Cry Baby Pasta & Wine Bar to take Ela’s spot in Queen Village

Restaurateurs Bridget Foy and husband Paul Rodriguez, awaiting the reconstruction of their fire-ravaged Bridget Foy's restaurant at Second and South Streets, have a new restaurant teed up to open in the meantime.

They’re partnered with David Gilberg and Carla Gonçalves — the husband-and-wife team that ran Koo Zee Doo, the critically acclaimed but now shuttered Northern Liberties Portuguese BYOB — on a neighborhood-friendly restaurant called Cry Baby Pasta & Wine Bar at Third and Bainbridge Streets in Queen Village. The location is now Ela, which closes for good Nov. 3.

For the last year, since the fire at Bridget Foy's, "we've been bored," said Foy, who was a tot when her parents, John and Bernadette, named the old East Philly Cafe after her. She literally grew up in the business and the neighborhood, which, she says, qualifies her to run a "local" restaurant.

With Bridget Foy’s due to return in September 2019, Foy and Rodriguez decided to explore another opportunity. They worked over the summer with Gilberg and Goncalves at a hotel-restaurant in Upstate New York, and the Cry Baby deal was born. “It’s a good fit,” she said.

Cry Baby will lean Italian, and its pasta-centric menu will include plenty of vegetables. Rodriguez will put his cocktail and wine background — from Fork and the Garces orbit — into use with a deep but moderate-priced list.

They hope to open in January after a research trip to Bologna and a remodeling that will impart a “fresh, hipster spin on things,” Foy said.