Restaurants coming to the Navy Yard
An unknown operator is preparing to set up, and Urban Outfitters is expanding its dining options.
The lower end of South Broad Street is about to get mighty interesting, dining-wise.
The City Planning Commission today approved plans to subdivide plots at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and one will allow a 228-seat restaurant (156 seats inside, 72 outside) to open in a two-story brick building on the east side of the front gate. (You've passed it a hundred times. See Google street view photo.)
I hear that developer P&A Associates, which has the Murano and the St. James in its portfolio, is in deep talks with a Philly restaurateur who wants to open by the end of the year. (Who? It's not signed. And since you'll surely ask: Stephen Starr says he's not involved.)
Gorgeous building, stunning nautical views. P&A also will get a relaxation of rules that all but close the base at night so that the restaurant can operate after normal business hours.
Question is: Who will go there? It's less than a mile from the new Xfinity Live, coming up on the site of the former Spectrum, which will have its own complement of restos.
The planners also approved a plan for Urban Outfitters, a tenant at the Navy Yard, to open a new restaurant in what is now a photo studio. UO's cafeteria, open to the public during business hours in what's known as Building 543, happens to offer some of the best grub in South Philly.