Nipotina restaurant owner comes home to South Philly to make sandwiches

Marlo Dilks grew up in the slice of South Philly now better known as West Passyunk or Newbold. Her late dad, Louis Fioravanti, owned a luncheonette (Cousins), an Italian social club (Club Little Louie), and a grocery (the Meat Barn), all nearby, plus another luncheonette, Marlo’s Kitchen, in Folcroft. Her mom, Mary, owns A Star Is Born, a children’s boutique, on East Passyunk.

After 16 years in the restaurant business with Slice Pizza and P’unk Burger, Dilks and her husband, Jason, are going home to her old neighborhood with a sandwich shop called Nipotina, opening Thursday at 21st and Wolf Streets, just off West Passyunk Avenue.

Nipotina is Italian for granddaughter. “It’s who I am,” said Marlo Dilks, 41. She and her husband, 46, have seven daughters ages 22 to 4 (and a female dog that’s 13).

The menu’s approach comes from the Fioravanti family playbook: classic sandwiches based on cutlets and meatballs, offered with fried red peppers and Provolone, the sharper the better. For example, the namesake sandwich is a chicken cutlet topped with fried Genoa salami, fried red peppers, and, for a twist, chipotle mayo. They’re using Liscio’s rolls.

There will be vegan cheesesteaks and cutlets, as well as gluten-free rolls. Vegan and gluten-free desserts will also be available.

The small shop, which has only 20 seats indoors, sports the original signs from Marlo’s Kitchen and Club Little Louie, among other family memorabilia. There’s also an outside counter with stools in a fenced-in area on the extended sidewalk.

Nipotina was about three years in the making. Why the delay?

“Nipotina is the first location that we built from scratch — meaning it wasn’t a restaurant prior, so things had to be done a lot different with regards to zoning and licenses compared to other locations we have taken over,” Marlo Dilks said. “This was definitely a huge learning curve for us. That, combined with delays originally due to COVID, just really set us back.”

She acknowledged permitting delays as well as “mistakes with the build-out and zoning process that cost us time and money. In the end, timing is everything and I believe in fate.”

“We definitely didn’t want to rush, and wish we got opened sooner — but at the end of the day, it was meant to be for us to open now.”

They will do their own local delivery at first and will add service from the apps later this spring.

Hours will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday.