Table Talk | A new place setting for N. Broad renaissance

The North Broad Street restaurant corridor, put on the map a few months ago by

Osteria

, inches northward.

Cobre, a high-style Puerto Rican/Mexican resto-lounge, opened last week at 812 N. Broad St. (215-235-1881). This is the restaurant debut for entrepreneur/entertainer Diana Guzman, who has owned all sorts of businesses, including a hair salon and a ballroom.

She and her family redid the entire building - adding a balcony for seating and what they call a "play room," complete with billiards table, in the basement. Lively bar possibilities till 2 a.m.; menu - from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily - covers the basics: sandwiches, fajitas, steak, plantains, shrimp. Nothing's over $14.95.

Marathon Grill

has just opened its seventh location, at 10th and Walnut Streets (215-733-0311), steps from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. (Witness the scrubs at the bar.) The building - most recently a corner diner called Yogi's - has been restored to its original splendor, with 150-year-old joists, brick walls and pine floors exposed. The first floor houses a dining room, large bar, and built-for-speed to-go area; second floor has another bar and large room. Menu is on from 7 a.m. to midnight daily; bar stays open till 2 a.m. An eighth Marathon? Possibly in the city, possibly in the suburbs - a first.

About five months after buying Barone's in Cherry Hill's Barclay Farms shopping center (210 Route 70 East), Joe Palombo has renamed it Joe Palombo's Mirabella Cafe - after the hometown of his grandmother, who taught him to cook. There's now outside seating and music Friday and Saturday nights.

Brandywine Valley sure is on a roll: Jake's Hamburgers has opened a new location at 16 West Chester-Wilmington Pike in Chadds Ford, while Five Guys Famous Burgers & Fries opened down the pike in Wilmington's Fairfax Shopping Center (2217 Concord Pike).

Zoup! Fresh Soup Company, a franchise out of the Midwest, just opened its first local outpost, in Frazer's Lincoln Court Shopping Center.

Silk City

, the landmark diner at Fifth and Spring Garden Streets, is expected to reopen in several weeks, says owner Mark Bee. Exterior work will continue.

Patrick Feury reports that he's getting some family help with Maia, the bi-level Euro restaurant-market he is planning just off the Blue Route in Villanova with Scott Morrison and Michael Wei, his partners at Nectar. Feury's brother Terence, who rose to fame at Striped Bass and later moved to the Ritz-Carlton, is now on board. Terence Feury most recently was at the Ritz-Carlton in D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood. Maia is up for late summer.

Dock Street Brewing Co. got its brewing equipment, and expects a summer opening at 50th Street and Baltimore Avenue in West Philly.

Copa Miami has given up after less than a year in the space at 1716 Chestnut St. that housed the even-shorter-lived Hamburger Mary's. Even shorter-lived was El Wingador's To-Go at Fourth Street and Girard Avenues, dark after about four months.

Zake's Cafe

in Fort Washington starts Sunday brunch this weekend.

Rum Bar (2005 Walnut St.) is now open Sundays. (Speaking of "rum" - I hear that Jeffrey Chodorow's rumjungle is delayed, possibly till year's end, at the Pier at Caesars in Atlantic City.)

New Wave Cafe in Queen Village has added outside seating along Catharine Street.

Jon Koppenhofer, a Culinary Institute of America grad most recently at the Glasbern Country Inn near Allentown, is now director of food and beverage at World Cafe Live in University City.

Check out Cobre, a new Puerto Rican/Mexican restaurant-lounge in North Philadelphia. Go to http://go.philly.com/table0510

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