We found some great cups of coffee | Let’s Eat

Four of Philly’s best coffee spots are immigrant-owned; we take you inside to show how they do it. Also this week, meet a pastry chef who is bringing her neighborhood together, see just how bad the city’s streetery-permitting system is, and rejoice in the return of falafel to Center City. Read all the way down for restaurant news and answers to your questions.

— Mike Klein

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Immigrant-owned shops with global techniques have given a pleasant jolt to Philadelphia’s coffee scene. Jenna Miller, Charmaine Runes, and Jasen Lo visited four shops slinging coffee — Ray’s Café and Tea House (Taiwanese), Café Com Leite (Brazilian), Alif Brew & Mini Mart (Ethiopian), and Amma’s (Indian) — to take you behind the counter for their traditional brewing methods. Start your day with this illuminating treatment of a fun topic.

Here’s what else is new in our local coffee world:

✈️ Elixr Coffee Roasters’ seventh store opened this week between Terminals B and C at Philadelphia International Airport. Evan Inatome debuted Elixr in 2010 with business partner and former Eagles player Winston Justice.

☕ Unity Java, a chill coffee house (where I got the cortado shown above), has opened at 5312 Ridge Ave. in Wissahickon. Like the Unity Java in Roxborough, it’s part of Unity Recovery, a nonprofit that helps those in recovery from substance use or have left the justice system. (Incidentally, Unity has converted the Volstead by Unity, its nonalcoholic bar-restaurant at 4371 Main St. in Manayunk, into Unity Kitchen, a sandwich shop. Soft openings are evenings this week; launch is Sept. 3, with daily hours of 11 a.m.-9 p.m.)

🧋Drip Vietnamese Cafe is in its early days at 225 N. 11th St. in Chinatown, a cute cafe next door to the stalwart Vietnam. Tiffani Nguyen, a pastry grad from Walnut Hill College who turns 27 next month, works with higher-caffeine robusta beans for her coffee drinks. The menu includes four varieties of banh mi and blended drinks (with house-made foams, grass jelly, and lemongrass syrup). In a couple of months, she plans to add a line of her own pastries. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday.

☕Madis Coffee Roasters, one of my faves out of West Philadelphia, is in growth mode. A new shop is on the way around October to the Curtis Center (Seventh and Sansom Streets), while yet another is planned for the City Hall area. “Madis,” by the way, is a portmanteau of owners Maria, Dimitri, and Savvas Navrosidis.

🔥Thank You Thank You, the high-end shop at Seventh and Sansom Streets (across from that forthcoming Madis), is now microroasting its own under the brand Poem Roasting.

💚 Loretta’s, from the team behind the neighboring Bloomsday and Green Engine Coffee, is looking at a late-September debut at 410 S. Second St. on Headhouse Square (next to the new Provenance). Loretta, named after owner Kelsey Bush’s grandma, will pay homage in concept and retro design to “Steel Magnolias.” Food will include hand pies stuffed with eggs, cheese and bacon, Viennoiserie-style pastries, sweet and savory galettes with seasonal ingredients, and such classics as sticky buns with cream cheese frosting.

✋All three OCF Coffee Houses, which developer Ori Feibush shut down in June, have new tenants. The one at 18th and South Streets is open as Bleri’s Beanery Cafe with a full menu. The one at 2100 Fairmount Ave. will open soon as Warehouse Cafe. And the one at 20th and Federal Streets has an operator who is laying low while deciding on name and exact concept.

📖 Catie Gainor came up with the idea of opening a bookstore dedicated to cookbooks, and she’s prepping Binding Agents for an October opening in South Philadelphia. Hira Qureshi lays out Gainor’s goal to create a “coastal chic and comfy atmosphere.”

📖 Terrance and Terri Wiley, who opened the bookstore/coffee shop/community hub American Grammar last summer in Kensington, are planning a second shop called Love in the Wild — opening date TBA — in a new building at Fourth Street and Girard Avenue in Northern Liberties. Where American Grammar focuses on books and art, Terrance Wiley (by day a professor at Haverford College) told me that LITW will have a florist’s shop in addition to coffee, and the lit line will include titles on design, gardening, food, and art.

Venezuelan BYOB Autana has closed its home of four years across from the Ardmore train station, but another chapter is on the way. Father-daughter team Levi and Maria-Jose Hernández will carry on with pop-ups and a ghost kitchen while pursuing what she told me was their goal of opening a restaurant in Philadelphia.

☝️ Read Craig LaBan’s 2023 review of Autana.

Come for a pastry and stay for the chitchat: Chef Emily Wilson is doing more than baking for her West Philadelphia neighbors. “You don’t know where I’m going to be or what I’ll have,” she told Emily Rizzo, Sabrina Iglesias, and Erin Reynolds for an article and video, “but come along for the ride.”

Suya Suya, the West African bowl specialist in Northern Liberties, will open a second location this fall at 177 City Ave. in Bala Cynwyd, across from St. Joseph’s University.

Colt & Filly.55 will be an Italian American sports bar in the Shops at Valley Square, targeted for early next year from chef Brad Daniels and partners including John Krinis, who have Tresini near Ambler. They’re taking over the former Bar Louie, where they plan an island-shape pizza bar serving a few varieties of pizza, including ultra-thin-crusted pizza tonda, plus a bar menu. Daniels, a Vetri alum, is also behind Pizza Freak, a frozen pie that critic Craig LaBan described as “one of the best frozen pies I’ve eaten.”

Burtons Grill & Bar, a pub chain overspreading the East Coast out of Andover, Mass., will take the old Chili’s space at 312 W. Lancaster Ave. in Wayne. It’s a ways off, as plans have yet to go before Radnor Township.

Mama’s Falafel. There was tasty falafel to be had from 2005 till 2019 at Mama’s Vegetarian in Center City. It closed amid troubles with the landlord, then sat empty all pandemic long. Last week, the doors opened as Mama’s Falafel under a new owner who says he’s working with the old recipes. So far, Mama’s is not on Instagram (the old account is still there) and is handling walk-in business. I stopped for an early look and a taste, and I’d falafel if I didn’t share it with you.

Mama’s Falafel, 18 S. 20th St. Hours are in flux, but it opens Sunday-Friday at 11 a.m. and closes around dinnertime Sunday-Thursday and at 3 p.m. Friday. Closed Saturday.

Black Dragon Takeout, chef Kurt Evans’ fusion of what he says is “Black American cuisine presented with the familiar aesthetics of classic Chinese American takeout,” has set its opening for Thursday at 5260 Rodman St. in West Philadelphia — once a Chinese takeout spot. Menu includes collard green egg rolls, oxtail rangoons, and General Roscoes Chicken, a riff on General Tso’s in a sweet and spicy St. Louis barbecue sauce. Evans’ mission statement is thoughtful reading.

Azie on Main in Villanova will shut down Sept. 22 after 15 years, says owner Win Hospitality, as its landlord plans offices in that space, 789 E. Lancaster Ave.; there are no confirmed plans for a new location. As you read here last week, Win’s Pearl and Paul Samboonsong are also working on Maison Lotus, a French-Vietnamese hybrid, in the former Margaret Kuo space at 175 Lancaster Ave. in Wayne. Anyone remember the restaurant/market that previously occupied Azie’s space until 2009? (I have your answer here.)

Char Pizza, the brick-and-mortar debut of pop-up pizzaiola Viraj Thomas at 310 Master St. in Kensington (the former Eeva), soft-opens today and goes hard Sept. 4.

Capital Grille has set Sept. 8 for its Bucks County debut, where it will replace Pier One Imports at the Village at Newtown shopping center.

Philly’s streetery-permit situation is messed up, as Max Marin writes, based on a report by the city controller. It’s costing everyone money — restaurateurs and the city.

Aron Magner of the Disco Biscuits will collaborate with chefs Randy Rucker and Eli Collins, along with Eli Kulp, for a four-course dinner with drink pairings, plus music from Spaga (ft. Magner) and conversation (Kulp and Snacktime’s Sam Gellerstein) at Ardmore Music Hall at 6 p.m. Sept. 29. Tickets ($250pp) and details are available here. It’s a benefit for Heritage Radio Network and will get support from C-CAP Philadelphia.

Chef Donald Link of New Orleans’ Peche, Cochon, and Herbsaint is the next traveling chef joining Eli Kulp’s Voi-age Series. Link’s Philly date, including a welcome beverage and canapes leading to a five-course dinner ($210pp plus optional pairing), will be Sept. 25 at Vernick Fish. Dinner will benefit Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Inc., which Vernick Fish supports through its oyster-recycling program. Tickets are here.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society supports 176 community-led gardens, helping food-insecure city residents get the best in hyperlocal organic produce. PHS’s Adam Hill told Lynette Hazelton: “It’s so important that we are not just feeding people but connecting people and building community.”

Jasper House, an apartment building in East Kensington, is expanding this fall to house female, BIPOC-led businesses including the first-ever CornerJawn storefront from Christa (FarmerJawn) Barfield, Alex Cahanap’s event-driven Citrine, and Win Win Coffee. They will partner on a 13-course dinner ($135pp) created by chef Liz Grothe of the forthcoming Queen Village restaurant Scampi at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 13 in Jasper House’s courtyard (1825 E. Boston St.) Menu and details are here.

The flavor that won this year’s Herr’s Flavored by Philly contest has been been around for nearly 75 years. What is it?

A) Romano’s stromboli

B) Mom-Mom Kitchen’s pierogi

C) Talluto’s cheese ravioli and marinara

D) Asher’s chocolate-covered hard pretzels

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s happening with SliCE Pizza’s location in the Italian Market? — Anthony P.

Co-owner Marlo Dilks says she and husband Jason Dilks are overseeing a complete remodeling of the parlor at 10th and Federal Streets, which shut down on May 12. They expect to reopen in early October.

There is a void in restaurants [in Eastern Montgomery County] that, for lack of a better term, are “fine” dining since Marco Polo and Moonstruck closed. Any hope of something good ever moving in? — Charlotte W.

There’s always hope, but not much else brand-new to report these days. I’d suggest Bledar Istrefi’s Moma Mediterranean Kitchen, a sweet, seafood-focused BYOB in Glenside that opened in April. I’m also looking forward to an Albanian bar-restaurant called Dajti Kafe, under construction at 8546 Bustleton Ave. in the Northeast, a block north of Chamas de Minas, the destination Brazilian restaurant that replaced Jack’s Deli.

My real estate contacts can’t put their finger on why there has been a shortage of new, stylish restaurants in Eastern Montco and Northeast Philadelphia since the pandemic. Part of the issue is the cost of a liquor license, now about $350,000 in Montgomery County. Chains, which can afford a number like this, tend to aim for malls and parking, which explains the appeal of Willow Grove, farther north on Route 611. (Top Pot, which offers DIY tabletop cooking of Chinese hot pot and Korean barbecue, just opened a location in the former Olive Garden across from the mall.)

Meanwhile, just five miles south, Marco Polo’s space in Elkins Park Square sits empty, more than a year after fire and water damage led to its shutdown. The swank Moonstruck in Fox Chase, which closed four years ago, is being used only for its kitchen by the owners, who also have Joseph’s Pizzeria next door as well as Gaul & Co. Malt House. They say they expect to redevelop the restaurant someday.

One bright spot is Ambler and Fort Washington. The Fort, a family-friendly bar-restaurant from the owners of Jasper’s Backyard in Conshohocken, is targeting a late September-early October opening in the former Friendly’s at 325 Pennsylvania Ave. in Fort Washington. La Baja, a BYOB from chef Dionico Jiménez, will open this weekend at 9 N. Main St. in Ambler, followed by Mary, a tavern from chef Chad Rosenthal at 47 E. Butler Ave.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

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