37 new places to take holiday visitors | Let’s Eat

What’s new out there in bars and restaurants? Your holiday visitors may be asking, and I’ll help with answers.

— Mike Klein

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So you’re the social director when friends and relatives make their annual visits over the holidays. I have you covered with activities: 37 bars and restaurants that opened this year in Philadelphia and its suburbs in Pennsylvania and South Jersey.

Kensington, swimming in new booze these days, happens to be home to Charles Jacquin et Cie Inc., Philly’s largest liquor factory and among its oldest. Jacquin is perhaps its lowest key. Jenn Ladd visited this time capsule-slash-working factory, whose portfolio includes the seasonal fave Pennsylvania Dutch eggnog.

📽️ Lauren Schneiderman’s video takes you inside the Jacquin’s plant to meet the spirited people behind the famous spirits.

Koch’s Deli, which served generations of Penn folks in its nearly 60 years, has reopened, a year after the city Health Department ordered its shutdown under previous management. Meanwhile, the Koch’s name is the subject of a court fight. Like the corned beef special shown above, there’s a lot to digest. Read on and I’ll do it for you.

Society Hill’s Bloomsday saw a need for a morning coffee spot. So they opened Loretta’s two doors away, offering joe, breakfast, and light lunches, freeing Bloomsday to do what it does best: lunch, dinner, and beverages.

Rival Bros Coffee Roasters, which supplies coffee to Bloomsday and Loretta’s, will open its fourth cafe “early this winter” at the Jessup House (1134 Sansom St.), a 20-story high-rise with 399 apartments. Stokes Architecture + Design, which set up Rival’s crosstown spot Enswell, handled the new Rival’s layout and design.

Old friends meet up to pregame before their 20th high school reunion: What could possibly go wrong? The Comeuppance, a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at the Wilma Theater through Dec. 14, “captures the existential dread and melancholy of approaching early middle age,” according to critic Krista Mar. On a lighter note, let’s consider dinner ideas within a 10-minute walk of the Wilma: Bud & Marilyn’s at 13th and Locust (if you arrive by 7 p.m., you’ll run into happy hour), Good Dog Bar at 224 S. 15th St. (burgers and beers), and Enswell at 1528 Spruce St. (small plates and cocktails).

Chef Frankie Ramirez, whose resume includes LMNO, Tredici, and Parc, is opening a restaurant with his wife, Verónica, and suburban restaurateurs Roberto Medina and Crisalida Mata. Amá will be a high-end Mexican bar-restaurant in a new building at Front and Oxford Streets in Fishtown-Kensington. Read on for more about the project and Ramirez’s journey from Mexico City to Philly.

Fishtown-Kensington has even more restaurants on the way. Jake Blumgart reports that 204 apartments are coming to 1700 N. Front St., and two new restaurants will be under them: the Philadelphia debut of Mecha Noodle Bar out of Connecticut and a new concept from the owners of the nearby Forin Cafe, which will include a fireplace in the lounge area.

The Stotesbury, a revamp of Fatty’s Bar & Grill at Willow Grove and Elm Avenues in Wyndmoor under Brian Harrington (City Tap House) and developer Jay Overcash (Enza Pizzeria), opens Friday. There are twelve beer taps, while the bar menu includes burgers, steak sandwiches, tacos, wings, and a price outlier: a $32 lobster roll. Harrington and Overcash have a bet going: Harrington thinks it will sell, while Overcash is skeptical.

Tomo at 228 Arch St. will expand its shoebox-size sushi storefront next week, spreading into 230 Arch with 30 more seats.

The Fort Kitchen & Bar. Fort Washington, squished between Ambler and Horsham, flies under the restaurant-creation radar. There’s not much over that way, especially after Cantina Feliz’s departure for Ambler. Until this week.

The owners of Jasper’s Backyard in Conshohocken have rebuilt the long-shuttered Friendly’s into the Fort Kitchen & Bar, which has a 20-seat bar (with a full list) and assorted side dining rooms. The old Friendly’s ice cream counter is now a spacious, semi-enclosed room expected to be open nearly year-round.

Pay attention to the shrimp scampi skillet dip ($17, shown below), one of the appetizers on the something-for-everyone menu, whose sandwiches are priced in the teens and entrees mostly in the twenties.

The Fort Kitchen & Bar, 325 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington. Hours: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Wednesday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. Wheelchair accessible.

Agricola. Let the owners of other corner pizza shops try to make a fortune. Aaron Gordon of the mobile catering company 13th Street Cocktails said he is going a different way with his homey new corner shop at 10th and Federal Streets in the former SliCE Pizza. It’s a partnership with SliCE founders Marlo and Jason Dilks. (That’s Gordon with Marlo Dilks shown below.)

Gordon mills local wheat and farro for the dough and makes his own duck prosciutto for toppings. “I can’t lose money, obviously, but this place will never clean up,” he said. “I mean, it’s pizza. It’s simple food. Even when you make it the way I do, it’s cheap. It shouldn’t be 25, 30 bucks.” Read on for the details, including word of his $9 cocktails.

Agricola, 1180 S. 10th St. Hours: 4-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2-7 p.m. Sunday.

Need to find a liquor store over Thanksgiving? Here is what you need to know before you set out.

Cantina La Martina’s 7 Moles, a play on the traditional “Feast of the 7 Fishes,” will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 20, a seven-course dinner showcasing seven mole dishes from seven chefs: Alejandro Sánchez of Mesona, Chance Anies of Tabachoy, Jennifer Zavala of Juana Tamale, Yun Fuentes of Bolo, Ange Branca of Kampar, Eric Leveillee of Lacroix, and Ed Crochet and Justine Macneil of Fiore Fine Foods. It’s $150pp, plus tax, tip, and drinks; info is here.

Café Click, the summertime Starr joint outside of the Comcast Center (1701 JFK Blvd.), is open noon-8 p.m. daily for the holidays as a to-go pop-up, with boozy and non-boozy winter drinks. Inside Comcast’s concourse, Pizzeria Salvy has extended hours into Saturdays, 11:30 a.m.–6 p.m., until Dec. 28.

Nok Suntaranon, owner of Kalaya, will star this season on the Netflix series Chef’s Table. What was her longtime career before opening the restaurant?

A) accountant

B) boutique owner

C) flight attendant

D) tour guide

Find out if you know the answer.

What happened to Bark Social? — Leigh S.

Bark Social, combining a bar, cafe, and off-leash dog park, announced last week that it had immediately shut all five of its locations (Manayunk, which opened in April 2023, plus four in the Maryland-Virginia suburbs). The company said that expected additional financing fell through and that it would enter bankruptcy. All employees were let go. One “bark ranger” told me that the Manayunk location employed 25 to 30 people as winter hours were kicking in. Also on the hook are Bark Social’s members. Bark told Fast Company that it would not issue refunds on memberships, which cost upwards of $365 a year.

📮 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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