'Hip' restaurant planned for Girard Ave.
It's the site of the Melrose Bar.
This is a bit early in the process, but what developers are branding a "upscale, hip" restaurant and bar is being planned for what is now the Melrose Bar, at the corner of Seventh Street and Girard Avenue.
No timeline has been announced, and the Melrose (635 W. Girard Ave.) remains open during the liquor-license transfer period.
Developers also plan to renovate the rest of the building, which contains eight apartments.
That long-neglected neighborhood - home to the original Tiffin and the cool BYOB Helm, and near the Everyone Hits batting cages and the Shrine of St. John Neumann - is ripe for development.
A few blocks east, at American and Thompson Streets, 320 apartments are going up and restaurants supposedly will be part of the mix.
For a look back at the history of the neighborhood - which decades ago was home to a thriving Jewish community (including The Ambassador, a renowned dairy restaurant at Seventh and Girard, across the intersection from the Melrose) - click here.