Amada, Jose Garces’ flagship restaurant in Philly, turns 20 and gets a glow-up
We catch up with Jose Garces, who is planning a fourth Amada location in Chicago. This weekend, he'll be in Old City to mark the 20th anniversary of the original, which has been renovated.
Amada’s opening in October 2005 was both a personal milestone for chef Jose Garces and a defining moment for Philadelphia dining. At 33, Garces left Stephen Starr’s restaurant group — where he was executive chef at both Alma de Cuba and El Vez — to strike out on his own.
“When I left cooking school, I said, ‘If I can open my first restaurant and be my own boss, that would be the pinnacle,’” Garces said from his research-and-development studio in Maine. “That was the dream.”
Amada, Garces’ intimate Spanish restaurant at 217 Chestnut St., became the launchpad to his nine-year run on Food Network’s Iron Chef America and his 2009 James Beard award for Best Chefs in America, Mid-Atlantic.
Twenty years and an evolving roster of restaurants later, Amada Old City remains his flagship. Over the summer, he and his staff refreshed the dining room and menu. The main bar that once tilted awkwardly was rebuilt and sports a marble top. Floors and lighting were replaced, hand-painted murals and Moorish mirrors were added, and the private dining room and lounge were re-carpeted and repainted. The energy is still there. Serrano hams hang from the ceiling, and customers call ahead to book the suckling pig dinners. Alas, the Friday flamenco shows stopped around 2009.
This weekend, Garces will be on hand for 20th anniversary festivities, including a limited-time return of the lobster paella, for which orders will be paired with a complimentary keepsake paella spoon. At 6 p.m. Saturday, the restaurant will have a roasted pig tasting, and at noon Sunday, there will be a roasted pig tasting and celebratory brunch.
Now with three Amada locations, including Radnor and Atlantic City, Garces is preparing for an expansion, starting with a fourth Amada opening in early 2026 in Chicago’s West Loop. It will be a homecoming for the Chicago-born chef, whose father still lives there and whose daughter, Olivia, recently began graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
“I couldn’t have drawn it up any better,” Garces said. “It’s thrilling to head back, spend time with family, and put the brand on display.”
Amada’s menu has tightened over the years, Garces said, although he said some dishes are untouchable, such as gambas al ajillo, tortilla española, piquillos rellenos, and lamb albondigas. “Even if I wanted to change them,” he said, “our guests wouldn’t allow it.”
Other recipes have evolved for practicality. Take the patatas bravas, which from the beginning were shaped with metal cylinders and cut out. “For years, all of my chefs were like, ‘Jose, come on. This is so laborious. Can we just make a simple brava?’ And this year, I finally caved on that, but the end result is just as good. Food costs are higher, labor is expensive, and this just makes sense.”
Garves even re-examined the paella, an Amada signature. “Currently there’s a huge food trend toward more protein in our diets,” Garces said. “As an example, the chicken and chorizo paella was just chicken thighs and chorizo, and I asked [my chefs] to cook an airline chicken breast that’s about 8 ounces, and finish it on top of the paella.”
Beyond Amada, Garces’ portfolio continues to evolve. Village Whiskey is still a noted burger-and-whiskey destination in Rittenhouse after 16 years. But other restaurants came and went — among them Chifa, a Peruvian-Chinese mashup in Center City; Tinto, a Basque wine bar in Rittenhouse; and Distrito, a Mexican cantina in University City, plus management deals in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Palm Springs, Calif., and an Amada in New York City. Last year, the Olde Bar, a seafood restaurant on the former site of Old Original Bookbinders in Old City, shut down. In Atlantic City, Revel Casino’s sudden shutdown in 2014 closed his Amada, Village Whiskey, and Distrito locations; in the transition to Ocean Casino Resort, Amada and Distrito were resurrected and are still open.
Besides the Amada on its way to Chicago, Garces wants to grow his fast-casual Baja-style taqueria Buena Onda near Logan Square, which opened and closed several locations over the years. Garces Trading Co., a brand he created in 2009 in Washington Square West, is open at the Cira Center, serving as an all-day café for office tenants and commuters. He has a stand called Garces Eats at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.
In Allentown’s Downtown West district last March, he relaunched Rosa Blanca — the Cuban cafe and rum bar he created in Center City 12 years ago. Earlier this month, he opened Okatshe, a revival of the Japanese izakaya and sushi bar that had a four-year run at the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, across the street. He said he is also about to announce a Mexican concept at a location he declined to disclose.
Garces also has a partnership with Cook Unity, a subscription-meal platform that now carries his dishes in five markets, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Austin. With his former wife, Beatriz, he also runs Garces Foundation, which supports immigrant families.
Over the years, Garces said he has learned patience — “to have a more measured approach, whether it’s business decisions or creating new concepts. Play those decisions forward: a month, six months, five years. Measure twice, cut once.
“In our business, reinvention is very important,” Garces said. “To stay relevant, you have to continue to innovate and reinvent. In this moment, I’m just super excited and proud to still love what I do, to have a passion for it, and to take everything I’ve learned in the past and move it forward.”