Not your average restaurant project in Ardmore

For 80 years, there's been a large, curved marquee hanging over a building near the train station on Anderson Avenue in Ardmore.

For 40 years, until 1979, it advertised the Suburban Theater. After that, it hung over the entrance to the Ardmore Farmer's Market before it moved up the street.

Starting Monday, Feb. 23, the marquee becomes the front of a roof deck for a restaurant, Not Your Average Joe's.

When it signed the lease nearly two years ago, the Massachusetts-based NYAJ saw the marquee's overhang and thought it would become a swell outdoor spot with a second-story view of Suburban Square's central courtyard. Then the engineers got involved; it was not weight-bearing. "Swell" took time and money as a mezzanine level was added to the building, which has 30-foot ceilings.

The NYAJ - the 22nd in the chain, after its opening last year in Glen Mills - has an open, industrial look, bars on two levels (40 bottles of wine, 21 served by the glass, and 20 beers on tap), an enormous pizza oven, and a vast wall upon which old movies are projected.

Food, made from scratch, hits all of the major food groups - pizzas, sandwiches, entrees, entree salads - and it's not priced outrageously. Menus are here; there's a decent gluten-free selection.

It's open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, till 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.