EMei owner has bought the long-shuttered Irish Pub in Rittenhouse

Dan Tsao, co-owner of Chinatown’s Sichuan destination EMei, has bought the landmark Rittenhouse property that housed the Irish Pub — his third major real estate acquisition in less than a year — as he pushes to expand the fast-growing restaurant beyond Chinatown.

Tsao settled Monday on the Irish Pub at 2007-11 Walnut St., the neighborhood bar that went dark at the outset of the pandemic in 2020 after nearly four decades.

The property was initially listed at $11 million, though its asking price dropped to $7 million in 2023. No one involved in the transaction would disclose the sale price, which has not yet appeared in public records.

Tsao, who owns EMei and the nearby TingTing’s Cafe, said the Rittenhouse property could become a flagship location for EMei, which his mother-in-law, Jinwen Yu, and chef Yongcheng Zhao opened in 2011. Tsao and his wife, TingTing, took over EMei in 2019. EMei appeared on The Inquirer’s inaugural list of essential restaurants, The 76, in 2024.

A full opening is unlikely to be this year, Tsao said, though he hopes to host pop-up events sooner for the city’s expected influx of out-of-town visitors in 2026.

Tsao is pursuing an ambitious expansion of EMei, whose original location at 915 Arch St. has outgrown its space. His strategy so far has centered on buying longtime restaurant properties that he plans to rehab.

Last July, Tsao bought Ardmore’s former John Henry’s Pub, which operated for 20 years at 98 Cricket Ave., for $1.45 million, including liquor license. In December, he paid $1.55 million for the South Philadelphia red gravy institution Marra’s, which had operated for 98 years at 1736 E. Passyunk Ave., and its license.

Opening timelines remain uncertain, but Tsao said the South Philadelphia restaurant will likely debut before Ardmore and Walnut Street.

EMei, he said, has struggled with kitchen and seating constraints, with delivery drivers crowding an already-tight entrance while customers wait for tables. Complicating matters, the restaurant’s kitchen sits in the basement.

Delivery data helped convince Tsao to look toward Rittenhouse, where he believes EMei has a strong customer base.

“I’ve been checking DoorDash and Uber Eats, so I have a pretty good idea where my customers are,” said Tsao, who emigrated from China to the United States in the 1990s and graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1999.

Tsao said he had initially considered University City, where Daily Pennsylvania readers routinely select EMei as the city’s No. 1 Chinese restaurant, but feared that business would be slow during summer breaks. Walnut Street, he said, offered access to both Center City and West Philadelphia.

The 2000 block of Walnut Street is a bustling restaurant corridor. On one side of Tsao’s property is My Loup, the Montreal-inspired bistro from chef Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp. On the other is Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese, which chef Carolyn Nguyen expects to open soon. Down the block is the acclaimed Vernick Food & Drink, chef Greg Vernick’s first Philadelphia restaurant.

Tsao envisions combining his three storefronts into a single restaurant spanning roughly 5,500 square feet on the ground floor. He also plans to renovate the upper floors into apartments.

Peter Rothberg and Jonathan Dubrow, brokers with Coldwell Banker Commercial who represented the sellers, said the site had been on the market for seven years, hindered by its unusual layout and the scale of renovations required.

The property spans roughly 18,600 square feet across two connected buildings: 2007-09 Walnut, home to the Irish Pub, and 2011 Walnut, formerly occupied by the Café at 2011 Walnut St.

“The real issue was the amount of renovation required,” Dubrow said. “It took Dan’s vision — wanting to be in the Rittenhouse market and understanding how to operate multiple locations — to really grab it and say yes.”

Upper floors at 2007 and 2009 Walnut, long used for employee housing, offices, and storage, are largely inaccessible except through a labyrinth of internal staircases behind the former restaurant kitchen.

“The layout upstairs in 2007 and 2009 was not functional for any use today,” Rothberg said. “It was a maze.”

The brokers said they approached more than 50 regional and out-of-town restaurant operators. Showings eventually reached “triple digits,” Dubrow said.

Greg Bianchi of US Realty Associates brokered the deal for Tsao after first meeting him during the Marra’s transaction, for which he represented the Marra family. Tsao said he told Bianchi he was a great negotiator and asked him to represent him on the Irish Pub deal.

Bianchi represents the owner of the adjacent property at 2013 Walnut St., formerly home to the Bards, the Irish pub that closed in 2020 and remains available for lease.

The cream-brick buildings, dating from the early 20th century, feature Beaux-Arts and Georgian Revival details and are anchored by the dramatic curved bay on 2009 Walnut. The lower facade still looks much as it did when the bar closed: a weathered green metal canopy stretches across the storefront, capped by gold finials and framed by dark-red posts beneath a black-and-gold sign.

Inside, brokers said, much of the bar sat largely untouched for years.

“It looks exactly the way it did the last time you were there having a beer,” Rothberg said. “Literally until recently, there were still liquor bottles with plastic cups upside down on top of them.”

The Rittenhouse Irish Pub occupied a particular place in Philadelphia’s social geography: part neighborhood tavern and part late-night catchall for hospital workers, grad students, regulars, restaurant staff ending shifts, suburbanites finishing a night in Center City, and the occasional politico.

It opened in 1984, on the former site of Da Vinci, as a branch of the Irish Pub in Atlantic City, which Richard and Catherine Burke opened in 1972.

The Burkes had expanded to Philadelphia in December 1980, opening an Irish Pub at 1123 Walnut St., across from the Forrest Theatre. The Washington Square West location closed in 2019 after more than 38 years. In 2007, the pubs helped create a nonprofit organization to oversee the annual Irish Pub Tour de Shore to raise money to support the families of first responders.

Longtime Irish Pub co-owner Mark O’Connor was a 23-year-old Rutgers graduate when he joined the Burkes in 1980. “Having spent quite a bit of time with Dan, I think he’s going to do great business at that location,” said O’Connor, also a partner in one of the Walnut Street buildings. “He’s smart, creative, and community-oriented.”

The Irish Pub sat within a small hospitality cluster. Beside it was the Café at 2011 Walnut St., a casual bar-and-bistro operation occupying the adjacent first floor. Next door at 2013 Walnut stood the Bards, a separate Irish pub that operated from 1995 until its pandemic-era closure.

Tsao said he was also drawn to the building’s place in Philadelphia culture, including its cameo in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa.

He said he intends to preserve much of the exterior, which falls within a historic district and requires review for major changes. “I think it’s a beautiful building,” Tsao said.