Sonny’s Cocktail Joint Forced to Close … Again

Photographs courtesy of Sonny’s Cocktail Joint

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. We’ve got a bunch of new developments to talk through this week — including (but not limited to) food robots, a roof collapse, two excellent collab dinners, and some big news for two of Philly’s best chefs. So let’s get right into it and kick things off this week with …

The Unluckiest Bar in the World

Okay, so I’m kidding. But not really.

Way back in 2022, the space at 15th and South that was home to Sonny’s Cocktail Joint, Wine Dive, and (briefly) Rabbit was damaged in an apartment fire that forced all three of Chris Fetfatzes and Heather Annechiarico’s operations there to close. Initially, it looked like it was going to be a brief closure. Then a kind of medium-sized closure. But it ended up being a very long closure that lasted until just seven months ago.

In January of this year, after almost three years spent dark (which also saw the closure of their brunch spot, Hawthorne’s, and the creation of an entirely new restaurant group), Fetfatzes and Annechiarico announced that Sonny’s had been resurrected from the dead and was back to serving again in the same old space. The bar looked great. The cocktail list was excellent. And I threatened to fight anyone in Philly who got between me and the last order of the kitchen’s chicken-fried shrimp. So everything seemed to be going really well.

Then, over the weekend, this happened.

“Sonny’s sprung a leak, and we’ve had a bit of a flood situation,” Sonny’s reported via Instagram. “So we’re hitting pause for a little while to mop things up and make sure everything’s safe, sound, and cocktail-ready.”

Yeah, that’s right. Sonny’s Cocktail Joint is shut down. Again.

Watching the video (linked above), it doesn’t look like a small flood either. The water is pouring in. And while Sonny’s is promising that it’ll be back again after this newest disaster, they’re also saying …

“No exact timeline just yet, but trust we’ll be back as soon as we can. In the meantime, send us your best water puns and flood-friendly drink ideas. We could use a laugh.”

… and that doesn’t make me think it’s going to be any time soon.

So, first it was fire. Now, a flood. And if Sonny’s can bounce back from this one, the only thing they should have to worry about is a plague of locusts. And when’s the last time something like that happened on South Street?

And Sonny’s Isn’t the Only Closure We Have to Talk About This Week

Aspen Simone’s Birdhouse Gelato opened in a shared space (alongside the Underbite Bites bakery) at 806 South 6th Street in Bella Vista back in January — around the same time Sonny’s was getting back on its feet. It was an inclusive, welcoming, collaborative, socially and environmentally conscious gelato shop that paid a living wage, worked with local farmers, and operated within a set of values that focused on ethical business practices and ecological consciousness. Birdhouse did traditional Italian gelato, custom flavors, alt-milk sorbettos, and even offered gluten-free cones. It was gelato that everyone could enjoy.

But Birdhouse was also a side hustle. Simone had a day job, working for the federal government, and over the weekend made this announcement:

“I started Birdhouse Gelato as a side project and designed it with the belief that my federal job would be safe and provide some income to support starting a new business.

You already know how this story goes: my entire agency was eliminated in March.

Instead of trying to weather the 2–5 years it takes food service businesses to turn a profit, I’ve made the decision to close — at least for now.”

Yup, that’s right. After just seven months in business, Birdhouse is shutting down. The last day of service will be August 3rd. And while Simone is hoping to be able to transition to some in-home gelato-making classes (and maybe even reopen her shop at some point in the future), everything is kind of up in the air right now.

There are some details about discounts and final services in their Instagram post, so check that out if you want to stop by for a last taste before the lights go out. Also, to be clear, Underbite will remain open (the two businesses operated side-by-side but separately), and Simone is still running Philly Pigeon Tours. But as of the 3rd, Birdhouse will be done.

Here’s hoping it’s not for good.

Now how ’bout some good news?

Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp Are Opening a New Restaurant

Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp / Photographs by Michael Branscom and Nicole Guglielmo

Late last week, word started going around that chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp were in the market for a third restaurant location. The husband-and-wife team already have My Loup on Walnut Street, and Shulman made her name (and earned multiple James Beard Award nominations) with Her Place Supper Club, but now it looks like she and Kemp have picked up the former Dmitri’s/Tria/Cotoletta space at 2227 Pine Street in Fitler Square, where they will be opening … something.

Rumors about the new Shulman/Kemp project came from an inspired bit of internet sleuthing courtesy of Reddit’s r/PhiladelphiaEats, where the news first broke. And a quick check of the PLCB license database confirmed it. (There is currently a brand-new license pending under the name Pine Street Grill LLC., and Pine Street Grill has Amanda Shulman’s name attached.)

As for details, we’ve got nothing. I can tell you that Fitler could absolutely use a splashy new opening right about now because it has been a while since any real food news came out of the neighborhood that didn’t have Friday Saturday Sunday’s name attached. I can also say that no restaurant has really stuck in this space since Dmitri’s. But Shulman and Kemp have the magic right now, and their brand of casually elegant spaces, compelling menus, and easy, welcoming service could work really well here.

In any case, I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on it. And you’ll know more as soon as I know more.

Meanwhile, in Food Robot News …

A rendering of “Wendy” the “Wok Bot” / Rendering courtesy of WokWorks

Local mini-chain WokWorks is opening their newest location in Bryn Mawr this fall. Founded in 2012 by Brennan Foxman and operated by him and his wife and partner, Samantha, they’ve already got spots in Fishtown, Margate, and South Philly — as well as a stand inside the ShopRite in Cheltenham and a food cart at Temple Hospital on Broad Street.

This new one will be a brick-and-mortar at 5 Franklin Street, right near Villanova University (where Brennan and Samantha met). And while this is undoubtedly good news for the neighbors and anyone else who’s a fan of WokWorks’s locally sourced and stir-fried fast-casual rice and noodle bowls, the real reason I’m mentioning the new location is because this new location will be where the Foxmans debut their brand-new, custom-designed wok robot, which they named Wendy.

This is from their press release:

“Developed over the past three years and powered by an AI brain on the edge, Wendy replicates real wok technique by watching and learning from top chefs to deliver perfectly seared bowls — the mythic ‘wok hei,’ or breath of a wok – every time. This patent-pending tech allows the WokWorks team to focus on hospitality, while Wendy handles the heat.”

And … okay. I don’t love that. While, in the past, I have expressed some measure of super-nerd admiration for robotics and food service automation, my views on the subject of kitchen robots and AI in the food industry have become more and more bleak over time. Say what you will about the fallibility of humans, but in this day and age of AI slop and machine creativity, I have come to see every employment of robots over humans as highly suspect. And Brennan’s views on the matter don’t make me feel any more comfortable about it.

“Wendy’s a game changer,” he says. “She brings precision, speed, and consistency to every wok-fired bowl — something nearly impossible to achieve at scale without tech like this. It’s an order of magnitude improvement over human-alone cooking and a key part of our mission: to develop cutting-edge technology and source the highest quality ingredients to preserve and perfect the ancient magic of wok cooking. This disruptive technology positions WokWorks as a pioneer in the ever-expanding push for kitchen automation robotics in the industry at large.”

See, it’s phrases like “human-alone cooking” and “disruptive technology” that give me the ick here. And that “ancient magic of wok cooking”? That was developed by humans. Perfected by humans. And can only be achieved by humans. A machine can be consistent, sure. But never innovative or adaptive or inspired. In the same way that batch cooking will never be as good as a dish done à la minute, robot noodles will never rise beyond whatever level of quality said robot is programmed to achieve. Plus, every robot on the line means one (or more) fewer actual cooks drawing a paycheck. And while that might be great for the bottom line and whatever it is you want to “achieve at scale,” it is a whole lot less great for the industry.

Sure, right now it’s just some little stir-fry spot in Bryn Mawr, and everyone might wonder if it’s worth making a big deal out of. But remember, once upon a time, AI was just that thing we used to make funny memes. And look where we are now.

Anyway, who has room for some leftovers?

The Leftovers

Pizza by candlelight at the Bakery / Photograph by Hannah Boothman

We talked about The Bakery in South Philly for the first time a few weeks ago. This is the spot Rocco Weiss picked up and turned into a combination bakery/doughnut shop/coffee shop/weekly pizza party. For the past year or so, he and his crew have been banging out traditional, yeast-risen doughnuts and hosting Friday night drops of Sicilian pies for dine-in and take-out. Now, Weiss is expanding his range again with “After Hours by Rocco” — a monthly blind-tasting dinner series “curated, prepared, and served personally by owner Rocco Weiss.”

It’s an intimate dinner — just a dozen or so seats. And the menus will change every time, chosen entirely by Weiss, utilizing products from Philly and South Jersey purveyors and farms. The first one is happening this Friday, July 18th, with additional dinners scheduled for August 22nd, September 27th, October 31st (that one should be fun), November 15th, and December 20th. Tickets will run $75 per person. Reservations for the first one are available now. In the future, they’ll go up one week prior to the event via Instagram.

If you can’t make it to South Philly, how about this: On Tuesday, July 22nd, Ange Branca from Kampar will be doing a kitchen takeover at Yanaga Kappo Izakaya. In the main dining room, she’ll be doing Kampar classics like nasi lemak, ramly burgers, ayam goreng berempah, and more. Meanwhile, in the omakase room, Branca and Kevin Yanaga will be teaming up for a 10-course Malaysian-Japanese collab omakase (with beverage pairings). There’s just a single seating for this one, and it’ll run you $300 a head, but if you’re down, it should be worth it.

Reservations for the dining room are here. Details and reservations for the omakase are here.

Speaking of things you can’t get anymore, it looks like Tyler Akin is bringing back his Southeast Asian concept, Stock, for one night only. And he’s got some help to do it.

Nok Suntaranon of Kalaya will be joining Akin at Bastia for a one-night-only Stock-Kalaya collab dinner featuring hits from both restaurants. The menu looks pretty good. Check it out:

Tickets for this one will run you $125 and are available here. But I’d be quick about it. There are still a lot of fans of Stock knocking around out there, so tickets are going to go fast.

And finally this week, a little bit of good news for Bella Vista. It looks like the crew from Carbon Copy will be bringing their beers and wines to 613 South 7th Street. They announced yesterday on Instagram that they’d picked up the old Hale & True Cider tasting room and that an opening was scheduled for this fall.