Bolo brings chef Yun Fuentes’ Latin flavors to Rittenhouse

Latin-inspired dining near Rittenhouse Square, unavailable since the pandemic shutdown of Alma de Cuba, has reemerged with the recent opening of Bolo, with a romantic bar specializing in rum on the first floor and a skylit dining room on the second floor of 2025 Sansom St. There’s also a flip-up front window exposing a four-seat streetside bar.

Bolo is on a restaurant-rich block including Wilder, Melograno, Porcini, Village Whiskey, Shake Shack, Ateethi, and Vic Sushi, and fills the space that Il Pittore occupied until six years ago. Over the last 25 years, other tenants in the space included Cibucán, Gioia Mia, and Noble American Cookery.

Executive chef Yun Fuentes is a former second-in-command for Nuevo Latino pioneer Douglas Rodrigues at Alma de Cuba. Owners Jamie Lokoff and Tommy Joyner own MilkBoy, the recording studio and entertainment company whose music-themed bars are at 11th and Chestnut Streets in Center City and at Fourth and South Streets in Queen Village. Fuentes is culinary director there.

The building, with its multiple skylights and vast front windows on both levels, helped sell them on the location. “We wanted a space that was cozy, warm, and had that vibrant, jovial feeling of the Latin American culture,” Fuentes said. “Then we decided to go full on as a rum bar.”

The Puerto Rico-born Fuentes is channeling his paternal grandfather, Juan “Bolo” Fuentes, a cook who migrated to New York in the 1950s but returned to San Juan to raise his family. The kids couldn’t say “abuelo” (or grandfather), so “Bolo” stuck as a nickname.

Like his grandfather, Fuentes, 44, himself worked in San Juan and New York (apprenticing with Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud). He arrived in Philadelphia to work at the Jose Garces restaurants Amada, Tinto, and Village Whiskey.

Fuentes said he and his partners are taking “a solid look back to our traditions and our culture. We really want to keep the scope on Latin America because we want to give a voice also to other people or other cultures from Latin America and highlight them. But of course, like any journey, you start at home.”

The Bolo menu (and music) spans the Caribbean, Central America, and South America with ceviches, piscolabis (snacks), pinchos (skewered meats and vegetables), cuchifritos (fried foods), verduras (vegetables), platillos (main dishes), desserts, and Latin-style coffees.

The piscolabis and pinchos lists are particularly suited to the bar, where a growing rum roster will complement a cocktail list of classics (including a piña colada and mojito), four daiquiris, and seven house specialties with non-rum spirits. Philadelphia custom craft brewery My Local Brew Works has created two beers: Bolo Light (described as a pre-prohibition cream ale) and Bolo Dark (a retro brown ale whose flavor profile resembles the Malta soft drinks of Puerto Rico).

Prices run from $7 to $18 for a slew of smaller plates; $25 for a trio of ceviches is a good starter for two. Entrees range from $35 for a Gulf shrimp version of asopao (the Puerto Rican stew) to $65 for lobster mofongo, which brings you a butter-poached lobster and timbale filled with lardo and green plantain, topped with mojo isleño.

It’s open now from 4 to 10 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, and 4 to midnight Thursday to Saturday, with happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays.