The top 5 restaurant stories of 2023 | Let’s Eat

What a year! And it’s not even over yet. Allow me to run down five intriguing restaurant stories. Also this week, we talk food and hot sauce with Patti LaBelle, chat about the tradition of tamales with home cooks, and see what a dumpling Automat is all about. Read on for huge South Philly bagel news.

— Mike Klein

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Looking back at the Philadelphia area’s restaurant scene for 2023, you’ll see soaring highs and crashing lows — pretty much life as usual.

As in any year, there was a solid crop of new restaurants (among them, Alice, Almyra, Bolo, Gilda, Loch Bar, My Loup, and Rosemary), a few revivals (including High Street’s move to Ninth and Chestnut, Pod’s return to University City, and Royal Tavern’s resurrection on East Passyunk), along with the inevitable closings (such as the impending shutdown of Izakaya at the Borgata on New Year’s Eve as well as The Lucky Well in Ambler, becoming the new home of Cantina Feliz in 2024.)

Here are five storylines that kept life interesting.

1. James Beard winners: Philly shows up. Philadelphians won three major categories of the James Beard Awards as Friday Saturday Sunday was named Outstanding Restaurant and Ellen Yin Outstanding Restaurateur, while Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon of Kalaya won for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Aside from civic pride, the Beards drew attention from national food and travel publications, giving Philly restaurants a loud voice in the food world’s public relations-fueled echo chamber.

2. Bankroll: What goes up must come down. But so soon! This over-the-top sports bar bet big and lost, a $25 million investment gone after less than four months. I’m told that the space at 1910 Chestnut St. will pick up a new tenant, possibly two, in 2024.

3. The rise of stylish bars. Not a story, per se, but a trend. We seem to be OK with getting together again over cocktails. The year saw the debut of such Rittenhouse nightspots as Superfolie, a boîte; Vinyl, a bar-lounge with live music; Enswell, a lounge-y cafe (which just added weekday lunch). Across town, there are the new 48 Record Bar in Old City, Poison Heart in SpringArts, Next of Kin in Fishtown, and Post Haste in Kensington. They follow the late-2022 openings of Andra Hem and the revival and relocation of Franklin Mortgage. Here’s a summation.

4. Jim’s Steaks’ impending return. When a fire in the basement of Jim’s Steaks destroyed the business his father built in 2022 at Fourth and South Streets, Ken Silver got creative. He bought the fire-ravaged Eye’s Gallery next door and decided to tie the buildings together. It will open soon.

5. Melrose Diner meets the bulldozer. The fire-damaged diner’s owner decided to level the place and install a mixed-use building on the lot at 1501 Snyder Ave., with a new Melrose on the ground floor. We’ll expect it in 2025.

Juana Librado always tells her kids the secret to making delicious tamales: You have to be happy while cooking them. Massarah Mikati offers a sweet look at the Christmas custom among Philadelphia’s Mexican and Central American diaspora, and drops in a tip for better flavor.

Alas, you probably can’t go to Patti LaBelle’s favorite-favorite place to eat. That’s because, as she told our Dan DeLuca, it’s her own kitchen. While chatting about her contribution to the Eagles’ Christmas album (a duet with lineman Jordan Mailata on “This Christmas”), Dan learned not only her favorite Philly restaurant, but of her secret passion for hot sauce.

Dead King Bread used to bake its sourdough loaves out of a wood-fired brick oven on a farm in Germantown. As Jenn Ladd relates, Michael Holland and Molly Flannery set up inside a Northwest Philadelphia sawmill and are prepping a retail shop. They use grain, sure, but does this business model also go against the grain?

I stopped at Copabanana Monday morning to spot a worker installing a padlock on the front door of what since 1978 was the landmark restaurant at Fourth and South. As part of bankruptcy proceedings, Copa has moved two doors down in what was the related Hurricane Alley next to the TLA (at left in photo). Gone are its prime South Street sidewalk vistas, though the margs, Spanish fries, and burgers will remain.

Back in July 2022, I wrote about the expected fall 2022 arrival of Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, a tech-heavy fast-casual spot serving dumplings, noodles, and other foods through an Automat-like series of doors with glass windows. It’s finally open on South Street in a snazzy setting boasting a mural from Frank Chappell III, aka @trash_panda215. The dumplings passed my tween twins’ taste-test (“11/10”). In addition to my article, photojournalist Alejandro A. Alvarez shot a video to put the process in pixels right here.

There’s a hole lot about to go down in South Philly: A bagel shop will be going into the new building at 10th and Catharine in Bella Vista, across from Dante & Luigi’s. It will be the second location of Bart’s Bagels, which premiered just before the pandemic at 3945 Lancaster Ave. Bart’s wares (seen above being scooped out of their bath) are right up there on our list of Philly’s top bagel shops.

Chef Jacob Trinh — who hit the radar with his Vietnamese dishes at Kensington’s Càphê Roasters and most recently has had his own grill eatery, Nướng, as part of the Lucky Well Incubator — will take over the kitchen all January at Little Fish in Bella Vista while chef/owner Alex Yoon is in South Korea. Upon Yoon’s return, Trinh (below) will become Little Fish’s chef de cuisine.

DIY and AYCE are the operative abbreviations at Top Pot, which provides tabletop cooking of Chinese hot pot and Korean barbecue in its new shopping-center digs in Delran. That’s correct — both soups and stir-fry at the same table. Choose one style for $19.99 at lunch and $29.99 at dinner, or get both for $5 more.

Staff loads you up with raw, thin-sliced proteins (e.g. steak, pork, bulgogi, chicken, octopus, mussels, salmon, calamari) and vegetables, offers instruction, and gets you sizzling or building a soup from the stock. There’s also a buffet with prepared foods and a variety of sauces. You get as much as you want in two hours; we filled up far sooner.

This growing chain — coming to Montgomery Mall and Willow Grove next spring — is from Philly entrepreneur Eddie Zheng, founder of Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao and Takumi Bistro & Bar and owner of dozens of Tsaocaa bubble tea shops. There’s a location in University City, where it’s called Latao Hotpot.

Top Pot at Hartford Corners (1311 Fairview Blvd)., Delran. Hours: noon-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, noon-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. ADA accessible.

On the other side of the shopping center from Top Pot is Dooney’s Pub, where the complement of 50 TVs not only hangs over the bar but sits in the individual booths. Let’s say, just for example, that you couldn’t bear to watch the Eagles but you did want to catch LEGO Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular. Boom. Tune in at your table. All this, plus Irish pub atmosphere, and bar food including cheesesteak spring rolls and a signature chicken cheesesteak with sharp Provolone, long hots, sautéed onions, and bacon bits on a seeded long roll, topped with crushed chips and ranch drizzle.

There’s also a location in Voorhees’ Cedar Hill Shopping Center, near the Lowe’s.

Dooney’s Pub, 1361 Fairview Blvd., Delran. Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday. Hours will vary this weekend. ADA accessible.

The Halal Guys has opened a location at 4001 Welsh Rd. in Horsham, next to the new Manny’s Deli Stop. It’s the pad site outside of the Lowe’s store.

Need a place for dinner New Year’s Eve or brunch New Year’s Day? Nick Vadala and Hira Qureshi have you covered.

Center City District Restaurant Week returns. From Sunday, Jan. 21 through Feb. 3, more than 90 restaurants will offer prix-fixe, three-course menus for $45 ($60 at some, including the new Oltremare). Two-course lunches are again priced at $20. Find the list of restaurants at ccdrestaurantweek.com.

The James Beard Foundation will return to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on March 12 with its Taste America culinary series, which showcases 20 chef teams from across the country championing the foundation’s mission of Good Food for Good. The 2024 event, featuring 16 food and beverage stations, will be hosted by chef Jezabel Careaga from Jezabel’s and visiting chef Patricia Estorino from Gustazo Cuban Kitchen & Bar in Boston. The following local chefs are due to participate: Alexandra Holt (Roxanne), Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp (My Loup), Andrew Henshaw (Laser Wolf), Carolyn Nguyen (Revolution Taco), Dionicio Jimenez (Cantina La Martina), Hoon Rhee (Stir at Philadelphia Museum of Art), Muhammad Abdul-Hadi and chef Michael Carter (Down North Pizza), Randy Rucker (River Twice), and Sofia Deleon (El Merkury). Info, including ticket sales ($200 and $250 pp), is here.

Marc Vetri now has a branch of his pasta bar, Fiorella, in Las Vegas, a companion to his swish Vetri Cucina at the Palms. Mike Newall tracked down chef Matt Rodrigue to talk shop.

Philly-born coffee brand La Colombe has been sold to yogurt maker Chobani. Where did La Colombe founders Todd Carmichael and JP Iberti first meet in 1987?

A) at Starbucks HQ

B) in the mosh pit at a Seattle grunge bar

C) at a salmon-packing plant

D) at the top of the Space Needle

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s the next neighborhood to watch for restaurant development? — Bob K., Rhawnhurst

Keep an eye on Chestnut Hill, which has been fairly quiet aside from Char & Stave’s opening a permanent coffee bar and cocktail shop at Germantown and Highland Avenues not too long ago. I’m hearing chatter not only about a restaurant coming to the stately former Wells Fargo branch at Germantown and Evergreen Avenues (whose sale went through last week), as well as plans for what will be a high-end food-and-wine destination nearby. Stay tuned.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

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