60 best patios and rooftops | Let’s Eat

Spring is prime time for al fresco feasting, and we give you five dozen ideas of where to go. Also this week, along with a surfeit of restaurant news, we get inside the heads of millennial and Gen Z diners, rate the best and worst food at Citizens Bank Park, and present a chicken expert’s favorite dishes around town. It’s poultry in motion.

📣 Special note: Craig LaBan is starting a free, eight-part newsletter that will focus each Friday on a different country’s cuisine and how it’s repped in the Philly area. It will launch in early summer, but sign up now.

⬇️ Read on for a quiz and restaurant news.

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— Mike Klein

Weather has been up and down lately, and we’re looking at a meh weekend. But it’s not too early to check out our 60 favorite spots for rooftop and outdoor dining in Philadelphia, broken down by neighborhood.

Batter up at the Phillies. We sent colleagues Henry Savage and Earl Hopkins to Citizens Bank Park where they evaluated all the food options. Some were hits (like this jerk chicken sandwich from Bull’s BBQ, above), and a few were misses. 🔑

Check out their tasting notes. Sample from Earl: “I would come back home and immediately take a nap, even if I wasn’t sleepy. It was a lot of overeating.”

Alexander Tominsky consumed 40 rotisserie chickens, one a day for 40 consecutive days, earning local fame last fall and cinching him the nickname “the chicken man.” Contributor Kiki Aranita tracked him down and asked him for his chicken favorites around town. Or, as you might, say, “What comes first?”

Italian food has been popular among Americans for decades. But millennials (ages 27 to 42) and those in Generation Z (ages 11 to 26) are now the first to say that their favorite cuisines are Mexican and Chinese. Colleague Alfred Lubrano reports on the numerous reasons for the ascendance of tacos and dumplings over linguine.

Cosmic Cafe on Boathouse Row is more than just a stop at Lloyd Hall on the Schuylkill. As colleague Kevin Riordan explains, the staff of 25 has a range of talents and includes 18 people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, and it’s building a community.

Dim Sum Garden, whose specialty is the Chinese soup dumplings called xiaolongbao, is fixing to move two doors away from its home on Race Street in Chinatown. Chef Sally Song is in residence now at Volvér at the Kimmel Center, the latest in a series of visiting chefs hosted by operator Jose Garces. Her residency will be, in effect, a fundraiser for the new restaurant, opening in 2024 at 1024 Race. Of course, her soup dumplings will be on the dinner menu through June 3, and so will these chicken dumplings with scallions and garlic chili oil.

Gutsy move, opening a bruncherie in the Port Richmond/Fishtown pocket already home to Honeygrow, Applebee’s, and Nifty Fifty’s. “I think that if you do good food, unique food, and you give good guest service and a family atmosphere, people will come,” said Terrance Clarke (shown above, at right), who opened the diner-ish Brunchaholics two weekends ago in Fishtown Crossing Shopping Center with Aaron Anderson and Derek Long. Clarke, a veteran chef (age 47), turns out big portions of breakfast served all day (that’s the smoked short-rib hash topped with eggs, below) as well as lunch food, like jerk turkey burger and jerk salmon cheesesteak.

Brunchaholics, 2499 Aramingo Ave. (Fishtown Crossing). Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday.

Restaurant and bar openings you should know about:

Next of Kin, which owners bill as a five-star dive bar, is in soft opening mode in the former Nunu (1414 Frankford Ave., Fishtown). Cocktails only; it’s bring your own food. Hours this weekend are 4-midnight Thursday and 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Grand opening is May 5.

Sweet Amelia’s (102 E. State St., Kennett Square), the high-end BYOB replacing Verbena in downtown Kennett Square, is in soft-opening mode now under chefs Karessa and Zack Hathaway.

Dockside Bensalem, opening Friday, will bring stylish waterside dining to Lower Bucks as Matt Rossi (Nick’s Roast Beef) has upgraded the former Water’s Edge along Neshaminy Creek at 1067 Totem Rd.

My Loup (2005 Walnut St.), the joint restaurant of Her Supper Club’s Amanda Shulman and fiancé Alex Kemp, is getting close. Monitor Instagram.

Elma, chef James Nardone’s 12-seater at 431 E. Girard Ave. in Fishtown, is due to go live on Resy on Monday as its gears for a mid-May opening.

Illata, a 20-seat modern-American BYOB with Italian and seafood leanings, is targeting a May 4 debut at 2241 Grays Ferry Ave. under chef Aaron Randi, a Connecticut native and NYC transplant who has been doing pop-ups. Stay tuned.

Pizzeria Salvy, Marc Vetri’s latest, is targeting late May-early June. Comcasters traversing the concourse of the Comcast Technology Center (18th and Arch Streets) are getting an eyeful since the construction walls came down Monday.

More openings are included here.

Also:

Baology, the Taiwanese-inspired eatery on JFK Boulevard near 19th Street, formally announced its closing on Instagram. It had been shuttered since December.

DiBartolo’s Bakery, a fixture in Collingswood since 1969, is telling customers that its last day will be Saturday. (I’m awaiting a statement.)

Rittenhouse Row Festival, one of Center City’s largest block parties, will return for the first time since 2019. It’s down for May 6 from noon-5 p.m., rain or shine. It will shut down traffic on Walnut Street from 15th to 19th Streets, and 18th Street from Locust to Sansom. The number streets, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 19th, will remain open to cross traffic.

Center City Sips, the Center City District’s warm-weather Wednesday happy-hour promo, returns June 7 with 60 bars and restaurants: $7 cocktails, $6 wine, $5 beer and half-priced appetizers from 5-7 p.m. through Aug. 30. Some restaurants will discount dinners 15% after 7 p.m. Locations are here.

We used a new AI app to grocery shop in South Philly. Colleague Erin McCarthy reports on what happened.

In a New Jersey beer deal, Cape May Brewing has acquired Flying Fish. Jenn Ladd reports that both will live on.

Chef Pat Alfiero and Melissa Pellegrino of Heavy Metal Sausage Co. are popping up at Stina Pizzeria on May 2 for a fundraiser dinner to benefit FarmerJawn Agriculture. Details are here.

Levante Brewing will reprise its H.O.P. (Helping Other People) Party at the West Chester taproom from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. May 6. The free event, which features 22 beers on tap, will benefit West Chester Food Cupboard. Donations of five nonperishable foods or $10 are requested. Details are here.

A Philadelphia restaurant created a stir this week on social media. What was the issue?

A) mice in the dining room

B) a “brunch tax”

C) a special menu whose dishes all begin with the letter “s”

D) the loss of its liquor license over unpaid taxes

Find out if you know the answer.

Name three Center City restaurants that don’t get enough attention. —@canarsiek0

Only three?

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