The Philly area’s crop of new restaurants for March: Popup Bagels, a Puerto Rican barbecue spot, and a six-course tasting-menu experience
Among the openings: Two cousins are behind Cugini’s near New Hope, while chef Chris Bennett is getting ready to open 1793, a South Jersey BYOB with a six-course tasting menu.
The first Philadelphia-area location of a TikTok-famous bagel chain, an Italian kitchen and bar, a Puerto Rican barbecue specialist, and a posh tasting-menu BYOB are among the restaurants on the dining radar for March. As usual, most opening dates are in flux.
Bengaluru Cafe (809 N. Second St.): This vegan/vegetarian South Indian restaurant, due to open March 20 in Northern Liberties, is inspired by Karnataka, a state in India, with a menu focused on street-food staples and shareable plates, including chaats, tomato masala salad, and vada pav — a popular snack of spiced potato fritter tucked into soft bread with chutneys. Owner Sri Saravanan has quite a commute: He opened his first location two years ago in Fairfax, Va.
Carmen’s Table (200 E. Evesham Rd., Glendora): Roselyn Gonzalez, part of Booker’s Restaurant Lounge & Grill in Camden, is opening this Puerto Rican barbecue restaurant with her family in the former Kitchen 519. She’s drawing on the recipes of her mother, Carmen, who supported her family by selling plates of food. Expect smoked meats informed by Caribbean flavors, including her mother’s sofrito.
Cugini’s (6522 Lower York Rd., New Hope): Cousins Frank Picone and Anthony Adragna are taking over the former New Hope Star Diner on Route 202 in Solebury Township, Bucks County, for a 135-seat “Italian kitchen and bar” that aims to split the difference between date-night dining and family-friendly fare. Adragna previously owned and operated Cafe Antonio in Morrisville; Picone comes from a restaurant family that founded V&S Pizza in Fairless Hills and Ariana’s Pizza in Levittown.
Duo Restaurant & Bar (90 Haddon Ave., Haddon Township): Brothers Artan and Arber Murtaj and Andi and Tony Lelaj, who own the Old World-style Italian Il Villaggio in Cherry Hill, have soft-opened their pub on the former site of Keg & Kitchen. Bar menu includes burgers, a crab cake sandwich, and raw oysters, while the regular menu covers rib-eye meatballs, crab cakes, and Italian entrees. It’s open for lunch and dinner daily.
Mi Vida (1150 Ludlow St.): Knead Hospitality of Washington, D.C., is in the opening days of its first Philly project: a splashy Mexican restaurant in East Market, open daily for lunch weekdays, weekend brunch, and nightly dinner with a full menu and 23-seat bar stocked with 130 tequilas and mezcals.
PopUp Bagels (10 Coulter Ave., Ardmore): “Grip, rip, and dip” is the phrase that pays at PopUp, a burgeoning franchise with a social-media following that started in 2021 as a baking enthusiast’s pandemic project in Westport, Conn. The first of 10 Philadelphia-area locations is looking to open later this month at Suburban Square in Ardmore, where it will occupy the former Juice Press space next to Drybar and SoulCycle and across from Shake Shack. (Center City, Marlton, and Princeton/Hamilton locations are being teed up.) Popup sells bagels and coffee, but no sandwiches, and the bagels are served hot and whole, rather than sliced. They’re designed to be torn apart and dipped into cream cheese spreads. The company offers weekly rotating schmear flavors and sells bagels in bundles — three, six, or a dozen — rather than individually.
1793 (7 E. Park Ave., Merchantville): A tasting-menu restaurant at the former Park Place from chef Chris Bennett (formerly of June BYOB), 1793 will offer a six-course contemporary American menu (starting at $115). Bennett will emphasize seafood, pastas, risottos, and a consistent duck entrée. A carpenter in his first career, Bennett is building it out to feel like an upscale library, with dark woods and leather seating. He’s aiming for fine dining without formality.