How to have a Perfect Philly Day according to Yun Fuentes, the James Beard Award-nominated chef behind Bolo

If chef Yun Fuentes focuses hard enough, Philly is dotted with reminders of his childhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The cobblestones near Amada — Jose Garces’ Old City restaurant where Fuentes first worked as a chef — remind him of the streets he walked back home, where Fuentes was surrounded by landmarks from Puerto Rico’s history. Strolling the Italian Market stirs memories of shopping with his grandmother at open-air stalls in Rio Piedras.

Even the front windows of Fuentes’ restaurant Bolo, at 2025 Sansom St., transport him back to the marquesina, or covered patio, of his grandmother’s hair salon. They open to reveal a small outdoor bar where you can order cocktails and snacks not unlike the ones his grandfather used to pass around while clients and their husbands waited outside.

“I felt like I was at Mama Ada’s and Bolo’s house,” Fuentes, 47, told The Inquirer. “That was the draw.”

Fuentes opened Bolo in 2023 after working as executive chef of Stephen Starr’s now-shuttered Alma De Cuba and as the culinary director of South Street bar and music venue MilkBoy. The Latin American restaurant has catapulted Fuentes to the upper echelon of Philly restaurateurs, earning him two James Beard nominations and a spot on the foundation’s TasteTwenty list for up-and-coming chefs. This week, Bolo made The Inquirer’s list of Philly’s 76 most essential restaurants for the second year in a row.

» READ MORE: The 76 2025: The most vital restaurants in the Philly area

Bolo melds Latin American classics with distinctly East Coast ingredients, like mofongo served with butter-poached pieces of an entire Maine lobster or sorullitos, cornmeal fritters stuffed with a Gouda-like cheese sourced from Doe Run Farm in Chester County. The menu, Fuentes said, is inspired by a question his then-9-year-old daughter Lula once asked: Am I Puerto Rican or Philadelphian?

“I told Lula that she was 100% of both,” Fuentes said. “That answer really solidified the idea of Bolo to me. ... It doesn’t matter where we travel, what we take with us is our heritage.”

Fuentes is proud to lay roots in Philadelphia. He lives in Queen Village — the neighborhood where his wife lived when they first started dating 12 years ago — and loves to stroll down South Street, reminiscing about how he’d always end up there on trips to visit his father in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

How would Fuentes spend a perfect (and rare) Philly Thursday when he is off from work? By grocery shopping and trying to beat the crowds at a popular pastelillo spot.

» READ MORE: Craig LaBan | Bolo updates viejo classics with bold Puerto Rican energy

My perfect morning ritual is making pancakes for my daughters, Lula and Ada. They like to bring me a Pokémon card and ask me to make the pancakes in the same shape. It’s a challenge ... but the kids let me get away with a lot of poetic licensing. I’m not claiming they look anything like the picture.

I feel like I’m sharing something of mine that I don’t get to share with them all the time. It brings me a sense of comfort.

After, I walk the kids to school and my wife Sara to her job at the Philly Art Center on Bainbridge Street. We usually stop at Rally for coffee, where I get a small espresso. She gets a cold brew with cream and sugar, plus a pastry.

I drive up to El Coqui [in Harrowgate] to pick up bread for the house; they supply the pan de agua we use in the restaurant. I will also pick up a quesito.

You can take a Puerto Rican out of Puerto Rico, but you cannot take away his quesito. It’s a layered dough that has a cheese filling and is topped with almíbar, an almost honey-like syrup. They are great when warm.

I love coming to El Coqui because when you walk in, it immediately smells like Puerto Rico with the sofrito sizzling. Sometimes they even have the sounds of the coqui playing.

As I head south, I stop by Ellie & Bird Coffee Bar to grab a coconut water americano. It blows my mind to the point where I wish I thought of it first.

It’s a mad dash to get to Amy’s Pastelillos [in Fishtown] before the lunch rush. If she has bacalao, I have to get that, or a pastelillo filled yuca and gandules filling. I love Amy [Rivera-Nassar’s] aura because she just exudes welcoming energy.

I love bringing Amy’s pastelillos to my kids. They eat them a little weird though, by tearing off and eating all the crust first before moving onto the filling. At first I was like, ‘Why would you do that?’ But now I get it. They have a good crunch.

» READ MORE: Fishtown’s ‘Pastelillo lady’ is opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant

Now, I go have lunch with my wife at Puyero on South Street. I try to sneak away to have lunch or do a breakfast date with Sara at least once a week. We talk about our kids and whatever’s going on in the neighborhood, or maybe the latest comic book I’m reading.

Sara always gets the [patacón pintón] on the sweet plantains, and I like either of the sandwiches between the two tostones. I recently collaborated with Puyero for World Arepa Day, and I learned so much. They have everything down to exactly how many grams of filling go inside each one. It’s quite a skill to get arepas consistent.

Afterward, I stop by Atomic City Comics on South Street to buy some comics.

I learned a lot of English through reading comic books, especially Spider-Man. My one friend and I would walk miles to get to the one comic store in Rio Piedras for our weekly delivery. Now, I’m more into full graphic novels with more storytelling. It’s nice way to get my head out of the restaurant and just go to a different universe for a second.

I meal prep at home each week, so I head to the Italian Market to shop for groceries. First up is Esposito’s Meats for thin cut pork chops, chicken cutlets, Italian sausages, a pound or two of bacon, and then a steak for Ada’s steak salads. Those are her favorite.

Next, I cross the street to go to Tortilleria San Roman for fresh tortillas, a bag of chips, and tostadas. Somehow, I often find myself at Di Bruno Bros. picking through the mystery basket filled with odd ends of cheese. It’s a curiosity thing.

Along the way, I bop around buying produce for the house. It reminds me of when I would go with my grandma Ada to the Rio Piedras market, which is open air just like the Italian Market. I spend at least one of my days off each week shopping here.

» READ MORE: This is where Philly’s chefs shop for the best meat, produce, dishes, knives, and more

Now that the kids are both back from school, I take my daughters out to hunt for Toynbee tiles and Stikmen. Whenever we go on walks we try to find as many as we can, and they’re both so good at spotting them.

Naturally, it would also be date night, so Sara and I would sit at the Lovers Bar inside Friday Saturday Sunday for dinner. The food is great, but the real draw is bartender Paul [MacDonald]. I always walk out having learned about three different spirits or new a technique.

During one of my visits, he talked about how to make strawberry syrups for drinks without cooking them by macerating the berries in their natural juices. This summer, my girls actually ran a lemonade stand and I got a little too involved, telling them how to run the business and everything. I ended up convincing them to add a strawberry lemonade to the menu using Paul’s trick.

Guess what? They sold out.

After dinner, Sara and I would probably see a comedy show at Helium Comedy Club. I saw Natasha Leggero there not too long ago, and Dave Attell.

Comedy taught a lot, namely that you can find the lighter side to things if you work at it. Like comic books, I also learned English from comedy. I used to watch Seinfeld and Cheers and pay extra attention to the laugh track. I wanted to laugh too, and it pushed me to actually comprehend what they were saying, instead of just mimicking and listening like I did in school.

Sara and I would head back to our neighborhood for a nightcap at Royal Tavern. When my wife and I started dating 12 years ago, we would end most of our dates here because it was around the corner from where she lived.

It was like our hangout spot. We started seeing each other when we were working at Tinto [which closed in 2021], and we would always end up at Royal Tavern after shifts.

The ambiance is great. It’s like a dive bar, but kind of classy.