Bastia puts a luxe Mediterranean restaurant in a hauntingly beautiful 19th-century building in the middle of Fishtown

Chef Tyler Akin’s debut as a restaurateur was Stock, an 18-seat pho shop on Girard Avenue in Fishtown, in summer 2014. Exactly 10 years later, Akin has returned to the neighborhood to open his latest, Bastia.

Opening Aug. 15, it’s a 70-seat cafe by day and coastal Mediterranean restaurant by night in Foyer Project’s new Hotel Anna & Bel, at Susquehanna Avenue and Belgrade Street. A companion lounge called Caletta, with what Akin calls an “Italian snacky menu,” is forthcoming next month, with 16 seats, eight bar seats, and 28 seats outdoors by the pool.

The hotel is the former Penn Asylum for Indigent Widows and Single Women, a hauntingly beautiful 19th-century building tucked into the rowhouse neighborhood, a half-mile from the bustle of Frankford Avenue’s shops and restaurants. The restaurant is part of the home’s chapel.

Bastia’s roots date to 2019. Akin and his then-neighbor, Foyer Project’s Dor Berkovitz, began talking about opening a grocery store/all-day cafe. They shelved that idea early in the pandemic. When Berkovitz and his wife, Galli Arbel, began developing the hotel, they looked up Akin.

Akin, who cooked at the Greek-Mediterranean restaurant Komi in Washington, and at Zahav in Philadelphia before opening Stock, came up with a menu designed to match the vibe created by Foyer’s Arbel, Berkovitz, and Sigita Stravinskaite, and the design and architecture firm B March.

“Coastal Mediterranean” — and the restaurant’s name — stemmed from a collaborative Corsican dinner that Akin was planning with chef Jon Sybert of Tail Up Goat in Washington, at Akin’s Wilmington restaurant, Le Cavalier at the Hotel Du Pont. Though that didn’t work out, Akin said, “I went down the rabbit hole and started to look at Sardinia because of proximity and the sort of flavors that could complement each other.”

Among Bastia’s dishes will be skate cheeks with corn and bonito beurre blanc; sea urchin butter tartine with stuffed squash blossom; entrecôte with borlotti beans and sweet pepper salad; and grilled lobster Algherese with legumes. The brunch menu will include green shakshuka with herbs, tomatillo, wilted greens, and eggs; Nicoise sandwich with tuna, tapenade, ratatouille, arugula, and harissa; and a breakfast sandwich with ricotta frittata, mint salsa verde, and wilted greens.

Beverage director Benjamin Kirk, most recently at Wm. Mulherin’s Sons, is stocking the bar with small-batch spirits and natural wine labels and will use such traditional Corsican and Sardinian ingredients as citrus and chestnuts. To wit: one cocktail, Isle of Beauty, contains Calvados, Old Overholt, Bloom Farm chestnuts, amari, golden raisin, and orange. Nonalcoholic options include Italian sodas and coffee granita.

As for that 10-year stretch between Stock and Bastia: Akin opened a second Stock, in Rittenhouse, and partnered on Res Ipsa Cafe; all closed during the pandemic. In 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, he returned to his native Delaware to open Le Cavalier, and was part of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, an advocacy group.

Bastia’s bar will open at 4 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday; dinner will be served from 5 to 10 p.m. Brunch will be served from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekends. Weekday breakfast and lunch will follow on Aug. 28.