Another Dewey's meeting the wrecking ball

Years ago, before Cosi and Starbucks perched themselves on every Center City corner, we had chains like Horn & Hardart's, Linton's and Dewey's.

Good values, decent food, great meeting places.

And all done in by time and progress. Nothing lasts forever, and all that.

Thursday's news about the impending demolition of the building that houses Little Pete's, which has held down the corner of 17th and Chancellor Streets for 36 years, brought to mind a similar situation: the low-slung building at 13th and Chancellor Streets, the former Letto Deli.

That spot right now also happens to be in the crosshairs of the wrecking ball, as a developer is about to knock it down to put in a larger building that will include an upscale restaurant from chef Sylva Senat, who previously worked at Tashan on Broad Street.

Four blocks apart, the buildings share a lineage. Both were Dewey's eateries, and as readers have reminded me this evening, both hold significant spots in the history of gay activism in Philadelphia (see this article and this one).

The 12-story Hudson Hotel that in 2016 will replace the building that now includes Little Pete's - if rezoning is approved - will include 300 rooms. An upscale restaurant will sit at the top.

At 13th and Chancellor Streets, Senat says his restaurant - Maison 208 (after the address, 208 S. 13th St.) - will be a 65- to 70-seat, open kitchen, French-inspired restaurant reminiscent of New York's Sign of the Dove. There will be a small wine room in the basement. He and partners are still working out plans for the second floor. It's hoped that Maison 208 will open around Valentine's Day.

And while the images of wrecking balls and restaurants are fresh in your mind, I'll call attention to the southeast corner of 15th and Walnut Streets - which if memory serves me was not a Dewey's. (The Dewey's in that neighborhood were at 15th and Locust, now Cosi, and at 17th and Walnut, where the ING Cafe is now.)

The corner of 15th and Walnut was a bank and a series of shops - including Elixr, a coffeeshop, and Miga, a Korean restaurant - that were demolished last spring.

Construction is well underway for a retail project that includes a Cheesecake Factory that is supposed to open in the second quarter of 2015.