Philly’s Longest-Running Gay Bar Just Got a Major Upgrade

Zander Gatta, the new chef at Tavern on Camac / Photograph by Mike Prince

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. Just a few quick things to get through this week — including (but not limited to) a Neapolitan street party, a cemita festival, two very different suburban expansions, the loss of a legend in the Italian Market, and the return of Tavern on Camac. So let’s get right into it and kick things off this week with …

Tavern on Camac Returns With a Brand-New Kitchen (and Chef)

For the past year, Tavern on Camac has been undergoing some serious renovations — by which I mean, essentially, a complete rebuild of the kitchen from the floor up. Every surface, every piece of equipment, every fitting, all the gear — all of that is new. They doubled their cooler space (which is a huge thing — ask your chef friends) and reoriented the entire kitchen. There’s new lights in the dining room. All the barstools and chairs in the dining room have been reupholstered. All the tables have been refinished. It has been a big project, which started in August of last year and just finished … well, last week, actually.

Let me tell you why this is a big deal.

First, because Tavern on Camac is historic. According to its press, “243 South Camac Street has been operating as a haven for the LGBTQ+ community since 1925, making it the longest continually-operating gay establishment in Philadelphia.” There are sections of the building that are hundreds of years old. The basement was used as part of the Underground Railroad. And the Tavern has been a fixture in the Gayborhood for pretty much ever.

And while the Piano Bar and Ascend nightclub upstairs (which also got some renovations, including an expanded dance floor) have been slinging drinks this whole time, the Tavern has been dark for nearly an entire year. And that is a long time for a restaurant to go without serving.

Second, that brand-new kitchen the Tavern now gets to boast about? It opened with a brand-new chef at the helm, too. Zander Gatta has taken over as chef de cuisine, fresh off a three-year stint at Royal Boucherie where he spent the last year as exec. Gatta is a South Philly native, with turns at The Palm in Atlantic City and Vegas on his résumé, and he’s bringing a lot of what he learned at Royal Boucherie to his new gig — saying that he’s going to keep the menu seasonal, source his product locally whenever possible, and “take Tavern on Camac’s menu to the next level.”

For the moment, this means sorrel salads with goat cheese, cherry, and tarragon vinaigrette; snapper crudo with watermelon; chicken liver mousse with sour cherry mostarda and cornichon (a dish that’ll be familiar to anyone who ever ate at RB); a burger with Gruyère and caramelized onion; shrimp and mussels in brodo; a very French roasted half-chicken with roasted potato, watercress and chicken jus; a bunch of different steaks; and a crème brûlée with chamomile and honey for dessert.

Gatta is on the line already, and his new menu is available right now, so go check it out if you’re in the neighborhood. The Tavern is open daily from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m., but the kitchen closes at 11 p.m.

Now what else is happening this week …

EMei Makes Another Big Move

EMei’s Dan Dan noodles with pork / Photograph by Kae Lani Palmisano

Remember early this year when I told y’all about the team from EMei opening up their Hong Kong-style neighborhood diner just a block away from the Chinatown home of their original restaurant? Yeah, that was TingTing’s — a great spot for curry, five-spice chicken wing, spaghetti and meatballs and midnight omelets — and a spot that’s already in pretty heavy rotation among Philly’s late-night crowds and Chinatown regulars.

But word came down late last week that this wasn’t the only expansion EMei’s Dan Tsao had in the works. Because now we know that he’s also picked up the space at 98 Cricket Avenue in Ardmore (formerly John Henry’s Pub) and looks to be turning it into a second EMei location — the first expansion of that brand since Tsao opened the place in 2011.

As of April of this year, EMei Ardmore Inc. has been listed as the corporation at that address, but the timeline on the project isn’t a short one. Montco Today is saying that Tsao is looking at almost a year of renovations in advance of a summer, 2026 opening date. And according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, an Ardmore outpost isn’t the end of EMei’s plans because Tsao is still on the hunt for an address in South Philly for a potential third location.

And hey, that’s all cool by me. More Sichuan food is nothing but good news as far as I’m concerned. And when it opens, the new location will give EMei around 100 seats right off the main drag in Ardmore, just a quick dash from Tired Hands and around the corner from Izzy’s — which will be nice when there’s a crowd there and I don’t feel like waiting.

As always, you’ll know more when we know more.

Sorellina’s Pizza Party

A margherita from Sorellina / Photograph courtesy of Joe Cicala

Joe and Angela Cicala and the crew at Sorellina are throwing a Napoli-style street party on Thursday, August 7th, and are promising street food, pizza, pasta, music, dancing, a cannoli man on the dance floor — all the usual elements of a Neapolitan-style street festival.

I love Sorellina. And any night there feels like taking a mini-vacation to the coolest street corner in all of Naples. So this party ought to be particularly fun. The festivities start at 6:30 p.m. with an hour of apertivos — mortadella focaccia panini, marinated olives, Montanara-style fried pizza, potato crocche. Then, in fine Italian style, there’s another two and a half hours set aside for the actual dinner portion of the evening, which includes two different kinds of pizza, gnocchi alla Sorentina, meatballs, bracciole, pork ribs, multiple dessert courses, and more.

It looks like it’s going to be a massive summer party. And tickets (which cover all the food, and everything else except drinks which are PAYG) are going for just $75. Get yours here.

Cantina La Martina’s Cemita Festival Is Back

Photograph by Kerri Sitrin

Once you’ve recovered from Sorellina’s party, you can roll out for Cantina La Martina’s third annual Cemita Festival, happening just three days later on August 10th, which is shaping up to be an even bigger party.

In celebration of the iconic Pueblan sandwich, Cantina La Martina is bringing together 10 different vendors (including some of the best chefs in the city) to each do their own version of the classic cemita. That means Mariangeli Alicea Saez (of Cantina) doing a joojeh kebab cemita with khiar Mexican herb yogurt sauce and roasted cherry tomatoes; Karla Torres and Ernesto Ventura of La Ingrata in Camden doing a chicharrón adobado cemita with homemade Oaxacan style cheese, avocado, and papalo from their own garden; Amy Rivera-Nassar of Amy’s Pastelillos bringing a roast pork cemita with queso blanco, chipotle sweet plantains, pickled onion, and garlic papalo sauce (that sounds crazy-good); Ange Branca from Kampar doing a chicken satay cemita; and the guys from Paffuto doing a “Crispy Fatty Baddie” cemita with Italian carnitas and whipped ricotta (which also sounds crazy good). And that’s just about half of what Cantina La Martina will have on offer for the party.

No tickets are required for this one. Just show up, bring your wallet, and start eating. Cemitas will be $15 each, and all sales go directly to the individual vendors. Specialty cocktails will be available at the bar. DJ Cali Rumba will provide the tunes. It sounds like it’s going to be a very good time.

Now who has room for some leftovers?

The Leftovers

Jet Wine Bar will host chef Nana Wilmot in the garden for a Ghanian “Fire Grill” dinner on August 1st. / Photograph by Lexy Pierce

Jet Wine Bar is having a one-night-only Pan-African family-style dinner and wine-pairing in the garden featuring chef Nana Wilmot who’ll be doing a Ghanian “Fire Grill” menu, while Jet’s Jill Weber sets up the curated, multi-course pairing.

Wilmot runs Georgina’s Private Chef & Catering Co. these days, but she’s coming to this dinner with a résumé that’s packed with big names and Michelin stars. She worked for Wolfgang Puck and Jose Garces, did time at Starr’s Le CouCou in New York (which won a James Beard award and a star in the Michelin Guide). She went to Paris to work for Daniel Rose at La Bourse et La Vie, then came back to Philly during COVID and started the Love That I Knead supper club which focuses on West African cuisine and Black history and foodways.

And this Friday, August 1st, she’ll be in the garden at Jet for a four-course meal, doing beef and chicken suya, black eyed pea hummus, Ghanaian grilled salad, smoked goat, grilled snapper, fonio jollof, collards with curry butter, and plantain cake with ginger-caramel ice cream for dessert.

That is a killer menu, no doubt.

Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. and tickets for the reservation-only event are $125 per person. You can get yours here.

Philly is losing another landmark, multi-generational business with the recently announced closure of P&F Giordano in the Italian Market. The produce shop has been holding down the corner of 9th and Washington since 1921, was immortalized on screen during Rocky’s run through the market in the ’70s, and has been a stalwart purveyor of fruits and vegetables, spring ramps, Easter flowers, and long hots for generations.

But now, it’s done. The Giordano family is moving on. The space has been sold, they’ll be closing down the market shortly, and so goes another huge piece of Philly’s edible history. This isn’t the first long-time operation we’ve lost recently. And I’m sure it won’t be the last. But every one of these closures can change the fundamental character of a neighborhood, the city and our collective scene.

No word yet on what might be replacing Giordano’s, but I’m hoping for some more information by the end of the week.

Finally, it looks like Wissahickon Brewing is opening a third location — this one in Maple Glen, in the space at 870 Welsh Road in the former home of Brick & Barrel.

And while the eight-month turnaround between the opening of TingTing’s and the pickup of EMei’s new location might seem fast, this one happened even quicker. Wissahickon, which originally opened in East Falls in 2017, added a Kensington location (at 1526 North American Street) in May, right before the start of the summer. Now they’re settling on this Montco location and, according to AroundAmbler, the Gill family (who own and operate Wissahickon Brewing) are looking at a fall opening for the new space.

Even better news? The new spot (like the Kenzo location) will have a kitchen. Chef Noah Gindin was brought in to run food service at the Kensington outpost, and will also be overseeing a kitchen in the ‘burbs — including a brick oven pizza that came along with the old Brick & Barrel space.

Pizza and craft beer, just in time for the changing of the seasons? That’s something worth looking forward to.