Farewell, Twenty Manning. Hello, Little Water

Amanda and Randy Rucker of River Twice and the forthcoming Little River. / Photograph by Ram Holgado

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the Foobooz food news round-up. We’ve got a double-dose of pizza news this week, updates on two different spots for you vinyl lovers, and some new life in Lambertville. But first, let’s kick things off with a word from our friends, the Ruckers on East Passyunk…

River Twice As Nice

Randy and Amanda Rucker’s East Passyunk restaurant, River Twice, is one of the most remarkable restaurants in town. There’s the collaborations with both local and national chefs, the one-off events, and just every normal night of service with Randy serving a four-course prix-fixe that rivals any other menu in the city. It’s the kind of place where “gently cooked swordfish” with preserved carrots or longneck pumpkin with quince and limequat shares space with a burger that has developed such a cult following that it had to get its own night of the week (Mondays) just to keep the regulars from rioting.

And now, it looks like the Ruckers are expanding.

We caught wind on Instagram that Amanda and Randy would be taking over the space at 261 South 20th Street in Rittenhouse Square — the current home of Twenty Manning — for a new “Contemporary coastal” restaurant called Little Water.

There’s not a ton of details just yet. I know we’re looking at a few months before the new place gets up and running (so call it spring 2024), and when it does, the Ruckers will be doing both lunch and dinner services “celebrating the ecological diversity of life by the sea.” So … seafood? Probably seafood. And maybe beavers. I dunno. But I trust Randy, so I’m looking forward to whatever he has in mind.

Twenty Manning, though, will be ending its impressive run in that space. Wanna know how long it has been there? It is older than the iPod. Older than both the Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movie franchises. Originally opened by Audrey Taichman in 2000, it was bought by Rob Wasserman in 2018, survived the pandemic, and made it all the way to today in a space that has been other restaurants for as long as anyone can remember. It’s sad to see such a piece of Philly’s culinary history go dark after nearly a quarter-century, but honestly? If I could’ve picked anyone in town to take over that space, the Ruckers would’ve been high on my list. I can’t wait to see what they do there.

Moving on …

Pizza Pizza

The team behind Pizzata Pizzeria are hoping to open their new spot, Pizzata Pizzeria & Birreria, by the end of this month. / Photograph by Mike Prince

I’ve got a double shot of news from the frontlines of Philly’s pizza wars this week. And since we’re already talking about East Passyunk, let’s start with this:

Just a block or so away from River Twice, at 1700 East Passyunk, LaScala’s Birra will be going dark to make way for a second Philly location of Pizzata Pizzeria. The original Pizzata opened in 2020 in Rittenhouse Square (coincidentally, just two blocks from Twenty Manning, because Philly’s restaurant scene is just the smallest of small towns), and has done pretty well for itself slinging its New York-style pizzas for the neighbors. Weirdly, owners Davide Lubrano and Vinny Gallagher decided to open their second location just about as far from Philly as you can get without leaving the country — Naples, Florida — but now they’re coming back and taking over the space at East Passyunk and Morris, calling it Pizzata Pizzeria & Birreria. They’re hoping to open by the end of the month.

The new spot will be a bit of a departure for the Pizzata crew. Where the O.G. Rittenhouse spot was just a little NY-style pizza joint with a handful of seats, this new one seats roughly 150 indoors and out, plus an upstairs which can be used for cooking classes, kid’s parties, private events or whatever. Additionally, the menu at the new place is going to be large — covering everything from gnocchi, truffled mac and cheese and eggplant parm to the 10 different red and white pies being offered. Oh, and there’s also going to be a bar. “We are going to be a restaurant for everyone,” according to Gallagher. “Not just pizza lovers.”

Meanwhile, over in Port Richmond, the crew from Sally, Martha and Pizza Shackamaxon (which opened in the old home of the original Pizzeria Beddia, just so everyone has their history straight) have opened the exact opposite kind of pizza shop at 3136 Richmond Street — a simple 20-seater with a scaled-down menu called Pizza Richmond.

Here, they’ll be doing thin-crust whole pies and slices in red and white, a tomato pie, two kinda of soft-serve and … that’s pretty much it. The joint got mobbed when it opened over the weekend, but everyone seems to be settling in nicely now.

There’s no website that I can find, no phone, but if you’re interested in keeping track of the place, they are on Instagram (of course). Check ‘em out here or just stop by. Hours are Thursday to Sunday, noon to 9 p.m.

For the Vinyl Lover In All of Us

The owners of Forîn have transformed their upstairs space into a record shop called Impressions. / Photograph courtesy of UV Lucas

Since we had a double dose of pizza news this week, how about a two-fer from Philly’s niche listening room/cocktail bar scene, too?

You guys remember when I told you about 48 Record Bar, the hybrid bar and listening club that opened upstairs from Sassafras in Old City? Yeah, well it looks like they made it through their launch and have started up with regular programming. In January, they’ve got everything from a reading series, to a party and “deep listening event” celebrating the vinyl release of Andre 3000’s New Blue Sun. Also, there’s a tiered membership program now for those of you who are heavy into this scene. You can get all the details on that (plus a heads-up on upcoming events) here.

And if one listening bar just isn’t enough, how ‘bout this? Over in Kensington, the owners of Forîn cafe at 2041 Coral Street have turned their upstairs space into one, too. It’s called Impressions, and with the help of John Raffaele (who used to run Impressions as an online/pop-up project for record shoppers and fans of dance music), they’ve got records on the walls, records on carts, listening stations — the whole deal. And on Friday, January 19th, they’re throwing a grand-opening party for the neighbors.

From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., they’re inviting everyone to drop by to listen to some vinyl, check out the space, eat free ube mai tai popcorn, and enjoy an all-day happy hour with $4 wine by the glass and $5 Thai tea highballs. After that, it’ll be business as usual, with Impressions staying open until 7 p.m. daily, and Forîn downstairs (which normally closes at 3 p.m.) adding on an extra Friday evening service with snacks, cocktails and DJ music that’ll also run until 7 p.m.

Okay, now how ’bout some leftovers.

The Leftovers

The bar at Almyra. / Photograph by Gab Bonghi

You guys remember At The Table out in Wayne? If you don’t, you should definitely read this review.

But for the rest of you, I just heard that chef Alex Hardy is throwing his first ever collaboration dinner with sister sommeliers Chiara and Alessandra Branchers, proprietors and wine makers at Cantina Casetto. He’s calling it Cantina Casetto At The Table and it’ll be a full night of Italian dishes and paired wines. It’s happening on Thursday, January 18th and there’ll be just one seating, at 7 p.m. Tickets will run $150, and you can make your reservations here.

We’ve talked about Almyra before — the new, very large Greek restaurant on Chancellor Street, opened by the Estia crew. And while they made it through their grand opening last month, no one there is sitting still.

Almyra just announced the launch of their new happy hour program. It’ll run Monday to Friday, from 4 to 6 p.m. and feature bifteki dumplings and saganaki for $10, discounted cocktails, plus a spicy margarita spritz or a bartender’s-choice Drink of the Day for $9.

Oh, and that’s not all. On Friday and Saturday nights, there’ll be a live DJ from 9 p.m. to midnight, “setting the mood with Mykonos beach club-inspired sets.” To me, personally, that sounds awful. But who knows? That might be just your thing, which is why I’m letting you know. Both the happy hour and the Mykonos dance party nights are up and running now.

Just so those of you in New Jersey don’t feel left out, I got news over the weekend that Sisao finally opened in Lambertville. Originally promised for January 4th, it seems like things got a little … complicated as that date drew near. This is what I heard from the owners:

“It’s possible that our projected opening date of January 4 was wishful thinking. The inspection and approval process was pushed back time and again so that date came and went. But all the ink is dry, the tables are set, and the kitchen is ready to delight you.”

So that’s good news.

Sisao is at 9 Klines Court in Lambertville (formerly Brian’s) and is doing seafood inspired by the South of France. That means king crab roulade, wine-braised calamari, hand-cut cappellini in sea urchin sauce for a little flavor of the Mediterranean, lobster thermidor (when’s the last time you saw THAT on a menu?), monkfish Bordelaise and bananas Foster. There’s no fish in the bananas Foster. At least as far as I know.

And finally this week, some sad(ish) news. It looks like Famous 4th Street deli has actually been sold. Restarateur Al Gamble (who owns a New England-based restaurant group) has taken the keys from owner Russ Cowan, who is looking at opening another spot elsewhere. They’re doing a month or so of changeover, but the deal has been done.

But hey, there’s a silver lining here, too. At least for now, it looks like Gamble is going to be changing nothing about the place. He loves it just the way it is, and is just trying to get his head around all the things that make it great. Over at the Inky, they’ve got a looooong explainer all about Cowan, Gamble and Famous that’s equal parts weird and informative. So if you’re interested, you should totally check it out.