Is This the Future of Food? Wonder’s 10 Philly Hubs Have Us Worried

Photograph courtesy of Wonder

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. Okay, so now that we’ve put Valentine’s Day, the Super Bowl, the victory parade, and all those other distractions in the rearview, the local restaurant industry should have a few weeks of relative calm and quiet, right? Nope. We’ve got a whole bunch of different things happening right now — including (but not limited to) a new chef at Fork, new hours for Fiore, and 10 new food halls across Philly for all of us. So let’s get things started this week with …

10 Food Halls for Philly in 2025

Yeah, you read that right. Ten of ’em. And they’re all coming to town courtesy of one company: Wonder.

If you haven’t heard of Wonder before, that’s cool. Up until very recently, it was a more-or-less NYC-centric operation — a kind of neighborhood food hub with a couple dozen strategically placed locations that offer dine-in, take-out, and the promise of delivery of anything you order in about 30 minutes. The innovative thing? Each location has dishes from multiple brands and partners, all under the same roof, and all combinable within a single order. So you can get a steak from Bobby Flay, fried chicken from Marcus Samuelsson, and a salad from Michael Symon, all brought right to your door, all from a single location.

Wonder was started by billionaire entrepreneur Marc Lore, who made his name by inventing Diapers.com (which sold to Amazon for $545 million in 2011), and is currently trying to found his own techno-utopian city called Telosa (which, if I’ve read my science fiction correctly, always goes perfectly). In the meantime, he has Wonder, which he called a “once in a lifetime” idea that “could be the Amazon of food and beverage” in an interview last year with the New York Times. And, again, when has anyone ever called their disruptive new idea “the Amazon of blank” and it didn’t turn out to be brilliant?

Anyway, I got word over the weekend that Wonder was moving into Philly in a big way, promising 10 locations scattered around the region in 2025, and 90 (!!!) total scattered across the Northeast by the end of the year. Which would be an absolutely insane thing to say, except for the fact that Lore and Wonder have recently put together $1.5 billion in investments in the company, which is a pretty nice nest egg to be sitting on. That money helped Lore and Wonder buy GrubHub this past November and is currently fueling this massive expansion program.

So let me say the nice things first. Wonder seems to do pretty well in NYC. It offers online ordering through an app, allows you to combine meals from lots of different categories — both their own, in-house brands (like Burger Baby and Limesalt), and big, national names (like Samuelsson’s Streetbird, barbecue from Tejas in Tomball, Texas, pizza from Di Fara in Brooklyn, and Spanish food from Jose Andres’s Jota). Everything is made-to-order on-site at the individual locations, and the delivery system is, according to most reviews, pretty solid. It’s a good idea on paper, and the stated goal of Wonder’s existence is “to make great food from the world’s best chefs and celebrated restaurants more accessible.” Which sounds almost noble.

Some of Limesalt’s offerings / Photograph courtesy of Wonder

But I have several issues with Wonder, beginning with the idea that there are no ethical billionaires and ending with the absolutely proven feature of capitalism that says that monopolies only benefit the monopolists. And what is Wonder if not a first, lurching step in the direction of a kind of food-world monopoly where one company (Wonder) is vertically integrated and owns every stage of production and uses it to offer every variety of food to everyone, everywhere? They even hype it as a feature in their press materials: “Wonder owns every step of the process, from food sourcing and prep to menu creation, cooking, and delivery, consistently bringing an elevated, personalized dining experience.”

I actually fear that the convenience and ubiquity of these food halls will have an undeniable effect on the local restaurants operating in the neighborhoods. In addition to taking up physical real estate, they’ll occupy an outsized portion of the psychological real estate as well. I mean, why bother going out for burgers or tacos from the place on the corner when Wonder can bring both of them right to your door — along with a poke bowl, some wings, and a roast chicken from Jonathan Waxman?

Plus, they’ve designed the operation so that no chefs are required, only employees who work, assembly-line-style, to piece together pre-prepped ingredients in accordance with directions from corporate in order to best simulate a Bobby Flay steak or a chicken thigh from Mr. D’s.

And while Wonder is allegedly considering partnerships with local restaurants, none have yet been announced. This may change. Maybe they’ll all have FedNuts, pastas from Bastia, and pastéis de nata from Gilda on the menu. But even if they do, isn’t this then essentially devaluing the original products made by the chefs who originated them?

Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know Lore. Not moving in the internet-diapers-and-online-retail space, I know little about his reputation. All I’ll say right now is that I’m concerned. Because I’ve seen this kind of thing before, and I’m old enough to know where it ends up. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea right from the jump, just that I’m worried about how it all might shake out.

Right now, Wonder is looking at three locations for spring openings: Ardmore (17 West Lancaster Avenue), Girard Avenue in Fishtown, and the Roosevelt Mall in the Northeast. After that, it’s South Philly and Rittenhouse. Then King of Prussia, West Chester, Newtown Square, Mount Laurel, and Cherry Hill. All locations will include pick-up, delivery, and dine-in.

Now what else is happening this week?

Fork Makes a Change

Photographs courtesy of Fork

There are a lot of things I love about Fork. But one of the things I think about the most is how this place — this totally famous, award-winning restaurant that has endured within Philly’s volatile food scene for 27 years without ever losing a step — is that it exists almost entirely without ego. It is a restaurant made from the ground up to glorify ingredients, technique and the art of hospitality, and to showcase individual chefs over the past couple decades. And while each one of them was important in their moment, their lasting influence has been nothing more than collective. Fork reinvents itself each time a new chef steps to the pass. It doesn’t become a new restaurant but simply adds to its legacy.

And now, Fork is doing it again with the announcement of new chef Sam Henzy (most recently of Middle Child) taking over the kitchen from George Madosky.

Henzy coming to Old City is a big deal. He’s got a helluva resume — including stints at Noma in Copenhagen and Quince in San Francisco, plus years spent working alongside Greg Vernick at Vernick Food and Drink. He knows his way around a kitchen, is what I’m saying. Two decades of experience and some Michelin stars in his past? That’s a nice run-up to taking the reins at Fork and bringing butter-poached monkfish with charred fennel, smoked squash cappelletti and bluefish rillettes with dill oil, and salmon skin crisp to the board.

Henzy’s new menu is up and running now, and along with it, a new renovation for Fork. Most notably, they’ve got a new, U-shaped bar in the dining room, topped with cherry wood and set with bespoke black walnut stools. There’s restored church-pew seating in the dining room, refurbished tabletops, new paneling with a subtle yellow-to-green color shift, and a new service station, too. All the work was done locally, and the redesign was overseen by Marguerite Rodgers, who has been working with Fork and owner Ellen Yin for years.

From Georgia to East Passyunk (and Beyond)

Matthew and Tia Raiford of Strong Roots 9 / Photograph courtesy of Strong Roots 9

Later this month, Matthew and Tia Raiford of Strong Roots 9 are coming all the way from Georgia to do a double shot of special Black History Month dinners in Philly.

Strong Roots 9 is a historic family-owned farm in Brunswick, Georgia. The Raifords are CIA-trained chefs who beat their knives into ploughshares and became stewards of the farm with the goal of “engaging the world with African American foodways, reviving the holistic practices of their ancestors, and helping to feed their diverse community high-quality, locally grown organic produce that is sustainably farmed.” And they’re coming to Philly on February 25th for a five-course Gullah Geechee tasting dinner at Ember & Ash featuring shrimp toast with saffron coconut rice, head hash terrine, smoked grouper with hoja santa, and produce sourced from Gilliard Farm — a 50-acre homestead bought by Matthew’s great-great-great-grandfather, freed slave Jupiter Gilliard, in 1874.

Then, on February 26th, they’ll be hitting Booker’s for a “Great Migration Dinner,” featuring a multi-course menu and discussion (led by Matthew) “recounting the history of the movement to the urban North by six million southern blacks between 1910 and 1970, and how they brought their rich culinary traditions to a new life in the Northeast, Midwest, and West.”

Pair that with a menu full of pickled vegetables, Jamaican-style spinach patties, collard green salad, salmon croquettes with red rice, Senegalese poulet yassa, and sweet potato pone with toasted walnut semifreddo, throw in some complimentary cocktails, and that’s a fine way to spend an evening.

The Ember & Ash dinner has seatings at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 7 p.m. Tickets will run you $95, and you can get them here.

The Great Migration dinner at Booker’s is $75 a head and starts at 6 p.m. You can make reservations here.

Meanwhile, in Point Breeze …

Hannah K Cafe / Photograph by Mike Prince

Huyen Thai Dinh, owner of American Vietnamese comfort food spot The Breakfast Den, has just opened a second spot at 1200 Point Breeze Avenue (formerly On Point Bistro).

Called Hannah K Cafe (after Dinh’s niece), it is a 1,400-square-foot, 45-seat spin-off of The Breakfast Den, offering the same kind of breakfast and lunch options but expanded now to include an even wider selection of Dinh’s favorite experiments.

Take, for example, the banh mista — like a traditional bánh mì, but with the flavors of a hoagie: ham, turkey breast, pepperoni, sharp provolone, garlic aioli, house-pickled carrots, cucumbers, jalapeños, and an eggplant pate. Or egg, cheese, and hash brown summer rolls. Or condensed-milk French toast — which I haven’t seen on a menu anywhere since leaving my old neighborhood outside Denver, which was full of French Vietnamese breakfast cafes. There’s boba tea and Rival Bros. coffee, banana pancakes, mini bacho cakes, baguette breakfast sandwiches, and a mushroom cheesesteak bánh mì.

The new spot will be open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Once they get up and running, there’ll be fresh pastries daily, plus patio seating and a special menu just for dogs.

Now who has room for some leftovers?

The Leftovers

Arm wrestling at the Philly Bierfest / Photograph courtesy of Philly Bierfest

Hey, guess who just added a whole new dinner service this week?

Fiore Fine Foods has been operating solely as a bakery, cafe, and gelateria since it moved into its new digs on Frankford Avenue. But as of this week, they’re adding on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night dinner service. It’ll basically be antipasti and vegetables to start, followed by handmade pastas, then mains, then desserts from Justine MacNeil. We’re talking ricotta gnudi with winter mushroom ragu, glazed pork ribs with Goldrush apples, roasted sea bream with colatura, salted lemon and kohlrabi, sweet cream panna cotta with salted cocoa nib brittle and vanilla caramel, and more. So basically, Fiore will now be a breakfast and lunch spot from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., offer pastries and coffee from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and then dinner service three nights a week. Sundays and Mondays, they’ll shut down at 3 p.m. More details here if you need ’em.

If you’re looking for somewhere to spend a little money in this post-Valentine’s-Day slump, Aqimero is now offering a special “Caviar Indulgence” menu from chef Oscar Jiminez with cocktails and small bites made for celebrating the salty, briny luxury of eating tiny little fish eggs. There’s Veuve Cliquot and caviar tostadas, martinis with an osetra bump and caviar-stuffed olives, or osetra with sweet potato, crème fraîche, chive, and lime. Prices are heady (think $75-$80 a pop), but I dig Jiminez’s Latin influence in this little sidecar menu. Check it out here.

And finally this week, if you haven’t already made plans for this weekend, how ’bout six floors of German-style beers and then some axe-throwing?

Yes, Philly Bierfest is back again. This Saturday, February 22nd, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., the German Society of Pennsylvania will once again host an enormous celebration of more than 75 German-style beers, plus educational seminars, folk dancing, live music, arm wrestling, a burlesque show (actually they’re calling it “beerlesque”), beer jello, a stein-holding competition (which I’ve been promised is more exciting than it sounds), axe-throwing, and access to the PA Cheese and PA Cider Caves — which, quite frankly, sounds to me like the ultimate set-up for a really funny heist movie, right?

The German Society (and, thus, the party) is at 611 Spring Garden Street. Tickets will run you anywhere from $35 to $99, and you can get yours right here.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a screenplay to get started on …