These new bars in Fishtown and on the Main Line are low light and high touch — and more are on the way

Peter Martin is keeping the lights down at Izzy’s, the snug izakaya he opened last weekend in Ardmore, as he targets a Main Line audience that might otherwise head into the city for that kind of atmosphere. It’s a contrast to the Ripplewood, his more energetic bar-restaurant two doors away.

In Fishtown, Form-Function Hospitality and Foyer Project are soft-opening Caletta, a cozy sister lounge to the new Mediterranean restaurant Bastia at the Hotel Anna & Bel — which already has its own bar.

Candles — the real ones, not those battery-powered gizmos — seem to be back. Perhaps this is the finale of social distancing. “I wanted to create a spot post-COVID that I would want to eat at and drink at,” said chef Chad Rosenthal, who soon will open Mary, a tavern in Ambler, with candles but no TVs. “When it’s dim, people lean in to talk and lean in to eat. They are more present.”

There seem to be more bars of a similar mindset on the way. Management plans to limit the lumens at venues big and small, including Mona, a luxe Mediterranean restaurant-nightspot due to open in October at 13th and Chestnut Streets; Enigma Sky, a nightspot on Delaware Avenue, on tap for fall; the Newsroom, a lounge behind a secret door penciled in for fall in Northern Liberties; and Lillian’s, a corner bar up for 2025 at 19th and Mifflin Streets in South Philadelphia.

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Izzy’s. Peter Martin, who owns the Ripplewood in Ardmore (as well as Ardmore Music Hall), has modeled his new 24-seater on the SG Club in Tokyo, with distressed tiles and a coffered ceiling. Where the Ripp — two doors away — is all about whiskey, Izzy’s focuses on sake and offers a menu of handrolls and bao buns.

The bar, with its chatty bartenders, generates energy, but you can settle into seats in the window or snag one of the two-seat tables along the wall (dubbed Tables 69 and 420) for a matcha-tini (lemongrass shochu, aloe, and chartreuse). Drinks are $15 to $18.

Izzy’s shares the Ripplewood’s kitchen, where chef Biff Gottehrer and sous chef Su Djong create $15 handrolls filled with XO scallops, mao mao, or live red king salmon, and $16 bao buns (the birria is nearly sandwich-size). That and a few vegetable dishes (miso soup, edamame, seaweed salad, and spicy cucumbers) round out the menu.

Izzy’s, 35 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore. Hours: 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday to Saturday.

Caletta. There’s a rustic elegance to this eight-stool lounge tucked behind Bastia, with grand windows and doors that fling out onto a leafy, very un-Fishtown patio and pool. As time goes by, expect a piano bar featuring both local and visiting musicians.

Chef Tyler Akin’s small-plate menu, informed by Sardinia and southern Italy, includes Italian sturgeon caviar with pane carasau and a colatura-cured egg yolk in a fines herbes salad; a burger with grass-fed bavette, roasted tomato, balsamic aioli, and Perrystead Moonrise cheese; and rib eye spiedini with walnut pesto and grilled radicchio.

Beverage director Benjamin Kirk’s drinks list is ambitious. Cicero Can’t Hang has honeynut squash and turmeric leaf-infused genever, aquavit, creme de cacao, L’Herboriste tea, amari, bitter honey simple syrup, and lemon. Saturn Descent mixes Amaro Pasubio, St. George aged rye gin, yuzu sake, a pomegranate and umeboshi cordial, Mirto (a myrtle liqueur), shiso, and BBQ bitters. Drinks are $18 to $22. There is a decent nonalcoholic list, too.

Caletta at Hotel Anna & Bel, 1401 E. Susquehanna Ave. Hours: 4 to 11 p.m. Thursday to Saturday (walk-in only). Bastia’s hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday.