Emmett, Kensington’s Newest Restaurant, Set to Open (and in Record Time!)
Plus: What to do for Lunar New Year, details on the Kimmel Center's new restaurant, and Tröegs's Nugget Nectar celebrates its 21st birthday.

Winter squash caramelle, stracciatella, sunflower pesto, sunchoke miso from Emmett. / Photograph by Mike Prince
Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. We’ve just got a few quick things to get to this week, including (but not limited to) details on the opening of Emmett, Kampar’s Chinese New Year party, a new restaurant for the Kimmel Center, a little beer news that’ll really make some of you feel your age, and some VERY good news coming out of Chinatown. So let’s kick things off this week with …
A Tour Of The Mediterranean, Without Ever Leaving Kensington
Once upon a time, one of my favorite restaurants in Philly lived at 161 West Girard Avenue.
That place was called Cadence. It served bison tartare, roasted duck hearts, scallops with lardons, and brilliant little aebeleskiver with crab fat BBQ sauce. And it wasn’t perfect, but it was really, really good — one of those places where you walk in and you just feel instantly at home. A restaurant that operated with no manifesto, no irony, no chip on its shoulder; just a relaxed competence and an effortless kind of cool that I (and, apparently, Food & Wine) found entirely charming.
Cadence didn’t survive the pandemic. It closed in August of 2021, and the space at the corner of Hancock and Girard became a vegan restaurant (which also closed) and then was dark until just a couple of months ago when word came down that Evan Snyder and Julian van der Tak were moving in, hoping to open a Levantine restaurant with “upscale grandmother vibes” and a menu highlighting French, Italian, North African, and Middle Eastern flavors. They were calling the place Emmett (named after Snyder’s son), and because Snyder had spent so long just trying to find a space that would fit his vision, he and van der Tak were planning on opening it fast.

Inside Emmett’s dining room / Photograph by Mike Prince
True to their word, I just got the heads-up that they now have an opening date: Tuesday, January 28th. That’s about a two-month turnaround for any of you keeping track. And while it helps that the space has already been two different well-designed restaurants (and that most of the build-out has been purely cosmetic, with the exception of putting in an eight-seat bar), that’s still remarkably quick in this day and age of projects that take months (or sometimes years) to actually open the doors.
Snyder comes to Kensington after a career spent in the industry. Trained at Le Cordon Bleu (in Orlando), he did time in Michelin-starred kitchens in Washington D.C. (Blue Duck Tavern, Bresca), was exec at Redcrest in Midtown Village, and spent a year doing pop-ups at more Philly restaurants than I have room to name here. Van der Tak is another veteran, having worked for Starr and Schulson, Greg Vernick, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten before trying his hand on the retail side of things with Samuels & Son Seafood.

Aged Duck with sunchoke terrine, foie merguez, and jus from Emmett. / Photograph by Mike Prince
At Emmett, they’ll be doing à la carte service, with a tasting menu coming once the staff is settled. Considering the broad sphere of influence they’re working from in the kitchen, Snyder’s menu is unsurprisingly broad. He’s got everything from crudos to fresh pasta, BBQ lamb neck dolmas, and coal-roasted beets from the wood-fired oven, which, oddly, I can also remember being on the menu at Cadence. Rye tartlets with wagyu, horseradish, and smoked mustard; tuna with Calabrian chili and za’atar; rockfish in Moroccan curry; and agnolotti with black walnut mugummara all have space on the eclectic board, having been worked out during all those months of pop-ups. And, obviously, all that time on the road, working in borrowed kitchens, was inspirational for Snyder because there’s not a single dish on the opening menu that isn’t operating from a couple of different places at once. The aged duck comes with a foie merguez. The winter squash toast comes on focaccia with a butternut ‘nduja and Spanish goat cheese. And I can’t even remember the last time I saw anyone doing confit mussels.

From left: Melanzana made with barrel rested gin, charred eggplant, coconut milk, turmeric; Night Moose made with bitter aperitivo, bourbon, squash, saline at Emmett / Photographs by Mike Prince
Snyder and van der Tak picked up Marissa Chirico from River Twice to run front-of-house and the wine program. Petra Manchina has the bar — which is a good, local fit since she’s spent the last seven years on the floor with Manatawny and Philadelphia Distilling. The cocktail menu will be an ever-changing thing, hoping to match the kitchen in its variety and influence, and that alone gives the place a leg up over Cadence (which was solidly BYO, start to finish) and will change the flow and vibe of the space even if we’re looking at a 38-seat, 1,600-square-foot space that, structurally, will be essentially unchanged — at least until the spring, when Emmett will add a 24-seat patio.
Opening night is two weeks from today, but reservations are available right now. So keep Emmett in mind when you’re making your plans.
Now what’s next …
Sixers Stay in South Philly, Chinatown Remains Chinatown

Chinatown lion dance parade / Photograph by Laura Swartz
The news broke on Sunday: The Sixers and Comcast Spectacor (who own the Wells Fargo Center, the Sixers’ current home) had cut a deal that would keep the team in South Philly rather than moving forward with the ill-considered, much-maligned, and generally super shitty plan to build a brand new stadium right in the middle of Center City, on the doorstep of Chinatown.
After years of political maneuvering, contentious meetings, protests, threats, and an ultimately vain and futile decision by the mayor and a majority of the city council to back the proposed construction of “76 Place At Market East,” we now never have to talk about it again. Which is great news for a number of reasons — not the least of which being that “76 Place At Market East” is one of the worst names for something I’ve ever heard. (Long live The Gallery.)
But now that it has all been settled, here’s what we know: Comcast Spectacor and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (which owns the Sixers) are going halfsies on a brand-new arena in South Philly that should open sometime around 2031. Said arena (which Comcast will have the naming rights to) will be the new home for both the 76ers and the Flyers. Comcast and the Phillies have an additional deal to continue building out the South Philly sports complex with additional entertainment options, which potentially include more retail, dining options, and a dedicated music venue. Plus, we might get a WNBA team out of the deal. And there’s still some room to maneuver now when it comes to actually discussing a reasonable plan to revitalize Market East and help out Chinatown — without the tectonic reshaping of the area that would be caused by the construction and operation of an 18,000-seat sports arena dropped into the middle of the city.
So was it a doomed plan from the start? Was it all nothing but a bunch of high-stakes posturing and fiduciary infighting that sucked in the mayor, the city council, and all of us as unwitting pawns in a game played out between billionaires? Who fucking knows? And, ultimately, who fucking cares, right? Chinatown dodged what may or may not have been a purely hypothetical bullet AND will (maybe) come out of this with a redeveloped Market East (at some nebulous and ill-defined point in the future) and a commitment from the mayor’s office to offer additional support to Chinatown residents and businesses.
If you’re looking for some more detail (and a little historical perspective from someone who has been watching this process unfold for a long time), Laura Swartz had an excellent explainer yesterday — which you can read right here. As for me, I’m just calling this a win. The stadium stays where it should be. South Philly will get a new arena and “the country’s top sports and entertainment district” (according to a statement from Dan Hilferty, Comcast Spectacor chairman and CEO), and Chinatown gets to stay Chinatown, at least for a little while longer.
Happy Year of Snake

Poon choy / Photograph courtesy of Kampar
You guys have plans for Chinese New Year yet? Because if you don’t, I’ve got a suggestion for you.
At Kampar, Ange Branca and her crew have put together a four-course Chinese-Malaysian New Year menu that’ll be available from January 29th to February 1st. Here’s what the menu looks like:
YEE SANG: PROSPERITY SALAD
Branca learned this one from her mom. It’s a traditional Malaysian dish, built for excess and made from 18 ingredients, “each one carefully selected to symbolize good fortune, prosperity, longevity, and all the wonderful things one could hope for in the new year!” according to Branca. And her mom.
POON CHOY: A BASIN FEAST
Poon choy is a Hakka dish that’s essentially an entire party feast, all served as a single dish. It’s nine layers of prime meats and seafoods meant to “signify abundance and affluence.” You eat it one layer at a time, from top to bottom — and then suddenly remember that you still have two courses to go before dinner is done.
SALTED FISH FRIED RICE
Cantonese-style fried rice made with house-cured fish and served with a traditional hot Chinese tea.
TONG SUI
And then one more Cantonese specialty to round out the night. Tong sui is basically a dessert soup, in this case made with longan fruit and snow fungus, which sounds… delicious? I dunno. Tong sui restaurants are popping up all over the place these days (particularly on the West Coast), so I’m curious.
Tickets for the Chinese New Year dinner will run you $138 (not including drinks, tax, or tip), and reservations are very much required. Get yours here.
A couple of days before Kampar kicks off their Chinese New Year menu, Com.Unity is doing its second annual Tet dinner to celebrate Vietnamese New Year.
This one will be on Monday, January 27th, at Le Viet and will be a six-course collaboration dinner featuring Andrew Dinh Vo from Cafe Nhan, Tuan Phung from Banh Mi & Bottles, Le Viet’s Tay Cao, Victor Nguyen from Ba Le Bakery, Jacob Trinh of Little Fish, and Thanh Nguyen from Gabriella’s Vietnam. They’ll be doing five-spice roasted duck, salted egg fried prawns, a jumped-up version of thit kho trung, and more. I don’t have a full menu yet, but with the crew listed above? I have no doubt it’s going to be a helluva dinner. Add to that a lion dance from Chinatown’s own Philadelphia Suns, a local vendors market, and a DJ spinning all AAPI tunes, and it’ll also be a helluva party.
Tickets for this one are $108. First seating is at 5 p.m., and they’ll likely be adding a second, 7:30 p.m. seating as well, but I would definitely keep an eye on the reservations because this one is going to sell out fast. Get your reservations here.
Okay, now how ’bout some leftovers?
The Leftovers

Cantina La Martina will be celebrating its third annual La Tamalada event February 2nd. / Photograph courtesy of Cantina La Martina
Dionicio Jimenez’s Cantina La Martina will be spending February 2nd hosting its third annual Tamalada — a day-long celebration of the tamale. And honestly, of all the food items that truly deserve a day spent celebrating them, tamales would be very high on my list.
This year, Cantina will be hosting the event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring local restaurants and street vendors, all selling their tamales in one place. Everything is pay-as-you-go. Cantina will be serving drinks. And at 2 p.m., there’ll be a tamale contest to pick the best of the best. The whole thing will be held outside (obviously), and Cantina La Martina has a heated tent for outdoor dining, but last year’s Tamalada drew such a big crowd that the party spilled over into pretty much every inch of usable outdoor space. So, it being February and this being Philly, dress accordingly.

Inside Curtain Call / Photograph courtesy of Ensemble Arts
Meanwhile, the Kimmel Center has a new restaurant taking over for the Garces Trading Co. space, which closed last year. And — surprise! — it’s opening today.
No, for real. This one kinda snuck up on me, too. But I just got word that Curtain Call (which is the actual name) is opening to the public tonight and, going forward, will operate as an all-day cafe with service Tuesday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
During the day, it will run as a “welcoming cafe where patrons can enjoy their favorite hot beverages, fresh salads, and elevated sandwiches in a relaxed atmosphere,” and at night, they’ll turn down the lights and become a cocktail bar serving drinks and small plates. The menu is short and sweet (mortadella toast, prosciutto and figs, endive salads, crudités) and feels more like a catered reception than an actual restaurant, but who knows? Maybe that’s exactly what this space needs — something simple and straightforward may be the best way to start over.
In any case, they’ll have happy hour on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and will stay open late on performance nights. And Curtain Call will be open to everyone, all the time — no tickets needed.
Over in Fishtown, Sweetgreen is opening its long-awaited fifth Philly location on Frankford Avenue on Tuesday, January 21st. That’s good news for all you miso-glazed salmon freaks out there. The 1359 Frankford Avenue space will have room for 24 inside, plus a 30-seat patio once the weather warms up. The opening day festivities kick off at 10 a.m. with stickers, giveaways, La Colombe draft lattes, and a one-for-one donation deal with Philabundance — meaning that for every meal bought at Sweetgreen on opening day, Sweetgreen will donate a meal to the local community organization.

Photograph courtesy of Tröegs
Finally this week, do you remember when you had your first Nugget Nectar? Think about it for a minute. And then remember to sign up for your AARP membership because the flagship dry-hopped and legitimately famous seasonal beer from Tröegs is turning 21 years old this year. And to celebrate this momentous occasion, the Tröegs team is throwing a four-day-long birthday celebration at their Hershey, PA, brewery.
“Nugget Weekend” will run from Thursday, January 16th, to Sunday the 19th and feature, among other things, a draft-only release of a 9.5% ABV “Double Nugget Nectar,” early samples of “Nitro Nugget” (a smooth and creamy version, carbonated with nitrogen), a chef’s dinner with an open bar and multi-course Nugget-inspired tasting menu (tickets available here), a firkin tapping, a dance party, Sunday brunch, and food specials at the Brewery’s Snack Bar.
If you’re down, you can find more details on Nugget Nectar’s birthday weekend here and here.