Chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp are opening another restaurant in Rittenhouse
The chefs are taking the former Barclay Pharmacy at 18th and Spruce Streets for a restaurant. They are keeping their empire within a 15-minute walk of their house.
Chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp have been building a restaurant empire within walking distance of their Rittenhouse Square home. Their next project will be no exception.
The couple filed an application with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board on Thursday for a new restaurant at 1736 Spruce St., the southeast corner of 18th and Spruce Streets. The address is the former home of Barclay Pharmacy, a neighborhood institution that closed in 2023 after more than eight decades in business.
“I saw the space and absolutely fell in love with it,” Shulman told The Inquirer, confirming that the couple had signed a lease. “We’re still figuring out the details of what it will become.”
The license — previously held by the now-shuttered Le Pain Quotidien at 1423 Walnut St. — is in the corporate name of Her Place, Shulman’s first restaurant, which opened at 1740 Sansom St. in 2021.
The building, a mid-19th-century Italianate townhouse with a distinctive facade (now shrouded in scaffolding), has its own history.
Its residents included members of the Wetherill and Wanamaker families, according to a Hidden City Philadelphia feature. In 1924, antiques dealer Arthur Sussel bought the property, converting the first floor into a shop while his family lived upstairs.
Barclay Pharmacy opened in 1939 on the northeast corner of 18th and Spruce, now part of Rittenhouse Market. Founder Bernard Friedman moved the business across the street in 1959, eventually buying the townhouse and converting its upper floors into apartments.
His son, Russell, took over in 1974 and ran the pharmacy largely as a one-man operation until its closing in 2023.
The pharmacy was something of a time capsule. Its shelves held vintage greeting cards, combs, and other merchandise, while a mural by artist Kenton Warne Hudson depicted 48 plants and drugs used in medicine. Friedman specialized in dermatological compounding and was known for keeping his Labrador retriever, Tico, at the shop.
It remains to be seen what features will survive the conversion to a restaurant.
Shulman was similarly guarded about the details of the couple’s previous project when they signed a lease at 23rd and Pine Streets last year. That space became Pine Street Grill, a casual neighborhood restaurant that opened in December.
At the time, Shulman said their restaurant locations were no accident.
“It’s all part of our master plan to be able to keep our commute to a 15-minute walk, max,” she said.
The couple have opened three permanent restaurants in less than five years, each with a different approach to dining.
Her Place Supper Club opened as a temporary BYOB inspired by the dinner parties she hosted while attending the University of Pennsylvania. It soon became permanent, offering a changing multicourse menu influenced by French, Italian, and Jewish cooking. Shulman presides over the intimate dining room, often introducing dishes to guests. Her Place received a Michelin star in November 2025.
In April 2023, Shulman and Kemp opened My Loup at 2005 Walnut St. The lively à la carte restaurant draws on French and Québécois cooking, with a raw bar and an extensive wine program. Kemp leads the kitchen.
Their third restaurant, Pine Street Grill, opened in December 2025 at 2227 Pine St., overlooking Fitler Square. The space is perhaps best remembered as a longtime location of the Greek BYOB Dmitri’s.
The couple also operated Amourette, a seasonal outdoor restaurant in the garden of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, just off Rittenhouse Square, in summer 2024.
Unlike the destination dining at Her Place and My Loup, Pine Street Grill is intended as an everyday neighborhood restaurant, serving American comfort food such as matzo ball soup, burgers, rotisserie chicken, and eggplant Parmesan. It also offers a full bar, weekend brunch, and a children’s menu.
A Connecticut native, Shulman graduated from Penn, where she studied political science and journalism before pursuing a cooking career. She worked in Marc Vetri’s Philadelphia kitchens and later cooked in Italy, New York, Las Vegas, and Montreal, including stints at Momofuku Ko and Joe Beef.
She returned to Philadelphia in 2020 and opened Her Place the following year. Shulman and Kemp, who met while working at Momofuku Ko in New York, married in 2023 and operate their restaurants through Libbie Loup Hospitality.
Shulman, named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in 2023, was a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic, in 2025 and 2026.
