Philly’s elegant Fond restaurant is coming back to life as a BYOB — in the suburbs

Few restaurants have had the moves that Fond has.

Opening as an elegant BYOB in 2009 on East Passyunk Avenue, it relocated three years later onto the nearby corner of 11th and Tasker Streets, where it picked up a liquor license. When the pandemic forced Fond’s closure in late 2021, chefs-owners Lee Styer and Jessie Prawlucki Styer moved the Dutch, the casual, all-day spot that they own with chef Kevin Watters, into its space.

Three years later, Fond is coming back, though in Delaware County, a half-hour away.

On Sept. 30, the Styers take the keys of La Cannelle Cafe in Wallingford, Loubna Lemgard’s five-year-old fine-dining BYOB at 21 N. Providence Rd. Three years ago, the Styers moved to Delaware County, three miles from the restaurant, where they live in a rambling house with their three children and dog.

Styer told The Inquirer that the restaurant would operate as La Cannelle for two weeks with some Fond specials before he and his wife (who’s the pastry chef) transition to the Fond name and French-influenced American menu. It will remain a BYOB and will serve lunch and dinner.

Inside, it’s about the same size as the old Fond, with 40 seats. There is a large patio outside, as well as plenty of parking.

The couple — he is 40, she is 39 — met in 2003 as students at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and worked for Georges Perrier at Le Bec-Fin before opening Fond in the storefront that now houses Laurel.

In addition, from 2011 to 2015, Prawlucki Styer operated Belle Cakery, a bakery, at 1437 E. Passyunk Ave., where Essen Bakery is now.

In tribute to his wife’s business, Styer affixed a sign reading “Belle Eggery” to the family’s backyard chicken coop. Eggs from the couple’s 10 chickens and vegetables from their sizable garden will factor into the menu, they said.