Prime Rib is, for now, a Philly steakhouse without a name

The Prime Rib’s Philadelphia location, which opened at the Warwick Hotel 22 years ago, is officially nameless after it split from the family that owns the Prime Rib locations in Washington and Baltimore this month.

Philadelphia owner Garth Weldon said the November 2019 death of Prime Rib founder C.P. “Buzz” Beler spurred changes in the family owned company; he declined to elaborate. As part of the dissociation, Weldon agreed to drop the Prime Rib name. The restaurant is also gone from the corporate website.

For now, it’s dubbed 1701 Locust, after its address. A new name is on the way. Prime Rib gift cards will be accepted.

“We had 420 people here last night, and I’ll bet less than a handful of people mentioned it," Weldon said. No other major changes are planned, though Weldon said he is taking the rebranding to retool the menu, paring down the 11 side dishes to seven, for example. The old-school motif and cougar-print carpeting will remain.

Beler opened his first Prime Rib in Baltimore in 1965 and added D.C. in 1976. The Philadelphia restaurant opened in February 1998 after a $2 million total renovation of the space that last was Melange and what disco fans will remember — foggily, no doubt — as elan.