All the notable Philly bar openings and closings in early 2024

Deep winter usually heralds the doldrums for the restaurant industry, but so far it hasn’t dimmed Philly’s crackling bar scene. Among the latest openings are Philadelphia’s first Black-owned brewery, a subterranean lounge/nightclub that cost $8 million, and a 12-seat bar reserved for walk-ins inside Dizengoff.

While those newcomers marinate, I dropped in on a handful of other recent entries, including a dive do-over in Fishtown, two very different Center City scenes, and a new bar from one of Puebladelphia’s best restaurants.

First up, the Nut Hut Saloon at the corner of Frankford and Norris Streets, on the cusp of Fishtown and Kensington. The 30-some-year-old dive closed in January 2023. Its new developer-owners had intended to renovate and rebrand, but changed their minds after visiting on the bar’s last night. Instead, they kept the name and redid pretty much everything else, installing a kitchen and painting the beadboarded walls maroon and gray. The only decorative holdovers from the original are some license plates and a weathered mirror behind the bar.

It’s a fraught strategy to make-over a shot and a beer bar; past patrons will inevitably use the previous place as a yardstick. I happened to visit at the same time as two couples separately scoped out “the New Nut vs. the Old Nut,” as they put it.

Bar manager Frankie Vado does his best to straddle the divide. “I still want it to be a drinkers’ bar,” he told me. The liter-and-a-half bottles of Woodbridge wine are perhaps the surest sign you’re not in a fancy Fishtown bar. Yuengling and Modelo are on draft, and there’s no cocktail menu, but Vado said he could mix up whatever. Citywides are $5 and a no-frills whiskey sour with Bulleit only ran me $7.

The kitchen is where the New Nut makes clear it’s no dive. While there are a couple $5 snacks (french fries, spiced nuts), the rest of the menu aims higher: salmon crudo, a beet salad, a $20 burger with pickled fennel and crispy shallots. The Kalamata olive hummus with marinated cherries ($10) was unexpectedly elegant, at odds with the paper-napkin silverware rollup. The Nut may no longer be “chaotic and awesome,” as one customer remembered it, but I wouldn’t mind having it on my corner.

Thumping club music is the Friday night soundtrack for Rittenhouse’s Almyra (17th and Chancellor), where a bouncer lingers in front of the revolving door, monitoring not just for IDs but also for an “upscale dress code” (no hoodies, sweatpants, or athleisure). The Greek seaside-themed restaurant has ample seating in its befloraled dining room, but the oversize marble bar — first come, first served — is its real see-and-be-seen center of gravity.

Like most high-volume bars, Almyra has its ups and downs. Despite the crowd, we lucked into three tufted barstools after just a few minutes’ hovering. The staff behind the bar were intermittently attentive and eye-contact avoidant, a weird combo probably shaped by fielding lots of orders in a very loud space. (They were also constantly sweeping up broken glass; in less than an hour, we saw maybe three Champagne coupes or stemmed wine glasses fall to the ground as they were air-drying. One hopes a better storage system is in the offing.)

Drinks and food came out quickly, albeit in need of a slight correction. Wine felt like a better value, as the cocktails all followed the same basic booze + fruit formula. Honestly, you’re not here for either. You’re here for the Center City socialite atmosphere.

Quite the opposite at the new Barcade, which opened in the Hale Building at Juniper and Chestnut in late December. It’s loud here, too, and there’s a bouncer, but they’re just carding the broad swath of folks looking to have beers over pinball. Barcade appeals to a bunch of people, none of whom are particularly concerned about appearances. Fun is on the brain instead, and maybe a little competition. “We’re staying here until we run out of tokens!” I overheard a middle-aged woman inform her friends on a late Thursday night.

With two stories of every kind of arcade game you can think of (shooting, fighting, wrestling, racing, plus classics), this location has more room to spread out than its Fishtown counterpart. Bonus points that my favorites — Ms. Pac-Man and Tapper — were located in the lower-decibel entryway. Barcade mostly trades in craft beer, but it does have food and plenty of tables upstairs and downstairs to take a break from gaming. With coffee shops closing earlier and bookstores on the decline, this is a late-night third space where you could easily skip the booze.

It’s easy to overlook the 100 block of Lombard Street, a few steps off the main drag. Expect more foot traffic headed that way once word gets out that Tamalex Bar and Grill (122 Lombard St.) opened there in January, adding a full bar to a fantastic food lineup from one of Craig LaBan’s favorite Mexican spots. It’s another entry in the growing narrative of Puebladelphia chefs coming into their own.

Bar manager Alejandro Vaca has worked in Philly for 15 years, at Sor Ynez, Tequilas, Parc, Village Whiskey, and Xochitl, but this represents his first crack at heading up the bar for his family’s business (he’s the owners’ eldest nephew). Vaca has assembled a solid collection of lesser-known tequilas, mezcals, and sotols behind Tamalex’s bar. You can sample them straight, but no doubt many will opt to try them in old fashioneds, palomas, and seasonal margaritas like tamarind, pineapple, or rose (a Valentine’s Day special).

The festive, terracotta-colored front room was empty on our chilly Thursday night visit, but we’ve no doubt it’ll fill up for Tamalex’s happy hour (Monday through Friday, 4 to 7 p.m.) for $10 margaritas, sangria, and mojitos, plus bar-only bites like cemitas and sopecitos. Even better? The kitchen is open till 1 a.m. daily.

In all the hubbub over openings, let’s not forget the closings. January saw the departure of Northern Liberties forerunner the Abbaye (637 N. Third St.), which had just reached drinking age itself. Wyndmoor’s Yankee Chipper (827 E. Pleasant Ave.) — a former BYOB that cashed in on the state’s liquor-law loophole allowing breweries, wineries and distilleries to serve any Pennsylvania-made spirits — wound down on Jan. 31 after two and a half years. Elsewhere in the suburbs, Round House, the originator of the cheesesteak martini, closed in Lansdale. Not to worry: Round Guys Brewing Co. has resumed operations in the space at 324 W. Main St., and they’ve even kept some cocktails.