The Broad Street Diner’s days may finally be coming to an end.
Although demolition permits were issued for the building at 1135-43 S. Broad St. in 2022, it has remained in business.
But on Tuesday, plans for a six-story Hyatt Studios hotel were posted on the Philadelphia Planning Commission’s website, indicating that the project is moving forward.
It will be subject to the advisory only Civic Design Review process on March 3.
The proposal includes 105 hotel rooms and 42 underground parking spaces. Hyatt Studios is a recently launched extended-stay brand of the larger hotel chain.
The plans are credited to Philadelphia-based architect Plato Studio,led by Plato A. Marinakos Jr. The document submitted to the planning commission was rife with errors, including mislabeled street names and neighboring developments.
The architect’s plan highlights the project’s proximity to SEPTA’s Broad Street subway line.
“The hotel will benefit from direct subway line access connecting guests to major sightseeing destinations, entertainment venues on South Broad Street near [Pattison] Avenue and Center City,” the plans say.
The Hyatt Studios hotel will require approvals to move forward from the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
A sign outside the Broad Street Diner in South Philadelphia in 2022.
Maria Petrogiannis, head of development for MR Realty Associates, which owns the property, was not immediately available for an interview.
Her father, Michael Petrogiannis, is a longtime owner of beloved eateries in the region, including the Mayfair, Melrose, and Country Club diners.
The Broad Street Diner’s demolition permits were issued at the same time as the Melrose Diner at 1501 Snyder Ave. on the West Passyunk Avenue corridor. But the Melrose was demolished in 2023, after 67 years in business at that location.
Today, its site sits vacant, hemmed in by a chain-link fence, and is a frequent subject of nuisance complaints from neighbors.
A planned apartment building for that site, which MR Realty said would include a new version of the Melrose Diner, has not materialized.
In a 2025 interview, Maria Petrogiannis said the hope was that the apartment building and replacement diner on West Passyunk would be completed by the time the hotel project came to fruition, giving workers a site to move to when the South Broad Street eatery was razed.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Pattison Avenue.
After months of speculation, it finally became official on Tuesday that the Ivory Coast national team will call the Union’s facilities home during the World Cup.
The news wasn’t too surprising. Côte D’Ivoire, as the nation is internationally known in French, will play two of its Group E games in Philadelphia: its opener on June 14 against Ecuador and its finale on June 25 against Curaçao. In between, Les Éléphants will play Germany on June 20 in Toronto.
The winner of Group E also could return to Philadelphia for the round of 16 game on July 4 if it wins a round of 32 contest on June 29 in Foxborough, Mass.
“We welcome Les Éléphants to Philadelphia Union’s stadium as their home away from home, and promise to show them the best of what we have to offer during their time here this summer,” Meg Kane, host city executive of Philadelphia’s World Cup organizing committee, said in a statement.
The team should get an especially warm welcome from the West African immigrant community in West and Southwest Philadelphia. Ivory Coast is one of the many countries in the melting pot, and the Ivory Coast team in the former Philadelphia Unity Cup soccer tournament was a perennial title contender.
From the Union’s side of things, their WSFS Bank Sportsplex was expanded last year for moments like this. English club Chelsea got a taste last year when it used Chester as a base camp during the Club World Cup, and the Ivory Coast will be the first visiting squad to take full advantage.
“Hosting Côte d’Ivoire on our campus is a tremendous honor for the Philadelphia Union and our entire region,” Union president Tim McDermott said. “We’ve built one of the most unique sports campuses in North America specifically to support and develop world-class soccer, and there’s no better validation of that vision than welcoming recent African champions to train here.”
McDermott added that “from Chester to Wilmington to Philadelphia, this is an incredible opportunity to showcase the passion, hospitality, and excellence of our facilities and our soccer community on the global stage.”
Franck Kessié (right) is one of Ivory Coast’s veteran stars.
His mention of Wilmington was intentional, even though a key detail was missing.
FIFA traditionally publishes the base hotels for teams at World Cups, even though it’s a seemingly obvious security risk. For this World Cup, when the governing body assembled the group of potential sites for base camps across the continent, each training venue was paired with a hotel nearby.
The Union’s facilities were paired with the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, an easy bus ride down I-95 from Chester. But the hotel was not named in the announcement.
Philadelphia’s organizing committee and the Delaware Tourism Office did say on social media that Wilmington “will host Côte D’Ivoire,” and some national teams have announced the hotels at which they’ll stay.
The Union’s facility is the only base camp that FIFA offered in the Philadelphia area. The next-closest is in Atlantic City, centered on Stockton University, and no one has claimed it yet. The closest base camp that has been publicly announced is Brazil’s in Morristown, N.J., with the Seleçao playing in East Rutherford and Philadelphia.
Ivory Coast will arrive here after an 8-0-2 run through African World Cup qualifying, with 25 goals scored and zero conceded. The team also has won three Africa Cups of Nations, most recently in 2023, and reached the quarterfinals this year. But it has never gotten past the group stage at a World Cup.
Star players include midfielders Franck Kessié (Al-Ahli, Saudi Arabia) and Ibrahim Sangaré (Nottingham Forest, England) and forward Amad Diallo (Manchester United, England). Two others have ties to the U.S.: forward Wilfried Zaha plays for Charlotte FC in MLS, and forward Yan Diomande went to school at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Diomande also played for AS Frenzi, a team near Orlando in the United Premier Soccer League — an amateur and semipro circuit that’s effectively the fourth tier of the American game. He won the best player award in the 2023 National Finals when he helped his team win the title, and scouts started watching him there.
In January of last year, Diomande signed with Spain’s Leganés, which was in La Liga at the time. Leganés was relegated at the end of the season, but Diomande did enough to earn a $23 million move to Germany’s RB Leipzig.
He has taken off like a rocket since then, with eight goals and five assists in 21 games. Leipzig has reportedly put a $118 million price tag on him, with big-time suitors including England’s Liverpool and Arsenal and Germany’s Bayern Munich.
If Diomande plays well at the World Cup, the spotlight will grow even bigger, and Philadelphia will have had a front-row seat.
Following his Rising Stars MVP, VJ Edgecombe joined former NBA star Jeff Teague and co-hosts DJ Wells and Brandon Hendricks on the Club 520 Podcast. But if listeners didn’t know any better, they might have thought they accidentally tuned into an episode of Kylie Kelce’s podcast, as Edgecombe repeatedly made it clear that he was “not gonna lie.”
The Sixers guard candidly discussed his pre-draft workouts, the intensity of Sixers practices, his relationships with his teammates, and his “Welcome to the NBA” moment. Here’s everything you missed from Edgecombe’s appearance on the Club 520 Podcast …
“At the beginning of the year, I’m not going to lie, I thought I wasn’t going nowhere,” said Edgecombe, who averaged 15 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists at Baylor. “I thought I had to stay another year. And then conference [games] came around and I started hooping for real, for real.
“You know the people that be doing all the little rankings and stuff? You know, you pay attention to that. Freshman year, they got me in like honorable mentions. I’m not even in the top 10. I’m like, it’s quiet, bro. I’m like, I’m going to have to run it back. And then conference came around and I just started hooping.”
Once Edgecombe declared for the draft, he participated in the NBA combine and decided to conduct a private workout with only one team: the Sixers.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse (right) talks to Edgecombe during a December game against the Pacers. Edgecombe won MVP of the NBA Rising Stars game over All-Star Weekend.
“I only worked out for one team. I took my chances, I ain’t going to lie,” Edgecombe said. “And that was Philly. I only worked out in Philly. I went in there, I’m not gonna lie, [and] shot four air balls. I was nervous as [expletive].
“But then I was like if they draft me or not, it’s whatever at this point. I wasn’t even trying to trip about it. But, I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been so nervous, bro. Because you got the owners, you got everybody on the sideline just watching you.”
That risk ended up paying off. Edgecombe was drafted third overall by the Sixers and has been one of the league’s top rookies, averaging similar numbers to his lone season in Waco: 14.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists.
Edgecombe joined a team with veteran players like Maxey, Paul George, Joel Embiid, and Kelly Oubre Jr. When asked about the intensity of Sixers practices, Edgecombe responded: “I ain’t going to lie, [expletive] about to throw hands in there at practice.”
However, Edgecombe believes that those high-energy practices — along with his one-on-one battles with Maxey — have helped the team when it comes time to compete.
“I feel like that helps us a lot though,” Edgecombe added. “Me and [Maxey] play ones. That’s the first time, I’m going to be honest, the first time I’m like I’m really losing ones, for real. That [expletive] can hoop. I ain’t going to lie. I didn’t know he was that fast, bro. And he can shoot.”
Edgecombe said he’s continually impressed by Sixers center Joel Embiid (left).
‘They be dropping gems all the time’
When they’re not getting ready to “throw hands,” Edgecombe is learning from some of the vets on the team, including George, a nine-time NBA All-Star.
“They be dropping gems all the time, bro,” Edgecombe said. “Teaching me off-the-court stuff, on-the-court stuff. I ain’t going to lie, I been working with [George] too with ball-handling and all that, just trying to get in that bag, just trying to activate a different part of my game, bro. I mean, I’m able to just run by [guys] sometimes, but you know just trying to be able to break [them] down. … I feel like it will just make it a lot easier for me, if I’m able to get to my spot and be able to break down.”
And when it comes to Embiid, Edgecombe is still impressed by the former MVP’s presence on the court.
“He cool as [expletive],” Edgecombe said. “He just chill. Be in his own little world. I swear, I’ve never seen someone really that good. I ain’t going to lie. He good, bro. I sit there and just watch him. He just be going at people. I told him, ‘Bro, if I was like 7-foot, I probably would have been able to guard him.’ But, he being drawing fouls and all type of different stuff going on, bro.”
‘That’s my welcome to the NBA moment’
When Edgecombe first made the transition to the NBA, he immediately recognized the difference in pace from college. But his true “Welcome to the NBA” moment came on the defensive end.
“I had to guard Luka [Doncic], Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander], D-Book [Devin Booker], [Jalen] Brunson,” Edgecombe said. “I got to guard all of them. That’s my ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment. I’m not going to lie.”
When asked who was the toughest player to guard in the league, he responded: “I ain’t going to lie to you, it was Ja Morant. He had 40 [points].”
It would be Sheetz’s first outpost in Wawa’s home county.
A Sheetz and Wawa now sit across the street from each other in Limerick Township, Montgomery County.
If approved, the store would be constructed about five miles down the road from Wawa’s corporate headquarters, and across the county from the site of Wawa’s first store, in Folsom.
The Sheetz would be in the Village at Painters’ Crossing shopping center near the intersection of U.S. Routes 1 and 202, according to the application. Sheetz would take over a parcel in the northeast corner of the complex that is currently occupied by a vacant former bank and a closed Carrabba’s Italian restaurant.
Along with Sheetz’s usual offerings of made-to-order food, grab-and-go snacks, and drinks, the outpost would include indoor and outdoor seating, two mobile-order pickup windows, and six gas pumps, according to the application. It would not include a drive-through.
Customers crowd into the indoor dining area at the new Sheetz in Limerick Township that opened last week.
Nick Ruffner, Sheetz public affairs manager, declined to provide additional information about the proposal, saying in a statement that “it is still very early in the process.”
Zoning changes and other approvals would be required before anything is built, Chadds Ford Township solicitor Michael Maddren said. As of Tuesday, Sheetz had only submitted the sketch plan, which was discussed at a planning commission meeting earlier this month, Maddren said.
At the meeting, township officials did not express strong opinions about the sketch, Maddren said: “We need a little more detail.”
Craig Scott (left) of Wayne and Dave Swartz (right) of Collegeville had breakfast at last week’s grand opening of the first Sheetz in the Philadelphia suburbs.
If the Chadds Ford project moves forward, Sheetz could establish a foothold in three of Philly’s four collar counties: Along with its new Limerick, Montgomery County location, Sheetz also has expressed interest in building a store in Chester County.
In the fall, company officials submitted a sketch plan to Caln Township officials, proposing a location at the site of a shuttered Rite Aid on the 3800 block of Lincoln Highway in Downingtown, according to the township website.
After years of Sheetz opening stores in Western and central Pennsylvania, and Wawa expanding closer to Philly, Sheetz and Wawa’s footprints have increasingly overlapped in recent years.
A Wawa opened outside Harrisburg in 2024, marking the chain’s first central Pennsylvania location. It is down the street from a Sheetz.
Philadelphia-area commuters must prepare for a monthlong disruption on NJ Transit while an upgrade to a century-old bridge is completed.
All NJ Transit lines, except the Atlantic City Rail Line, are operating on modified schedules with fewer trains running, starting Tuesday through March 15, to allow for crews to transfer, or “cut over,” rail service from the 116-year-old Portal Bridge onto the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River.
Tuesday morning’s “Portal Cutover” schedule led to major disruptions on NJ Transit, the New York Times reported, with crowded trains and buses, many running behind schedule.
Commuting on NJ Transit
NJ Transit advises all commuters to work from home if possible and to check the weekday and weekend Portal Cutover schedules at njtransit.com/portalcutover. The agency warns against relying solely on third-party apps, such as Google Maps, because it has received reports of incorrect schedules being shown.
These modified schedules include some train consolidations or cancellations, and others with changed departure times or stopping patterns.
Commuters should travel before 7 a.m. or after 9 a.m. on weekday mornings to avoid major disruptions, or before 4 p.m. or after 7 p.m. on weekday evenings, according to NJ Transit.
Rail service is expected to return to normal on Sunday, March 15, pending a safety inspection.
“We understand that this work will disrupt the way our customers travel during the cutover period, which is why every element of our service plan was designed to keep people moving as safely and efficiently as possible,” said NJ Transit president and CEO Kris Kolluri. “While the disruption is temporary, the benefits, including a far more reliable and resilient commute along the Northeast Corridor, will last for generations.”
Why is NJ Transit upgrading the Portal Bridge?
The 116-year-old steel Portal Bridge has been a source of unreliability for decades as the aging infrastructure requires constant maintenance, an NJ Transit spokesperson said.
The new Portal North Bridge is also higher and will not have to open for marine traffic, providing more reliable service.
Amtrak commuters are also encouraged to check times and possible service disruptions, since the bridge is also used by Amtrak.
“The cutover of the Portal North Bridge represents more than just work to connect railroad infrastructure; it signifies a whole new level of reliability on the Northeast Corridor and New Jersey that has never previously existed,” said Amtrak president Roger Harris.
Philly’s burgeoning smashburger scene just got a little more crowded, thanks to a New York City-based Dominican restaurant with a huge social media following.
El Sazón R.D. — home of lower Manhattan’s viral queso frito-topped smashburger — has opened a location in Northern Liberties at 1030 N. Second St. It replaced smoothie shop Essex Squeeze, another NYC import.
Owned by cousins Edwin Collado and Ari Valerio and their friends Glenn Almanzar and Michael Tsang, El Sazón R.D. has created a takeout empire out of adding queso de freír — salty and melty white Dominican frying cheese —to a set of distinctly American comfort foods: smashburgers, crinkle-cut fries, and deli-style egg-and-cheese sandwiches.
Within two years, El Sazón opened three more locations: one in Tribeca, a second location in Tribeca and another in the East Village, the latter of which is a full-service bodega that also serves cheesesteaks alongside platters of chicharrón and pernil with all the fixings. The shop’s Philly location, its first outside New York, soft-opened two days before February’s record-setting snowstorm and deep freeze. Neither, Almanzar said, slowed business.
“We’ve been selling out of stuff. That’s how busy we’ve been,” he said.
Valerio, who grew up in the Dominican Republic’s countryside, is the chef of group, whose menu is inspired by Valerio’s relationship with his 78-year-old uncle Bijo. When he was 13, Valerio said, his uncle allowed him to set up a grill in front of his corner store and sell sandwiches.
“I was his first customer. I was the one who told him could make money doing this,” said Almanzar, who is from the Lower East Side and would visit the D.R. on family vacations.
El Sazón R.D co-owners Ari Valerio (left) and Glenn Almanzar (right) pose inside the restaurant’s first Philly location. The other three are in New York City.
To open El Sazón R.D, Valerio and Alamazar partnered with Collado and Tsang, who own SET, the thumping Asian-fusion bar known for bottomless margarita towers that started in NYC and expanded to Philly in 2020. As for uncle Bijo, everything on the menu had to get his stamp of approval.
“He’s very old-fashioned,” said Valerio. “We’d do these early-morning tasting sessions and he’d get on me about making sure I was measuring all my ingredients exactly right.”
Deep-fried cheese, please
El Sazón’s Philly menu only has four distinct food items on it, but it pulses with tastes of the Dominican Republic.
The restaurant’s smashburger starts with a Martin’s potato bun slathered with “chimi” sauce, a tangy mayo-ketchup mixture ubiquitous across Latin America. The condiment is a nod to the Chimi, a popular Dominican street food sandwich that involves spreading mayo-ketchup onto rolls of crisp pan de agua piled high with beef and a cabbage slaw.
El Sazón R.D’s Dominican smashburger comes with American cheese, a slice of queso frito, pickles, and “chimi” sauce, also known as mayo-ketchup.
“People always ask us why our mayo-ketchup tastes different than when they make at home,” bragged Almanzar. “There’s nothing special about it, but at the same time, you can’t recreate it by squirting mayo and ketchup packets together. It’s about balance.”
Valerio smashes a Pat La Frieda beef patty onto a flat-top grill with a meat press, spreading out the edges so they become lacy with a slight crunch. The key to perfecting the queso frito, he said, is to deep-fry the slices for exactly 45 seconds at 350°F. A moment longer and the cheese turns rubbery, not unlike a Wawa mozzarella stick that’s sat on the hot tray for too long.
The result is a $10 smashburger that is hefty and satisfying. The fried cheese adds dimension, its saltiness mixing with the acidity of the chimi sauce and pickle slices to dress up an otherwise plain burger patty. To Almanzar, that’s the point.
El Sazón R.D. co-owner Ari Valerio squirts mayo-ketchup onto a burger bun. Valerio, who grew up in the Dominican Republic, first started cooking at his uncle’s bodega.
“With a smashburger, it’s not about the burger itself but what you put on it — the fried cheese, the sauce,” he said.
El Sazon R.D’s loaded fries come topped with cubes of queso frito and fried salami.
El Sazón also sells loaded crinkle-cut fries layered with two hefty squirts of mayo-ketchup, cubes of queso de frier, and fried salami chunks that pop in your mouth like blistered cocktail sausages. It’s yet another play on Latin American street food, said Valerio: Vendors selling salchipapas — French fries topped with hot dogs — are a staple across Peru and the Caribbean, he said.
Also on the menu: Beef, chicken, vegetable, and salami and cheese empanadas made fresh daily by another one of Valerio’s cousins. The turnovers can be served as is or taco-style, wherein the empanada is sliced open and lined with pico de gallo, pickled onions, and drizzles of chipotle aioli.
Eventually, Almanzar hopes to extend El Sazón’s Philly hours until midnight or later on weekends to capitalize on bar crowds seeking something filling, cheap, and a little comforting.
“That’s our kind of food,” he said.
The empanada taco at El Sazón R.D.
El Sazón R.D., 1030 N. 2nd St. Ste. 201, elsazon-rd.com. Initial hours: noon to 9 p.m. daily.
Officially* one of Philadelphia’s region’s most impressive and enduring snow-cover streaks in the period of record ended peacefully at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
After 23 consecutive days of at least an inch on the ground at Philadelphia International Airport, the National Weather Service observer reported a mere “trace” at 7 a.m. Tuesday, meaning that whatever was left was hardly worth a ruler’s time.
“I can’t imagine too many people are sad about this,” said Mike Silva, meteorologist at the weather service office in Mount Holly.
The news might have evoked vast choruses of “good riddance” were it not for the fact that mass quantities of the snow and ice remain throughout the region, enough to contribute to the formation of dense fog late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, the weather service warned.
And regarding that asterisk, observations at PHL have been known to differ from actual conditions elsewhere, if not common sense.
In the meantime, heaps of aging, graying plowed snow are ubiquitous around the great Philadelphia city-state. As for melting “those big mountains, that’s going to take forever,” Silva said.
For 18 days after 9.3 inches of snow and sleet was measured at the airport, the official snowpack had been 3 inches or more, the longest such streak in 65 years.
The 23-day run of an inch or more, which began on Jan. 25 when the snow started, was the longest since 2003.
The endurance had to do with the melt-resistant icy sleet that fell atop several inches of snow and the Arctic freeze that followed. Temperatures remained significantly below normal for 17 consecutive days.
The great melt is picking up steam in the Philly region
However, the melting process is at long last accelerating. Bare ground is appearing around tree roots, and evidence of vegetative life has been poking through the snow cover.
Temperatures above freezing and the February sun have been making hay, but so has the return of invisible atmospheric moisture, even as precipitation remains far below normal.
When warm, moist air comes in contact with snow, it condenses and yields latent heat that accelerates melting. That is evident in the swelling ranks of rivulets on driveways and in the streets.
The combination of the moisture, the cold snow and ice pack, and generally calm winds will result in fog that could reduce visibilities to a quarter mile at times. The weather service issued a dense fog advisory, in effect from 10 p.m. Tuesday until 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Melting conditions should be excellent the rest of the workweek, with highs in the 40s and light rain possible Wednesday night, and likely on Friday.
Temperatures are due to remain above freezing into the weekend, but “then we’ll have to see what happens Sunday,” Silva said.
Another storm is due to develop in the Southeast, and expect another week of computer-model vacillation on whether it will produce rain, snow, or partly cloudy skies.
Ramadan marks a time of spiritual renewal for Muslims, a time to practice patience, gratitude, charity, and abstinence. This year, the observance began Feb. 17 and ends March 19, following the lunar calendar. Muslims observing Ramadan fast from sunrise to sunset, refraining from food and drink (even water). They often gather for suhoor, the predawn meal, and iftar, the meal at dusk that breaks the fast.
Suhoor, can range from hearty traditional stews to a quick bowl of cereal. At sunset, iftar is traditionally observed with dates, fresh juices, fried snacks, and other festive favorites. While meals can be enjoyed at home, many Muslims plan gatherings to start and end the fast together.
If you’re looking to dine out this Ramadan, here’s a list of Philadelphia-area restaurants open during early suhoor hours and offering iftar specials. While most of these establishments serve halal meat, check our guide to halal hot chicken and other eats for more options.
This list will be updated. Offering suhoor or iftar? Email us.
Lagman soup with chewy, housemade noodles is one of the standout Uzbek specialties at Plov House in Northeast Philadelphia.
24-hour restaurants with suhoor favorites
Plov House
This Northeast restaurant is open 24 hours a day in a city where all-night restaurants have become endangered, according to Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan. Expect halal Uzbeki homestyle dishes, including beef or lamb puff pastries, pilaf piled high with stewed meats and carrots, fried meaty turnovers, and crepes filled with cottage cheese and strawberry jam for your early morning feasting.
While traditional dishes are enjoyed during suhoor, classic American breakfast foods are a favorite, too. At Liberty Bell Diner, one of Philly’s few remaining 24-hour diners, you’ll find pancakes, omelets, and waffles around the clock.
8445 Frankford Ave., 215-331-4344, thelibertybelldiner.com, open 24 hours, seven days a week
Four Seasons Diner
This cozy 24-hour diner on Cottman Avenue offers cinnamon French toast, eggs any way, golden brown pancakes, and omelets. You could even end the predawn meal with a slice of strawberry cheesecake or chocolate fudge cake.
2811 Cottman Ave., 215-331-0797, fsdiner.com, open 24 hours, seven days a week
Makkah Market
In West Philly, this 24-hour market and kitchen offers a 25-seat dining area for sit-down suhoors and iftars. Since 1996, Makkah Market has been a staple in the neighborhood with Egyptian and Moroccan chefs cooking up meals to fill takeout boxes.
4249 Walnut St., 215-382-1821, makkahmarketpa.com, open 24 hours, seven days a week
At left is the haneeth and mandi duo, (lamb, chicken, and rice) beside the mixed grill, (lamb, chicken, beef, and fries) at Malooga, Chestnut Street in Old City, Philadelphia. A second location is in Narberth.
Where to find iftar menus in the Philly area
Yes Yasmine Kitchen
Every Thursdays during Ramadan, this pop-up offers take-home meals featuring djedj zitoune chicken (or cauliflower), black seed and black salt focaccia, Moroccan carrots, and an assortment of stuffed and chocolate-dunked dates. Weekly rotating meals are halal, with vegan options available for preorder on Tuesdays for pick-up on Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. Orders ($65 per person) can be placed online.
Old City’s Yemeni restaurant offers a $9.99 iftar special, which includes soup, two samosas, and three dates with any main dish. The special can be added to any dine-in order, from 5 p.m. until closing.
134 Chestnut St., 267-822-2327, maloogacatering.com, Monday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. (The kitchen closes 30 minutes before closing time.)
Wah Gi Wah
This Pakistani restaurant in West Philly is offering Ramadan iftar boxes with appetizers, entrées, and naan. Items include chicken biryani, kabobs, or tandoori, along with salad, rice, and chana. Packages range from $9.99 to $19.99, depending on your options. Catering packages are available for $9.99 to $14.99.
4447 Chestnut St., 215-921-5597, wahgiwah.com, Sunday to Thursday noon to 10 p.m., Friday to Saturday noon to 11 p.m.
Alamodak Restaurant & Hookah Bar
Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Alamodak Restaurant in North Philly hosts a Ramadan iftar buffet. The buffet items rotate, but customers can expect chicken mandi, maqluba, appetizers, soup, and sweets. There are also vegan and vegetarian options. Adults pay $26.99 on Friday and Sunday, and $30.99 on Saturday. Kids under 10 years pay $10. On Feb. 28, there will be a Ramadan tent set up with music and seating from 10 p.m. to midnight.
Pick any of the seminal moments from Black history over the last six decades — from the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 to Barack Obama’s first speech as president-elect 40 years later — and the chances are that the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. was there, front and center.
Jackson had spoken to King only moments before the civil rights leader was fatally shot while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Even though he was only 26 years old, Jackson went on to position himself to take up the mantle of leading the civil rights movement.
Years later, Jackson explained to an interviewer, “What I was clear on was that we could not let one bullet kill the whole movement.” He used the analogy of an athletic event during which the best player gets hurt. The answer, he said, isn’t to forfeit the game: “You can’t run away. You’ve got to keep fighting.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (second from right) stands with Hosea Williams (left), Jesse Jackson (second from left), and Ralph Abernathy (right) on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated while standing in approximately the same spot.
And that’s what he did for the rest of his life, advocating tirelessly for an end to racial injustice as well as for economic opportunities for poor people of all racial backgrounds through his iconic Rainbow coalition and during his two historic runs for the presidency.
Back when most Americans couldn’t conceive of a Black man becoming president of the United States, he could and tried to get the rest of us to believe in it, too. Jackson launched his first bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and again in 1988.
Jackson rarely gets the credit, but his run for the White House helped lay the groundwork for the election of Obama, who fulfilled Jackson’s vision.
And, yes, when Obama gave his victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park on election night 2008, Jackson was there, too. While Obama spoke, Jackson could be seen holding a miniature American flag with tears streaming down his cheeks.
“I wish for a moment that Dr. King or Medgar Evers” — the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Mississippi in 1963 — “could’ve just been there for 30 seconds to see the fruits of their labor,” Jackson later told the Associated Press about his emotions that night. “I became overwhelmed. It was the joy and the journey.”
Jackson’s death on Tuesday at the age of 84 came after years of illnesses, including a rare neurological disorder. Even in his later years, however, he stayed in the game — to continue his football metaphor — making an appearance onstage to thunderous applause during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024.
Inquirer columnist Jenice Armstrong interviews Jesse Jackson during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 2018.
News he had died hit me as hard as if I’d lost a dear relative. I didn’t know Jackson personally, but had the privilege of interviewing him multiple times during my career.
In fact, the first time I met him was asa student journalist on the campus of Howard University. The last time I’d actually gotten a chance to interview him was in 2018 during the 50th anniversary commemoration of King’s assassination in Memphis outside what had been the Lorraine Motel, which is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum. I wish I’d kept the recording of what he said.
As I processed the news of his death, I made a point of posting on Abby Phillip’s Instagram page a brief note ofthanks for her work chronicling Jackson’s life and legacy in her book, A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power. Phillip told me last year that she knew she was working against time and Jackson’s frail health to finish the project before his death.
Her goal, she said, “was to make sure that this chapter didn’t get lost to history.”
I was a kid in the 1970s during the Black Power era who repeated his chants, “I am somebody!”
Back then, it was affirming to see Jackson on TV with his then-signature Afro, or later delivering electrifying speeches during his groundbreaking runs for the presidency. We used to chant, “Run Jesse Run!”
One of the first articles I wrote for my student newspaper was about Jackson’s Operation PUSH, or People United to Save Humanity.
Jacksonspent his adult life at the forefront of the pursuit of equality for African Americans, and for that, we should always be grateful.
To me, losing this great leader in February during Black History Month — at a time when our people’s contributions to the nation’s history are being threatened with erasure — only magnifies the sense of loss. It should also remind those of us who care about civil and human rights that it’s our turn to take up the struggle — and keep fighting.
New Jersey prosecutors are dropping racketeering charges against Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III, ending a high-profile case that law enforcement officials had framed as a reckoning on the state’s culture of corruption.
Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill, will not appeal a January appellate court ruling that upheld a judge’s decision to dismiss charges against Norcross and five codefendants, the attorney general’s office said Tuesday.
Davenport could have asked the state Supreme Court to review the Appellate Division’s decision, but prosecutors concluded that their resources “would be best spent on other matters,” Sharon Lauchaire, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, said in a statement.
A three-judge panel said in a Jan. 30 decision that several of the racketeering conspiracy and extortion charges were time-barred under the statute of limitations. Other counts failed to state a crime, were untimely, or both, the panel said.
Norcross, 69, is a former longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, founder of insurance brokerage Conner Strong & Buckelew, and chair of Cooper University Health Care. He was accused of using threats of economic and reputational harm — and his purported control of Camden’s government — to obtain valuable property on Camden’s waterfront from a developer and a nonprofit.
His spokesperson on Tuesday portrayed the case against Norcross — announced in June 2024 by then-Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin — as a politicized abuse of the law similar to the Trump Justice Department’s targeting of perceived enemies.
“We always knew that Matt Platkin brought this case for reasons other than its legal merits — and now multiple judges and Platkin’s successor as AG agree the allegations simply weren’t true,” Norcross spokesperson Dan Fee said in a statement.
“The question now is whether Platkin’s supporters who cheered him on will take a serious look at what he did and whether other authorities will do the same,” he said. “We will certainly be making the case that he and anyone else who used lawfare against George should be held to account, no differently than Pam Bondi and her DOJ should.”
Platkin, who was appointed to the post by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, has denied pursuing the case for political reasons. He noted on Tuesday that the case “was presented to a grand jury by career prosecutors over several months.”
“Out of respect for the men and women who do brave work holding corruption to account, I won’t comment further — other than to say I remain proud to have supported their efforts at a time when trust in government is at an all-time low and I will never apologize for believing that everyone should be held to the same standards, no matter how powerful they may be,” Platkin said in a statement.
Notwithstanding the decision to drop charges, Lauchaire said the attorney general’s office “remains committed to prioritizing public corruption prosecutions in this time of deepening mistrust in government.”
“Wrongdoing by public officials undermines faith in our institutions, and the public rightfully demands and deserves that officials perform their duties with integrity and in accordance with the law,” she said. “We will never shy away from holding public officials accountable when they betray the public’s trust and behave unlawfully.”
The prosecution faced an earlier setback last February, when a Superior Court judge found that the charges were not timely and said that even if the allegations in the indictment were proven true, they amounted to hard bargaining in real estate deals and did not cross the line into unlawful threats.
Prosecutors appealed that ruling, arguing that the judge should review evidence presented to the grand jury before deciding whether the indictment was valid.
The appeals court affirmed the trial judge’s order, though the panel focused on the statute of limitations violations and largely sidestepped the question of whether the threats underpinning the indictment met the legal requirements for alleging conspiracy to commit extortion.
In addition to Norcross, prosecutors are dropping charges against his brother Philip Norcross, CEO of the law firm Parker McCay; attorney William Tambussi; former Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd; Sidney R. Brown, CEO of logistics firm NFI; and John J. O’Donnell, an executive at residential developer the Michaels Organization.
“We are pleased and gratified that this misguided, baseless prosecution has been finally laid to rest,” said Kevin H. Marino, a lawyer for Philip Norcross.
Henry Klingeman, an attorney for Redd, said his client “is relieved that this unjust and unnecessary ordeal is over.” The former mayor has “continued her unswerving commitment to bettering Camden,” Klingeman said.
Brown said he was “innocent of these baseless charges” and added that Tuesday’s decision showed “justice was carried out based on the facts.”
“Since its inception, this case was unfounded and attacked those of us who believed in the future of a thriving Camden,” the NFI CEO said in a statement.
Tambussi’s lawyers, Jeff Chiesa and Lee Vartan, said their client “engaged in the routine practice of law.” They said Platkin’s attempted prosecution “did damage to the profession” and “was rightly rejected by both courts.”
