Mac Mart, the mac-and-cheese cafe, has left its Rittenhouse storefront location of nearly a decade in favor of a kiosk three blocks away.
Mini Mac Mart — as sisters Marti Lieberman and Pam Lorden call their Center City stand — soft-opened Thursday at 18th and Arch Streets, outside the Comcast Technology Center and down the block from Biederman’s caviar kiosk.
Marti Lieberman (left) and Pam Lorden outside the Mini Mac Mart kiosk on Arch Street near 18th.
Although they’re working in a smaller space, Lieberman and Lorden have expanded their product line beyond their various mac-and-cheese bowls to include snacks and foods from local businesses, such as cinnamon milk buns from Huda, cupcakes and sweets from Sweet Box, fresh fruit lemonades from Dillonades, hoagies and wraps from Marinucci’s Deli, and salads from Big Bite Salad Co. (the sisters’ in-house brand). The lineup will vary depending on availability.
Lieberman, 36, launched Mac Mart in January 2013 as a food truck on the Drexel University campus, and Lorden, 39, joined her soon after. The store opened in May 2016 in a former shoe-repair shop on 18th Street near Chestnut; it closed last month.
Assorted refrigerated items are available at the Mini Mac Mart kiosk.
Lieberman said challenges on 18th Street forced them to rethink the storefront. Since the pandemic, she said, foot traffic and catering orders from offices had dropped. With fewer people on the street at night, she said, the business’ front door and window became a frequent target of vandals.
Besides, Lieberman acknowledged, “we’re very niche. People have to really want a one-pound bowl of mac and cheese, and that narrowed our audience.”
A BBQ Bacon Bowl and Mart’s Mac (plain) at the Mini Mac Mart kiosk.
In response, Lieberman and Lorden launched Munch Machines, a vending-machine operation that stocks with food from local small businesses.
The machines are located at Evo at Cira Centre South, an apartment complex near 29th and Chestnut Streets, and at Motto by Hilton in Rittenhouse.
“That model has continued to grow for us over the past 4½ years,” Lieberman said. “So when it came time to close Mac Mart, rebrand it, or pivot, we leaned into what we knew worked.”
Mini Mac Mart draws directly from that vending-machine approach, combining Mac Mart’s core product with a broader mix of ready-to-eat food in a kiosk that can be buttoned up tightly after hours. Customers can see items through the front window and order off the side window.
Mini Mac Mart kiosk near 18th and Arch Streets, as seen on Jan. 12, 2026.
Over the next year, Lieberman and Lorden plan to focus on refining the kiosk model while continuing catering, market pop-ups, and Munch Machines.
“If this small model works, which we’re confident it will, we could bring it into other small spaces — airports, amusement parks, college campuses,” Lieberman said. “This time, we know we don’t need 400 square feet or more. We can operate efficiently in a very small footprint and still serve a quality product.”
Mini Mac Mart, 18th and Arch Streets. Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday.
With early sunsets persisting for the next few weeks, the 4 to 6 p.m. hour can feel pretty grim. If you’re looking for a drink-sized pick-me-up or a discount on some tasty bites, there are plenty of places in and around Media to choose from. Here are eight restaurants in the Media area doing happy hours right now.
Internationally inspired restaurant Departure is serving hits from around the globe. Their happy hour includes select wines for $7, beers for $4 to $6, house martinis for $9, mixed drinks for $7, and featured specialty cocktails for $11. Small bites also abound. Think tandoori chicken dumplings for $8, jerk shrimp for $10, or hummus for $5. Happy hour is available Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.
Maris is the new kid on the block in Media’s dining scene. The Mediterranean restaurant opened on State Street in November and has been serving up fresh seafood and Greek-style dishes since. Maris’ happy hour deal includes buck-a-shuck oysters, half-priced calamari, and half-priced spreads. Drink options include $4 Miller Lites, $10 glasses of wine, and $10 “bartender’s choice” cocktails. Happy hour is Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.
Buck-a-shuck oysters at Maris Mediterranean Seafood in Media, Pa. Maris offers happy hour Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.
Spasso Italian Grill is a Media icon. The beloved restaurant serves up Italian comfort classics, from wood-fired pizzas to homemade pastas and hearty salads. Spasso’s happy hour menu features a wide-ranging list of beers for $4 to 5, wine by the glass for $8, mixed drinks for $7, and martinis for $8. Pick from the $8 small plates menu, including arancini, meatballs, and tomato bruschetta, or try a pizza or heartier dish, like eggplant parmesan or steamed mussels, for $13. Happy hour is Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.
Ariano is a cocktail bar and restaurant in downtown Media specializing in Southern Italian cuisine. The restaurant is offering both an early and late happy hour through Jan. 18. Every day from 4 to 6 p.m., enjoy $4 off wines, cocktails, pizza, and appetizers and $2 off draft beers. On Friday and Saturday, get the happy hour deal from 8 to 9 p.m.
The Old State Tavern has taken the moniker “Media’s best neighborhood bar.” The laid-back bar is a local favorite, complete with darts, a pool table, bar food, and lots of beer. Take 50 cents off domestic beers and $1 off craft beers during happy hour, which takes place Monday through Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Media’s la Padella is home to comforting Italian dishes, steaks, chops, and desserts. Their happy hour menu features $7 starters, from mussels to fried ravioli and truffle fries. House wines and cocktails like the Tuscan Sunrise or Penn Martini are also $7, and a rotating selection of draft beers is $1 off. Happy hour runs from 3 to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
Stephen’s on State prides itself on high-quality, fresh steaks and an “exquisite” ambiance. Looking for something more casual than a full steak dinner? Pull up a seat at the bar for happy hour, Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. Get your first two drinks half-off (excluding top shelf liquor), and try some bites like the cheesesteak nachos for $7, jumbo wings for $8, or margherita flatbread for $8.
Located off Middletown Road, La Porta Ristorante is a family-owned restaurant serving wood-fired pizzas, pastas, and Italian-inspired small plates and mains. Happy hour is available at the bar, Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. Order a Stella Artois for $3.50, liquor drinks for $4, or wine by the glass for $5.50. Small bite options include scotch eggs for $5, mussels for $8, bacon-wrapped bleu cheese-stuffed dates for $6, and deviled eggs for $5.
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Third culture bakeries have seen a meteoric rise recently and are a significant part of the bakery boom fueled by the “little treat culture” that has swept cities from New York to London to Philly.
The linked story of Mexican conchas and Chinese bo lo bao predates “little treat culture” by hundreds of years.
Crackled, cookie-like crusts sit on top of round, fluffy milk bread, sometimes filled with cream, jam, or custard, or char siu, a vibrant red Cantonese roast pork.
At dim sum and in Chinese bakeries, they’re the other mainstay classic, along with egg tarts. At first glance, the bo lo bao and the concha might not seem to have that much in common, aside from both being buns. Conchas are staples of the Mexican bakery, bo la bao are popular at dim sum houses.
A side-by-side comparison of the “pineapple” bun and the Mexican bun at Bread Top House in Chinatown.
This popular item at East Asian-leaning bakeries, both new wave and old school, shares its origins with traditional Mexican bakeries. While in Spanish it’s the concha, named for its shell that resembles the outside of the seashell (though it also can be manipulated with crosshatching to look more like tic tac toe), in Chinese, it’s “bo lo bao,” which translates to “pineapple bun,” though the bun never contains any pineapple. Rather, its namesake gives the bun a way to describe its crusty, often cross-hatched texture.
It’s a narrative that has been trending on social media, as people of Chinese heritage dig into the origins of their favorite foods.
One theory on how these buns evolved in separate cultures is that after Chinese immigrants built railroads in Mexico in the early 1900s and returned to China, they brought conchas with them. Chinese bakeries are also heavily influenced by the Portuguese, who ruled Macao and also introduced egg tarts to Chinese cuisine.
There’s another bread narrative that has been simultaneously making waves on social media. British baker Richard Hart, co-owner and founder of the lauded Copenhagen bakery Hart Bageri and the Green Rhino bakery in Mexico City, insulted the entirety of Mexican bread culture on a podcast, dismissing it as nonexistent. His words incensed the internet. And you’ll find that by tasting through even the Mexican breads available in Philly, he’s quite incorrect.
At Tequilas, an airy concha, flavored with hoja santa and filled with avocado whipped cream, is a coda to dinners of teeming molcajetes and similarly light tamales. At the adjacent La Jefa, you can pick up jam-filled concha, made by the same kitchen, to pair with your morning cappuccino. They’re the work of pastry chef Jessica Delgado, who comes from a baking family in Mexico City; the first taste of them nearly brought Tequilas founder David Suro to tears. “She said when she was a little kid, she helped her uncle deliver bread in big baskets and her pay was a concha,” he said.
In Mexico City, conchas abound. At traditional bakeries, grab a pair of tongs and heap them onto a plastic tray to bring them to a cashier. Repeat the process at any traditional bakery in Philly’s Chinatown, whether it’s Mayflower or Bread Top House (where you can get both bo lo bao and a “Mexican bun.” Dodo Bakery also makes them, though its diminutive footprint means you order from a counter).
In each case, a layer of fat (butter, shortening, or lard) is mixed with flour and sugar, and placed over a bun prior to baking. The Chinese versions are also brushed with egg yolk for a lacquered finish. The coating splits apart in the oven, sometimes eased along by delicate cuts made on it, to create the buns’ unique crusts.
The “pineapple” buns at Grand Palace Restaurant.
Some of Philly’s best versions are found at dim sum parlors like Grand Palace on Washington Ave and China Gourmet in Northeast. Go easy on the siu mai and congee during dim sum so you can save some room for bo lo bao.
Pssst. Wanna buy a hot table? Reservation scalpers are popping up in Philly’s online world, commandeering seats at popular restaurants. When one tried selling dinner bookings at Mawn, management fought back. Beatrice Forman will tell you the story.
Philly ramen power couple Jesse Pryor and Lindsay Mariko Steigerwald of the now-shuttered Neighborhood Ramen decamped to Tokyo last year, and they’ve launched tours. On a recent trip to Japan, Craig LaBan went slurping with them.
It’s Dry January, and Hira Qureshi offers the ultimate guide to sober-curious drinking in Philadelphia — plus word of a Dry January bar crawl this weekend.
Amari and other bitters are being made in-house at more local bars than ever. Kiki Aranita explains who’s making them and what’s behind the trend.
The PLCB has a rare-whiskey lottery running this week.
“If ever a sandwich deserved a place in the Louvre, this was it,” writes Stephanie Farr about this croque madame — one of three dishes that caught our palates.
😋 Egg tarts — those wiggly, lightly gelatinous conveyors of joy — are all over. Kiki Aranita will direct you to her favorite Portuguese pasteis de nata, flaky Chinese egg tarts, and cookie-style shortcrust egg tarts.
Scoops
El Toro, chef Edward Strojan’s taco spot at Reunion Hall in Haddon Township, will add location numero dos at 1437 E. Passyunk Ave., the former Essen Bakery. He’s aiming at early February.
River Twice’s Randy and Amanda Rucker are planning an expansion next door into the shuttered former Manatawny Still Works tasting room on Passyunk just off Tasker. They’re mum on concept and timeline.
The Juice Pod has leased the former Joe coffee space at 1845 Walnut St. for a spring opening.
Restaurant report
Crust Vegan Bakery — known for its picture-perfect pop-tarts — has merged its retail store and commercial kitchen into a new storefront in East Falls. “I wanted to create a place where people think, ‘Oh, I can get everything I need there,’” owner Meagan Benz told Beatrice Forman.
Falafel Time in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood has had an if-you-know-you-know menu since it opened in 2019. One dish — a crispy wrap stuffed with chicken shawarma, thin pickle slices, and garlic sauce — is now making the shop TikTok-famous. Hira lets you in on this now-open secret.
Kennett Square is getting an artsy restaurant and cocktail bar next to a boutique hotel. Brooke Schultz has the details on Birch Street, intended as an anchor for the block.
Bart’s Bagels, which launched in West Philadelphia and expanded to South Philadelphia, is headed to Bala Cynwyd next.
Briefly noted
Max’s Steaks, the North Philly eatery with an attached bar that got screen time a decade ago in the Creed movies, has been sold.
McGillin’s Olde Ale House, Philadelphia’s oldest tavern (1860!), is hosting a reunion for couples who met at the bar, had their first date at the bar, or got engaged there. It’s Feb. 3, starting at 5:30 p.m. The $30-per-couple ticket includes a talk about the bar’s book Cheers to McGillin’s: Philly’s Oldest Tavern, drink tickets, appetizer buffet, discounted beers, and more. Details are here.
❓Pop quiz
A national restaurant chain has opened a “classic” location in Pennsylvania, decorated with nostalgic touches. Name it.
Gazzos’ Ardmore location has not been open for over a month. I tried reaching out to the Pottstown location about whether it is permanently closed, but received no response. There is no sign or message. Are you able to learn anything? — James D.
Gazzos co-owner Joe Lewis told me that the Ardmore sandwich shop, which opened last July at 2528 Haverford Rd., will return late this month (target is Jan. 28) after upgrades that will expand the menu.
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OpenTable has begun adding a 2% service charge on transactions made through the reservations site, including no-show penalties, deposits, and prepaid dining experiences such as special events.
An OpenTable spokesperson said the restaurants can absorb the 2% charge or pass it along to customers. The fee is part of what OpenTable called an overhaul that began rolling out to most U.S. restaurants in the second half of 2025, with the remainder scheduled for early 2026.
As before, patrons are not being charged directly for ordinary reservations; the restaurants continue to pay OpenTable to use the platform as part of their service agreement.
Davide Lubrano of Pizzata Pizzeria & Birreria with a Roman pizza, topped with mixed organic wild mushrooms, organic leeks, low-moisture mozzarella, prosciutto cotto Italian ham, stracciatella, pickled chiodini mushrooms in oil, chives, aged Parmigiano Reggiano, and truffle caviar pearls.
“Online payments are important for restaurants and, together with our restaurant partners, we’ve learned that they help reduce no-shows, improve cash flow, and increase revenue,” the OpenTable representative said. “By applying a standard service fee structure across all transaction types, we can continue to support new tools that help restaurants protect and unlock revenue.”
At Pizzata Pizzeria & Birreria on East Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia, co-owner Davide Lubrano said the restaurant recently turned to OpenTable in an effort to control persistent no-shows.
With just 48 dining-room seats split between two floors — plus a 12-seat bar that is first come, first served — missed reservations ripple through Pizzata’s service.
“What was happening is that we were turning away walk-ins, and then the reservation wouldn’t show up,” Lubrano said. “We ended up losing tables, basically.”
Pizzata just began requiring a credit card to hold OpenTable reservations, which call for a $15-per-person no-show fee.
But Pizzata is generous about it. Lubrano said customers get a 20-minute grace period, along with three reminder texts and a courtesy call. “If you don’t respond to the texts and don’t answer the call, that counts as a no-show, and that’s when the charge applies,” he said. “But if you answer and say you need to cancel, there’s no charge.”
As for the new 2% fee that would be tacked on to the $15 no-show charge, Lubrano emphasized that OpenTable and not the restaurant is assessing it.
He added that diners who prefer to avoid entering a credit card online can still call the restaurant directly. “You can always call us and avoid a credit card fee, and we put a reservation in for you,” he said.
HARRISBURG — As the rural reporter at The Inquirer for about the last decade, I’ve cuddled bear cubs, rattlesnakes, and alligators, trembled in fear at horses, and been punched by the scent of deer urine farms.
Still, nothing scares me more than the mushroom burger at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
I haven’t really missed a show since I began covering rural Pennsylvania, and I probably never will, regardless. If you’ve been there, you know. If you haven’t, take my advice from last year: Pull your kids out of school, and go there this week. The show runs through Saturday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, and it’s free to get in. It’s an agricultural spectacle you’ll never forget, a place to see show rabbits, hogs, goats, and cows, all while learning where your food comes from.
It’s also a place to eat, with a gargantuan food hall filled with offerings I’m still uncovering. Shannon Powers, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture I pester often during the show, smartly said she didn’t have a favorite meal there.
“But on a cold day, a cup of trout chowder hits the spot,” she told me.
Trout stew? Who knew? There’s also goat stew.
There’s a mind-boggling number of things on the menu at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.
I do have favorites, though, including the sugared German almonds I end my day with every year. I went on opening day, Saturday (never go on opening day), and took my daughter, sampling some old standbys and interviewing folks about some popular foods there.
4-H brisket sandwich
As a man of tradition, if I like a certain item on a menu, I’ll get it over and over again, for the rest of my life. I still have dreams about the ’90s-era Wawa hot roast beef and cheese sandwiches I ate religiously.
Anyhow, I get a brisket sandwich every year from a 4-H stand that’s actually not in the food hall but rather the main hall, where the famous butter sculpture is. Get a map, seriously. You’ll need it.
Look for the pig in the Main Hall, and you’ll find the 4-H brisket sandwich, plus pork chops on a stick.
Brisket has a special place in my heart. I ate it for Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, and this year, I paid $14 for thick-sliced brisket on a roll, which I slathered in BBQ sauce, while squatting on the floor.
Then, I followed it up with a flu shot, another Farm Show tradition.
This sandwich was not better than my holiday briskets, but I’m easy. Almost everything I’m willing to eat is “pretty good.”
I assumed proceeds of the sales go to Pennsylvania 4-H clubs. The folks cutting the brisket didn’t know, though my receipt credits the Pennsylvania Livestock Association.
If you want to save a few bucks at the 4-H booth, the pork chop on a stick is $8.
Mushroom burger
I know mushrooms grow underground, and that Chester County is one of the nation’s top producers, but I assumed they come from even deeper places.
Pennsylvania is the nation’s top producer of mushrooms, most of them coming from Chester and Berks Counties.
I’m not a fan and can’t be convinced, though I did have somewhat of a revelation about the mushroom burgers for sale at the Mushroom Growers of Pennsylvania booth.
They are “blended” with beef, specifically for big babies like me.
“It’s an introduction, an easy introduction. It’s 75% ground beef and 25% chopped mushrooms,” said Gale Ferranto, of Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania. “Would you like to try one?”
I declined.
There are more mushroom offerings, too, something called a “mushroom salad,” which I probably wouldn’t eat for less than $500.
“Somebody back home in Philly wanted the mushroom salad. She’s pregnant, like 7 months pregnant, so you have to do what she says,” said attendee Mark Soffa.
Grilled cheese
The Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association offers up a lot of food during the week, and when I saw grilled cheeses — a parent’s best friend — I grabbed one for my daughter, along with a chocolate milk.
The combo is wallet-friendly, too, just $7.
“Chocolate milk comes from brown cows,” I told my daughter.
She’s too smart for that joke and rolled her eyes, like her mother.
The PA Dairymen’s Association sells grilled cheese, cheese cubes, and, of course, the ubiquitous milkshakes.
The grilled cheese crew actually had crockpots full of melted butter, slathering white bread before sending it off to the grill. You can choose American or pepper jack.
“We’ll at least make a few thousand today,” the cashier told me. “We made 500 yesterday, and that was a half day.”
My daughter’s verdict: “Very gooey.”
Pierogies and sweet potatoes
I’m cheating a bit here, including two items from the PA Cooperative Potato Growers, Inc., which is the oldest potato cooperative in the United States.
I planned on focusing entirely on the sweet potato, which is swimming in butter and brown sugar, with some cinnamon on the side. It’s basically a dessert.
The sweet potato at the Pennsylvania Farm Show is basically a dessert.
My Polish heritage requires that I never turn down a pierogi, though, or never fail to mention their wholesome goodness. I grew up on them, in the way other folks may have grown up on mac and cheese or PB&J. I actually prefer mine fried a bit, but the Farm Show serves them drowning in butter and onions: 5 for $4.
You can’t really mess up a pierogi, particularly in the Keystone State.
“These aren’t like Maryland pierogies,” a woman from Maryland told me.
The potato growers told me they sell 6 tons of baking potatoes at the show, plus 8 to 10 tons for french fries, and about 1.5 tons of sweet potatoes.
Plus, there are potato doughnuts.
The milkshakes
The most well-known must-have item at the Pennsylvania Farm Show are the milkshakes offered up by the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association since 1953.
Three generations with 10 milkshakes at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
On Saturday, the lines were a bit bonkers, more than 100 deep on each of the dozen or so cash registers in the various locations where they’re sold at the farm show complex. I’ve had them before, and I’ll say they are “thick and creamy” as advertised.
Are they different than any other soft-serve-style milkshake in America? I have to work with these people, so yes, I’ll say they’re different.
A colleague who had a milkshake at the Farm Show told me she didn’t “get the hype.”
I ran into a mother and daughter who had ordered 10 of them.
Either way, you have to have one while you’re there.
Ena Widjojo, 73, of Philadelphia, owner and longtime celebrated chef atthe Hardena restaurant in South Philadelphia, mentor, and mother, died Wednesday, Dec. 24, of cancer at her home.
Born and reared in Java, Indonesia, Mrs. Widjojo came to the United States in 1969 when she was 17. She opened a cantina at the Indonesian Consulate in New York in 1977, worked as a caterer in the 1990s after the cantina closed in 1989, and moved to Philadelphia in 2000 to open Hardena with her husband, Harry.
Over the next decade and a half, until she retired in 2017, Mrs. Widjojo grew Hardena, described by the Daily News in 2007 as “a postage-stamp-size luncheonette at Hicks and Moore Streets in a gritty section of South Philly,” into a culinary and cultural connection for thousands of local Indonesians and other diners who enjoyed her homemade Southeast Asia cuisine.
The corner restaurant’s name is a blend of their names, Harry and Ena, and features Indonesian specialties such asgolden tofu, goat curry, saté chicken, beef rendang, and tempeh. “It’s the best Indonesian food in Philadelphia, a great mix of Indian and Chinese flavors,” elementary schoolteacher Aaron MacLennan told the Daily News in 2007.
This photo of Mrs. Widjojo appeared in the Daily News in 2007
Friendly and ever present at the lunch and dinner rushes, Mrs. Widjojo was known as Mama to many of her customers and friends. She learned how to bake and cook from her mother, a culinary teacher in Java, and later incorporated many of her mother’s recipes into her own memorable melting pot of Indian, Chinese, Arab, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Dutch dishes at Hardena.
“She served me greens once, and I felt like I was at home,” a friend said on Instagram.
She and her husband traveled weekly between Philadelphia and Queens while their daughters — Diana, Maylia, and Stephanie — finished school in New York. Maylia and Diana assumed control of Hardena when Mrs. Widjojo retired, and Diana opened the restaurant Rice & Sambal on East Passyunk Avenue in 2024.
Earlier, at the consulate in New York, Mrs. Widjojo made meals for former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Indonesian President Suharto and his large entourage. “I cooked for all the diplomats.” she told The Inquirer in 2018.
Mrs. Widjojo (second from right) smiles with her husband and three daughters.
She grew chili peppers and lime trees in her South Philly backyard, was happy to share kitchen tips and cultural traditions with visitors and cooking classes, and helped her daughters cater the 2019 James Beard Foundation’s annual Media Awards in New York.
She worked six days a week for years and told edible Philly in 2017 that her retirement was good for her daughters. “If I’m cooking all the time,” she said, “they’re not learning.”
Ena Djuneidi Juniarsah was born April 24, 1952. She baked cakes in a charcoal oven for her mother in Java and sold cookies and pastries after school when she was young. “
Her mother was strict about cooking, Mrs. Widjojo said in 2018, and discarded any and all imperfect creations. “Like me, with my kids’ cooking,” she said, “if you’re not good, that’s no good.”
She married fellow restaurateur Harry Widjojo in New York and spent time as a singer, beautician, florist, and nanny before cooking full time. Away from the restaurant, she enjoyed drawing, painting, crocheting, and family strolls in the park.
Mrs. Widjojo and her husband, Harry, were married in New York.
She could be goofy, her daughters said. She sang “You Are My Sunshine” when they were young and served as their lifelong mentor and teacher.
Friends called her “sweet,” “amazing,” “a beautiful soul,” and “warm and welcoming” on Instagram. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2015.
“Her life, generosity, and talent enriched the hearts of all who met her,” her family said in a tribute. “She taught us that feeding people is one of the purest ways to show love, have pride in our culture, and support our family.”
Mrs. Widjojo (center) stands in Hardena with her daughters Maylia (left) and Diana in 2020.
Diana said: “She saw the world with open arms and an open heart. She was a wonder woman.”
In addition to her husband and daughters, Mrs. Widjojo is survived by two grandchildren, a sister, two brothers, and other relatives. A sister and two brothers died earlier.
Together, Northern Liberties Business Improvement District and Fishtown District are hosting a massive, two-day bar crawl of more than two dozen restaurants, bars, breweries, wineries, distilleries, and hospitality spots offering discounted zero-proof cocktails. The event runs Saturday, Jan. 17 and Sunday, Jan, 18, allowing participants to explore the two neighborhoods at their own pace. No tickets or check-in are required.
“We are excited to kick off 2026 with our close friends in Fishtown for a post-holiday reset,” said Sydney Rexroad, Northern Liberties Business Improvement District executive director. “The Dry January Crawl … is a great opportunity to see a different side of creativity from your favorite spots.”
Bar Palmina will participate in the Northern Liberties/Fishtown Dry January Bar Crawl.
“This is the perfect way to start 2026,” said Marc D. Collazzo, Fishtown District executive director. “Our close connection provides a full, fun wellness experience in the hottest neighborhoods in the city. Come join us to sip, savor and smile.”
Along with a slate of regularly priced nonalcoholic cocktails or specialty beverages, folks can expect each participating establishment to have one or more special happy hour-priced nonalcoholic beverage, from $6 to $10.
Bar1010 will offer strawberry matcha mocktails for $10, beers and Moscow mules will run $6 to $8 at BarPalmina, and smoked mixed berry spritz will go for $10 at Jerry’s Bar, just to name a few.
But remember: “Mocktails are what you’ll see mostly on menus — they’re made up of syrups, shrubs, soda, juices, and the ABV falls at 0.0,” according to Nikki Graziano, owner of Bar Palmina. “Zero-proof cocktails are made with complex nonalcoholic spirits and bitters. They provide the same balance and craft as a regular alcoholic drink and their ABV ranges from 0.0-0.5% ABV.”
“There’s no better or worse, but the distinction is important to note for sensitivities as well as price points,” she said.
Front Street Cafe will participate in the Northern Liberties/Fishtown Dry January Bar Crawl.
In Northern Liberties:
Amina:1102 Germantown Ave., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bar1010:701 N. Second St., 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bourbon and Branch:705 N. Second St., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
El Camino Real:1040 N. Second St., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Jerry’s Bar:129 W. Laurel St., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Standard Tap:901 N. Second St., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The 700: 700 N. Second St., 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Urban Village Brewing:1001 N. Second St., noon to 5 p.m.
Yards Brewing Co.:500 Spring Garden St., 11:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Expect nonalcoholic cocktails like this one, from Bar Palmina, at happy hour prices on Northern Liberties-Fishtown’s inaugural Dry January bar crawl.
In Fishtown:
Bar Palmina:1306 N. Front St., 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Brewery ARS:2223 Frankford Ave., 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Evil Genius Beer Company:1727 N. Front St., noon to 5 p.m.
Fette Sau:1208 Frankford Ave., noon to 5 p.m.
Fishtown Social:1525 Frankford Ave., noon to 5 p.m.
Frankford Hall:1210 Frankford Ave., noon to 5 p.m.
Front Street Cafe: 1253 Front St., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Garage Fishtown:100 E. Girard Ave., noon to 5 p.m.
Johnny Brenda’s:1201 Frankford Ave., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mamajuana Cafe Philly:1000 Frankford Ave., noon to 5 p.m.
Meyers Brewing:436 E. Girard Ave., noon to 5 p.m.
Mural City Cellars:1831 Frankford Ave., noon to 5 p.m.
Nut Hut Saloon: Corner of Frankford Ave. and E. Norris St., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Pearl’s Fishtown:1444 Frankford Ave., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Percy Diner & Bar:1700 N. Front St., Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Stateside Vodka Bar:1700 N. Hancock St., noon to 5 p.m.
Flip a reservation and find out — or at least that’s how the warning goes at South Philly’s acclaimed Cambodian restaurant Mawn.
Last week, the restaurant’s owners, Phila and Rachel Lorn, took to Mawn’s Instagram to lambaste a woman attempting to sell coveted dinner reservations on the “Buy, Sell, Trade” section of Philaqueens, a private Facebook group with 75,000 members.
“Selling a Mawn dinner reservation for this month and February if anyone is interested,” read the since-deleted post, which did not specify a price. Commenters were split on the unorthodox offering. Three people immediately replied to say they were interested, while another didn’t mince words.
“Selling a free reservation?” she wrote. “Horrible.”
The Lorns agree.
“Eww. Gross … Don’t play with us,” they wrote, sharing a screenshot of the Facebook post that included the seller’s name. “All 11 of this person’s reservations are canceled.”
The “all star seafood rice” at Mawn, an acclaimed South Philly restaurant targeted by reservation scalpers.
The interaction was a glimpse into the burgeoning underbelly of restaurant reservation scalping, in which enterprising individuals can make a lucrative side hustle using bots and other means to snap up free reservations at in-demand restaurants, then selling them at a premium.
The reservation black market is more established in New York City, Chicago, and Miami, where tables at celebrity-favorite Italian restaurant Carbone or Ralph Lauren’s notoriously exclusive Polo Bar can fetch between $350 and $1,700 on the third-party website Appointment Trader. One Brown University student told the New Yorker in 2024 that he made $70,000 just by using fake phone numbers and aliases to book reservations to flip on Appointment Trader. The website itself claims that sellers average $172 per reservation.
The practice has spread to smaller cities, too: During Super Bowl LIX weekend in New Orleans, a once-free reservation for a table at the French Quarter restaurant Antoine’s went for $2,138.
As reservation scalping becomes more widespread, so has legislation attempting to guard against it. Philadelphia City Council unanimously passed a law in Decemberthat would prohibitthird-party websites from selling reservations without a restaurant’s consent, fining platforms such as Appointment Trader $1,000 per violation. The bill was signed last week by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who joined leaders in New York, Louisiana, and Illinois in banning the practice.
Still, these bills do not prevent savvy foodies from making under-the-table reservation deals in, say, a Facebook group.
‘Nobody should be making money off a free reservation’
Rachel Lorn said that she and husband Phila found out about the offending Facebook post from several back-to-back direct messages tipping her off.
Mawn co-owners Phila (left) and Rachel Lorn, who say reservation scalpers are unwelcome at their James Beard-award winning restaurant.
“It’s disrespectful. Nobody should be making money off a free reservation. … We felt like we had a responsibility to [say to] all the people who can’t get a reservation, ‘This is not OK,’” said Rachel Lorn, who oversees front-of-house operations for Mawn, including the restaurant’s packed guest book.
Customers wait in line for Mawn to open for lunch.
Mawn draws lines that wrap around the block for its first come, first served lunch service, but dinner reservations are the hotter commodity. Rachel Lorn uses OpenTable to drop reservations at noon on the first of every month, making roughly 650 total tables available at once. Customers are allowed to book multiple reservations, Lorn said, and many regulars manage to do so. It’s a pain point for would-be diners who miss out, whom Lorn said she hears from nonstop.
“I watch [the reservation drops] from our computer. They sell out in seconds,” she said. “We never imagined that this would be the response to our restaurant. … It’s amazing, but it’s also a really tough position to be in. There isn’t much I can do with our small restaurant and how many seats we have.”
Upon learning of the attempted black market deal, Rachel Lorn checked OpenTable and found that the Philaqueens poster had dined at Mawn six times prior and had 11 dinner reservations booked on different days throughout January and February. Lorn canceled them all immediately.
Mawn’s dining room, which has only 32 seats. The restaurant is first come, first served for lunch, but dinner reservations are snapped up in seconds.
She also reached out to the seller directly, who Rachel Lorn said didn’t respond but did manage to change the name and email associated with her OpenTable account. The Lorns said they would ban the seller, if only they could figure out a way to do so; OpenTable currently does not allow for restaurants to prevent specific users from making reservations.
“It felt like she was trying to trick us further,” Rachel Lorn said. “She shouldn’t be coming to our restaurant.”
The reservation seller declined to comment to The Inquirer, citing privacy concerns. She said only that she “meant no harm and there was no ill intent,” and declined to answer questions about why she was selling the reservations. The Inquirer is not releasing her name since the attempted sale happened in a private Facebook community.
For the most part, the Mawn incident is an anomaly in Philly. Reservation scalping has yet to take off here, according to Ben Fileccia, the senior vice president of strategy for the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, which worked with at-large Councilmember Isaiah Thomas to draft Philly’s anti-reservation scalping bill.
Fileccia said that this was the first time he had ever seen someone try to sell a reservation on Facebook, and that he had only seen a smattering of reservations for Philly restaurants on third-party platforms before working on the bill. Free trades are more common, he said, likely because cost is more top of mind for diners in Philly, a city with large wealth inequality.
“When you have an audience of folks to which prices are no object, [reservation scalping] becomes more of a problem,” Fileccia said. “Whereas when I discuss this issue and ask people [in Philly], ‘Would you pay $500 for reservation at 7:30 p.m. at X restaurant?’ … They usually laugh and roll their eyes.”
The gaeng pae, khao mun klone, and moo yaang prik at Kalaya, one Philly restaurant featured on reservation resale platform Appointment Trader.
That doesn’t mean scalping doesn’t happen here.
A recent search on Appointment Trader foundprime-time Saturday night reservations at Kalaya averaging $113 and 9 p.m. reservations for any day at raw bar Tesiny for between $107 and $360. A 7 p.m. Saturday table for six at Stephen Starr’s Barclay Prime steakhouse, or a reservation for two for literally any day or time at Pine Street Grill, Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp’s new spot? That will cost at least $241 or $124, respectively, on Appointment Trader.
Until recently, Appointment Trader functioned similarly to StubHub, where buyers could purchase reservations that scalpers had already acquired. Now, founder Jonas Frey is shifting the model to a concierge system: Buyers request a certain reservation and an algorithm spits out an average price based on demand. Once a bid is placed, Appointment Trader matches you with a seller whose job it is to secure the reservation by any means possible. There’s a 100% refund guarantee if the request goes unfulfilled.
Representatives for the restaurants The Inquirer recently found on Appointment Trader were initially unaware they were listed on the platform.
“We do not have experience with guests utilizing this platform,” said Kalaya chef and co-owner Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon. “All reservations for Kalaya run through Resy.”
Tesiny owner Lauren Biederman called the discovery “concerning.”
“There isn’t too much we can do in terms of figuring out if the reservation is scalped really, though,” she said, noting that Tesiny requires customers provide a credit cardupon booking and charges $25 per person for late cancellations and no-shows.
Longtime server Matthew Penn prepares for dinner service at Barclay Prime, Stephen Starr’s steakhouse, where a table can go for upwards of $221 on Appointment Trader.
When Shulman and Kemp opened Pine Street Grill last month, they designated half the nightly seats for walk-ins, in part to keep it a neighborhood restaurant.“We were especially surprised to see Pine Street listed for such a hefty price since it’s by far our most casual restaurant,” the couplewrote in a statement. “Oftentimes a dinner for two at Pine Street is less than the reservation cost you shared.”
Rachel Lorn said she feels “powerless” againstplatforms like Appointment Trader. She often finds out after the fact when a reservation has been resold. She also tries to hide her suspicion when a guest shows up and struggles to recall the name a table is under.
“What am I going to do in that moment?” she asked, exasperated. “Accuse them?”
Chief among the concerns reservation scalping has raised in the restaurant industry: It overinflates the demand for a restaurant.
Often, scalpers will sit on hundreds of reservations that go unused, leading to no-shows that can hurt a restaurant’s bottom line and lead to less tips for servers. At COQODAQ, an upscale fried chicken joint in New York that’s popular on Appointment Trader, the no-show rate more than tripled after the website took off, Fox Business reported.
Fileccia said it’s hard for some establishments to make that business back.
Chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp at Pine Street Grill, another Philly restaurant that has appeared on Appointment Trader.
“The types of restaurants that have reservations being sold are not restaurants that are going to get walk-ins to refill those seats,” he said. “These are places that people know they need a reservation for.”
Frey, who founded Appointment Trader in 2021 after he struggled to get an appointment at the DMV,has pushed back against that narrative repeatedly in interviews. He argues that the site has gone to great lengths to tamp down on no-shows by penalizing reservation sellers for a low “sell-through rate.” If less than 50% of an account’s reservations go unsold, he has said, those accounts can no longer upload new reservations; if that rate dips below 25%, those accounts are banned altogether. (Between 2023 and 2024, Frey reported Appointment Trader did $6 million in reservation sales.)
It’s unclear if reservation scalping will find a foothold in Philly. But at Mawn, at least, it’s deeply unwelcome.
Rachel Lorn said the practicereminds her “of when everyone went and bought up all the toilet paper during COVID. There was nothing left for anyone else,” she said. “It boils down to a human decency thing.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated City Council’s unanimously passed bill banning reservation scalping had yet to be approved by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. Mayor Parker signed the bill into law on Friday, Jan. 9.
You just finished watching Back to the Future with your parents and cousins at the multiplex, and now it’s time to pile into the Chevy Caprice wagon with faux wood-paneled sides. You beg your dad to put in the Wham! cassette, one more time.
You’re going to Pizza Hut, of course, and the parking lot is packed. Inside, there are stained-glass lamps hanging over the checkerboard tables, a salad bar, and those red plastic cups.
The server brings out your deep-dish pies. They smell almost buttery. You grab your fork and knife because, well, that’s how you eat at Pizza Hut.
Can you smell it? Taste it? Ah, nostalgia.
A Pizza Hut location in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, was remodeled into a “classic” location, featuring the salad bar, red, plastic cups and other vintage touches.
If you’re hankering for Pizza Huts of bygone days or places like the “birthday room” at McDonald’s, you often have to travel back into your memory. Not anymore.
Pizza Hut has tapped into the power of nostalgia across the United States by resurrecting some “classic” restaurants. There’s one in Tunkhannock, a small town in the Endless Mountains of Wyoming County, about 140 miles northeast of Philadelphia.
The Pizza Hut, which has been in a shopping center parking lot for decades but was totally revamped — restored? — into a classic location, complete with the red, angled roof.
A Pizza Hut location in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, was remodeled into a “classic” location, featuring the salad bar, red, plastic cups and other vintage touches.
“No touchscreen kiosks, no sleek redesign, just the classic dine-in Hut experience you thought was gone forever. It’s more than pizza. It’s a full-blown childhood flashback served with breadsticks and a plastic red cup!” the Just Pennsylvania Facebook page wrote in May in a post that received 7,500 shares.
It’s not clear how many Pizza Hut Classic locations exist in the United States, and, oddly, the company did not return multiple requests for comment. According to the Retrologist website, the Tunkhannock location is the only one in Pennsylvania. There appears to be about two dozen in the United States, according to the site, though none in New Jersey or Delaware. The only New York location is in Potsdam, which is closer to Canada than to Pennsylvania.
A plaque on the wall of the Tunkhannock location, written by Pizza Hut founder Dan Carney, explains the concept.
“It reminds us of the Pizza Hut where generations of Americans first fell in love with pizza,” Carney wrote.
When The Inquirer visited early on a recent Monday, a lunch crowd was beginning to file in.
“It was probably 10 years ago that they turned it into a classic, and our business has really exploded in the last year,” said Paul Bender, a shift leader at the Tunkhannock location. “I don’t know how it happened, but people really began to notice. I’ve had customers come in from Wisconsin, Oregon, Michigan, and, obviously, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We get a lot of people in the parking lot making videos.
Bender said the Tunkhannock location is still hoping for a jukebox and old-style video games, like the tabletop Ms. PAC-MAN.
“That would seal the deal,” Bender said.
Bender has wondered why more iconic chains haven’t created throwback locations, like Pizza Hut. He’s seen the power of nostalgia firsthand.
“Instead, it seems like more and more are getting rid of dine-in altogether, ” Bender said. “But I’ve seen grown men, in tears here, saying they came here with their father and mother.”
Last year, it was reported that a Pittsburgh-area Pizza Hut was bringing back dine-in service, though videos show that it’s only gone half-classic so far.
A Pizza Hut location in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, was remodeled into a “classic” location, featuring the salad bar, red, plastic cups and other vintage touches.
