Here are more than 30 new restaurants for spring | Let’s Eat

Need more dining options in your life? I’m tracking 30-some new restaurants due to open this spring — including first word of a suburban BYOB backed by a James Beard-nominated chef. Also this week, we visit a new zero-proof bar and a Northwest Philly restaurant from a chef with a past life as a bill collector, and we teach you how to order like a pro at Kalaya.

— Mike Klein

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Based on my odometer, the region’s restaurant scene is living up to its promise of a busy year for openings. In the next few weeks, for instance, you will see the long-long-long-delayed debut of Mulherin’s Pizzeria in East Market (that’s your first look inside, above), the similarly stalled BlackHen in Old City, and Baby’s Kusina & Market in Brewerytown, the much-buzzed about Little Walter’s in Kensington, and Carina Sorella in Bryn Mawr. I’ve got nearly three dozen openings on my radar, and yes, the suburbs are seeing some of the action.

Philly’s nonalcoholic bar scene is expanding, from bottle shops that sell zero-proof beer, wines, and spirits to the ramped-up N/A selections at conventional bars. Dedicated nonalcoholic bars are also taking hold since 2022′s opening of Volstead by Unity in Manayunk. There are a few others out there, including Free Spirit in Buckingham, Mercantile 1888 in Collingswood, and Wallace Dry Goods in Ardmore, though none has a large food menu.

Add one more to the list: Brian Rothbart (shown above) is now soft-opening Nutmeg Bar & Market in the former Jinxed antiques shop at 1835 E. Passyunk Ave., next to Gabriella’s Vietnam. (The shop was Jinxed; the location isn’t.) Rothbart was in the wine business in California and ran a wine-and-cheese bar in Jersey City before career-shifting into construction management. “But that wasn’t doing it for me,” he says, explaining his return to beverages. He’s aiming to deliver a slightly upscale bar vibe for dates: $12 wine pours, $6 beers, and $11 cocktails, such as spins on a spicy margarita, citrus martini, and a “newfangled” old-fashioned. There’s also small snack menu. Hours are now 4-8 p.m. Friday-Sunday, and he’s building a selection of bottles and the like for the “market” section.

There’s another N/A bar on the way. Hira Qureshi tells us about Nikki Graziano’s Bar Palmina, which is relocating to a new storefront in Fishtown and looking at a May opening.

Bonner’s, at 23rd and Sansom near the Walnut Street Bridge, is one of the last of Center City’s Irish bars. It’s now for sale, though as Mike Newall writes, owner Danny Bonner wants it to carry on. Even with the ghosts.

Who among us doesn’t read the menu before heading out to dinner? And what if you asked a chef or two for their recommendations at a hot restaurant like Kalaya? Maddy Sweitzer-Lamme did just that, and she shares their favorites.

A James Beard nominee is headed to the burbs. Chef Dionicio Jiménez and Mariangeli Alicea Saez of Cantina La Martina in Kensington are branching out to Ambler with a moderately upscale BYOB called La Baja, where the cooking will fuse the northern border cuisine of Baja with Mediterranean and Asian ingredients. Jiménez has cooked in Philly for 25 years: Xochtl, Vetri Cucina, El Rey. The location, at 9 N. Main St. just off the Butler Avenue main drag, has been a series of restaurants, including Mokja, Gabby’s Banh Mi, and Ambler Burgers & More. The couple hopes to open in May, after Cantina’s Cinco de Mayo hubbub subsides. (Jiménez’s trip to his hometown in Puebla was the subject of a lovely Craig LaBan story with evocative photos by Jessica Griffin.) Little Ambler Borough has quite the Mexican scene, with the casual El Limon and Taqueria El Habanero to be joined midsummer by Fort Washington’s Cantina Feliz.

Brunchaholics, the bruncherie that Aaron Anderson launched last year in Fishtown Crossing shopping center and expanded to Cherry Hill soon after, opened a third this week at 512 Avenue of the States in Chester. Center City Philadelphia will house the fourth location — just after Memorial Day at 38-40 S 19th St. Anderson says they’re now franchising.

Osteria’s 50-seat outdoor patio, adjacent to the greenhouse dining room, is now covered by a roof and pergola, ending its weather-dependency. Chef-owner Jeff Michaud and GM Martin Cugine retained greenery experts Bonita Wagner and Dane Fasanella (Wild Things Floral Artistry) to add twisted vines, living ivy, and plantings that this will yield what Cugine calls “an enchanted forest.” Deliver your praise in person: Wagner’s night job is bartender at the North Broad restaurant.

Tanesha Trippett’s career change from bill collector to chef is working out: She just opened Jacobs Restaurant in West Oak Lane, just a few blocks from where she grew up. Read on for my chat with her.

Free bagels! First 100 people get a bagel and schmear at Bagels & Co.’s new location at 17 S. 11th St. from 8-9 a.m. Friday.

Breezy’s Deli & Market grand opens this weekend at 23rd Street and Washington Avenue, and it’s designed to serve the Point Breeze-Graduate Hospital crowd.

Race Street Cafe owner Stacy Wessel, who’d been studying for her advanced sommelier certification, not only got her award but was the Wine School of Philadelphia’s 2024 Sommelier Student of the Year. Wine School founder Keith Wallace is kicking in sparkling wine to give to dinner customers (21 and over) at the Old City restaurant from April 15-21.

Outdoor dining is kicking into gear. Bok Bar comes back April 11 with a season of food from seven chefs: Darnel’s (April), Jezabel’s Cafe (May), Puyero Venezuelan Flavor (June), Down North Pizza (July), Korea Taqueria (August), Gabriella’s Vietnam (September), and Sweet Amalia (October). Also returning: Liberty Point (Walnut Street at Penn’s Landing, 4 p.m. April 11), and Morgan’s Pier (221 N. Columbus Blvd., 4 p.m. April 18). Parks on Tap, the movable beer garden, will resume April 17, the same day Independence Beer Garden (Sixth Street south of Market) opens for Year 10.

Flavors on the Avenue, the East Passyunk shindig, will be April 28 along East Passyunk from Broad to Dickinson Streets. Check the restaurant list and other particulars here.

Restaurant owners appealed to City Council to streamline rules surrounding streeteries. There are only 13 of these structures the books.

What’s it like being the chef of the Sixers? Eli Collins is giving it his best shot.

Gourmet retailer Di Bruno Bros. got a substantial investment from grocer Jeff Brown’s family markets last week. What year was Di Bruno’s founded?

A) 1888

B) 1939

C) 1980

D) 1990

Find out if you know the answer.

Have you heard about takeout restaurants charging for salt and pepper on a sandwich? — Bobby Y., Aldan

Some restaurants do nickel and dime, but S&P? Nah. I saw that someone posted an anonymous complaint on Delco Restaurant Review, a great Facebook group, that a restaurant was charging 75 cents for salt and 75 cents for black pepper. After much discussion (“someone’s gotta pay for it” was one that made me chuckle), a level-headed commenter deduced that the restaurant’s online ordering system had not been programmed properly. Why didn’t the aggrieved customer reach out to the restaurant before putting it on blast? I welcome your thoughts.

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