At Bar ILU, a former Kensington shot-and-a-beer gets a Spanish makeover

Bar ILU, which opened earlier this month in the former Old Philadelphia Bar in Kensington, has brought a Spanish point of view to a onetime corner shot-and-a-beer joint.

The 40-seat concrete bar twists through the room like a river, ending in a big loop in the back room. Tables line the windows along Dauphin and Martha Streets. Bartenders stir sherry-laced cocktails while plates emerge from the tiny kitchen. The energy is buoyant, the lights are low, and it all reads as Madrid filtered through a 1970s cocktail lounge: warm, social, and slightly theatrical but not kitschy.

Floral wallpaper, black pressed-tin ceilings, red-amber lighting, and curved wood details create a retro mood. There are no obvious clichés — no bullfighting posters, hanging jamón legs, or terracotta overload.

“ILU” is not shorthand for “I love you,” either. It honors partner Patrick Iselin’s grandmother, Iluminada. Iselin, who grew up in Madrid, is one of four partners alongside Jason Evenchik, Sal D’Amato, and Scott Coudriet.

The team, whose holdings include Vintage, Starbolt, Time, Bar, the three Garage locations, the Goat Rittenhouse, and the nearby Cormorant, has joined a burst of acclaimed restaurants in the neighborhood, including Emilia, Fiore, Little Walter’s, and Picnic.

Unlike the Cormorant, which replaced Bob’s Happy Hour Tavern two blocks away at Dauphin and Frankford, Bar ILU is more restaurant than bar, with a food menu overseen by executive chef Pat Szoke and chef de cuisine Andrew Butler.

They are aiming for something closer to what you might find in Madrid: bar food with range, rooted in Spain. “It’s not tapas exactly,” Evenchik said. “It’s more raciones.”

The menu includes familiar Spanish anchors such as tortilla española, croquetas, boquerones, gambas a la plancha, chorizo, and albóndigas. But there are also curveballs, including burgers and a calamari sandwich — fried calamari on baguette with saffron aioli — inspired by versions common in Spanish bars.

Most snacks and smaller plates are priced from $6 to $18, and sandwiches and larger-format dishes are generally in the high teens to mid-$20s.

The partners recruited bartender Dan Greenbaum, formerly of New York cocktail institutions the Beagle and Attaboy and now working in Mexico City, to build a drinks program rooted in Iberian flavors.

The sherry list leans into manzanilla, fino, amontillado, oloroso, palo cortado, and Pedro Ximénez, with roughly a third to half of the cocktails incorporating sherry or Spanish ingredients.

There are martinis, rye drinks, mezcal, Madeira, Cynar, Strega, and coffee drinks, so the menu feels modern and bar-driven rather than “Spanish theme night.” The aperitivo section includes lower-ABV drinks built around vermouth, amontillado, Campari, and lager. Drink prices fit into the neighborhood: mostly $16 cocktails, $14 aperitivos, $8 to $15 sherries, and $5 Mahou on draft.

The project has been in the works for nearly three years, and had been back-burnered by the team’s work on the Cormorant as well as the construction issues common to century-old city buildings. The team used that time for a research trip to Madrid, packing cocktail bars, tapas bars, restaurants, vermouth stops, and historic sherry bars into four days.

“A lot of Spanish bars in the U.S. that are owned by non-Spaniards feel like everything has to be Spanish,” Evenchik said. “But when you go to Madrid, that’s not how it is.”

Evenchik described the goal as modern rather than theatrical. “We didn’t want to go Disney,” he said. “We wanted to do something that you would actually find in Madrid.”

Bar ILU, 2118 E. Dauphin St. Hours: 4 p.m. to midnight Tuesday to Thursday, 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday to Sunday. Closed Monday.