They can't get enough of the lobster risotto with asparagus and sun-dried tomato pesto entrée, priced at $26.
Diners are a key indicator of the American economy and, in particular, the small-business climate. So we checked in with a small business at the center of the action. In the middle of the theater district at Broad near Locust, Bliss seats 50 in the main dining room, 32 in the mezzanine, 20 outside (particularly when it's warm!) and 10 at the bar.
Owner Christ Dhimitri bought the place in February 2008, just before most Americans awoke to the financial crisis. His business is just now getting back to the precrash levels.
"The last four months have been the best four months since I've been here," Dhimitri said. "It's back at 2008 levels, when I literally had just taken over."
Dhimitri, who has owned and operated several restaurants in Philadelphia, said: "It took every dollar I had to stay open. I believed in what I was doing, with the right location and the right niche. The reality was I didn't realize [the recession] would be so bad and so deep."
"It's been a struggle, and at this point we are back to 2008 levels, prior to the nonsense," he jokes. "The summer of 2008 was the worst time in my life. I had never seen anything so bad," he said, comparing it even to the days in the late 1960s when he and his father were running the Marlane Diner in Upper Darby.
The turning point? Theatergoers returned. Before the current recovery, theaters would book shows but only fill half of the seats. "Now, when they book a show, people come," Dhimitri said. "All of a sudden, the opera on Wednesdays and Fridays means I'm going to be busy.
Peter Nero of the Philly Pops dines at Bliss regularly as well.
Bliss is starting to attract a younger, later crowd. "That will cement Bliss," Dhimitri said.
The holidays were "great," and February has been a "knockdown - opera people spend money. They're nice and not pretentious," and like the modern American cuisine, with world influences spanning Albanian to Chinese.
Dhimitri has relished a lifetime in the restaurant business. He opened Kanpai in 1976, opened Chris' Jazz Cafe at 1421 Sansom St., which he sold in 1999 - although it still bears his name.
One thing he has tracked closely his entire career is American Express credit card receipts, which at Bliss are still just at 60 percent of the precrisis levels.
"But for that, I'm very optimistic," Dhimitri said.