The Openings (and Closings) You Need to Pay Attention to in 2024

Cheesesteaks for a cause. Josh Lawler and his team are raising money for Pennypack Farm during the Monday night cheesesteak series at Farm and Fisherman Tavern in Horsham. / Photograph courtesy of Farm and Fisherman Tavern

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome to the first Foobooz food news round-up of 2024. Understandably, with the holidays in the rearview, the VAST majority of the industry is still shaking out the kinks and recovering from one of the busiest stretches of the year. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some things worth putting on your radar this week — and a couple more that are worth looking forward to in the future. So let’s get some of the bad news out of the way first.

Two Hard Losses to Kick Off The New Year

Photograph courtesy of Lucky Well

The end of the year is always rough in the industry. Bars and restaurants that are struggling all hope that the holidays will bring a Hollywood-style miracle where the whole town pulls together, throws a Christmas pageant and raises enough money to keep the old corner diner out of the hands of the evil Big City bankers that want to foreclose and turn it into a Sunglass Hut or whatever.

Unfortunately, in the real world, things just don’t normally work out that way. And every year, we lose a few beloved spots that have fought the good fight but just couldn’t hold on past the last page in the calendar.

This time around, we lost two in a row that really bothered me. The first was a bar and restaurant that sometimes struggled to define itself in the market. The second, a bakery that I loved, but which (maybe) expanded too fast and (definitely) got hurt by the same economic issues that are plaguing small businesses all over the region.

Just a couple weeks ago (in a round-up that lamented the loss of yet another beloved local bar — the Lunar Inn), I told you all about chef Chad Rosenthal and the impending closure of his beers-and-barbecue spot, the Lucky Well, on Butler Avenue in Ambler. And guess what? That closure just happened.

On December 31st, Rosenthal went on Instagram and announced, “We are closed today for a staff party, then all the days after. This cool couldn’t last forever.” And that sucks, for sure. The Lucky Well was an interesting spot that knocked out some excellent barbecue, run by a guy who really cared about barbecue. It’d been a fixture in Ambler for years but, like Rosenthal said, nothing lasts forever. So 111 Butler Avenue is dark right now, but if you hang in until the end of this column, I’ll tell you all about who has already announced that they’re moving into the space so recently vacated.

And it’s not like Rosenthal is out of the game. Far from it. He’s doubling down on his Lucky Well Incubator project (as detailed here), and already making plans for a chain of smaller, sleeker, more efficient Lucky Wells scattered all across the land (as detailed here).

So sure. It sucks for Ambler right now. But who knows? This may turn out to be a net win for the region. But the other closure that has me bothered? That one was a painful loss for pretty much everyone.

True Blue Bakery — the best authentically Aussie-style bakery in Royersford, one of my personal favorite bakeries anywhere, and makers of the best meat pies within what I consider a reasonable meat-pie-radius of my front door — turned out the lights for good on December 31st.

I wrote about the place a couple different times — both in the magazine and right here in one of my news round-ups almost exactly two years ago today. It was a place for sausage rolls and strange desserts (like tiny cherry pies and lamington cakes covered in coconut) and I loved that it was basically a gigantic success story for two Australian transplants, Roy Cooper and Fiona McPhee, who started off slinging pies at pop-ups and farmers markets in West Chester, but sold out so often (read: every time they set up shop) that they had to find a permanent spot of their own.

More recently, they’d expanded from their Royersford storefront to a second, larger location in Malvern, but things took a turn in the last few months, and Cooper and McPhee shut down both locations and all their online ordering just a few days ago. The reason? Well, it might be better if True Blue’s owners told you about that themselves. Because they did NOT go quietly.

“The response in the last few days has been incredible, with so many messages of support for what we created, and disappointment and sadness that we’ll no longer be able to do so. Plus an overwhelming demand for our products. The unfortunate truth is, if we had received just half that level of support over the last six months we would have survived. It’s too late for us, but maybe it’s not too late for some of the other amazing small businesses out there. This isn’t to preach or accuse or point fingers at anyone with regards to our situation, but to help support those businesses. And if you personally have a business you love and don’t want to see disappear, it’s to help you help them stick around.

If you’re thinking it’s just a problem with our establishment, it’s not. We’re maybe the third or fourth bakery in the area that’s closed in the last few months. And beyond that, look around at the main street near you (as a lot of customers come from far and wide, this isn’t just a problem where we were located). Look at how suddenly every small store has a flag out the front. How they’re now open for hours or days that they weren’t before. How they’re creating extra discounts or cheaper or smaller products than they did before. How establishments that used to have lines every weekend now don’t.

And now onto how you can help…”

The explanation goes on. And it’s worth reading if you’re interested in what the view looks like from Main Street and the perspective of small business owners everywhere.

Ultimately, though, what matters here is that we’ve lost another great local bakery. True Blue wasn’t the first post-holiday closure, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. So the lesson here, if there is one, is to do like Cooper and McPhee suggest and support the places that you love in whatever way you can. Spend money for sure. But if you can’t swing that, write reviews, engage online, tell your friends, and try to lay off the online delivery services. You get to decide what your neighborhood looks like, after all. If you spend all your money at Starbucks, then more Starbucks is what you’ll get. But if more people in Malvern and Royersford and the surrounding suburbs had been willing to shell out for meat pies and sausage rolls, things might’ve gone different.

This one is on me, too. I could’ve done more. But like they say, it takes a village.

Now how about some good news?

Fried Chicken, Khinkali, Noodles and More

Felicia Wilson of Amina is set to open three more concepts this year. / Photograph by Mike Prince

There are a lot of ways to judge the health of a city’s restaurant scene and its local edible economy. Simple math says that if you’ve got more restaurants opening than closing, you’re in a boom. But I’ve always hated such simple metrics and, in the case of that one in particular, think it’s complete bullshit, too.

Losses suck. Absolutely. Openings are great. Obviously. But on a pure math level, if we lose one True Blue and half a Lucky Well but gain 12 Burger Kings, two Dunkin’s and a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, that’s not really a scene that anyone would feel good about.

What matters more to me is the balance of inspiration on the books. The voltage of excitement and the spark of genius that’s maybe quite a ways off yet, but getting closer every day. I believe that you judge a city’s food and beverage industry not by the volume of Instagram posts, but by the thrum of conversation when you’re sitting at one great restaurant and everyone around you is talking about what’s coming next.

So maybe I’m a sucker or a softie, but when I look ahead at some of the things we’ve got coming to Philly, I’m optimistic because when I go looking for one thing to be excited about, I find ten. I comb through my notes and my lists and the Beautiful Mind-style sprays of Post It Notes in my office, there’s a trend line there that’s aiming toward awesome.

I mean, who wouldn’t be excited about Kampar, the new restaurant from Ange Branca? I talked to her about the new place just before the holidays because, back in the day, her old place kinda defined a moment in time for me — a fixed point in Philly’s boom cycle that I can always look at and say, that’s when everyone should’ve known that something was happening here.

Or what about Felicia Wilson? A couple years ago, she quietly opened a spot for African-influenced American Southern cuisine. She was a first-time owner and, being honest, I wasn’t sure how she was going to do selling gumbo and Nigerian hot chicken in Old City. But now here we are with her star on the rise and not one, not two, but three new concepts all coming to Philly (hopefully) this year. Wilson and her chef/partner Darryl Harmon have got the follow up to Amina coming at 41st and Market in University City — a “southern seafood fusion” restaurant called Amina Ocean that’ll seat nearly 150, have live music, a raw bar, and open as an anchor to the new 3.0 University Place development. Then there’s Black Hen— a fried chicken operation coming to 120 Chestnut Street this year. And, as if that wasn’t enough, how about Avana: a 200-seat joint coming soon to Ben Franklin Parkway. I mean, that’s four restaurants in four different neighborhoods, three of which are scheduled to open in 2024, all of which look sharp as hell.

In Fishtown, chef Tyler Akin — who has spent the last couple years in Delaware making a big name for himself at Le Cavalier — is revisiting his all-day café roots (remember Res Ipsa? I sure do) with a new Mediterranean-inspired spot on Susquehana Avenue. Meanwhile, thanks to the pandemic I never got to run my review of Fabrika — the combination supper club/performance art space in Fishtown which absolutely blew my circuits with the pure volume of its weirdness. (It’s the first review I ever wrote in which someone playing trumpet naked in a bathtub figured heavily into the narrative.) But now, in the Year of our Lord 2024, a bunch of the Fabrika crew are branching out with a fine dining Georgian restaurant called Kinto at 1144 Frankford Avenue (just down the street from Fabrika), and barring another massive global catastrophe, maybe I’ll get to tell y’all about that one.

Probably won’t have a naked trumpet player in the bathtub, though. More’s the pity.

I told you about Superette two weeks ago — the orange sign out front giving new life to the former Primal Supply location on East Passyunk. I also told you I’d keep an eye on it (which I have), and now I can tell you that this one is gonna be something cool — a combined effort from the teams behind Good King, Superfolie, Le Caveau and Owen Kamihira from El Camino Real. Looks like they’re turning the place into a combination neighborhood market, bottle shop and wine bar while, up on North 2nd Street, Kamihira and his sons are opening their own izakaya called Joe & Kay. And, in the now-vacant home of Lucky Well (which we talked about above), we’ll soon have a brand new and shiny Cantina Feliz.

Also, remember when Starr and Peter Serpico tried to remake Pod into Kpod then backtracked and made Kpod back into normal Pod? Yeah, well, one thing that kinda got lost in all that nonsense was what happened with Serpico’s original location for his eponymous restaurant on South Street.

This year, it looks like it’s being taken over by the guy behind Nom Nom Ramen who is planning on turning it into (surprise!) a noodle bar called Shiso, and that’s cool because I’m always psyched about having more places to eat noodles, especially one opened by someone who knows his way around some soba, udon and ramen.

And look, seriously? That’s just a few of the upcoming spots I’m looking at. A handful, at best. But if these few were the ONLY new places we were getting in the next six months, I’d still say Philly’s scene was doing good because there’s not one of them that isn’t personal, meaningful and worth getting excited over.

Now before I forget, let’s have some leftovers

The Leftovers

The Trestle Inn / Photograph by Ted Nghiem

Barcade has always been one of those places which, to me, sounds 10 percent more fun than it actually is. I mean, having a few drinks and playing video games? That’s great. But it also sounds like something I can do perfectly well at home without having to give up the controller to anyone else when I lose.

Still, for the somewhat more social among you, a new Barcade at 1326 Chestnut Street in Center City just opened. It’s the second Philly location for the NYC-based company, and this one offers 2 floors, 70 arcade cabinets, 24 craft beers and a full menu. It’s open right now if you’re down. As for me? I’m gonna stay right here, drink a couple Genny Cream Ales and play Fortnite.

In Horsham, Josh Lawler and his crew are getting charitable at the Farm and Fisherman Tavern, opening up on Monday nights for a cheesesteak series benefiting local farms.

It works like this: Lawler loves cheesesteaks. But because Lawler is an award-winning chef and James Beard foundation finalist for best new restaurant, he couldn’t just slip a cheesesteak onto his menu. No, he had to create FIVE kinds of custom cheesesteaks, and dedicate an entire night to serving them at the F&F bar.

Cool thing? He’s doing it to raise money for Pennypack Farm just a couple miles away, which helps to provide grub to food-insecure neighbors. So every Monday night for the month of January, Lawler and his crew will be banging out a different cheesesteak variation — everything from a vegetarian version, to an Italian with half-beef/half-sausage plus marinara and mozzarella and a Buffalo chicken cheesesteak which, all arguments of cheesesteak purity aside, still makes for a damn good sandwich when you’re in the mood.

Anyway, Monday January 8th is when this all kicks off. Sandwiches will be $13 apiece and can be orderd in the bar or online. And if you need any more information than that, check the joint out right here.

And finally this week, if you loved Bowie like I loved Bowie and a million other Philadelphians loved Bowie, you’ll be thrilled to know that the Trestle Inn is hosting a David Bowie Happy Hour Dance Party on Friday, January 12th, from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. There’ll be Bowie classics, rarities on vinyl, special cocktails and this is all part of the “Philly Loves Bowie Week” festivities happening around town.

Oh, wait… You didn’t know about Philly Loves Bowie Week? Then man, are you in for a treat. Check it out right here and show a little love for Ziggy Stardust in whatever way you can.