Secret romantic restaurants | Let’s Eat

Need a date-night restaurant? We offer 12 that you may not know about.

Also in this edition:

— Mike Klein

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Romantic meals aren’t all going down at buzzy hotspots or white-tablecloth institutions. They unfold in neighborhood fixtures you’ve overlooked, suburban newcomers flying under the radar, or dining rooms more popular among locals than Instagram. We feature 12 such spots around the region, including Northridge at the Woolverton Inn, tucked into the woods just outside of Stockton, N.J., where chef Lance Knowling (above) sauces a plate. Read on for our ideas.

💡Because Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, the reservation books at the city’s buzziest restaurants are already just about locked up. Consider this your reminder that love is flexible — and so is the calendar.

Why settle for Swiss Miss when you could sip on velvety cioccolata calda, piquant cinnamon- and chili-laced dark chocolate, or creamy chocolat chaud in cozy cafes across the city? Let Hira Qureshi show you what’s hot in hot chocolate.

This year’s Super Bowl may be Birds-less, but a watch party requires food even so. Our food team has you covered for tips on the best cheesesteaks, hoagies, wings, and tomato pie, plus beer and wine. (In our case, whine.)

Gourmet grocer Di Bruno Bros. is closing three of its five locations, including two on the Main Line. Meanwhile, customers say they saw this coming, contending that quality had dipped in recent years.

The Kibitz Room in Cherry Hill’s Shoppes at Holly Ravine shut down last week without notice, and its future is unclear. Owner Sandy Parish — who took over last year when her former husband, Neil, and son, Brandon, left to open the Kibitz Room King of Prussia — did not reply to a message seeking comment.

Here’s the history: The Kibitz Room was founded in 2001 by Russ Cowan, who now owns the nearby Radin’s in Cherry Hill. Two years later, Cowan sold it to Neil Parish, his manager. The business evolved into a family-run operation, with son Brandon taking over after the Parishes divorced. Neil Parish moved to the Baltimore area, where he ran delis, until he and Brandon opened the unrelated Kibitz Room King of Prussia in Valley Forge Center in spring 2025. That location is still open.

The food team has been out in the cold, and our tasty finds include a taste of home in Northern Liberties, two warming bowls in South Philly, and these yummy maritozzi from a bakery in Roxborough that keeps quirky hours.

Fishtown and Kensington have a lot of restaurant variety nowadays. There’s the usual and now ... the unusual. Here’s first word about Philly Curio, targeting a March opening at 2240 Frankford Ave. on the Fishtown–Kensington line. Troy Timpel, founder of Villain Arts and organizer of the Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention, is setting it up as an intimate, art-driven restaurant-bar built around his private collection of curiosities. Framed tribal masks will line the walls. Each table will be a glass enclosure featuring a different preserved animal form, including skeletal and taxidermy displays. (Gives new meaning to getting stuffed at dinner, I suppose.) Inspired by Alligator Soul in Savannah, Ga., Timpel is seeking a chef to execute his idea for a Cajun-Creole menu of small plates and unconventional proteins such as rattlesnake. Beverage offerings will include a limited draft list, bottled beers, an extensive wine selection — including natural and nonalcoholic options — and a full cocktail program.

Recent Rowan grad and Elixr Coffee barista Kaitlyn Tran and her mother, Sue Chen, are planning a summer launch for Sora Cafe, a matcha- and coffee-focused cafe at 12th and Sansom Streets, where Edible Arrangements was. Tran says they’ll take a serious, intentional approach to matcha. The menu also will include Taiwanese-style shaved ice desserts made with real fruit.

February’s restaurant openings include two restaurants’ expansions to Narberth (including Malooga, shown above); a chic, two-level restaurant/lounge in Center City; and an intriguing wine bar/bottle shop in Chestnut Hill.

The Tasties, the annual restaurant awards overseen by the Delicious City podcast, drew 600-plus revelers to Live! Casino the other night. Beatrice Forman presents the pageantry and the winners.

Zsa’s, the Mount Airy ice cream parlor, is coming back this weekend under a new owner.

Chateau Rouge, Jeannette Jean’s French/West African BYOB in Graduate Hospital (listed among The Inquirer’s 76), has extended its $45 Center City District Restaurant Week menu throughout February in recognition of Black History Month.

Sunrise Social has launched a surf-and-turf special at its Fishtown and Cherry Hill locations, with proceeds benefiting chef/photographer Reuben (“Big Rube”) Harley, who is battling stage 4B prostate cancer and coping with heart and kidney failure. The $32.99 dish features lamb chops, lobster tail, and three-cheese grits. Harley and Sunrise Social founder Aaron Anderson ran ghost kitchens during the pandemic as well as Big Rube’s Fried Chicken together at Subaru Park in Chester. Rube’s GoFundMe is here.

East Passyunk Restaurant Week returns for its 14th edition from Feb. 23 to March 6 with 21 participating restaurants offering $20, $40, and $60 options. Details are here.

New Ridge Brewing in Roxborough says it will be closed by fire longer than previously believed. Firefighters were called to 6168 Ridge Ave. on the morning of Jan. 29.

Miller’s Ale House’s Northeast Philadelphia location (Grant Avenue and the Boulevard) told the state that it will shut down March 30, putting 49 employees out of work.

Fourteen Bahama Breeze restaurants, including those in Cherry Hill and King of Prussia, will close on or before April 5, parent company Darden Restaurants has announced. Fourteen others will shut down over the next year and a half. Both Philly-area locations opened in late 2003.

The Original Charlie’s Pizza’s location in Northeast Philly’s Morrell Plaza announced that its last day will be Feb. 28. Owners say they were unable to negotiate a new lease. (Here’s a backgrounder on the original Charlie’s, which operated for decades on the Boulevard near Adams Avenue.)

The shuttered dive bar McGlinchey’s is on the market. What is the asking price?

A) $2.45 million’

B) $1.2 million

C) $3.7 million

D) $5.2 million

Find out if you know the answer, and perhaps put in a bid of your own.

There’s been signage for a cafe called Yolotl at the corner of 17th and Tasker Streets in Point Breeze for months, but no sign of an opening. Can you shed some light on what’s going on with it? — Will F.

Yolotl (Nahuatl for “heart” or “spirit”), a Mexican cafe, will be a joint venture between Drexel senior Yenni Meneses-Aparicio and her mother, Juana Aparicio, who owns Pancho’s Cafe in Northern Liberties. (No relation to El Chingon chef-owner Carlos Aparicio.) Meneses-Aparacio says it will offer specialty coffees, juices, tres leches cakes, and other desserts, plus a few light savory options. She attributes much of the delay to the fact that it’s a complete restaurant build-out. They’re hoping to open in March.

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