Philadelphia lawmakers on Thursday approved two changes to city law that are aimed at boosting business for restaurants and the hospitality sector ahead of an expected influx of tourists visiting the city next year.
Legislators also voted to ban so-called reservation scalpers, which are third-party businesses that allow people to secure tables and then resell them without authorization from the restaurant.
Both measures passed Council unanimously and were championed by advocates for the restaurant industry, who lobbied lawmakers to ease burdens on the tourism and hospitality industry ahead of several large-scale events in the city next year, including celebrations for America’s Semiquincentennial, when Philadelphia is expected to host a flurry of visitors.
They both now head to the desk of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who has never issued a veto.
The outdoor dining legislation, authored by Councilmember Rue Landau, a Democrat who represents the city at-large, expands the number of so-called by-right zones, where businesses can have sidewalk cafes without having to obtain a special zoning ordinance.
Currently, by-right areas are only in Center City and a few commercial corridors in other neighborhoods. Restaurants outside those areas must undertake a sometimes lengthy process to get permission to place tables and chairs outside.
The expanded zones, which were chosen by individual Council members who represent the city’s 10 geographic districts, include corridors in Manayunk and on parts of Washington Avenue, Passyunk Avenue, and Point Breeze Avenue in South Philadelphia.
The legislation also includes all of the West Philadelphia-based Third District, which is represented by Jamie Gauthier, the only Council member who chose to include her entire district in the expansion.
The cafe area on the sidewalk outside of Gleaner’s Cafe in the 9th Street Market on Thursday, July 27, 2023.
Nicholas Ducos, who owns Mural City Cellars in Fishtown, said he has been working for more than a year to get permission to place four picnic tables outside his winery. He said he has had to jump through hoops including working with multiple agencies, spending $1,500 to hire an architect, and even having to provide paperwork to the city on a CD-ROM.
“There are a lot of difficult things about running a business in Philadelphia,” Ducos said. “This should not be one.”
At left is Philadelphia Council President Kenyatta Johnson greeting Rue Landau and other returning members of council on their first day of fall session, City Hall, Thursday, September 11, 2025.
Council members also approved the reservation scalping legislation authored by Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a Democrat who represents the city at-large. He has said the bill is modeled after a similar law in New York and is not aimed at popular apps and websites like OpenTable, Resy, and Tock that partner directly with restaurants.
Instead, it is a crackdown on websites that don’t work with restaurants, such as AppointmentTrader.com, which provides a platform for people to sell reservations and tickets to events.
Jonas Frey, the founder of AppointmentTrader.com, previously said the legislation needlessly targets his platform. He said his company put safeguards in place to prevent scalping, including shutting down accounts if more than half of their reservations go unsold.
But Thomas has cast the website and similar platforms as “predatory” because restaurants can end up saddled with empty tables if the reservations do not resell.
Zak Pyzik, senior director of public affairs at the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, said the legislation is an important safeguard for restaurants.
“This bill provides clear, sensible protections that will keep restaurants in the driver’s seat,” he said, “and in control of their business and their technology services.”
As the health inspector left Cafe Michelangelo in the Far Northeast last week, she affixed a “cease operations” sticker to the front door, ordering the restaurant to close for at least 48 hours.
Co-owner Giuliano Verrecchia got an idea.
He would come clean.
Chastened by the report’s findings and mindful of his restaurant’s previous dodgy health inspections this year, Verrecchia decided to go public and explain all 16 violations, one by one.
Co-owner Giuliano Verrecchia and manager Danielle Runner at Cafe Michelangelo on Dec. 9, 2025.
“I wanted to put my side out there and be transparent,” Verrecchia said, adding that he considered some of the cited issues “a bit misleading.” He and his manager, Danielle Runner, printed out the inspection report, added commentary, and posted it to Michelangelo’s Facebook page on Dec. 4, the day after the shutdown.
Addressed to “all of our amazing customers,” the post on Michelangelo’s profile paired the exact wording of the health report’s violations with Verrecchia’s own explanation (and redress or occasional rebuttal). He detailed 16 violations, including “peeling paint observed on walls in one of the women’s restroom areas” (“Bathrooms and storage areas were repainted yesterday,” he explained) and “ice build-up observed in the first-floor walk-in cooler unit” (“removed ice build-up,” he wrote).
Reaction to the post was mostly positive. Customers replied with words of support. Some commenters — several of whom identified as food-service industry workers — downplayed the inspector’s finding, describing them as minor.
(In a Facebook post earlier that day, the restaurant described the violations as “non-hazardous,” which was not entirely accurate.)
On Friday, Dec. 5, Michelangelo passed its reinspection, paid a $315 fee, and prepared to reopen. Verrecchia held his breath. Would the public respect his attempt at transparency?
A Northeast Philly staple
In 1992, brothers Michael and Angelo DiSandro combined their names to open a family-friendly Italian restaurant, complete with bocce courts and room for 250 guests, in a Somerton strip center. By Northeast Philadelphia standards, Cafe Michelangelo was years ahead of its time, serving espresso and brick-oven pizza. Angelo DiSandro died in 2012, and Michael has stepped aside from the day-to-day operation.
Cafe Michelangelo, 11901 Bustleton Ave., on Dec. 9.
Verrecchia, 56, a nephew, oversees the restaurant, which has a bar in a rear dining room as well as a newer second bar on a covered, heated patio. There’s live music at least three days a week. Michelangelo’s business, like that at many older restaurants, hasn’t been the same since the pandemic. Rising food prices and labor costs have cut margins, and competition has become keener. Customers can get a world of cuisine delivered via apps.
To boost traffic, Verrecchia offers a $15 lunch buffet Tuesday to Friday with two pastas, two proteins, salads, and pizza. Over dinner, the calamari, the parm dishes, and pizzas still move, but he said his customers are cautious about spending. He still sells bigger-ticket items — steak, rack of lamb, whole fish — “but I’m not charging you $45,” Verrecchia said. “I’m charging you $37 and I’m not making money on it, but if you want a steak and the kid wants pizza? You got a home run.”
The aftermath
Michelangelo reopened the same day it passed its reinspection. The phone rang over the weekend. It was a group of teachers canceling their large annual party. Then another big order fell through.
Neither cited a reason. Business was down about 25% on Friday, the restaurant’s first day back, and remained soft Saturday. There was a slight improvement Sunday. The restaurant is closed Mondays. Tuesday was slow again, which Verrecchia partly attributed to cold weather. He said it was too soon to tell what was driving this.
Timeline of inspections
In interviews, Verrecchia said he acknowledged that some of the inspector’s findings required attention, but added: “I don’t think those issues put customers in jeopardy.”
Giuliano Verrecchia sauces a Margherita pizza at Cafe Michelangelo.
“You as a layman read what they wrote and you get scared,” he said. “I wanted to explain what’s really meant.”
He cited rules about labeling containers as an example. “If [the inspector comes in] at 11:30 [a.m.] and my guys are prepping, some things won’t have labels because they have to open them up,” he said.
Verrecchia said he was cited for some issues that had been addressed previously, including cracked floors observed in the kitchen preparation area. “I had already fixed it and showed her,” he said. The report called out a chest freezer that was not commercial-grade. “I fixed that, too, but it still showed up again as if nothing had been done.”
“She made some valid observations,” he said. “I’m not denying that. But the wording in those reports can sound scarier than it really is if people don’t understand the terminology.”
But given its inspections in 2025, Cafe Michelangelo’s record showed mounting problems.
This also was not the restaurant’s first involuntary closure. In February 2023, an inspector cited repeated violations, including improper food labeling, missing temperature controls, rodent activity, improper food storage, and sanitation problems such as grease on walls near the hood, food debris and mouse droppings in the basement, damaged flooring, and missing wall tiles. The restaurant also was cited for using plastic crates to elevate beverages in the takeout area.
Cafe Michelangelo was allowed to reopen four days after that 2023 reinspection, and a follow-up two months later found no serious violations.
At the next inspection, Feb. 27, 2025, four risk-factor violations were noted: missing handwashing supplies, a dirty ice machine, missing date-marking, and unlabeled chemicals. All were corrected on site.
By Sept. 11, the violation count had risen to six and included flies throughout the facility, shellfish storage and record-keeping problems, and significant structural and equipment issues. The Health Department ordered a reinspection.
On Oct. 29, many of the same issues appeared again as repeat violations, and a certified food-safety manager was not on-site at the start of the inspection.
On Dec. 3, the inspector pointed out unsafe cooling of salads and onions, along with unresolved pest, handwashing, and facility problems — all what are deemed “imminent health hazards.” She also logged six risk-factor violations, which include any violation that increases the likelihood of foodborne illness; three of them were repeats. Two and a half hours after the inspector walked in, Michelangelo was shut down.
Corrections and changes
Verrecchia said the inspection issues were a wake-up call. He said he has tightened oversight throughout the restaurant, which employs about 30 people.
“I’m on it every single night now,” he said. “I’m re-educating my team. I’ve got to be more diligent. If I [mess] up, I admit it. I [messed] up. I’m human.”
He is now conducting mock inspections at the end of the day. “I walk through everything, write up what’s wrong, and then go over it with the staff in the morning,” he said.
He also has begun purchasing new equipment, including wall-mounted metal shelving and fruit-fly traps where required.
Verrecchia said he is standing by his decision to go public.
“If I didn’t think it was right, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “I can’t afford to shut down again — and I’m not going to.”
The door of Banshee at 16th and South Streets will be unlocked Thursday, welcoming patrons for crispy onion tarts, chicory salad, and a saucy Spanish mackerel dish you can mop up with house-made sourdough. They can then polish it all off with a sip of draft wine or a sesame- and pineapple-laced whiskey sour.
The cozy, modern American bistro is a refined addition to the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. And although two of its backers will be familiar to followers of Philly’s restaurant scene, Banshee marks a clear break from the Asian-inspired street food and graffitied airs that defined their earlier work.
Shawn Darragh and Ben Puchowitz, who founded Cheu Noodle Bar (2013), Cheu Fishtown (2017), Bing Bing Dim Sum (2015), and Nunu (2018), have brought on two key former employees as partners: twin brothers Kyle and Bryan Donovan, 34.
Mussels in harissa with hakurei turnips in coconut milk, beneath a lid of grilled bread, at Banshee.
Kyle Donovan — who started at the original Cheu near 10th and Locust and later managed Bing Bing on East Passyunk until it closed in 2024 — is Banshee’s general manager, overseeing 12 walk-in-only bar seats and about three dozen seats in the dining room.
Banshee executive chef Bryan Donovan was opening sous chef under Puchowitz at Cheu Fishtown before he went on to cook at Sqirl in Los Angeles and Contra, Wildair, and the Four Horsemen in New York City.
Darragh and Puchowitz, now in their early 40s, have moved on from the day-to-day of restaurant work. Darragh, the front-of-the-house/marketing guy, runs a construction company. Puchowitz — who as a 23-year-old ran the kitchen at the late, great Rittenhouse BYOB Matyson — works in real estate.
“It’s fair to say we’re all grown up now,” Darragh told me. “We’re trying to carry over that neighborhood spirit but take it a step further — maybe a little more refined but still fun.”
The visual shift, not only from their former restaurants but also from the building’s previous occupant, Tio Flores, is obvious. Stokes Architecture + Design created a warm, Scandinavian-inspired space with natural woods, curtains, table lamps, pendant lights, and a mushroom-wood accent wall. The up-lit bar anchors the room.
Winter citruses at Banshee.
Banshee was originally planned for the former Bing Bing space on East Passyunk Avenue at 12th Street, but that deal fell through. Chefs Biff Gottehrer and Kenjiro Omori are renovating it for a new restaurant called Tako Taco.
Mediterranean, Basque, and modern American flavors
Don’t expect ramens or dumplings at Banshee. The menu leans Mediterranean/Basque — chef-driven but not inaccessible. Premium ingredients include Berkshire pork collar ($25) and Lady Edison ham ($17) with persimmon and fromage blanc. The center-of-the-table dish is a half chicken ($39) with pickled peppers and buttery Marcona almonds.
Kyle Donovan at the bar at Banshee.
Vegetables take center stage: braised leeks with boquerones, pepitas, and Comté ($14); grilled Kyoto carrot with txakoli sabayon ($15); and a chicory salad with dijonnaise, pear, and nutty, creamy Midnight Moon cheese ($15). Fermentation-driven umami shows up in red kuri rice with koji butter and nori, as well as a winter citrus salad finished with brown butter, pine nuts, and umeboshi. About half the menu is vegetarian, and five dishes are vegan or easily made vegan.
The tarte flambée ($15) is one of the most distinctive dishes on the menu. It starts with a yeasted semolina dough that’s rolled through a pasta sheeter, cut into squares, and baked on olive oil-lined sheet trays. It’s topped with smoked crème fraîche, caramelized onions, raw onions, maitake mushrooms, chives, and hot honey, and finished with a leek-and-parsley powder made from dehydrated leek scraps. Crispy and bold, “it’s layered onion flavor all the way through,” Bryan Donovan said.
Barnstable oysters in dill mignonette at Banshee.
A dill mignonette brightens the Barnstable oysters ($22). Hamachi crudo ($18) is sliced thick to highlight the fish’s natural fat and paired with a bright, acidic sauce made from minced peppers, passion fruit puree, shio koji, and white verjus. “The sauce actually came first, and then we tailored the fish to it,” Donovan said.
A larger plate of Spanish mackerel ($24) is served over grilled Brussels sprout leaves tossed in a smoked clam emulsion with thyme and tamari, finished with olive oil tapenade and pickled golden raisins.
Chef Bryan Donovan juggling orders in the kitchen at Banshee.
“We’ll change vegetables seasonally and add more snacky, fried, and skewer-style items as we settle in,” Donovan said. “Spontaneity and experimentation are part of the spirit of the place.”
There’s a baked Alaska (not done tableside) and a butterscotch Krimpet filled with boysenberry jam for dessert.
The exterior of Banshee at 1600 South St.
Check average is projected at $70 to $75 per person for two to three dishes and one drink.
The Banshee partners brought in lead bartender Mary Wood to build the cocktail program, working alongside assistant manager Madeline Anneli. “None of us are professional bartenders, so we wanted real expertise on cocktails,” Kyle Donovan said.
Wood’s list draws from home-cooking influences and ingredients already used in the kitchen. The Dirty Banshee ($16) — olive oil-infused vodka, garlic fino, and blue cheese olive — leans deeply savory. Beet imbues the Crowd Work ($15), a sparkling gin cocktail with lemon and quinine. The bar also offers low-ABV drinks, nonalcoholic options, fermentation elements such as tepache, and an accessible beer lineup.
Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Reservations are available on Resy on a rolling 30-day basis.
It’s easier than ever to swing by a neighborhood shop and leave with a special wine bottle at a friendly price. Sande Friedman shares her favorite indie wine merchants in Philly and the suburbs.
🍷 In these cold days, here’s a luxe Chardonnay worth warming up to, says Marnie Old.
If you’re after squid ink risotto, surf and turf, or mostly just pasta, Kiki Aranita has you covered for this year’s crop of seven fishes feasts with an array of festive, mostly fishy Philly restaurants.
The largest U.S. location of the Vietnamese coffee brand Trung Nguyên Legend has opened near the Mummers Museum in Pennsport. Beatrice Forman stopped to visit the onetime cabinetry showroom, now a two-story destination with a year-round roof deck for espresso tonics, Vietnamese egg coffees, and phin pour-overs.
Critic Craig LaBan found much to enjoy at Phila and Rachel Lorn’s Sao — a love letter to Philly, set to a soundtrack mix of vintage R&B, Cambodian rap, and Frank Sinatra.
An accolade for Omar Tate
Chef Omar Tate, who co-owns the Michelin-recommended Honeysuckle on North Broad Street with his wife, Cybille St.Aude-Tate, just received an $85,000, no-strings-attached grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Pew says the grants support timely and compelling new projects and long-term stability. “Tate uses food as a medium for storytelling and cultural preservation,” it blurbed. “His curated culinary experiences assert cooking as a fine art that can express complex narratives about identity, memory, and history. In his visual artworks, collaborations with other artists, and his Philadelphia restaurant Honeysuckle, Tate connects people with Black creative lineages and cuisine.”
A sweet (and spicy) Market Street pop-up … belly-warming Indian food … a sticky dessert at Paffuto … a Greek spin on American Sardine Bar’s namesake food. Read on to see where we’ve been eating.
Scoops
Barcelona Wine Bar, the syndicated Spanish tapas house, appears to be in the initial stages of planning a second Philadelphia location, complementing its eight-year-old spot in East Passyunk. A real estate solicitation mentions Barcelona as a tenant in an adaptive reuse of an old warehouse on North Lee Street in Fishtown, next to Pizzeria Beddia and Hiroki and across from the new Pip’s, the cider bar by Ploughman Cider. No comment from a Barcelona rep.
Vons Chicken, a South Korean-rooted chain big on the West Coast, ventures east next month to open at 1714 Washington Ave., next to AutoZone. Vons’ menu includes Korean fried as well as baked chicken, plus sides such as mandu and tteokbokki. Local franchisee Thao Le, who found Vons in California while visiting family, has assorted restaurant experience, including serving at Pietro’s Italian in Center City.
Restaurant report
Hira Qureshi tried falafel at more than 20 restaurants while scouting Middle Eastern cuisine for The Inquirer’s 76. Here’s her rule: good falafel = good restaurant. She maps her picks.
Briefly noted
Eric Berley of Old City’s Franklin Fountain and Shane Confectionery now has a third business on the block. The Cacao Pod — a private event space that doubles as head chocolate maker Kevin Paschall’s chocolate roastery — rocks the same ye olde look at 104 Market. The space, which fits 24 guests (18 seated), is equipped with an ice cream counter, soda fountain, and hot chocolate bar.
Bombay Express completes its move from Marlton to 219 Haddonfield-Berlin Rd., the Centrum Shoppes in Cherry Hill, opening Thursday.
Homegrown 215 opens its second location, at the former Bison Coffee shop at 1600 Callowhill St. (enter on Carlton), on Saturday.
The Concourse at Comcast Center (1701 JFK Blvd.) has two openings teed up for Dec. 15: Pagano’s Market (Italian classics, prepared foods, and desserts) andKenny’s Wok (a fast-casual pan-Asian concept creating dishes using robotic-wok technology; it’s a version of InstaFooz, the Chinatown shop Poon owns with David Taing).
Panchoʼs Mexican Taqueria in Atlantic Cityʼs Ducktown neighborhood — which has been running 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for 20 years — will close for what owner Josh Cruz predicts will be a five-week-long renovation.
Sisterly Love Collective, the alliance of women in the food and hospitality industries, will host a pop-up holiday market from noon to 4 p.m. this weekend at the old High Street Bakery space (101 S. Ninth St.).
Oyster House’s latest guest chef in its lobster-roll series is Amáchef Frankie Ramirez. His roll ($39), whose proceeds will benefit PAWS, includes butter-poached lobster, salsa macha, refried beans, and cilantro macho on a split-top bun, served with hand-cut fries. It’s on through Saturday.
Red Gravy Goods is a new gift shop from Valerie Safran and Marcie Turney (of Barbuzzo, Bud & Marilyn’s, Little Nonna’s, and Darling Jacks) at 1335 E. Passyunk Ave., across from Cartesian Brewing/CJ & D’s Trenton Tomato Pies. Kitchen wares are part of the line and the big sell is a hat patch bar: about 100 patches designed by Safran and team that can be applied on-site.
Center City District Restaurant Week returns Jan. 18-31 with 100-plus restaurants offering three-course, prix-fixe dinners for $45 or $60 and two-course lunches for $20. (The district skipped the promotion this fall for the first time in 22 years.) Here’s the rundown.
❓Pop quiz
A bar is on the way to Center City whose specialty will be:
A) “the most tequilas under one roof in Philadelphia”
B) 50 varieties of Champagne, plus caviars
C) an espresso martini fountain
D) snacks whose names all start with the letter “G”
I would have thought that with the college campuses nearby and booming University City business in general, the big spaces that formerly housed Pod, Distrito, and City Tap House would have been taken over by new restaurants already. Why do you think that is not the case? — Lyndsey M.
My real estate sources say the main force that makes large spaces tougher to fill in University City are the colleges’ schedules, which create slow summers and winter breaks. One also cited a lack of older architecture (which restaurateurs gravitate toward) and the surfeit of new construction, which tends to make rents more expensive.
On the bright side, I’m hearing that a tenant may be on the way to the Pod space next to the Inn at Penn (3636 Sansom St.). This year, the UCity/West Philly area has seen the new Gather Food Hall at the Bulletin Building, as well as a slate of smaller destinations: Out West Cafe (5127 Walnut), Corio at uCity Square (37th and Chestnut), Haraz Coffee House (3421 Chestnut), and Good Hatch Eatery (4721 Pine). Next year’s crop will include Mi Casa and a Tous Les Jours bakery at Schuylkill Yards.
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In Philly, it’s easier than ever to swing by a neighborhood shop and leave with a delicious bottle at a friendly price, be it a weeknight wine or a special-occasion splurge. Our local retail scene has been up and coming for a few years now, even as national wine sales have dipped. The selections at the more successful stores demonstrate what is working in the wine industry right now: Big-brand sales are down, while smaller-production and natural-focused wines are on the rise. It’s always nice to find another reason why we’re a city of culinary pioneers — we simply have great taste.
This list of great independently run bottle shops is curated according to uniqueness of selection, fair pricing (for Pennsylvania), and excellent customer service. To showcase a wide shopping radius, I’ve included some suburban options in Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and one down the Shore.
Herman’s Coffee
Herman’s began in Pennsport as a coffee shop/roasterie and has evolved into a specialty shop offering snacks, cheeses, tinned fish, and more. This year, owner Mat Falco squeezed a wine-focused bottle shop into the jam-packed space. “I thought wine was a natural fit for the market. I already carried a lot of higher-quality food items, and wine goes perfectly with food,” Falco explained. A veteran of the craft beer scene, Falco curates Herman’s selection from the perspective of a regular person simply looking for a good bottle at a fair price. The majority of the 100-plus bottles that Herman’s stocks range from $15 to $35, with a small higher-end offering. You’ll find some of the most minuscule price markups in the city here, as well as a wine club and a growing number of tasting events. “I’ve always tried to take a volume-over-top-dollar mentality with the café,” Falco said. “I don’t want going out for coffee to have to feel like a special-occasion thing; neither should wine. We price so that people have good wine on a weekday, not just as a weekend splurge.”
Solar may have been conceived as a coffee/wine bar/music venue, but its boutique bottle shop is not to be missed. General manager and wine director Lauren Demers already offers one of the best natural wine lists in the city. More recently, she’s been expanding the to-go section to include a mishmash of affordable bottles and showstopper rarities. Plans are in motion for more retail shelving in the new year. If the labels are unfamiliar, the smart and friendly staff are excited to walk you through the offerings. A wine shop with genuine service?! We love to see it.
This old-school grocery store on the edge of Fishtown, a member of the Independent Grocers Alliance, has long housed an excellent no-frills bottle shop with a strong selection and great pricing. Signage on individual wines can be minimal, but the natural and small-production wine section is robust. There are also big callout displays for local producers such as Mural City Cellars. This is not exclusively a specialty store; you’ll have to skim the natural wine shelves or poke around in between big brands on the main shelves for the real gems. Happily, there are many to be found — and at some of the best prices in the city.
Pop in for an afternoon snack, leave (or lounge) with a great bottle of wine. Owner Chloe Grigri and partner-in-wine Kait Caruke have been queens in the Philadelphia wine scene for years, so it’s no surprise that their bar/bottle shop hybrid is one of the best additions to the Philly bottle shop scene. Supérette boasts a fresh, eclectic selection of about 100 wines mostly meant to be enjoyed now, with some collector’s items sprinkled onto the shelves. The inventory is French-focused, rounded out by other Old and New World bottles for range. Prices range from high teens to $100, with magnums available as well. Affordability has clearly been prioritized for takeaway bottles, and corkage is just $25 if you stay to sip. Check out the CouCou wine club to have interesting bottles chosen for you monthly.
These suburban shops were among the first small grocers to offer curated retail wine sets — Media in 2016 and Swarthmore in 2017 — and remain some of the best in the ‘burbs to this day. The stores have offered a natural-dominant selection for even longer. Owner Jack Cunicelli is guided by his own love of minimal-intervention wines, updated classics, and renegade producers. The selections at the respective locations offer a full global representation while remaining laser-focused on producers and styles that made Cunicelli himself fall in love with wine. Expect a rotation of old-school standouts (Frank Cornelissen, Cantina Giardino, and Sylvain Pataille were recent highlights) mixed with new wave American producers to know, like Fossil & Fawn, Franchere, and Monte Rio. With prices starting at $12, there’s something for everyone.
713 S. Chester Rd., Swarthmore, 610-328-7211; 211 W. State St., Media, 610-565-8320; the320marketcafe.com
Bloomsday
This Headhouse Square restaurant/bottle shop offered a range of great Pennsylvania-produced bottles long before the current urban winery boom, showcasing that it’s just as important to celebrate the local scene as the heavy hitters of France, Italy, Spain, and beyond. The retail shop inside the restaurant — formerly dubbed the “Fancy Wine Shop” and now mid-rebrand toward a more neighborhood vibe — has evolved for the better every year. Beverage director Chris Liu has been meticulously refining the selection and revamping the retail pricing structure without sacrificing quality. Beyond wine, the beer and cider offerings are also fantastic. Notably, this is one of the only places in the city where you can pick up Fermentery Form bottles outside of the brewhouse.
Pre-pandemic, this Rittenhouse space was Cook, a live-action venue for food and beverage classes taught by local professionals. COVID-19 forced that business model to pause and the space reopened as Cork wine shop in fall 2020, offering a big selection of bottles alongside barware and small-batch cocktail ingredients. Cork did what few others were doing at the time, prioritizing being a neighborhood shop over a specialty wine store. The offering is vast, from wine cans to bottles to liters and bags. You’ll also find one of the largest NA programs in the city. It’s a luxurious stop for snacks — the gummy selection is unrivaled — but the wine and the team running the shop are as friendly as can be.
This Abruzzo-focused restaurant has been an East Passyunk mainstay for years, and its small bottle shop is an under-the-radar gem. Jack-of-all-trades manager Chris O’Brien pulls double duty between running the wine program and supporting chef Andrew Wood in the kitchen, which brings a special pairing pizzazz to the selection. Le Virtù offers nearly 100 different bottles, predominantly low-intervention wines from southern Italy. Expect to find a few dozen options from Sardinia, Sicily, and northern Italy, starting at $15. Le Virtù also offers a wine club with both two- and four-bottle memberships, and the option for an additional “Somm’s pick” bottle. The first Wednesday of each month is a tasting social, where club members get complimentary snacks (stuzzichini) and tastes of that month’s wines, plus additional special bottles. Nonmembers can partake for $20.
Seven minutes from the Ben Franklin Bridge, the Pennsauken outpost of this highly regarded wine shop has long been a primary shopping destination for Philly residents looking for options beyond Pennsylvania’s state stores. Moore Brothers exclusively offers wines that they import directly from France, Italy, and Germany, focusing on sustainable and biodynamic producers. Temperature control — from the shipping to in-store storage — is their non-negotiable to keep bottles pristine. Because inventory is built around a direct-import program, the selection doesn’t change often, but the consistency and longtime relationships with their producers shine, vintage after vintage. Make sure to sign up for the email list for great tips on wine pairings.
We’ll never throw shade at a South Jersey stock-up, but independently owned stores can be tricky to find there, likely due to the cost and rules for liquor licenses. This unassuming shop, with locations in Marlton and Voorhees, quietly offers one of the more interesting selections in South Jersey. Bottles are displayed by country and style, meaning you’ll find deep-cut small-batch wines tucked casually next to their more mainstream counterparts. A recent trip found Olga Raffault Chinon Rose, a beloved producer from central France, for just $20, displayed next to Whispering Angel, on sale for $24. If wine names mean nothing to you, all good. Simply keep an eye out for “Nina’s Picks” tags, denoting favorite selections from wine director Nina Sygnecki, or ask if she’s around for a recommendation.
100 Church Rd. E., Marlton, 856-983-0056; 2999 E. Evesham Rd., Voorhees, 856-424-4898,trainoswine.com
Florida Cold Cuts
Headed down the Shore? There are dozens of big-box wine shops along the way, but you should really scope out this Ventnor spot with great bottles (and excellent made-to-order sandwiches). The selection is small, tight, and extremely well-curated. Everything is natural-minded, organic, or biodynamically focused, with an emphasis on wines from people and places with a great story. To borrow a line from its monthly wine club, “Leave it to us to find the wines that make the ‘cut’ so you can focus on drinking cleaner and better.” There’s also an excellent selection of cold beers by the bottle or can and canned/bagged wines — perfect for tossing into your beach tote.
Center City hoteliers Ken and Vittoria Schutz are celebrating their love of Champagne and caviar with a lounge called Bar Caviar inside Dwight D Hotel, their boutique hotel at 256 S. 16th St., a few doors from Monk’s Cafe near Rittenhouse Square.
At the heart of the concept, expected to open next spring, is a Champagne list that is expected to read more like a collector’s catalog than a bar menu: 50 selections in total, with 15 by the glass.
One headline-grabber is Salon, the ultrarare Champagne produced only in exceptional years from a single village and a single grape. Bar Caviar plans to offer it by the glass, at what Ken Schutz estimates at $600 per pour. Nonvintage options will start at $15.
Rather than provide a short list of familiar labels, Schutz said he wants guests to experiment and learn. Schutz is a level 3 sommelier who is also working on a masters in Champagne from the Wine Scholar Guild.
“Champagne is the original slow drink,” he said, explaining that it takes multiple stages to make, including two fermentations and aging on the lees for at least 15 months. “Time is really what you’re paying for,” he said. “It’s a complex process that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.”
Schutz said they want to offer a spectrum — from grower champagnes using innovative techniques and single-plot expressions, to the large houses that specialize in blending for consistency year after year. “There’s a lot of room to explore,” he said.
The food program will be equally refined, with the opening menu featuring five varieties of caviar served in classic presentations and as part of composed dishes, alongside small plates and a rotating selection of oysters and crudo. The early months will emphasize raw and cold preparations, with a broader hot menu expected to begin later.
“We wanted to do something distinctive, so Champagne and caviar felt like a perfect pairing,” Schutz said. “Both celebrate craftsmanship and heritage, and they share this idea of time. Both are slow, deliberate products.”
He said his wife visited farms in Europe and selected producers that raise sturgeon in environments that mimic natural habitats, not concrete tanks.
The couple are taking their inspiration from the counters of London or Paris, “where you can sit at a counter and enjoy caviar service in an elegant but relaxed way,” Schutz said.
They’re aiming for what he called a “minimalist, approachable vibe” rather than luxury. Vittoria Schutz, who studied at Cabrini University and Moore College of Art, designed the 11-room hotel, which opened in 2014. Set in an 1840s rowhouse, it blends antique and modern design.
“We want people to feel comfortable coming in, not intimidated,” he said.
Philadelphians can’t get enough of Rachel and Phila Lorn. At Sao, their sultry new oyster bar on East Passyunk Avenue, diners pull up at the counter for warm corn cakes soaked in honey and bejeweled with roe, oysters splashed with Cambodian peppercorn fish sauce mignonette, and barrel-aged “Jabroni Negroni” cocktails tinged with Islay whiskey smoke to wash them down.
Owners Phila and Rachel Lorn at Sao in Philadelphia.
You’ll find the same high-voltage “no rules” pan-Asian cooking here that propelled this married couple’s first restaurant, Mawn, to an incredible string of local and national accolades (including a spot on The Inquirer’s Top 10 list, a new edition of The 76, a “Best New Chefs” award for Phila from Food & Wine, and a similar nod from the James Beard Foundation). Considering the constant reservation traffic jam of wannabe diners angling to nab one of Mawn’s 28 seats, why open a second restaurant with room for just 33? Surely, this couple could fill a much larger space.
“Rachel and I have enough, we don’t need more,” says Phila, 39. “I still have that old-school mentality that we protect our family and we funnel our lives through this [little] store of ours. I never wanted to be a rock star or be recognized at Target. We just opened restaurants because that’s what we know how to do.”
The fact they do it so well is a blessing and a curse. At Sao, the monthly scrum for tables offers the same exercise in reservation-app frustration as Mawn, and the long line for the 30-or-so walk-ins that find their way into Sao over the course of an evening understandably vexes the gift shop next door, whose manager emerged to politely redirect us from blocking her storefront on this lively stretch of Passyunk Avenue.
The exterior of Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.Owner Rachel Lorn speaks with diners at Sao.
Once inside, however, the virtues of Sao’s intimate setting are clear, as diners lean into their crudos and cocktails at candlelit banquette tables along a whitewashed brick wall hung with mirrors and stained-glass panes. Another 10 guests — in my opinion, the lucky ones — perch in the red neon glow of the bar counter, where the action unfolds on multiple stages.
To my right, bartender Steph Liebetreu manages to simultaneously rattle a cocktail shaker in her left hand and stir a crystal decanter of martinis with her right, all while dancing in perfect syncopation to Sao’s soulful soundtrack mix of vintage R&B, Cambodian rap, and Frank Sinatra. To my left, shucker Davina Soondrum (also a talented pastry chef) festoons our icy oyster plateau clockwise from “lemon wedge o’clock” with plump Japanese Kumamotos, tiny-briny BeauSoleils from Canada, and Jersey’s finest, Sweet Amalias. Each one is oceanic perfection on their own, but they become electric when splashed with that Cambodian mignonette, or a spicy-tart jolt of Lao sauce sparked with lime and crushed cilantro stems. Amid Philly’s current boom in new oyster bars, those vivid sauces are part of what make Sao unique.
Chef Phila Lorn places a crudo at the pass at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.The dry-aged hamachi crudo at Sao.
Front and center, meanwhile, there’s chef Phila himself butchering a whole dry-aged hamachi mid-service to serve raw with fish sauce, coconut milk, and vinegared onions — a salute to the beloved nearby soup hall, Pho 75. He’s slicing thick pink tiles of bluefin tuna and stacking them like a deck of sashimi cards doused with soy sauce and lime beneath fistfuls of roasted green chilies and crushed marcona almonds.
As I waver on which crudo to order next (perhaps the spot prawns with brown butter and prawn-head oil?), he pours sweet and spicy orange chili jam over an ivory mound of raw scallops, apples, and pepita seeds and I have my answer: “That’s Phila’s favorite,” confides Rachel as she patrols the narrow dining room, ever-playing Tetris with seats to accommodate more walk-ins.
The Dayboat Scallop Crudo at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
That scallop-and-chili jam combo will be familiar to anyone who’s dined at Mawn, where Lorn workshopped many of these dishes for months. There are other overlaps here of Mawn’s greatest hits, like the crispy soft-shell shrimp in fish sauce caramel, or the awesome 20-ounce rib eye piled high with “Cambodian chimichurri,” boosted with lime juice and fermented prahok fish paste.
One standard you must order, though, is the intricate papaya salad, a colorful crunch-fest of long beans, peanuts, candied shrimp, and shredded green papaya lashed with blasts of sour tamarind, chile, and shrimp paste. It dials your taste buds up to a certain base level of funk and sour heat before moving the conversation to more contemporary flights of fusion fancy.
The Honey Butter Hoe Cake at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
Sao’s menu is more an extension of Mawn’s repertoire, rather than something entirely new, with a greater emphasis on raw seafood and an even more playful approach to cooked dishes rooted in tributes to favorite restaurants. Perhaps the most memorable dish at Sao, in fact, is a direct corn cake homage to Boston’s Neptune Oyster bar, whose signature johnnycake is remade here as a warm, honey butter-soaked hoe cake enriched with dashi then topped with cool smoked trout salad and beads of roe, which Phila tends to piles onto Sao’s plates by the spoonful. The lacy crunch of that warm sweet cake against the savory pop of roe, amped by the saline burst of a supplemental scoop of caviar, was one of my favorite bites of the year.
Sao’s menu is full of Easter eggs for the keen-eyed diner, including an irresistible tuna carpaccio topped with fried shallots, cured chile rings, and a sizzling finish of sesame oil that’s an ode to the “bronzizzle” roll at Zama, where Phila spent some formative years. There’s also a nod to the beloved late-night cutlet from Palizzi Social Club that’s transformed with Southeast Asian pickled cucumbers, Thai basil, and fish sauce caramel. The chef, who grew up just a few blocks from East Passyunk, also pays tribute to South Philly’s Italian “crab gravy” tradition with his own take, a blend of red and green coconut milk curries steeped with crab shells that comes topped with crisply fried scallops.
The Mawn Cutlet at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
A frequent chicken skewer special, whose meat is marinated in kreung spice paste, is grilled over binchotan coals as Phila’s nod to the weekend Khmer barbecues at the Southeast Asian Market. The mee caton is a straightforward stir-fry of velvety soft beef, Chinese broccoli, and fat rice noodles kissed with sesame oil that’s a throwback to one of the best home dishes made by his mother, Sim Khim. (I also loved the seafood rendition.)
Nostalgia for family and neighborhood pervades every corner of Sao, from the vintage bathroom door with textured glass and wavy panes that replicates the vestibules of many South Philly rowhouses (including the Lorns’ house), family pictures, and an antique cash register from the Atlantic City Boardwalk hotel once owned by Rachel’s grandparents.
Even the restaurant’s name channels a sense of place: It’s a phonetic representation of how Phila’s mother, a Cambodian refugee, pronounces the “South” in South Philly. Her son, famously, is also named for the family’s adopted city, although Khim and everyone else pronounce it “Pee-la.” The sign hanging out front — Sao Phila — has multiple meanings.
An old school cash register from Rachel Lorn’s family at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
With the added element of a liquor license at Sao, the Lorns’ business partner and close family friend, Jesse Levinson, designed an opening drink list that follows on theme. The chicory-scented, coconut-creamed Vietnamese coffee martini, Wing Phat Plaza, is named for the bustling Asian strip mall on Washington Avenue nearby. The Angkor Baby borrows a michelada from South Philly’s lively Mexican scene, then adds the Asian touches of ground Kampot peppercorns and a rice vinegar tang.
The Wing Phat Plaza and Angkor Baby cocktails at Sao.
Levinson says the drink menu will keep evolving as Liebetreu and her fellow bartender, Lillian Chang, begin to take creative control, supplementing the small but trendy selection of natural wines. I also expect Sao’s sake selection to take a big leap once general manager Kelly Brophy, formerly the lead omakase server at Royal Sushi, begins to share her expertise.
Indeed, so much is still evolving here, including the tasty but limited dessert selection of crème brûlée and whoopie pies from Soondrum (when she’s not shucking shellfish), that I’m certain we’ve only seen the beginning of what Sao can truly become.
“We’re locked and loaded for more because we have room to grow,” says Phila, referring mostly to desserts. If only they also had room to grow more seats! Philadelphia’s diners, no doubt, would quickly snap those up, too.
Diners fill the space at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
Reservations are highly suggested, but a handful of walk-in seats are available.
Not wheelchair-accessible. There is a step up into the restaurant, as well as at the bathroom.
About 90% of the menu is naturally gluten-free, while certain dishes that typically use the fryer (like the scallops in crab gravy) can be modified to avoid cross contamination.
Menu highlights: Crudos (aged hamachi; scallops with chili jam); bluefin tuna carpaccio; Cambodian papaya salad; honey butter hoe cake; Mawn cutlet; scallops in crab gravy; mee caton; grilled chicken skewers; crème brûlée.
Drinks: Cocktails are well-made with a South Philly twist (like the barrel-aged mellow Jabroni Negroni) and on-theme Asian accents, such as Cambodian Kampot peppercorns for the Angkor Baby riff on a michelada, or the chicory-flavored Viet coffee martini named after Washington Avenue’s Wing Phat Plaza.
A neon oyster sign at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
What makes a good falafel? Ask Marwan Alazzazy of Cilantro Mediterranean Restaurant and he’ll tell you it’s all about the perfectly browned, crispy exterior that easily tears in half to reveal a tender, herb-flecked interior.
“Besides the recipe? It’s the hand who makes it,” Alazzazy said. “We have this saying in Egypt about any type of food that’s good, that the person making it did it with his soul — when he’s enjoying making it, it tastes different.”
As an Egyptian, Alazzazy and his family know a thing or two about falafel; the legume-based balls originate from their motherland. But there are various techniques used throughout the Middle East to create this popular dish. In Palestine, it’s common to add veggies like onions and peppers to the chickpea batter, according to Bishara Kuttab of Bishos in Fox Chase. In Lebanon and Egypt, you’ll often find falafel that combines fava beans and chickpeas — sometimes with a little bit of baking soda, as Patricia Massoud does at Li Beirut in Collingswood.
No matter how it’s made, falafel is about the herbs, spices, and legumes that come together to make the palm-sized rounds that are perfect on platters, in a sandwich, or as a snack by themselves.
I ate falafel at over 20 restaurants to find some ofthe best Middle Eastern cuisinein Philly for The Inquirer’s 76. Turns out, the legume balls were a key factor in determining what restaurants made the cut: I found my favorites served exceptional falafel.
While each place offers slightly different variations, what set them apart was the harmony of texture and flavor — an exterior firm enough to tap on and an herby-nutty inner mush that’s super-satisfying to sink your teeth into.
Al-Baik Shawarma
Dining at Sohaib Al-Haj’s Northeast Philly family restaurant, featured on The 76, means devouring a generous spread of the best Palestinian dishes in Philadelphia — especially the falafel. It’s made with chickpeas that have been soaked in water for 20 hours and mixed with spices (think cumin, coriander, salt), parsley, onions, jalapeños, and green peppers. Blended together, the mixture is rounded with a scooper then deep-fried. The crispy falafel reaches the table with a bronze exterior, and the slightly spicy, earthy light green interior dances on your tongue. Get it as an appetizer, in a sandwich, or a platter with hummus, rice, and salad.
Over in Collingswood, Li Beirut chef-owner Patricia Massoud soaks her chickpeas for 12 to 18 hours — the minimum time to let the legumes hydrate and soften for grinding. She makes falafel according to her Lebanese father’s recipe. The cooked chickpeas get tossed in a food processor with onion, garlic, warming spices, fresh parsley, and cilantro. The key to her fluffy falafels, she said, is baking soda — it’s also how she keeps them gluten-free. Deep fried after resting in the fridge for 30 to 40 minutes, the cylinder-shaped falafel are served as an entree or a hot mezza for sharing.
You can smoke hookah while munching on crispy falafels in this Kensington-area restaurant. Alamodak offers a Jordanian rendition of the dish in their traditional dining room as well as their upstairs hookah lounge. Owner Francisco Ayoub’s falafels are made fresh daily using a spice mix imported from Jordan, and fried to order for a crispy outside and soft, flavorful inside that packs herby nuttiness with each bite. Order them as an appetizer, in a sandwich, or in a platter with rice and salad. Either way, there will be tahini sauce for dipping.
Just off South Street, chef Dalia Soliman and her husband, Mohamed Alazzazy, serve solid falafel along with other Egyptian classics that have made the restaurant a neighborhood favorite. The falafel are made with a mix of chickpeas and fava beans and seasoned with spices imported from Egypt. The family hand-rolls, freezes, and then fries them — a method that ensures the balls don’t crumble while cooking. Get five as an appetizer or opt for the platter, which includes a choice of rice or french fries, salad, hummus, and pita bread.
Head to Fox Chase for Palestinian falafels — warm, earthy chickpea fluff in a crisp, savory cast. Owner Bishara Kuttab said making falafels is all about the technique, ensuring the balled-up mix of chickpeas, parsley, onions, garlic, and spices are fried at the right temperature. Made to order, there are five ways to order falafel: in a hoagie, on a rice bowl, with loaded fries, in a salad bowl, or wrapped in their house-made saj bread. I recommend the last option, pairing the falafel’s nutty, earthy undertones with the soft, chewy bread.
Vartuhi Bederian, one of the matriarchs of this Northern Liberties BYOB, is Armenian but serves crisp-tender falafels with the Syrian influences she grew up with. Chickpeas are soaked for at least 24 hours before being mixed with fava beans, cilantro, sesame seeds, and spices in a food processor. The falafels are pan-fried in a wok-style vessel and offered on the fattoush salad, as a mezze dish, and on a platter. Order takeout and get it in an exclusive sandwich with house-made tahini sauce that “just elevates the falafel itself,” said owner Ara Ishkhanian — I agree.
In Bensalem, Flame Kabob’s falafels begin with chickpeas soaked for 15 hours. The next day they are ground with onions and spices. Owner Esmatullah Amiri adds chickpea flour to his falafel, which is how the dish is made in his native Afghanistan — it helps prevent crumbling, he said. The mix is rolled into balls using molds, frozen, and then fried. Falafel comes in a wrap, as an appetizer with hummus, and over rice.
“Heaven … I’m in heaven … and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.”
Harry Barlo, in a crisply tailored black suit, bronze tie, and matching pocket square, bopped jauntily to the Fred Astaire standard, his quartet swinging effortlessly behind him, the crowd nodding and foot-tapping.
High Note Caffe owner Franco Borda works the room during the Nov. 8 show.
At that moment — for a moment, anyway — Franco Borda’s right knee quit acting up. Beaming from the back of his revived High Note Caffe in South Philadelphia, Borda took it all in: 64 people dressed up for a Saturday night out, sitting in his restaurant, eating his eggplant rollatini and his son Anthony’s pizza, enjoying live music.
“You see this?” he said in amazement.
Borda, 64, wants to create the sort of supper club that barely exists anymore — intimate, aimed at a boomer audience, with drinks and an informal menu.
Harry Barlo hits a note at High Note Caffe.
It’s an all-new act for the High Note — an update on Borda’s previous restaurants at 13th and Tasker over the last 35 years.
Borda, who grew up three blocks away, has been singing opera all his life. In the days he ran Francoluigi’s with his former business partner, he would pop out from the stove to sing an aria, and he’d bring in other amateur singers. Sometimes, Phil Mancuso, who owned Mancuso’s cheese shop, and Frank Munafo, a nearby butcher, would show up, and they’d bill themselves as the Butcher, the Baker & the Cheesemaker.
Over the years, however, Borda found that younger diners were less interested in opera overtaking their meals. He switched gears at High Note Caffe. Jazz stayed, but opera became occasional.
In March 2020, when the pandemic shut down the High Note and other restaurants at the outset of the pandemic, Borda stepped back altogether. He hired an engineer and an architect, removed a wall, expanded the room, slid the kitchen back, and secured assembly and entertainment licenses.
Franco Borda embraces his wife, Teresa, to sing to her after the Harry Barlo show.
His wife, Teresa, said she thought he was crazy. “You need knee surgery,” she reminded him.
Borda countered: “I got 10 more years in the kitchen, you know, and I love it.”
In 2022, Borda’s son Anthony — who started making pizzas with his pop while in kindergarten — opened Borda’s Italian Eats, a walk-up shop on the Tasker Street side of the property (now closed). That was a temporary setup until the rest of the place could be finished.
Anthony Borda, son of High Note Caffe owner Franco Borda, with a pepperoni pizza and a white “Pavarotti” pizza (sliced tomato, broccoli rabe, and sharp provolone).
“I really wanted to focus on the entertainment,” Franco Borda said. “We want to give people a place in South Philly where you can sit down and enjoy some jazz and eat a little bit and not get banged over.”
Ticket prices vary but are reasonable. It’s $25 for the Dec. 12 show by the Jack Saint Clair Quartet. All told, you’re looking at a date night for just over $100, with a pizza ($20 or $25), a plate of mussels red ($18.95), $15 cocktails (White Russians! Sloe Gin Fizzes!), and a $7 tiramisu you should not miss.
“I’m not doing this as a business,” Borda said.
Franco Borda (right) and his son, Anthony, outside High Note Caffe.
That much is clear. For now, he is booking only about two shows a month, with tickets sold online and no walk-ins. After the Jack Saint Clair show, vibraphonist Tony Micelli will perform on Dec. 13. On Jan. 30, George Martorano — who served 32 years in federal prison for a drug conviction before his release in 2015 — will do a one-man show to talk about his time in custody.
Borda said the idea is to not run a conventional restaurant again, rather to provide a venue to musicians who rarely get a platform.
Eventually, when Borda’s knee gets straightened out, he said he wants to get himself back into vocal shape, get up on stage, and do some opera.
For now, he said, “I want to find some tenors and sopranos who want to be exposed and come out and sing their [hearts out].”
People like Harry Barlo.
Owner Franco Borda decoarated his new High Note Caffe with music photos and album covers.
Barlo — born Harry Schmitt — spent 21 years on the Philadelphia police force before retiring in 1992. All the while, he sang in clubs. “I balanced show business and my other jobs because I had to eat,” he said.
Twenty years ago, in his early 50s, he chased his dream and moved to Las Vegas, where he sang in a doo-wop group in casino lounges before switching to the Great American Songbook under the nom de croon Golden Voice Harry.
“Las Vegas — that was the dream of a lifetime,” he said. ”Show business is a tough business. It only fed me for a while.” After returning to Philadelphia, he got into recording and, later, streaming, he said.
Barlo said he had gigs lined up before COVID-19 dried up live music. Now a casino compliance representative with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Commission, he said he thought his performing days were over. Then he heard from Benny Marcella, a friend of Borda’s.
Part of the audience at Harry Barlo’s performance at High Note Caffe on Nov. 8.
Barlo said he was initially unsure about playing at High Note. “Benny said, ‘Go down and look at the place.’ So I met Franco, we talked, and Franco said, ‘Why don’t you stand on the stage and see what you think.’ When I stood on that stage, he had me. That’s the perfect room for me. I like working in an intimate setting.” Marcella helped round up the musicians, and it was showtime.
“Are the stars out tonight? I don’t know if it’s cloudy or bright. I only have eyes for you, dear…”
Ken Moyer nailed his sax solo, backed by Bill Tesser on drums, Marty Mellinger on piano, and Steve Varner on bass. Barlo’s eyes swept the room. His kids were there, watching with their friends. “I first saw him perform when he sang to me for my 16th birthday,” said his stepdaughter Danielle DeAngelis. “And all these years later, it never gets old. He’s still amazing.” He dedicated “I’ve Gotta Be Me” to her.
Harry Barlo’s stepdaughter Danielle DeAngelis smiles as Barlo dedicates “I’ve Gotta Be Me” to her at the High Note Caffe.
Barlo, who is booked at the High Note for Valentine’s Day, said High Note reminded him of the rooms at the Sahara and the Stardust. “They were intimate lounges,” he said. “I’m an old-style guy — you get a lot of feedback from the audience when you’re close to them. A friend of mine who was there that night said, ‘Harry, you finally found your niche.’ He’s right. Franco’s got a great idea, and I hope it works.”
The Philadelphia area’s December restaurant forecast is on the light side, compared with previous months, but this crop of newcomers is an intriguing mixture: a Euro-inflected bistro with a Bing Bing/Cheu pedigree, a colorful pizza bar, a honky-tonk vintage shop, a Filipino riff on Outback Steakhouse, the makings of an Indian brewpub, and the eagerly awaited casual corner spot from Michelin-starred Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp .
Banshee (1600 South St., opening Dec. 11): Twin brothers Bryan and Kyle Donovan, partnered with Bing Bing/Cheu alums Shawn Darragh and Ben Puchowitz, are ready to unveil their sleek South Street West bistro offering casual cuisine influenced by Paris, London, and Basque wine bars. Menu sampling: Barnstable oysters (kiwi mignonette); tarte flambee (smoked crème fraîche, maitake, caramelized onion); Berkshire pork collar (Tarbais beans, Savoy cabbage, bearnaise); and a Butterscotch Krimpet filled with Boysenberry jam.
Cerveau (990 Spring Garden St.; now open): Finally operating full bore with its liquor license, this Mediterranean-leaning newcomer from Pizza Brain cofounder Joe Hunter rocks colorful — almost surreal — surroundings with murals and columns resembling lava lamps. The menu mixes pizzas, pastas, small plates, and the mini-sandwiches known as tramezzini, with attention to vegetarian and vegan options. A full bar, including zero-proof cocktails, supports a plan to evolve into an all-day café-style hangout. Do not miss the crab rangoon pizza, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Crab rangoon pizza at Cerveau, 990 Spring Garden St.
LeoFigs (2201 Frankford Ave.; opens “later in December”): Shannon Leocata Figueras and Justice Figueras’ urban winery, cocktail bar, and restaurant in Fishtown is built around the idea of “unpretentious deliciousness” with a warm living room setting. In addition to house-made wines and ciders and cocktails, menu leans toward comfort-driven small plates. (The couple was not above creating a cheeky ruse on the neighborhood recently.)
Chef Chance Anies at Manong.
Manong(1833 Fairmount Ave.; opens Dec. 5): Chef Chance Anies follows up his South Philadelphia hit Tabachoy with an interpretation of Outback Steakhouse — “that is,” writes Kiki Aranita, “if the chain restaurant existed in a Filipino alternate universe.”
Buffalo wings at Pine Street Grill, 2227 Pine St.
Pine Street Grill (2227 Pine St.; “this month”): Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp’s neighborhood spot in the former Cotoletta space in Fitler Square — a more casual counterpoint to Her Place Supper Club and My Loup — will serve “timeless American food made with care,” such as matzo ball soup, spinach-artichoke dip, Greek salad, French dip, and rotisserie chicken, and a drinks program of classic cocktails, beer on tap (including birch!), and wines “with no pretense” at a variety of price points.
Secondhand Ranch(1148 Frankford Ave.; soft opening Dec. 6 with a grand opening in January): Here’s what happens when a vintage shop and a honky-tonk bar have a baby in a former bank building at Frankford and Girard in Fishtown. This mash-up hosts independent vendors selling secondhand finds, while the bar slings beer, cocktails, and simple saloon fare like sausages and hot dogs, all while rocking a Western-outlaw vibe. It’s meant as much for hanging out as for thrifting.
Side Eye (623 S. Sixth St.; “later this month”): Queen Village gets a neighborhood bar serving “French-ish” food, classic cocktails, European-leaning wines, and beer at approachable prices in the former Bistrot La Minette. Owner Hank Allingham leads a team including chef Finn Connors (formerly of Sally and Wilder) and beverage director Ryan Foster (Messina Social Club). The menu has house-made breads, fresh pasta, frites, French onion soup, mussels, and a late-night raw bar.
Dining room at Vibe Haus, which opened Dec. 1, 2025, at 402 Swedesford Rd. in Berwyn.
Vibe Haus Indian Plates & Taps (402 Swedesford Rd., Berwyn; opened Dec. 1): Karthic Venkatachalam and Gopal Dhandpani of the well-regarded Nalal Indian Cuisine in Downingtown and Adyar Cafe in Exton have taken over the long-shuttered Lotus Inn with what they intend as an Indian brewpub for the western suburbs. Though the on-site brewery is at least several months away, they’re now teasing out a pub menu of Indian-meets-American favorites, such as Madras nachos (papdi chips layered with spiced queso, black beans, masala corn, and cilantro crema), tandoori mushroom flatbread, and butter chicken bao buns.
