Two of the restaurants that made Fishtown a place people traveled to for dinner are leaving their original owners this fall. Sancho Pistola's closed at 19 W. Girard Ave. in October after 12 years. Front Street Cafe, open under the El at 1253 N. Front St. since September 2015, is being sold to a hospitality group from Washington, D.C.
The biggest of those early rooms is headed to an out-of-town group, and a D.C. bagel chain with private-equity backing opened on Frankford in September. The restaurants local owners are opening now are small. One is 350 square feet. The others hold 15 or 18 seats.
Two Early Rooms, Two Different Exits
Sancho Pistola's opened in January 2014 at Girard Avenue and Leopard Street, in the space that used to be Bubba's Texas BBQ. It served fish tacos, ceviche, craft beer and cocktails to a late-night crowd, partly people coming from nearby concerts. Co-owner Joe Gunn told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the restaurant was still drawing customers. With the lease nearing its end, he and partner Casey Parker had to decide whether to sign up for another five years. "It's not like we're closing because people stopped coming," Gunn said. He also praised the landlord. The partners still run Pistola's Del Sur on East Passyunk Avenue.
So the Girard Avenue closing came down to whether to sign another long lease. Front Street Cafe is a different kind of exit, because the building itself is part of the sale.
Lee Larkin, a real estate developer, owned the 19th-century building before he and Nicole Barclay opened the cafe there. It started as a coffee and juice bar for commuters using the Girard station. It grew into a full restaurant and bar with a ground-floor dining room, an upstairs event space and a large outdoor garden. It also served plant-based and farm-to-table food at a time when few Philadelphia menus did.
What It Takes to Buy a 12,500-Square-Foot Restaurant
The Inquirer reported that the Front Street Cafe listing asked $4.8 million. That price covered the restaurant business, the building, the liquor license, furniture, fixtures and equipment, and four leased apartments, all in 12,500 square feet. The final terms were not disclosed.
The buyer is Blagden Hospitality Group. Its Washington restaurants include Tiger Fork, a Chinese restaurant in Shaw's Blagden Alley that is listed in the Michelin Guide, plus Calico, Fainting Goat and Primrose. When the Inquirer reported the sale on October 26, the deal had not closed. Blagden plans to keep Front Street Cafe running for now and give the space a new name and concept later, with no timetable. General manager Timothy St. Pierre said in a statement that the cafe "has always been about this community: our neighbors, our regulars, and everyone who has made this place feel like home."
Blagden isn't the only D.C. name on this stretch. In September, Call Your Mother opened its first Philadelphia shop at 1500 Frankford Ave. Andrew Dana and chef Daniela Moreira founded the bagel shop in D.C.'s Park View neighborhood in 2018. According to the Inquirer's opening coverage, it grew to 28 locations across five states after the investment firm Invus bought a stake at the start of 2025. Rittenhouse Square and Washington Square West locations are also on the way.
The Fishtown shop works hard to look local. The storefront is bubblegum pink, with a mural of a lox bagel and a school of cartoon fish. Inside are Phillies bobbleheads and a tiny Liberty Bell found at thrift stores including Thunderbird Salvage. The shelves near the register carry jars from Fishtown Pickle Project.
A New York group has a Frankford address too. Adda, from Unapologetic Foods, the team behind Dhamaka, Semma and the original Adda in New York, is at 1700 Frankford Ave., across from the 19125 post office. The menu includes tableside butter chicken, baby goat biryani and lamb parcha.
The Rooms Local Owners Are Opening Are Counter-Sized
The other Fishtown projects announced for this season are mostly small, and several come from owners who already run a restaurant nearby.
Project | Address | Who's behind it | Size and format |
|---|---|---|---|
Nomu Nomu Don | 2026 Frankford Ave. | Sarah Qi, owner of Cake & Joe | 18-seat BYOB, 10 counter seats |
Jean | 161 W. Girard Ave. | Evan Snyder and Julian van der Tak of Emmett | 15 seats upstairs, 12-course menu |
Top Dog Cocktails | 2012 Frankford Ave. | Ken Smuckler | 350 square feet, 15-seat bar |
Kato | 1832 Frankford Ave. | Jay Ho of Mei Mei | Former Izakaya Fishtown space |
Philly Curio | 2240 Frankford Ave. | Troy Timpel | Intimate restaurant-bar |
Nomu Nomu Don is two doors from Cake & Joe. Qi has said the menu will be built around donburi, Japanese rice bowls topped with bluefin tuna, salmon five ways, grilled eel or steak, with uni and caviar as add-ons. She plans to serve lunch and dinner daily.
Jean is upstairs from Emmett, so it doesn't need a new storefront. Snyder and chef de cuisine Antonio Pizzo are cooking a 12-course menu around a 7-foot wood-burning hearth, with influences from Algeria, Tunisia, coastal Morocco and the southern Mediterranean. A tagine roasts through dinner and is served family-style.
Top Dog's Fishtown flagship may be the smallest bar in the neighborhood, as the Inquirer put it. It will have a two-turntable DJ station and some retail, and it takes its inspiration from Japanese jazz kissas. Smuckler is opening a second listening room in Kennett Square.
Kato is moving into a space that's already built out. Ho plans to keep Izakaya Fishtown's front bar and replace the rear sushi counter with seating that can double as a private dining room. The food draws on his Taiwanese father's cooking, with Korean, Thai and Vietnamese influences. Philly Curio is built around Timpel's private collection of curiosities, which includes tribal masks, skeletal displays, taxidermy and glass-topped tables holding preserved animals. Timpel has discussed a Cajun-Creole menu of small plates, with unusual proteins such as rattlesnake.
Compare these with Front Street Cafe. It had a dining room, an event floor, a garden and four apartments over 12,500 square feet. None of these new projects asks its owner to take on anything like that. The buyer lined up for that footprint is a group with a Michelin-listed restaurant in Washington. Sancho Pistola's closing frees up another restaurant space on Girard Avenue, as PhillyVoice noted.
December 12 on Frankford Avenue
Fishtown District's Fishtown Freeze & Holiday Shopping Spree, now in its 8th year, is set for Saturday, December 12, and Sunday, December 13. It's a chance to walk the new storefronts and the longtime ones on the same afternoon. Admission is free.
- Saturday, noon to 8 p.m.: Ice Sculpture Philly sets dozens of custom ice sculptures along Frankford Avenue, with live carving demos.
- Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.: A free hop-on, hop-off Holiday Trolley runs between the sculptures, shops and restaurants. Stops are marked with tinsel-wrapped candy canes.
- Also on the schedule: Pop-up makers markets at Mural City Garden, photos with Santa at Frankford Hall, and food and drink specials at neighborhood bars and restaurants.
- Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.: The Holiday Shopping Spree continues. December 13 is also the rain date for the ice sculptures.
The shopping discounts grow as you go. More than 20 shops are taking part. One purchase gets you 5% off at your next stop, a second gets 10%, and once you reach 15% that discount holds at every participating store for the rest of the day.
At Philly Home Collective, we track who's moving into Frankford and Girard as closely as we track the rowhomes around them. If you're thinking about selling a home near this stretch, work with us.
