Helm Rittenhouse closes after a year and a half
The second-floor location never performed the way the owners had expected.
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Michael Griffiths and Kevin D’Egidio confirm they have closed Helm Rittenhouse, their bar-restaurant above the Snap Kitchen at 19th and Chestnut Streets, which they opened in summer 2018.
”It just didn’t take off the way we wanted it to,” Griffiths said. He described the partnership with restaurateur Avram Hornik as cordial.
It’s been nearly five years since D’Egidio and Griffiths, who met at Lacroix, pooled 10 grand and opened Helm, their hit 34-seat BYOB, on Fifth Street near Girard Avenue in Kensington. A year later, they expanded to Front and Morris Streets with South Helm (now Musi), which they closed to focus on Rittenhouse. Along the way, they opened and closed Tierce, a breakfast-lunch spot in Fishtown.
Griffiths said the silver lining was that he and his partner now have more family time since they both work out of Helm.