Restaurateur Avram Hornik is opening a sports bar, a cocktail lounge, and a Mexican coffee shop all in Rittenhouse
He says he is opening a sports bar on Chestnut St., but more immediately is planning to reopen Noche at 19th and Chestnut and serve Mexican breakfast near 23rd and Walnut.
Avram Hornik, fresh off last spring’s opening of Liberty Point, Philadelphia’s largest restaurant, said he is developing three projects in the Rittenhouse Square area.
Hornik recently signed a lease at 1720 Chestnut St. for what he told The Inquirer would be a two-story sports bar opening in late 2023 that would cater to the neighborhood. The working name is Lucy’s — unrelated, he said, to his long-ago Old City nightspot Lucy’s Hat Shop. The location was a sports-apparel shop and so must be outfitted as a restaurant.
A branch of the revolving-sushi restaurant Kura is expected to open his month directly across the street.
The Rittenhouse neighborhood, meanwhile, is expecting the opening this winter of Bankroll, the Stephen Starr-fronted sports bar, in the former Boyd Theater at 1910 Chestnut St. Another local sports bar, a branch of Cavanaugh’s, recently moved into a new building at 1921 Sansom St.
“Ours will be for regular people,” Hornik said of Lucy, downplaying a notion of competition with the posher Bankroll, which will be aimed at customers interested in sports betting.
Hornik also is redeveloping his second-floor bar at 1901 Chestnut St., above Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, into a cocktail bar, and will revive the name Noche that hung on the sign from 2004 to 2014. He expects that to open “shortly.” (Point of trivia: The windows served as the exterior of the law firm in the shot-in-Philly Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington movie Philadelphia.)
The third dining project will be a Mexican-theme coffee shop at 2218 Walnut St., which previously was Lost Bread Co. and Res Ipsa Cafe. Hornik said it also would open soon with a menu of tortas, breakfast tacos, and Mexican coffee. The location is two doors from his Rosy’s Taco Bar.
Besides Rosy’s and Liberty Point, on Penn’s Landing, Hornik’s holdings include Morgan’s Pier, Lola’s Garden, Concourse Dance Bar, Craft Hall, Harper’s Garden, Juno, the Dolphin Tavern, the Garden at Cherry Street Pier, and operation of the traveling beer garden Parks on Tap.