Underground supper clubs, halal hot chicken, unions, and other trends that defined Philly’s food scene in 2023

As we near the end of 2023, one thing’s pretty clear: Resilient service workers, innovative chefs, invested diners, and award-winning restaurateurs are at the heart of Philly’s food scene.

This year, we witnessed unions fight for fair contracts, a love for buttercream-decorated cakes and halal hot chicken, and our favorite restaurateurs receive national recognition. Chefs brought us fun dining experiences for a single night, while others hosted exciting monthly food pop-ups throughout the city.

Food fads come and go, but they reveal the best of our local food scene and the people shaping it. So, we’re taking a look back at the year, rounding up the moments that defined Philly’s culinary community in 2023.

Unions, long a force in Philadelphia, showed up in the restaurant community this year. Service workers at coffee giants like Starbucks and food establishments from Kensington to Center City took things into their own hands, calling for strikes, walking out, and advocating for fair contracts.

Now-closed Eeva in Kensington was Philly’s first independent restaurant with dinner service to unionize in January, and food service workers at two restaurants in the Philadelphia International Airport voted to authorize a strike in September, after five years without an active union contract. Over at Vibrant Coffee Roasters in Rittenhouse Square, employees took steps to unionize in October, filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election to join the Philadelphia Joint Board, Workers United, also known as Local 80.

Elixr Coffee’s union settled on a tentative first contract with the shop’s owner in December, hours after the union announced a plan to strike after over a year of negotiating. And ReAnimator avoided a strike this month, settling on a tentative contract with a $3 across-the-board increase to minimum hourly rates, an expanded health-care stipend for full-timers, 4% yearly pay increases, increased paid time off, and a payout policy for unused paid time off, The Inquirer reported.

The Nashville style of fiery, crispy chicken is a cultural touchstone for Muslims in the U.S., with many establishments now offering halal options, including in Philly, which is seeing its number of halal restaurants grow. Folks will wait in long lines for a this hot fried chicken packed onto a bun with slaw and tangy sauce.

In Philly, fondant is out — there’s a buttercream revival with local bakers keeping cakes, just cake. Inquirer reporter Zoe Greenberg chatted with some of Philly’s most creative bakers decorating old-fashioned layer cakes with elaborate buttercream piping, for customers who want “a cake to taste like a cake and things to just look the way that they actually look,” as Noelle Wheatley Blizzard of New June Bakery put it. Forget hyperrealistic fondant creations — frilly, floral, and lacy buttercream cakes are what Philadelphians really want now.

Imagine enjoying pasta from scratch and lemon soufflés as the chef whips around an apartment to dish out an imaginative menu. Enter the world of underground supper clubs, where Philly’s rising chefs design and cook informal meals in the comfort of their homes. Liz Grothe, former sous chef at Fiorella in the Italian Market, transforms her living room into the Couch Cafe several times a month; Daniel Solway is a sommelier who runs the supper club Santé out of his Italian Market apartment; and data analyst Aaron Davis hosts Boy Supper Club, 12-person event featuring food from the northern coast of Peru roughly every other month at his apartment. They all advertise on social media so you’ll want to know the players to get a seat at the table.

Philly had an exciting year of food pop-ups. From Pan Asian-Mexican fusion dishes to Filipino classics, cafés, breweries, and other venues offered spaces for chefs, who’ve dealt with pandemic shifts in the restaurant industry, to share their concepts — even leading some to open brick-and-mortars.Partnering with other local businesses and generating online buzz have been a way forward for Philly chefs taking a nontraditional restaurant route.

Philadelphia, along with South Jersey, netted 18 James Beard semifinal nominations with three major wins: Friday Saturday Sunday for Outstanding Restaurant, Ellen Yin (High Street Hospitality, Fork) for Outstanding Restaurateur, and Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon of Kalaya for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

But praise for Philly’s dining scene didn’t stop there — national food and travel publications weighed in, too. The New York Times noted Ambra in Queen Village, Illata in Grays Ferry, and Fiorella in the Italian Market, among others in its list of favorite Philadelphia restaurants, plus El Chingón, Kalaya, and My Loup in the publication’s Best Restaurants 2023 list. Food & Wine magazine named Amanda Shulman (Her Place Supper Club) as best new chef, and Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park one of the best food markets in the nation. And four Phillies players shared what they love to eat in Philly.