Is Philly Ready for Some Texas Sushi?

Hama chili / Photograph courtesy of Uchi

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. It’s been a couple of weeks since we all had the chance to sit down and chat about the industry, so there’s quite a bit of news to get to — everything from an award-winning Japanese restaurant coming to town, the closing of two long-time neighborhood favorites, and a new restaurant from the EMei team, to Korean tacos, Heavy Metal wines, and some VERY good news coming out of Chinatown. But let’s kick things off with …

Texas Sushi Coming to Sansom Street

Chef Tyson Cole has been making sushi since before some of you were born. Back in 1992, he started washing dishes at a Japanese restaurant in Austin, Texas, called Kyoto. Staff turnover landed him in the kitchen, making maki and handrolls, and he never looked back. He trained for 10 years under different sushi masters in Austin, New York, and Tokyo; taught himself Japanese, and opened his first restaurant, Uchi, in a little red bungalow in South Austin in 2003. Two years after that, Food & Wine named him as one of its 10 best new chefs in 2005. And a couple of years after that, Uchi was named one of the best sushi restaurants in America by Bon Appétit. In 2010, he opened a second restaurant, Uchiko (also in Austin), and GQ tagged that one as the best restaurant in the country the same year. In 2011, Cole won a James Beard Award for Best Chef, Southwest. And, after that, he went on a tear, opening new restaurants in Dallas, Houston, Denver, Scottsdale, Miami, and Hollywood.

Now guess where he’s opening his next one?

If you said 1620 Sansom Street, on the ground floor of the Josephine apartments, then you are absolutely correct. Word just came down this week that Cole is bringing his Uchi concept here, and the plans are to open a 165-seat space focused on his unique version of modern Japanese cuisine, balanced between the rigor of the sushi bar and the creativity of hot and cold small plates, omakase tastings, daily specials (the “Toyosu” menu at his original location, named after the famous fish market formerly known as Tskuiji), pork belly and yolk custard “ham and egg” makimono, and fried milk ice cream for dessert.

Look, Uchi is a big deal. It’s large, expensive, successful, and comes with a pedigree like one of those dogs that fit in your purse. Cole has spent decades perfecting his craft; his team knows what they’re doing, and for him to bring his game to Philly is absolutely something to look forward to. There’s no word yet on a specific opening date, but from what I know, they’re targeting late 2025 — so hope for fall, and don’t be disappointed if it gets pushed ’til winter. Either way, odds are good that by this time a year from now, we’ll all be talking about the place.

And you can bet I’ll be keeping an eye on that address (and who he’s hiring) while we wait.

Sang Kee’s Holiday Miracle

Sang Kee Peking Duck House / Photograph by Rob Rabena for Visit Philadelphia 

One of the last things I told y’all about before bailing out for the holiday break was how Sang Kee Peking Duck House — one of the city’s most indispensable restaurants — had been forced to close by L&I after a steam leak caused owner Henry Chow to evacuate the entire place.

So that was three weeks ago, just a few days before Christmas, and things were not looking good. No one seemed to know what was causing the steam, exactly where it was coming from, or how to make it stop. According to Sang Kee, this problem had been going on intermittently for months, and pretty much every inspector and official agency in the city had been out to look at it, shrugged, and said it was somebody else’s problem. The end result? Sang Kee was closed “indefinitely.”

But Philadelphians weren’t going to stand for that.

Hundreds of social media messages, phone calls, and news posts went out. City Council got involved, alongside the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, the Department of Commerce, some plumbers, IBEW Local 98, and the National Association of Asian American Professionals, and a temporary fix was made, allowing for Sang Kee to re-open on Saturday, December 21st for regular business hours. According to the Inquirer, the trouble had to do with a water pipe leaking onto a hot steam pipe, boiling on the surface, and that steam then being sucked into the restaurant’s basement, notably futzing up an electrical panel that controls, among other things, the restaurant’s fire alarm — all of which represents a fairly accurate (if allegorical) portrayal of the Rube Goldberg complexities of being a Philadelphia restaurateur.

Still, Sang Kee managed to get the all-clear from the city just in time for the holidays, which, I think, qualifies as a legit Philly Christmas miracle. Because, as Hans Gruber says, “It’s Christmas, Theo. It’s the time of miracles.”

So let’s all be of good cheer, shall we? Sang Kee shouted out just about everyone involved in getting this problem solved in a post on Instagram but made special mention of all the support that came from the community and fans of the restaurant, both near and far. “During this extraordinarily challenging time,” it read, in part, “your outpouring of support and offers to assist have meant the world to us.”

And that’s nice, because that restaurant? It means the world to a lot of people in this city, too — myself included. And the best possible Christmas present was knowing it’ll be around a little while longer.

Meanwhile, in Other Chinatown News …

The Kobe-Style Smashed Burger / Photograph courtesy of Ting Ting’s Cafe

The crew from EMei has been busy putting the finishing touches on their new Ting Ting’s Cafe at 125 North 11th Street.

The new spot soft-opened kind of out of nowhere over the weekend, just a block away from EMei’s home at 11th and Cherry, in the old MoreSugar space. Describing itself as “a Hong Kong-style cha chaan teng” (which basically means a neighborhood diner), the space is 65 seats of pure Asian comfort food. So if you’re in the mood for soy-glazed chicken wings, fried pork chop bao, kimchi and bacon spaghetti, Kobe smash burgers with tempura bacon, curry beef stew, and some Hong Kong milk tea to wash it all down, this is absolutely your spot.

It’s open now for lunch and dinner, every day but Tuesday. You can check out the opening menu, details, and some burger porn right here.

Now what’s next?

Now For Some Bad News

What, you thought this was all going to be sweetness and light? Well, sorry. This is 2025, cats and kittens. It’s never going to be all good news.

First off, it looks like they’re finally shutting out the lights at Grace Tavern. For 20 years, Grace has held down that weird little bend where Grays Ferry becomes 23rd Street. But the last few have been rough for everyone, and the owners took to Instagram a couple of days ago to announce that they were packing it in. The final night of service will be January 12th, so you’ve still got a minute to grab a final burger and a beer and say goodbye, but if I were a betting man (and I absolutely am a betting man), I’d wager that this space isn’t going to stay empty for very long.

And this past weekend, we also had to say goodbye to Hawthorne’s, the beloved beer cafe and brunch spot that’s been holding down the corner of 11th and Fitzwater since 2009. The impending closure was announced a couple of weeks back, but the final day of service was January 5th.

This gray cloud, though, has a definite silver lining because owners Chris Fetfatzes and Heather Annechiarico still have Grace & Proper up and running in South Philly and have some major plans in the works for the future — some of which they alluded to in a farewell Instagram post that read, in part, “We will find a new home for Hawthornes when the circumstances are perfect while imminently resurrecting Sonny’s & WineDive along with some other dope shit.”

The “dope shit” in question includes the aforementioned resurrections of Sonny’s Cocktail Joint and WineDive (both of which were damaged in a fire and have been closed since 2022). Sonny’s, I’m guessing, will be re-opening first because they’re currently hiring bartenders and operating under the umbrella of the newly-formed Happy Monday Hospitality — since calling the company “Hawthorne’s Restaurant Group” no longer made much sense with Hawthorne’s being closed. Beyond that, there’s also a bagel shop in Haddonfield called Penny’s Bagels, which is set to open … soon-ish? And possibly two more restaurants in Philly, too — though neither of those have names yet. Or locations. Or opening dates. At least not any that I know of.

In any case, the loss of Hawthorne’s sucks, but none of us have seen the last of team Fetfatzes/Annechiarico. It looks like they’re going to be busy for years.

Now who wants leftovers?

The Leftovers

Renderings of Nonna’s from Bardea courtesy of Stokes Architecture and Design

I know I don’t cover a ton of Delaware restaurant news here (because, come on, it’s Delaware), but if circumstances happen to find you in Wilmington any time soon, there’s some big news happening at the DE.CO food hall in the DuPont building on West 10th Street. And that news is that the team from Bardea Restaurant Group is essentially taking over DE.CO completely and running it like mad kings, as their own private food playground.

No, for real. They’ve already got two stalls at DE.CO — Pizzeria Bardea and Taqueria El Chingon (which has no relation to Philly’s El Chingon) — and they’re looking at installing a full-service Italian restaurant early this year called Casa Nonna’s (no relation to Little Nonna’s in Midtown Village) and then following that up with five more concepts to be rolled out in the coming months.

And that’s not even counting the big Roost Pub & Kitchen (no relation to our own Pub & Kitchen in Fitler Square) project they’ve got opening in the former Stitch House Brewery any day now. Or the three other restaurants they already have up and running in the city.

Look, none of this is a bad thing. The Bardea gang has great restaurants, and chef-partner Antimo DiMeo picked up a nomination from the James Beard Foundation in 2022 as one of the best chefs in the Mid-Atlantic region, so the man knows his way around a kitchen. It’s just a crazy kind of thing when one group kicks off the new year by announcing seven new concepts upcoming in a single city. Still, I am curious to see how this all shakes out, so I’ll be keeping an eye out.

And should I find myself in Wilmington any time soon, I’m absolutely going to swing by DE.CO and see what the Bardea team has cooking.

Good news for folks in Willow Grove: This Friday, January 10th, Federal Donuts and Chicken is opening its newest location (and second franchise operation) at 4021 Welsh Road. They’re celebrating with a free cup of minis with every purchase on opening weekend and a free FedNuts tee shirt (with purchase) for the first 100 customers through the door.

A Conshy outpost is up next, followed by another in Marlton, NJ.

Y’all know how much I dig all the bonkers Mexi-Korean nonsense the team from Korea Taqueria gets up to. So imagine how happy I am to hear that they’ve just gotten the keys to a new space at 2563 Trenton Avenue (right across from the skate park) and are turning it into a second Korea Taqueria location.

There are not a ton of details yet, but I do know that they’re doing demo now, looking at a fairly quick turnaround for the new Fishtown/Kensington spot, and hoping for a spring opening. Plus, it looks like they’ve got a ton of convenient parking — which is a big improvement over the original Grays Ferry spot. As always, you’ll know more when I know more.

Meanwhile, we’ve talked a little bit about Dreamworld Bakes before — Ashley Huston’s side-gig-turned-full-time-micro-bakery-turned-dreamy-brick-and-mortar-cake-spot. Well, as of this weekend, her first actual location is open at 2400 Coral Street in East Kensington (and, notably, just around the corner and a couple of blocks away from that new Korea Taqueria location).

You want to have a fun few minutes? Check out Huston’s Dreamworld Instagram feed. Her cakes are gorgeous — just absolute explosions of color and flowers and glitter, beautiful as complete works of art and delicious once cut. Also, there’s a yuzu donut pictured on her “we’re open” announcement that looks like just the most delicious thing I’ve seen all week.

Hours are Thursdays and Fridays, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check it out if you’re in the neighborhood.

Some exciting news from Heavy Metal Sausage. / Photograph by Bradford Pearson

And finally this week, there’s an orange sign in the window at Heavy Metal Sausage Co. (1527 West Porter Street), attended by an intriguing note that reads:

“Dear Neighbors,

We are assuming you may have questions about this big, bright orange sign. We are starting a winery. We have a space in Grays Ferry where we will be making wine from local grapes. And we are planning on selling local wine and beer to enjoy here at the shop. We have no intention of turning this into a bar or anything like that. We are keeping the same hours. We’ll just be offering a drink to go along with your sandwich.”

So a Heavy Metal Winery. And one of those nice local brewery/winery licenses to go along with it. That’s nothing but awesome.