Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Oxtail, roti, and biryani are on the Trinidadian menu at Flambo’s in Washington Square West

"Look where destiny has brought me," says owner Anthony Logan, who is sharing his Trinidadian and Indian roots on 13th Street.

Anthony Logan (left) and his son, Kevin Ramlochan, at Flambo, 205 S. 13th St.
Anthony Logan (left) and his son, Kevin Ramlochan, at Flambo, 205 S. 13th St.Read moreCourtesy of Anthony Logan

Caribbean cuisine combines many cultures, and Trinidad-born Anthony Logan melds island cooking with flavors from India at the new Washington Square West location of Flambo, which took the former IndeBlue in a walk-up at 205 S. 13th St.

It’s a move for Flambo, which Logan opened six years ago at 820 N. Broad St. That location closed over the summer as he and son Kevin Ramlochan prepped this new spot. It is expected to reopen soon.

The 13th Street Flambo has a chill vibe, a comfortable dining room, and a small bar up front serving tropical drinks like, (Sex on the Boat, for example, is a rum-and-melon concoction served in a porcelain vessel).

Chef Sam Reddy’s menu includes tandoori-grilled lamb chops; pholourie (fried split-pea balls); barbecue pigtails; oven-roasted boneless pork in soy sauce; curry lamb; butter chicken; chow mein; and Hyderabadi biryani, plus three kinds of roti. Entrées start at $20 and top at $31 for oxtail.

Logan intends this location for dine in, not takeout or delivery.

“I feel that you should sit down and really enjoy this meal,” he said. “I don’t it being delivered in a brown bag and you open it up and it’s cold. I want to focus on quality.”

Logan, a fifth-generation Trinidadian, wanted to open a restaurant after a decade working in hospital administration and so he bought the Broad Street building, which is on a now-redeveloping stretch of town near the Met. A few years in, he decided to make the leap to Center City. His son was not supposed to be a part of Flambo.

But when Logan was struggling to open on 13th Street, “I said to him, ‘Give me some help and see if you’d like this business. And he has flourished.” Kevin, who runs the bar, will operate the Broad Street location.

“When Flambo opened and I saw people in there and I heard the clattering of forks and knives, it made me realize like, ‘Look where destiny has brought me.’ This is what I wanted to accomplish, and I achieved my dream.

Flambo is open from 4 to 11 p.m. daily; plans for weekend brunch are in the works.