A trio of new restaurants promise to transform 990 Spring Garden in the Spring Arts District

The mixed-use building at 990 Spring Garden St., the center of the so-called Spring Arts District, has had assorted restaurant tenants. In recent years, the Lucky Well (and its successor, the Lucky Well Incubator) closed on the 10th Street side, as did Roy-Pitz Barrel House (later known as Liquid Art Barrel House) on the side next to the railroad line. A third food business, the lobby sushi counter Kaiseki, closed last year. (Chef-owner Andy Bernard works at Ogawa in Old City, by the way.)

Now that each space has been leased, the owners are working toward openings. Chef Elijah Milligan is building Lovechild, on the former Lucky Well side. Kyle Cuffie-Scott, who owns the nearby cafe Darnel’s Cakes, signed to take Kaiseki’s spot for his second location. Coming to the brewpub space, meanwhile, will be Cerveau, a restaurant-bar envisioned as a casual, all-day drop-in.

Darnel’s soft-opening is scheduled for Aug. 18, while Lovechild and Cerveau are looking at fall.

Cerveau is “brain” in French — which might seem odd for a restaurant billing itself as a cicchetteria serving shareable pizzas, pastas, and small plates with Mediterranean flavors.

Then you realize that chef Joe Hunter was among the partners at the former Pizza Brain, which closed last year. Hunter is quick to point out, however, that Pizza Brain has been left behind entirely for Cerveau, which he envisions as family-friendly by day and aimed at grown-ups at night — a comfortable, all-day place with high ceilings and an overall industrial look.

“I’m from South Carolina, with Italian roots, and have been in Philly nearly my whole adult life,” Hunter told me. “The food and experience at Cerveau is going to reflect that with the curiosity that Pizza Brain was all about, except this time there’s a full kitchen and bar so we can apply that creativity to all kinds of cuisine.”

Artist Brian Langon is creating an expansive, colorful mural filled with pop art. The drink program will emphasize kegged and batched cocktails, with an Italian focus. “I would like to be known as Philadelphia’s premier spritz bar,” Hunter said.

The wine list will be compact but bold, spotlighting pét-nat, Lambrusco, and Grenache. Beer selection will largely feature macro options, though a curated fridge section will cater to beer enthusiasts with a few distinctive choices like Delirium.

Chef Elijah Milligan, taking over the former Lucky Well space with friends Simon and Yaminah Egan, plans an eclectic menu blending Japanese and Mexican cuisines, with a wood-fired grill as a centerpiece. Based on early renderings I have seen, they’re going for sleek and chic with cushy seating. The bar program will focus on clarified cocktails, and Milligan intends to source ingredients locally. The Lovechild name carries personal meaning for Milligan, who was raised by a single mother and is now a single father himself. Milligan gained wide attention here in 2013 as the 24-year-old executive chef at Stateside in South Philadelphia. He’s worked with such local chefs as Daniel Stern, Christopher Kearse, David Ansill, Greg Vernick, and Nicholas Elmi, and did time on the West Coast, working with Dominique Crenn at Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn in San Francisco, and with Michael Chiarello at Bottega in Yountville, Calif.

Kyle Cuffie-Scott had a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales, but was working at Philadelphia radio station WURD-AM when he began baking to raise money for the Colours Organization and BEBASHI. The groups’ work with HIV/AIDS had special meaning after the 2013 death of Cuffie-Scott’s cousin Darnel — explaining the name Darnel’s Cakes, which Cuffie-Scott and a business partner Joseph Lope opened in 2020 in the lobby of the 444 N. Third St. building. Since then, Cuffie-Scott has added farmer’s markets. The small stand in 990’s lobby — targeting Aug. 18 for the soft opening — will focus on coffee service from Caphe Roasters and a limited food menu beginning with a few hot breakfast items, including sandwiches on biscuits, brioche, and focaccia, along with a rotating selection of pastries such as cookies, brownies, cheesecake bars, lemon bars, Danishes, and cinnamon rolls.