🍸 Philly’s very best cocktail bars | Let’s Eat

Cheers, all! This week, we share our favorite Philadelphia bars.

Also in this edition:

— Mike Klein

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We share our rundown of nearly two dozen outstanding places to get a cocktail in Philly — mysterious hideaways, Instagrammable destinations, a poolside lounge, even one with an entirely nonalcoholic menu.

🥂What’s your favorite cocktail bar/lounge in the Pennsylvania or New Jersey suburbs? Let us know.

When I heard that Roy Rogers was returning to the Philly area after a three-decade absence, I knew I wouldn’t be alone in welcoming it back. But have you seen the traffic jams on Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill?! Denali Sagner checks out the new Roy Rogers, Fixin’s Bar and all.

Out West, from the team behind Down North Pizza, has a top-notch coffee program and one of the most exciting breakfast-sandwich lineups around. To wit: The lamb scrapple breakfast sandwich shown above starts with a house-made patty with an over-medium egg, cheese, and strawberry harissa jam on a potato bun. Harissa explains it all, and Jenn Ladd tells the story.

Our food team’s travels have taken us to Old City (for tuna), Chinatown (for tempura-ed corn kernels), and the burbs (for Hakka-style sautéed pork and pressed tofu), and our Maryland-born correspondent Jake Blumgart is particularly delighted with the rock crab burger he scored from a food truck at Temple University.

Cast your eyes toward 10th and Spring Garden Streets in the slice of town near Union Transfer, dubbed Spring Arts. There, in the 990 Spring Garden building, two new restaurants and a cafe are taking shape to open this fall.

Cescaphe’s Joe Volpe, a titan of the city’s high-end wedding industry, has a new side project: As Erin McCarthy reports, he and his wife have bought a vineyard in Bucks County, where they’ll make private-label wines to be served at his nine Philadelphia venues, including Water Works, the Bellevue, and Tendenza. Blind Fox Vineyard, opening this fall, will have two tasting rooms, tours, and outdoor spaces for seasonal tastings.

Matines Cafe is on the move within Chestnut Hill. Arthur and Amanda de Bruc plan to relocate their three-year-old French charmer next month to larger digs four blocks away at 23 W. Highland Ave., a half-block off of Germantown Avenue. The couple, whose mômes are 5 and 6 years old, are converting the current location, at 89 Bethlehem Pike, into Petit Matines Cafe, a kid-friendly, family- and community-oriented space with a tighter menu and weekly activities such as arts and crafts, painting, and sewing classes. “You can grab a pastry and a coffee in the morning, and you’ll be able to come back with your kids in the afternoon,” Arthur de Bruc told me. The couple opened a Main Line Matines location last November at 757 Lancaster Ave. in Wayne.

Crust Vegan Bakery is planning a short but dramatic move this fall from Manayunk to 4200 Ridge Ave. in East Falls, where Meagan Benz and crew will combine their current storefront (now at 4409 Main St.) and the nearby commercial kitchen under one, much larger roof. The new spot, just off Kelly Drive at Midvale, will feature plenty of indoor seating, an expanded savory menu (I’m hoping for additional fun items like the Pickle Pop-Tarts they’ve done on April Fool’s Day), espresso drinks and other beverages, a private room for community groups or events, and a stage for performances, open mics, and other gatherings.

Fetch Park, a dog park-slash-bar out of Georgia, will give a new leash on life to the space in Manayunk that housed the shuttered Bark Social.

Tequilas, Philadelphia’s first fine-dining Mexican restaurant, has returned after a fire, sporting a new counterpart called La Jefa, a modern tribute to founder David Suro’s native Guadalajara, overseen by his children. There’s so much going on here, as Kiki Aranita writes: Tequilas’ familiar, classic dining room, the all-day cafe/sunlit brunch vibe at La Jefa, and the moody adjacent cocktail bar called La Jefa Milpa. Every visit, Kiki says, “has been like cracking open a matryoshka doll, each layer revealing yet another one.”

Read on for her review.

Hop Sing Laundromat, the Chinatown cocktail lounge, returns to its pre-COVID schedule on Aug. 21, serving Thursday-Saturday. All drinks from a list of 26 selections are $10 plus tip on Thursdays. (You’ll want to tip well, or you risk being banned.) The regular list of more than 60 drinks is sold at normal price Friday and Saturday.

Neshaminy Creek Brewing Co.’s first-ever Pickle Palooza starts at noon Saturday with the debut of It’s a Dillemma, a tart-tangy sour ale, as well as pickle-themed cocktails, food trucks, and a lineup of local pickle vendors including Fishtown Pickle Project, Giovanni’s Dillicious Pickles, Pickle Dude, and Penny’s Pickles. An American Pickle starring Seth Rogen will screen free starting at 6 p.m. The brewery is at 909 Ray Ave., Croydon.

Sonny’s Cocktail Joint (1508 South St.) reopens at 5 p.m. Friday, a little more than a month after a flood from the apartment upstairs. Sonny’s was closed for nearly three years after a 2022 fire. Steve Seibel is still slinging his thin-and-crispy Chicago-style tavern pizzas. (That’s the Prince of South Street, with cup pepperoni, below).

Columnist Stephanie Farr made a shocking discovery while picking up a hoagie in Delaware County. What was it?

A) They forgot the fillings.

B) It was in a bag marked “submarine.”

C) There had been a bite taken out of it.

D) Eeek, a mouse.

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s the latest with the Tun, the re-creation of the Tun Tavern that’s planned in Old City? — Larry S.

As I reported in April 2024, a nonprofit group wants to revive Tun Tavern, widely recognized as the 1775 birthplace of the Marine Corps, as a tavern/restaurant with a museum featuring artifacts and documents on display. (The actual Tun was razed in 1781.) Last week, city records show, the Tun Tavern Legacy Foundation filed for a construction permit for a new three-story building at 15-17 S. Second St., just south of Market. Estimated price tag: $11 million. A spokesperson told me that once fundraising is complete, construction will take 16-18 months. The foundation is planning events Nov. 7-11 to mark the 250th anniversary of the Marines. Last year, the company that operates Tun Tavern restaurant in Atlantic City filed a trademark-infringement suit in federal court, seeking to block the use of the name. That case is pending.

Above is an updated rendering of the planned tavern in the foreground with the museum at rear.

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