into the high-$30s, Magrogan said. “Revenue is up. Profitability is up. And we didn’t sacrifice quality.”
Restaurateur Daniel McLaughlin (left) watches sous chef Silvestre Rincon break down beef for tacos and other dishes at Mission Taqueria.
At Mission Taqueria, a second-floor cantina above Oyster House near Rittenhouse Square, owner Daniel McLaughlin has done his own version of what he calls “menu math,” weighing customer psychology against volatile ingredient costs. Like every owner of a Mexican restaurant, he accepts the yo-yo of avocado prices: When they’re reasonable, he’s doing well; when they’re high, he must absorb a loss.
Tacos, the menu mainstay, he said, are especially tricky. Diners have firm price expectations, regardless of what the ingredients actually cost — even as beef prices are up by double digits in the last year.
Restaurateur Daniel McLaughlin talking to customers at Mission Taqueria.
At its opening a decade ago, Mission charged $14 for two carne asada tacos. They’re now $18 — a 29% rise, but below the estimated 47% inflation over that time.
“Carne asada was our top-selling taco last year, but you can only charge so much for a taco,” McLaughlin said. “
Each taco has 3 ounces of beef. “The same portion of protein somewhere else, like in a steakhouse served as an entrée, would be totally justifiable at $28 or $32,” he said. “But because it’s in a tortilla, people flinch.”
To keep costs in check, McLaughlin and his chefs rethought the beef. Mission previously used sirloin for its carne asada but last year switched to chuck roll, a cut from the shoulder. “It actually eats better as a taco,” he said.
The kitchen still serves seared steak as an add-on for salads, but now economizes by buying whole sides and breaking them down. Aside from the chuck roll, other cuts are used for slow-cooked dishes like barbacoa and birria.
Korean tacos get a shake of seasoning at Harvest Seasonal Grill.
The upshot: Mission is charging less for carne asada tacos, relatively speaking, but is making a bit more money. And traffic counts are similar.
The menu engineering around beef trimmings has factored into Harvest’s moves, as well. Some finds its way atop the chain’s flatbreads, and even becomes the centerpiece of a new dish, Korean-style tacos. “It looks impressive, and it’s become one of our most popular items,” Gottlieb said.
“The labor part isn’t as complicated as it sounds,” Gottlieb said. “Kitchen work has always been about minimizing waste and being smart with product.”
A big part of the changes was to make Harvest feel accessible again, Gottlieb said. “I said to Dave, ‘I’m a middle-class guy, and I can’t afford to eat at Harvest as much as I’d like right now. It’s $100 for two people, and I can’t do that on a regular basis.’ Before the price increases, you could get in and out for about $67. The goal was to get back to that — to stop being a special-occasion restaurant and become a place people could think about for regular dining.”
Magrogan said: “The goal is to serve more people, not fewer. You can’t price yourself out of relevance. If guests feel taken care of, they come back — and that matters more than squeezing every last dollar out of a single check.”
McGlinchey’s Bar, which survived decades of shifting tastes, smoking laws, and disco, is now on the market, five months after its closing.
The asking price for the property at 259 S. 15th St. is $2.45 million, according to the listing, which is being handled by Nadia Bilynsky and Dennis Carlisle of MPN Realty on behalf of the Sokol family, which has owned the building since 1968.
The family is selling not only the century-old building — with bars on two floors and a vacant third floor — but its liquor license and the McGlinchey’s name.
For generations of regulars, McGlinchey’s was known less for reinvention than for what it refused to give up: cash-only tabs, smoking long after most bars banned it, and prices that seemed detached from inflation. It seemed to outlast trends simply by ignoring them.
And if walls could talk, McGlinchey’s would probably ask for another shot before answering.
Its building, on 15th between Locust and Spruce Streets, opened in 1922. For the first decade, it housed offices for the Allen-Sherman-Hoff Co. In 1932, Joseph A. McGlinchey bought it, leasing the first floor to a book and gift store called the Odd Shop, opening McGlinchey’s Restaurant on the second floor, and living upstairs.
The bar downstairs opened in the 1950s, and Henry Sokol purchased the business in 1968. In 1976, he converted the second floor into Top’s Bar, which began as a disco, later hosted music and poetry, and eventually became an extension of McGlinchey’s itself.
Five decades ago, the neighborhood sat on the seam between old Center City grit and the city’s new, corporate face; the clientele continued to reflect a broad cross-section of society.
Stained-glass windows inside of McGlinchey’s on Aug. 18, 2025.
After Henry Sokol’s death in 1985 — the year construction began on One Liberty Place, the city’s first building taller than William Penn’s hat on City Hall — McGlinchey’s was passed along to sons Ronald and Sheldon.
Ron Sokol died in 2022, and last summer’s closing was prompted by Sheldon’s retirement.
“It was just time,” said Sandra Sokol, Ron’s widow.
Sheldon Sokol was the daytime manager, while Sandra Sokol said she handled administrative work behind the scenes. Douglas Sokol, Ron and Sandra’s son, worked at the bar, too.
McGlinchey’s owner Sheldon Sokol in a 2004 photo taken for “The Regulars,” a series by former bartender Sarah Stolfa, who went on to publish the collection in a book of the same name.
For Sandra Sokol, the bar’s meaning extended well beyond its balance sheets. “We used to joke that we had two children, but McGlinchey’s was [Ron’s] third child,” she said. “It was that important to him. He was really responsible for what it became.”
Under Henry Sokol, she said, the business began as a more traditional restaurant and gradually evolved. “When Ronnie began hiring art students as bartenders and waitstaff, that’s when it started to shift into something more edgy,” she said. “What it became wasn’t planned. It just morphed that way, the way family businesses often do.”
Sign at McGlinchey’s.
That evolution extended upstairs as well. Sandra Sokol recalled visiting Top’s in its early disco days. One night, her sister, visiting from out of town, was asked to dance by a man who turned out to be a carpenter, still wearing his tool belt — hammers and all — straight from work. “It was that kind of place,” she said. “Spontaneous, serendipitous moments.”
Those moments, she said, added up to something larger. “People would often say — and I agreed — that it was like the experience of Cheers,” she said. “It was more than a bar. More than a business. It became an institution — and in many ways, an extension of our family.”
Even the bar’s most controversial feature — smoking — was handled pragmatically. “It was a double-edged sword,” she said. “If they banned smoking, they might gain new customers, but they would lose longtime ones.”
A Miller High Life on the bar inside McGlinchey’s on Aug. 18, 2025.
When Ron Sokol died, former employees turned out for the memorial. “So many people who had worked at McGlinchey’s over the years came and told me how important the bar had been in their lives,” she said. “I’m not really talking about the business side — I’m talking about the presence it had in people’s lives.”
Among its alumni was Fergus Carey, the serial Philadelphia bar owner, who got his start in the industry there, as did his business partner, Jim McNamara. Carey said they had considered putting in an offer on McGlinchey’s, “but at this point, Jim and I have let it go in our hearts. We met so many people there — people we worked with, people we served, people who became friends. It was an important steppingstone for both of us, professionally and personally. It’s a big part of our history in this business.”
As the property changes hands, Sandra Sokol said she hopes its identity survives the transition. “I would really like it to remain McGlinchey’s and for a new owner to keep it as close as possible to what it was,” she said. “I especially feel that way because I know Ronnie would have wanted it to continue into the next chapter.”
The recent wintry weather has prompted the Center City District to extend Restaurant Week by four days and the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania to tack two weeks onto its cookie sales season.
Center City District Restaurant Week
The district announced Tuesday that all 122 participating restaurants were offered the option to extend the dining promotion — which had been slated to end on Jan. 31 — to Wednesday, Feb. 4.
As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, about 70 restaurants had opted in, with additional confirmations expected throughout the week, said spokesperson Giavana Pruiti.
Pruiti said she checked in with restaurants Sunday and Monday, and found that many had closed due to snow and hazardous travel. Those closures prompted the district to tack on extra days to the promotion, as it did for three days in January 2015 after a threatened snow that never materialized.
Among the restaurants that have confirmed participation in the extension are Alice Pizza, Bank & Bourbon, Barbuzzo, Bolo, Buca D’Oro, Darling Jack’s Tavern, Dizengoff, P.J. Clarke’s, Rockwell & Rose, Samba Steakhouse, Sura Indian Bistro, Vita, and Wilder.
The ceviche trio at Bolo.
The district recommends customers check directly with restaurants to confirm operating hours, make reservations, and verify extensions. The most up-to-date list of extended participants is being updated on the Restaurant Week website, where individual restaurant pages will note whether they are offering menus through Feb. 4. A filter allowing diners to view only extended participants is expected to be added shortly.
The dining deals include three-course dinners priced at $45 or $60; some restaurants offer $20 two-course lunches. The district has arranged discount parking for $10 or less at participating BexPark by Brandywine Realty Trust, LAZ Parking, and Philadelphia Parking Authority parking facilities from 4:45 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania last week announced that its cookie sales season would end March 22 “since a lot of cookie booths were snowed out and the temperatures look downright frigid this coming weekend.”
The idea, it said in a statement to Scout leaders, is to “help keep all Girl Scouts safe from the elements and give them plenty of time to reach their Cookie Season goals.”
This year marks the debut of a rocky road-inspired cookie called Exploremores. Toast-Yays, inspired by French toast, were “retired” (in Scout parlance) to make room for it.
Our main feature this week is a roundup of Philly’s top dive bars — where we find cold beer, warm stories, and nothing curated. We’ve mapped them out for you.
Also in this edition:
Chef on the rise: He’s a 21-year-old college senior, and he’s cooking on Rittenhouse Square.
A yen for cheesesteaks: Craig LaBan gets a taste of Philly in Tokyo.
A good dive bar doesn’t try to impress — it just pours a drink, remembers your face, and lets the night take care of itself. We asked for ideas and got 400 responses. Here are 20 favorites in Philly.
To think that two years ago, culinary student RJ Smith was hosting four-seat dinners for friends. On Sunday, Smith begins a six-month chef’s residency at the Rittenhouse Hotel. Read on for the story — all the more remarkable when you realize that the creator of Ocho Supper Club is a 21-year-old college senior.
🧑🍳 Alex Fiorello, 28, is taking over the shuttered Il Fiore in Bryn Mawr for his third suburban restaurant. Like the others, it will carry the Alessandro’s name.
There’s a little bit of Philly in Tokyo: a bar called Nihonbashi Philly, where the cheesesteak is the go-to sandwich. Critic Craig LaBan happened to be in the neighborhood and stopped for a bite.
Now that we’ve dug out our sidewalks, we’re digging dishes, like these chewy, hand-pulled lagman noodles that wowed Craig LaBan. Meanwhile, Beatrice Forman found a pizza in Queen Village that is the real MVP and Patricia Madej capped off her meal in Kensington with caramel toast.
Scoops
Call Your Mother, a bagel shop and “Jew-ish” deli from D.C., is coming to Fishtown, and our Emily Bloch lox up the details: stuffed bagel sandwiches, babka muffins, and a special Philly menu item or two.
Fergus Carey and Jim McNamara of Fergie’s Pub, the Jim, and the Goat Rittenhouse, are headed to Old City for a yet-to-be-named pub at the former Mac’s Tavern.
Haraz Coffee House — the Yemeni coffee franchise that opened its third area location last week in a former Starbucks in Flourtown and will soon open in Marlton Crossing Shopping Center under a different ownership group — has a deal in Center City. It’s seeking zoning approval at 1822 Chestnut St., next door to Boyds.
In other Rittenhouse little-treat news, I hear that Somedays Bakeryout of Queens, N.Y., has signed a lease at the former Republic Bank at 16th and Walnut, on the 16th Street side.
Restaurant report
Greg Vernick is having a great week. He made the James Beard semifinals for Outstanding Restaurateur and he opened the cozy Emilia, an Italian restaurant in Kensington. (Shown above is the sea scallop crudo and burrata.) Walk-ins are welcome here; read on for the rundown.
Shiroi Hana, one of Center City’s oldest Japanese restaurants, closed Saturday after 41 years at 222 S. 15th St. Owner Robert Moon, who bought it in 1998, has decamped to his other restaurant, Doma (1822 Callowhill St.), which opened in 2010.
Briefly noted
Thirteen chefs and restaurants are in the running for James Beard Awards. Mark your calendars for the announcement of the finalists on March 31.
Honeysuckle chefs Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate (on the Beard semifinalist list for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic) will host an evening with culinary historian Jessica B. Harris, who will sign her latest cookbook, Braided Heritage, on Thursday from 6 p.m. Passed hors d’oeuvres, developed by Honeysuckle chef de cuisine Taylor Renée Threadgill, will be served, including beef boulettes with gravy aioli, wild rice-and-mustard green cakes, salt cod fritters with tomato sauce, calas fritters, cornbread dressing with marinated crab, fried catfish bites, and peanut brittle. Harris’ bestselling High on the Hog was turned into a four-part Netflix docuseries in 2021. Tickets are $135pp, bookable on OpenTable.
Front Street Café in Fishtown will host a vegan French dinner on Thursday, featuring a fully plant-based four-course menu (think brandade with nori-poached hearts of palm; salad Niçoise; grilled broccoli steak with turnip purée and black garlic molasses; and a pear crêpe dessert) and wine pairings with each course. It’s $65pp plus 20% gratuity and 2% service charge. Reservations (required) are up on OpenTable.
Milk Jawn will mark Ice Cream for Breakfast Day starting at 9 a.m. Feb. 7 at their East Passyunk and Northern Liberties locations with flights featuring four limited-edition, cereal-centric flavors for $12.50 apiece.
Northern Liberties Restaurant Week is on through Feb. 8 with two dozen restos offering two-course (or more) lunches for $10, $15 and/or $20 and three-course (or more) dinners for $25, $35 and/or $45. Details are here.
The Muhibbah Dinner series, founded by Ange Branca of Kampar, returns Feb. 16 from 6-9 p.m. at BLDG39 at the Arsenal, 5401 Tacony St. The family-style, multicourse charity dinner, benefiting Puentes de Salud, features Branca alongside chef Yun Fuentes (Bolo), Natalia Lepore Hagan (Midnight Pasta), Brizna Rojas and Aldo Obando (Mucho Peru), Enaas Sultan (Haraz Coffee House Fishtown), and David Suro (Tequilas and La Jefa). It’s BYOB. Tickets are $170pp and available here.
Uchi will partner its Philly chef de cuisine, Ford Sonnenberg, with chef Marc Vetri to host a one-night, nine-course dinner on Feb. 26 blending Vetri Cucina and Uchi sensibilities. Highlights include A5 wagyu cheesesteak corzetti, pesce marinato with squid, shrimp, and scallop, smoked duck breast riso al salto, kurodai sashimi, and turnip nerui. A few à la carte items, including Vetri’s rigatoni, will be available. It’s $175pp plus tax/tip, with staggered seatings from 4 p.m. bookable on Uchi’s website; a portion of proceeds benefits Vetri Community Partnership.
Cricket Club in Cape May will host a one-night, five-course pop-up dinner on March 1 honoring the cooking of the late local chef Joe Lotozo, with all proceeds benefiting the Cape May Food Bank. The menu ($188pp) revisits several of Lotozo’s specials from his time circa 1988 at the Bayberry Inn, the Congress Hall restaurant now known as the Blue Pig Tavern. Organized by his children, Eliza and Bo Lotozo — who, along with family and friends, will handle service — the dinner will be cooked by Lotozo’s former sous chef, Chris Shriver, a onetime Cape May restaurateur. The event is supported by the Cricket Club and its sister restaurant, the Mad Batter, where Lotozo, who died in 2018 at age 64, began his cooking career in the early 1970s and met his wife, Susan. Details are here.
❓Pop quiz
A Southwest Philadelphia strip club is attracting attention for what?
Foodie living in Blue Bell here. I noted that you mentioned new places in Chestnut Hill and Fort Washington but I have not heard of any new or exciting places nearby. I don’t understand why in an affluent place like this there is such a boring array of restaurants. I frequent the old standards here and in Ambler, but nothing is really exciting, fresh, or new. Why? My theory is that Blue Bell is charming but has no real town center but rather two small shopping centers at Routes 202 and 73. — Bob
Several factors may be at work, including your theory. Blue Bell, a slice of Whitpain Township, isn’t as walkable or dense as towns such as Ambler, Conshohocken, and Ardmore. Also, real estate is tight and expensive for independents, with few second-generation restaurant spaces to recycle and landlords seeking high rent and long-term leases. Labor is tougher in much of the burbs, where restaurants compete with hospitals, schools, corporate jobs, and other retailers for the same workforce. Also, customer patterns skew toward “known quantities” — e.g. chains. (Hence, the new Wonder in Centre Square Commons.) That makes opening a new independent restaurant feel riskier.
Plus, much of the demand is already met — but spread out, as Blue Bellians already drive the 10 to 20 minutes to Conshy, Ambler, Skippack, Wayne, or King of Prussia, siphoning “destination dining” energy.
Though not new, my own favorites include Blue Bell Inn, Radice, Saath Indian Grill, Su20 Sushi, and El Serape. While we’re at it, my kids are addicted to the fried chicken at Lovebird. And keep an eye on Fort Washington, where Academy Grill is taking shape st Cantina Feliz’s former location, as well as Ambler, where Dettera will give way this spring to a Mediterranean concept.
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Chefs’ travels inspire their menus — for example, the konbini in Japan that Jesse Ito and Justin Bacharach visited for Dancerobot and the trattorias in Italy that Stephen Starr’s team scouted for Borromini, to name two just in the last year.
For Greg Vernick, the culinary inspiration for his first new restaurant in 6½ years — the casual Emilia, opening Tuesday in Kensington — was from a trip to Rome a few months ago with Meredith Medoway, Emilia’s chef de cuisine, and Drew Parrasio, culinary director for his restaurants.
Before they left, Vernick called chef friends like Marc Vetri, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Hope Cohen for recommendations: “Where do I need to eat? Street food, markets, trattorias, all of it.”
Carta di musica with butter, bottarga, and roasted chili at Emilia.
Emilia’s must-try dish came from a culinary school. Cohen’s suggestions included the American Academy in Rome. “We walked up one day thinking we’d just say hello and ended up spending the entire day there,” Vernick said. “They grow their own herbs and produce. We were eating arugula straight from the ground, picking rosemary and thyme — it felt cinematic.” Chef Sara Levi, who oversees the academy’s program, asked the three to join the students for the day’s family meal.
“One of the dishes was a simple chicken ragù pasta — hand-cut chicken, livers, hearts, very little sauce,” Vernick said. “Light, savory, a little gamey. We didn’t even talk much while we were eating it. Later, walking back into central Rome, we all realized: That was one of the best pastas we had on the trip, and we’d eaten three to five pastas a day for three days.”
Chefs Meredith Medoway and Greg Vernick at Emilia.
Back home in Vernick’s kitchen, they tweaked it to “just honor the idea,” Vernick said. It’s on the opening menu as “rigatoni, ragù bianco.” It’s also Emilia’s lone chicken dish — a somewhat daring move.
Emilia, just north of the York Street roundabout on Frankford Avenue, seats 60 in the dining room, with an additional 10 seats at the bar and 20 in a lounge area; in keeping with Vernick’s desire to make this a neighborhood place, some tables are held for walk-ins.
Canno Design’s Carey Jackson Yonce, working with California-based designer Bob Bronstein, has the lighting set to “subdued.”
“I wanted it to feel like the kind of place where you walk in and exhale and relax,” Vernick said. “Industry-friendly, not precious. We want to hit two markets from day one: the neighborhood and the industry. If you get those right, everything else falls into place.”
Arranged flowers in the dining room at Emilia.
Italian is a new turn for Vernick, who started here in 2012 with the New American Vernick Food & Drink before adding Vernick Coffee Bar in 2018 and Vernick Fish in 2019. The developers of Emilia’s building were keen on having an Italian restaurant, and Vernick’s thoughts naturally turned to Medoway, the longtime chef de cuisine at his flagship.
The bar program focuses exclusively on Italy, with low-intervention wines, amari, spritzes, and a rotating seasonal negroni, along with Italian sodas and zero-proof cocktails.
Sea scallop crudo and burrata at Emilia.
Much of the menu is coursed and priced as smaller plates (figure teens and $20s). The few entree-sized dishes, such as golden tilefish ribollita and grilled sea bream, start in the high $30s; top price is $53 for crispy veal with broccoli di ciccio.
There’s other house-made pasta on the menu, such as capellini with pesto, and radiatore in mushroom Bolognese. Much of Medoway’s cooking is centered on a 48-inch charcoal- and oak-fired grill. Each table receives complimentary breads — house-made focaccia, Mighty Bread’s sesame ciabatta, and the thin bread sticks known as grissini.
The bar area at Emilia.
Another anchor main course dish is rabbit Emiliana, a regional take on cacciatore from Emilia-Romagna that Medoway devised after a trip of her own. The braised rabbit is finished with roasted peppers, green olives, fresh orange, and vinegar, giving it a punchy, slightly sweet-sour profile.
Several smaller plates lean into texture and contrast. Carta da musica, a paper-thin Sardinian cracker, is spread with soft butter, dusted with grated bottarga, and topped with a relish of fire-roasted peppers. You crack it at the table and share the shards. “It’s about breaking bread together,” Vernick said.
A sea scallop crudo pairs raw scallop with burrata and a caper-chili vinaigrette, a combination Vernick said surprises people at first because of the similar textures. “It works, though,” he said. “It’s simple but exciting.” Grilled cabbage, blanched and then charred over the wood fire, is tossed with a colatura vinaigrette and finished with pecorino. “It reads ‘boring,’ but it eats incredibly well,” he said.
Emilia, 2406 Frankford Ave., 267-541-2360, emiliaphilly.com. Reservations open on Resy. Hours: 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday, 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday to Saturday.
Less than two years ago, RJ Smith was cooking elaborate tasting menus for four people in his Drexel University dorm room. Now, the 21-year-old chef is about to step onto a far bigger stage: a 120-seat restaurant overlooking Rittenhouse Square.
Smith’s Ocho Supper Club will begin a six-month residency at the Rittenhouse Hotel on Feb. 1, taking over the Scarpetta space ahead of construction on the Ruxton, a steakhouse from Atlas Restaurant Group due to open in 2027. Ocho’s run is expected to continue through July 26 — a month after Smith graduates from Drexel’s culinary program.
Atlantic cod on the Ocho Supper Club tasting menu at the Rittenhouse Hotel.
Ocho blends Afro-Caribbean flavors and fine-dining techniques. Since its premiere in April 2024, it has become one of Philadelphia’s most-subscribedunderground dining experiences, solidly booking venues including Forin Cafe, Fitler Club, Yanaga Kappo Izakaya, and Bolo.
Lanky and soft-spoken, Smith tours the dining room during each seating, explaining the menu, pouring sauces, and telling his story.
At the Rittenhouse, Ocho will offer a $130 eight-course tasting menu upstairs and a walk-in bar downstairs with à la carte options. James Beard Award-winning drinks author Danny Childs is developing a cocktail program centered on fermentation-driven and tradition-based Caribbean drinks. (The hotel’s Lacroix Restaurant is unaffected by the residency.)
The residency marks another “pinch me” moment for Smith, a Bay Area native who has cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens including Californios in San Francisco, Core by Clare Smyth in London, and Philadelphia’s own Provenance, as well as Jean-Georges at the Four Seasons and Royal Izakaya. Last fall, NBC’s Today show profiled Smith in a segment and brought on one of his idols, chef Daniel Boulud, who offered him a day in the kitchen of his New York City flagship, Daniel.
Smith launched Ocho as a sophomore, offering a six-course tasting menu for $35. “For the longest time, we were losing money every service,” he said. “But I saw it as a long-term investment.”
(He’s not the first Philadelphia chef to get their start via elaborate dorm-room dinners: Chef Amanda Shulman regularly hosted five-course dinners in her West Philly apartment while studying at the University of Pennsylvania; the meals eventually paved the way for the now-Michelin-starred Her Place Supper Club.)
As word spread, Smith moved Ocho off campus, upgrading to a $65 experience served at a six-seat table he had bought for $200 on Facebook Marketplace. By last summer, Ocho had segued into pop-ups, backed by a small core group of friends and restaurant professionals, including an assistant chef, Sokona Diallo, and pastry chef Marly Gates.
Chef RJ Smith working in the kitchen at the Rittenhouse Hotel to prepare for a photo shoot.
“We’ve been consistently trying to operate as close to a true restaurant as we can without having a brick-and-mortar space,” Smith said.
Ocho caught the attention of Gregg Skowronski, managing director of the Rittenhouse Hotel, who attended one of Smith’s dinners — after being shut out by sell-outs three times.
“When I finally went, I was blown away by his charisma, his talent, and the food,” Skowronski said. “But what really impressed me was watching him run the kitchen — seeing what he was able to produce with such limited equipment honestly blew my mind.”
After that dinner, Skowronski called Smith to float the idea of bringing Ocho to the hotel to fill the gap between Scarpetta and the Ruxton.
“What he’s doing is truly unique in the city,” Skowronski said. “I felt it could elevate our culinary program and open the Rittenhouse up to a more modern Philadelphian audience.”
Chef RJ Smith pours a sauce on the jerked duck at the Rittenhouse Hotel.
Smith said he was stunned by the call. “The fact that he believed in me and my team enough to invite us into that space and say, ‘Do what you do and make it work,’ meant a lot,” he said.
His team includes Alex Ifill, a Four Seasons alumna who handles the front of house. (She said she slid into Smith’s DMs several months ago to offer to oversee service.) The hotel is also supporting Smith with staffing, Skowronski said.
The opening menu starts with an amuse-bouche or two, then segues from kanpachi to mole negro, Atlantic cod, and jerked duck, and finishes with a black cocoa tart and petits fours. Smith describes the experience as a journey through flavor, richness, and spice, shaped by his team’s African and Caribbean backgrounds and relationships with regional farmers and fishermen.
Chef RJ Smith as a boy with his grandmother, Rusty Keilch.
Smith credits the Oakland home of his maternal grandmother, Rusty Keilch, as the place where he first connected to cooking and hospitality.
“Whenever we went there, everything revolved around food,” Smith said. “That’s where I really understood the importance of a home base — of sitting down to a home-cooked meal and feeling the care that comes through it.”
But a trip to Jamaica at age 16 inspired both Ocho’s name and its approach. That’s where he got in touch with his father’s Afro-Caribbean heritage as well as the diverse food scene of Ocho Rios.
Smith chose Drexel so he could learn the business side of hospitality.
“I was 17, working at a two-Michelin-star restaurant, and everyone told me I was crazy for wanting to go to culinary school,” he said. “But I always felt there was something more than just being behind the line.”
Ocho remains entirely self-funded, with every dollar reinvested into the operation. “We’re not printing money,” Smith said. “But we’re floating, and that’s gotten us here.”
After the residency, Smith plans to open a permanent Philadelphia restaurant within 12 to 18 months; he is scouting locations near Rittenhouse Square. For now, besides the residency, his focus is on finishing school.
“I graduate in June,” he said. “My family is coming to Philly for the first time, and I’m excited for them to finally experience what we do.”
Chef RJ Smith in the dining room of what will be the Ocho Supper Club residency at the Rittenhouse Hotel.
With a snowstorm bearing down, Philadelphia-area restaurant and bar owners spent Saturday weighing whether to stay open, limit hours, or close altogether — balancing safety concerns against the reality that snow days can sometimes drive business.
Heavy snow is historically a mixed proposition for the hospitality industry, especially in the city. After the 30.7-inch snowfall in January 1996, for example, The Inquirer reported that the chef at Moriarty’s restaurant slept overnight in a booth and awoke to record crowds, fueled by nearby hotel guests, hospital workers, and neighborhood regulars trudging through the drifts.
Similar dynamics could still play out in dense neighborhoods, where many bar customers and employees live within walking distance — especially given the fact that Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores will be closed Sunday.
This weekend’s forecast, however, arrives at a sensitive moment. The storm threatens to disrupt Center City District Restaurant Week; of the 120 participating restaurants, most were counting on strong Sunday sales.
A spot check of local restaurants and bars shows a wide range of approaches. Ember & Ash and River Twice in South Philadelphia plan to close Sunday, as do Southgate, Wilder, and Leo in Center City and Fleur’s and Amá in Kensington. Suraya in Fishtown plans to close for brunch but open for dinner. Gather Food Hall in University City will be closed Sunday and Monday. Others, including Uchi in Rittenhouse, and Hannah K’s in Point Breeze, were still evaluating conditions Saturday.
Stephen Starr said he expected his 19 Philadelphia restaurants to be open Sunday, though he planned to reassess conditions in the morning. “Parc never closes,” Starr said of his brasserie, a Rittenhouse Square stalwart. “No matter what.”
Customers crowding the bar at Ponder Bar in Kensington on Jan. 21, 2026.
Matt Kuziemski said his newly opened Ponder Bar in Kensington would be open, in part because he lives nearby. “I’ll set expectations,” he said. “Come in for something simple — cozy up or grab takeout.”
At the Little Gay Pub in Washington Square West, co-owner Dito Sevilla said the bar plans to open. “We have done what we can to make sure staff has places to stay and can commute on foot for the next few days,” Sevilla said. “We’ve got enough booze stored up for a storm or two.”
Other operators are taking a wait-and-see approach. Dave Conn, chef-owner of Alice in South Philadelphia, said Saturday that he would decide Sunday morning. “If it’s eight or nine inches or less [of snow], we’d probably open,” Conn said. “Anything crazy where it might be unsafe for staff coming and going, we’d probably close.”
Hotel restaurants are more likely to remain open, largely because many are housing employees. About 30 staff members are staying overnight at the Logan Hotel, which houses Urban Farmer steakhouse and Assembly Rooftop Lounge, while roughly 20 employees are being accommodated at Hotel Palomar, home to Square 1682.
Aleks Alimpijevic of Restaurant Aleksandar in Rittenhouse said the restaurant would be open for lunch Sunday, serving its Restaurant Week menu, but would close for dinner and remain closed Monday, its normal day off.
In the suburbs, Sydney Grims of Fearless Restaurants said she was monitoring conditions but hoped to open Triple Crown at the Radnor Hotel and Rosalie at the Wayne Hotel. “Our staff’s safety is priority number one,” she said, noting both properties have generator backup.
Justin Weathers, co-owner of several suburban restaurants, including Stove & Tap, said staffing decisions depend heavily on who lives nearby. “If the snow starts to accumulate, then we cut third-party apps as well,” he said.
Third-party delivery from companies such as DoorDash and Grubhub was not a thing in 1996. Philadelphia’s snow emergency declaration, issued ahead of the storm, does not automatically ban driving. A Grubhub spokesperson said the company may proactively pause deliveries in certain areas ahead of severe weather and continue doing so on a rolling basis to prioritize safety. If deliveries remain available and restaurants stay open, customers are encouraged to be patient, as delivery times may be longer.
Large-scale caterers face additional logistical challenges. Joe Volpe, owner of Cescaphe, said his company, which handles events at nine local venues, was relieved that the storm was forecast to begin late Saturday night rather than earlier. Cescaphe had four weddings and a 300-person anniversary party scheduled for Saturday, but only one wedding on Sunday.
Cescaphe is preparing extra food for guests who may arrive early or stay overnight due to travel disruptions, Volpe said, adding that safety remains the priority. Weddings, he noted, leave little room for rescheduling. “It’s rain or shine — there are no makeups, no do-overs,” he said. “We’re going to be there, and we’ll do everything possible to make it happen.”
The storm is also rippling through the supply chain. Mark Oltman, chief financial officer of Foods Galore, said the South Jersey distributor urged customers to complete deliveries by Saturday for food needed through Monday. “Most places are telling us they won’t be open Sunday and possibly not even Monday,” Oltman said. “As much as we want to service our customers, we’re never going to put our people at risk.”
Winter weather, he added, compounds an already slow season. “January and February are tough,” Oltman said. “You finally get into a rhythm, and then winter shows up and wipes it out.”
Still, some view snow days as part of the city’s fabric. “Bar-hopping during snowstorms in Philadelphia are great memories of mine,” Weathers said.
Main Line restaurateur Alessandro “Alex” Fiorello — who is slowly growing a suburban Italian portfolio, with a Wayne osteria and West Chester pizzeria — is preparing to open a new, bar-forward concept at Bryn Mawr Village, 915 Lancaster Ave.
The Bryn Mawr space, which opened in 2022 as the short-lived Marc Vetri-operated Fiore Rosso, most recently was Il Fiore. It closed last month.
The bar at Fiore Rosso in Bryn Mawr, which was operating most recently as Il Fiore. It closed at the end of 2025.
The new project will sit at the top of Fiorello’s three-tier restaurant lineup. His Wayne restaurant, Alessandro’s Wood Fired Italian, opened in 2020 as an upscale-casual neighborhood osteria with a strong takeout business and a busy dining room. Alessandro’s Pizzeria, which the self-taught chef opened in April, is positioned as a casual lunch and slice shop serving pizza, cheesesteaks, and salads.
Fiorello grew up in the restaurant business. His father ran Fiorella’s Café in West Chester, while his mother’s family operated pizza shops in New York. Raised in Brooklyn, Fiorello worked in kitchens from a young age before returning to Chester County as a teenager.
Fiorello said Enoteca Alessandro’s or Alessandro’s Enoteca were in the running for the name of the new Bryn Mawr spot.
Fiorello, who said he is backed by investors, plans to maintain the restaurant’s industrial look, adding that the restaurant’s solid infrastructure would allow for a relatively fast turnaround.
Dining room at Alessandro’s Wood Fired Italian, 133 N. Wayne Ave. in Wayne.
“This new place will be a step up from Wayne,” Fiorello said. “Still approachable but more bar-focused, with a great bar scene.”
The menu will remain Italian at its core, built around house-made pasta, wood-fired pizzas, and a wood-fired grill, with several signature dishes from Alessandro’s Wood Fired Italian carrying over. The new kitchen will also feature dry-aged proteins, using on-site aging refrigerators inherited with the space, and may incorporate subtle Japanese influences, including a small number of sushi-style items.
