One of the country’s most successful fine-dining restaurateurs is finally opening a Philly restaurant

Restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow’s ties to Philadelphia are deep: He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and its law school in the 1970s, made an early career as a lawyer with what is now Blank Rome, and, for decades, had a vacation house and farm near New Hope.

But in his fine-dining career, which stretches back to 1987’s opening of China Grill in Manhattan and spans the globe, he has never had a restaurant in Philadelphia.

This will change later this year, when Chodorow opens Mr. Edison in the Bellevue, part of the landmark Center City building’s multimillion-dollar renovation.

Mr. Edison, whose concept Chodorow is keeping close to the vest, will occupy the former Polo Ralph Lauren store on the Walnut Street side. (Last summer, a door in the lobby was briefly labeled “Mr. Edison”; a plain wall was erected after paparazzo HughE Dillon posted a photo of it.)

Chodorow said Mr. Edison is named in tribute to Thomas Edison, who designed the Bellevue’s lighting for its 1904 opening. He said that a Spanish firm, Clavel Arquitectos, has created a “mind-blowing” design with a historical connection to the building. Also, he said, the Chodorow farm will supply Mr. Edison’s produce, as it does for Jean’s, the New York restaurant that Chodorow’s son Max opened in 2023.

Asked why he had never previously opened in Philadelphia, Chodorow said it was primarily to respect the feelings of his sons, Max and Zach, who are also now in the restaurant business.

The Philadelphia area was for leisure, Chodorow said. “They said, ‘Dad, when you’re in Miami, you’re always down at the restaurants, or [when you’re] in New York, you’re always down at the restaurants,‘” he said. “‘Is there a place we can go where you don’t have restaurants?’”

(When Max attended Penn, Chodorow said his son told him, “OK, Dad. Now you can open a restaurant, so I got a place to go and eat for free, right?”)

Chodorow’s affinity for the Bellevue dates back to his law days, when he developed the Suburban Station building with Ronald Rubin, the real estate icon, whose next redevelopment project, in the 1980s, was the Bellevue, known then as the Bellevue Stratford.

Chodorow left the Bellevue project, but did rent the roof for the February 1982 Rio-themed engagement party for him and his wife, Linda. (It was decorated with a mock ticket counter, elevators-turned-jetliners, and “customs agents.”)

“I always had an affection for that grand property,” Chodorow said. “When Dean Adler [now redeveloping the Bellevue with Ira Lubert] asked me if I would do the restaurant there, I said sure. He wants to do something new and different. And the stuff I do is generally new and different.”