Fitler Square Says “No” to Bringing Back Jezabel’s Cafe

Jezabel Careaga / Photograph by Mike Prince

A small cafe. Something quiet, delicious, good for the neighborhood and good for the environment. A cafe run by someone with a record of running good cafes in neighborhoods just like this one (exactly like this one, as a matter of fact) and inspired by similar cafes in London, in Copenhagen.

That’s what Fitler Square could’ve had. A place for the community to gather. And while I am obviously biased and can’t understand why any neighborhood would ever say no to something like that, that’s just what a group — a LARGE group — of Fitler Square neighbors did. They said no. Loudly and repeatedly. They said no, and now Jezabel Careaga of Jezabel’s Cafe won’t be opening a brand new neighborhood spot on the corner of 21st and Lombard. Instead, nothing will be opening there. It’ll just remain a residential property and everyone in Fitler Square will have to go across the Schuylkill River for their empanadas.

So how did this happen? I was curious about that, too. I knew that Careaga was looking at expanding. I’d heard that she was hoping to come back to the neighborhood where she’d gotten her start back in June of 2010. But then there was this piece in The Fitler Focus by David Aragon that told a detailed story of how a zoning fight and organized opposition in the neighborhood tanked Careaga’s plans to open, and I was thrown. I wanted to know how it happened. And, lucky for me, Careaga wanted to talk about it.

“That was a shocker,” she told me when I got her on the phone between appointments on Wednesday morning. It took her completely by surprise. She’d signed a tentative lease with the owners, contingent on Careaga getting a zoning variance from the city on the property at 2101 Lombard Street which had a commercial and mixed-use history, but had been zoned RM-1 (multi-family residential) for decades. Careaga wasn’t concerned. The landlord wasn’t concerned. Everyone thought this was a done deal because it’s not like they were talking about opening a bar or a strip club on the property. This was a cafe. Breakfasts and lunches. Coffee and tortilla de patatas.

Plus, Careaga had operated in the neighborhood before. She ran the original Jezabel’s in Fitler Square until December of 2018 when she moved out to University City. But she always missed the neighborhood.

“I don’t know,” she told me. “People would just walk around. It was very communal.” She had regulars that came by every week, friends in the community, neighbors who’d made Jezabel’s a part of their routine — a part of their lives. “I kinda miss that,” she said. “And ever since I left, I had this wish that I would make it back to Fitler Square someday.”

The Lombard Street property was her way of doing that. She started the process in April. The first zoning meeting was in July. And that was where the trouble began. Neighbors adjacent to the property didn’t want Careaga opening there — or not just Careaga, but anyone. According to The Fitler Focus, the primary argument was that 21st is a residential street, and adding a business to it would… I don’t know. Ruin the vibe? Cause traffic problems? Primarily, it seemed to be the vibes thing. Aragon quotes one of the neighbors, Jo Buyske, as saying, “I moved to this neighborhood with my four children because it was a residential street. It’s got a strong residential feel with lots of children, good family relationships, and shared block parties.”

And Careaga’s cafe would’ve just wrecked that, supposedly. The thing that really got me? Apparently, at one of the zoning meetings, neighbors actually made suggestions for other places Careaga could open. Like South Street. It was the weirdest NIMBY fight I’ve heard of in a while. And Careaga, unsurprisingly, was not interested in their suggestions.

“Small businesses are the heartbeat of the community,” Careaga explained. “This would’ve been a connecting point between businesses on 22nd and on Lombard. A small footprint, very community-oriented. It wouldn’t necessarily have been Jezabel’s, but something inspired by places I’d traveled to in London and Copenhagen.”

Careaga had 30 letters of support from neighbors. She had a letter from the Philadelphia School on Lombard. But when, at a second meeting, the opposition showed up with a petition signed by 75 people, all opposing the cafe, Careaga just walked away.

“We can’t be putting ourselves out there saying, ‘Hey, let us come in. Hey, play with us,'” Careaga said. And after 13 years in business, both in the neighborhood and outside it, “we shouldn’t have to prove ourselves.”

I asked her what her plans were for the future now that the Fitler Square expansion plans are over. According to Careaga there are collaborations to worry about, a lunch series at Jezabel’s on 45th Street because she loves lazy Saturday and Sunday lunches. “The idea for the moment is to regroup for the winter,” she explained, but she isn’t sitting still. “I’ll just say it’s going to be a very busy 2024.”

As for her dream of returning to Fitler Square someday? She isn’t giving up on that yet. “It is my hope that we’ll find something,” she said, then paused, then laughed. “I’ll keep looking.”