Angelo’s Will Soon Have Three Locations Where You Can Stand in Line for Cheesesteaks

South Philadelphia’s Angelo’s Pizzeria, expanding to New Jersey soon. / Photograph by Gene Smirnov

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) summer crayfish, Jansen’s final weeks, soup dumplings and hot pot in KOP, nerd beer, some shocking burger news and some even MORE shocking cheesesteak news. So let’s get right into it and kick things off this week with …

Angelo’s Will Soon Have Three Locations Where You Can Stand in Line for Cheesesteaks

Anyone who knows anything about Philly’s cheesesteak ecosystem knows about the lines at Angelo’s in Bella Vista.

The lines can be epic. Neighbors and tourists standing shoulder-to-shoulder, mostly peacefully, united by that one immutable fact, originally espoused by no less a philosopher than Lou Reed: “First thing you learn is that you always gotta wait …” Arguably, the line itself has become nearly as famous as the restaurant. People have written stories about it. It’s made news, both locally and nationally. And do you know why people are cool with it?

Because the pizzas and cheesesteaks at Angelo’s on 9th Street are very, very, VERY good. They are one of those few things in life that are actually worth the wait. And if, somehow, you manage to coast in during one of the ebbs in service, find parking, put in your order, and walk away with your sandwiches and your grandma pie in just 30 minutes, it feels like you’ve been personally blessed by the gods of Philadelphia. Like an invisible Eagle of Liberty has flown through the neighborhood, Vince Lombardi trophy in one talon, cheesesteak in the other, shitting good luck directly on your head.

Anyway, the 9th Street Angelo’s will always and forever be the 9th Street Angelo’s. But word came down late last week that there will soon be two additional locations of the Angelo’s empire: one in South Jersey and another in Conshohocken.

Angelo’s cheesesteak fresh off the griddle / Photograph by Gene Smirnov

So here’s what we know …

First, New Jersey. On Thursday, the good folks over at Angelo’s posted this on their Instagram: a full-on confirmation that they were buying the Di’Nics location at 310 Black Horse Pike in West Collingswood Heights.

“We bought DiNic’s property,” the post said, in part. “It will be an Angelo’s Pizzeria with full menu (pizza, steaks, cutlets, meatballs, hoagies, salads), takeout and dine-in seating.” And that’s pretty definitive.

A few days before that, 42 Freeway posted that Di’Nics owners were selling but, in the moment, couldn’t say who they were selling to — only that it was going to be another sandwich shop. It didn’t take long before Angelo’s put an end to the speculation, and according to the Inquirer, owner Danny DiGiampietro (who’s also got a stake — get it? — in the Uncle Gus’ Steaks stand at Reading Terminal Market, and a partnership with Bradley Cooper— yes, that Bradley Cooper — for their Manhattan cheesesteak shop Danny & Coop’s) said that the last day at Di’Nics will be Saturday and that he and his team will be taking the keys right away.

No word yet on how fast the turnaround might be, but DiGiampietro sounds like he wants to move fast with a renovation, expansion and build-out. Of course, you’ll know more as soon as we know more.

Meanwhile, over in Conshy, DiGiampietro and the Angelo’s crew took over the old Conshohocken Bakery at 79 Jones Street a while back and have been using the space to bake bread. But the Angelo’s team also has plans to turn that spot into a restaurant of its own, so depending on how long it takes to get the new Collingswood location up and running, there’s a very real possibility that, by this time next year, we’ll all have a choice of three different Angelo’s locations to wait in front of whenever we get a craving for some meatballs, a steak sandwich, or a killer pizza.

Now what else is happening this week …

Huda Burger Coming to Fishtown

The soon-to-open Huda Burger in Fishtown / Photograph by Mike Prince

Chef Yehuda Sichel has a helluva resume. Born and bred in Elkins Park, he got his start in the industry making sandwiches at a kosher deli in Baltimore. He went to culinary school, came back to Philly, and worked under Georges Perrier, Daniel Stern and Neal Fraser at Grace in L.A.. In 2010, he took a gig working for Michael Solomonov and would spend the next decade in the kitchens at Zahav (where he started as a line cook), Citron & Rose (which he helped open) and Abe Fisher (where he was exec).

Sichel went his own way in 2020 and opened Huda — a sandwich shop on 18th Street in Rittenhouse — which managed to pull lines even during the height of the pandemic. We even named it the best sandwich in town in 2021, largely for the house-made milk buns stacked with brisket or grilled swordfish.

Now, it looks like he’s launching a whole new concept — without straying too far from what made Huda such a hit.

He and his partner, Dan Berkowitz, have picked up the space at 1603 Frankford Avenue and will be turning it into Huda Burger — a fast-casual burger spot focusing on a menu of five or six different kinds of smash burgers, all mounted on those same Japanese-style milk buns. We’re talking everything from your basic cheeseburger to a pastrami fried onion burger — plus chicken sandwiches, curly fries, house-made pickles and milkshakes. It sounds simple, sure. But so did Huda when we first heard about it.

The new spot will have a half-dozen indoor counter seats and some outdoor tables. The plan right now is to be open daily, starting at 11 a.m., and running straight through dinner service, with late-night hours being added once everyone gets settled. And as of right now, Sichel is hoping to have the new shop up and running by next month, so … fingers crossed. I’m always down for a new burger spot. And I’m very curious to see what kind of magic Huda can bring to the neighborhood.

Jansen Getting Ready to Wrap Up Its Run

Jansen / Photograph by Gab Bonghi

Back in the spring, I told you about chef David Jansen’s plans to sunset his eponymous Mount Airy restaurant over the course of the next few months.

Well, things at Jansen appear to be proceeding as planned. And the chef and his crew are celebrating the legacy and 10-year history of the place now by shifting to a series of tasting menus that will “feature a rotating selection of signature ‘greatest hits,’ luxury ingredients, and seasonal specialties — a celebratory farewell to nearly a decade of refined dining.”

Starting Friday, August 1st, the restaurant will switch to a tasting-menu-only format on Fridays and Saturdays (with à la carte dining still available during the week). The tasting menu will be five courses, will run you $125 a head, and run through the entire month of August.

The first menu will highlight classics from Jansen’s kitchen like lobster deviled eggs with dill and paprika, seared tuna with Asian pear and edamame purée, scallop risotto touched up with a green almond pesto, and grilled lamb chops over roasted artichoke purée with bacon-braised kale, shaved fennel, and a thyme-lamb emulsion.

Honestly, I could write a thesis on the historical origins and moment of American culinary revolution that spawned every single one of those dishes — except that I covered a lot of that turf already when I first wrote about Jansen back in 2016. There has always been something almost definitionally New American about this place, a kitchen where all the trends and impulses of modern American gastronomy’s strange beginnings still live on, coddled by a chef and crew who know how to do them just right.

Anyway, that’s just the first of August’s menus. And come September — which will be the final month of service at Jansen — the house will be ditching à la carte dining entirely and moving to an all-tasting-menu format before finally wrapping things up and de-camping for the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club where chef Jansen and some of his crew will be taking over restaurant operations.

If you want to get in for a final dinner (or two) at Jansen, though, you’ve still got time. Tasting menus will be posted on Jansen’s website as they come up, and reservations for August and September are available now right here.

Now who has room for some leftovers?

The Leftovers

Crayfish party! / Photograph courtesy of the American Swedish Historical Museum

Looking to celebrate the last month of summer the way the Swedes do? Well, you’re in luck, because the American Swedish Historical Museum is throwing a traditional Swedish summer crayfish party on August 8th.

So what exactly is a traditional Swedish summer crayfish party, you ask? Well, dig this:

“The Swedish tradition of feasting on crayfish in the last month of summer has a long history. At one time the lakes of central Sweden were filled with crayfish, but overfishing decimated their population. Eventually, the government prohibited the catching of crayfish except for a short time in late summer. After going the whole summer without the delicacy, the return of crayfish to the dinner table in August became a great cause for celebration. Crayfish parties in Sweden are often held out of doors surrounded by big paper lanterns and festive colored lights strung for decoration.”

At the ASHM, they’re celebrating with a crayfish buffet outside on the museum’s terrace, plus Swedish meatballs (natch), potatoes, cheese pie, salads, dessert, glasses of aquavit, Swedish drinking songs, funny hats, crayfish bibs, the whole nine. It really looks like it’s gonna be a blast.

The dinner is planned for August 8th at 6 p.m. Tickets are $60 for ASHM members and $70 for non-members (which seems like a steal), and if you wanna go, you have to get your tickets before August 4th. You can get yours right here.

Speaking of museums, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is launching a new summer series that they’re calling “Summer on the Steps.” It’s a new “food truck and beer garden experience from Constellation Culinary Group,” that’s bringing a rotating group of local food trucks, a pop-up seasonal bar, a beer garden, casual seating and lawn games to the East Terrace at the museum from 2 to 6 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday through September 28th. It’s made for both museum patrons and folks just passing by — so you can either drop by, check out some of the exhibits and then wind your way out to the steps for a drink and a snack, or just show up for the cocktails and cornhole.

More details can be found here. See ya on the steps.

Meanwhile, we’ve got two pieces of news coming out of KOP this week. First, it looks like there’s a new Korean barbecue and hot pot operation up and running at 160 North Gulph Road. KPot opened its fourth Philly-area location on July 19th and is currently offering all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue and hot pot and a completely customizable barbecue and hot pot “experience” with tabletop grills, burners, a “tech-enabled service model” and communal dining. Check it out here.

Second, the KOP location of Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings is tinkering with its menu, adding a bunch of new dishes to keep things fresh. They’re adding Taiwanese-style sweet-and-sour short ribs, stir-fried black pepper beef, sweet-and-sour fish, and a vegetable soup dumpling to complement the crab and pork soup dumplings that everyone goes for in the first place.

Bonus: Nan Xiang is just steps away from the new KPot. So my thinking is, you hit up Nan Xiang for a killer soup dumpling lunch, bop across the parking lot to walk it off, then hit up KPot for dinner. You know, make a whole day of it.

Here’s something I really like the sound of: Every Wednesday this summer, from 5 to 8 p.m., the W Philadelphia is hosting “an elevated, literature-based, weekly happy hour series called ‘Pours + Prose'” which combines two of my favorite things: cocktails and books.

So here’s how it works: Each week, there’s a new literary partner meant to “inspire conversation and creativity.” This week, it’s Ulises Books who’ll be setting up a pop-up bookstore on-site. Then it’ll be Blue Stoop doing networking and co-working events at the Wet Bar. For the week of August 13th, the cookbook-focused bookstore Binding Agents (which just won a Best of Philly award, FYI) will be hosting a pop-up shop and tarot card readings from their bestselling pasta-themed tarot decks. And so on. There’s also a special, literary-themed cocktail menu, curated wine tastings, zero-proof drinks and, presumably, a whole lot of people who, like me, believe that the second-best company anyone can bring to the bar with them is a good book.

All the events are free and open to the public, so drop by and check it out.

/ Photograph courtesy of Prime Station Brewing

Finally this week, remember a couple weeks back when I told y’all about beer buds Connor Sheridan and Jon Henning who’d gotten together to launch a new brewery called Prime Station Brewing that came with a delightfully nerdy backstory? Yeah, well it looks like things at Prime Station are progressing a little bit faster than they’d initially planned, and their first beer releases will be hitting the market this week. They’ve already got commitments from some local beer stores and distributors, and are selling to bars and restaurants in the region already. So if you’re into beer, top hats, goggles, steampunk, and weirdly Philly-specific alt-history origin stories (again, very much like me), keep an eye out, okay? I’m checking my local beer store this afternoon to see if they can get their hands on a case or two, and I’ll be reaching out to Jon and Conner for some more details as soon as they’ve had a little time to get settled.

As always, you’ll know more when I know more …