There's a Hungry Bear in Fairmount Park

Hungry Bear Cafe has traded its home of 2½ years, wedged inside the old Fort Washington train station, for spacious quarters in Fairmount Park.

Chef Derek Cantwell and crew opened last weekend inside the Ohio House, at 4700 States Drive in Fairmount Park (215-877-3055). It's the handsome Victorian, just off the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Montgomery Drive, that last served as the more casual Centennial Cafe. It's one of the last buildings remaining from the Centennial.

Cantwell routinely filled his 16 seats in Fort Washington with his creative American fare, but parking was - well - a bear, since neighboring businesses had dibs on most of the few spaces. (Moot point now, but the trick was to park for free, after hours, across the tracks in the SEPTA lot.)

Cantwell, who is self-taught, cooked first at Center City's Caribou Cafe and then the now-defunct Aneu Bistro in Berwyn. He then did a stage at Alinea in Chicago, which fired him up creatively and inspired him to be an owner-operator.

The name "Hungry Bear" may seem ursine, but it's a riff on the nickname of his toddler daughter, Claire, who used to growl happily while eating.

Most dinner entrees start in the mid-$20s, though there's a bistro menu priced in the teens.

Hungry Bear is now a single 25-seat dining room, but Cantwell plans to expand upstairs.

Initial hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.