Restaurant notes: Updates

Luca Sena and John Poulos are preparing for a May opening of Revolution House at Second and Market Streets, across from the Continental. It's the former Snow White diner, which was in Poulos' family for 60 years before he put it to sleep last April. Poulos and Sena, who owns Ristorante Panorama and whose family owns La Famiglia and Le Castagne, gutted the building, adding a second-floor roof deck that looks across the street to Christ Church and yonder to the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Richly appointed interior boasts an Italian-made wood-burning pizza oven, two bars (upstairs ans downstairs) with antique bar backs, much exposed brick and reclaimed wood, and an open, screen-metal stairwell topped by a massive chandelier and a mirror from the old Ben Franklin Hotel. Menu will include pizzas (I tried a delicious, fluffy-crusted margarita as well as an intriguing sweet-and-sour red pepper variety), sandwiches, salads, and American entrees. Bread will be baked on premises. Sena explains that the oven is shut down at night but retains enough heat the next morning to bake rolls.

Lucky Old Souls, a jazz venue from Matthew "Feldie" Feldman at 1713 McKean St. in South Philly, has nailed its final approval from the Liquor Control Board. Feldman emails to say that the extensive renovations required on the long-vacant building will start this spring and that he hopes to open before the end of 2011. He will host free outdoor neighborhood concerts every Saturday in May from 3 to 6:30 p.m.

Food will be provided by Honest Tom's Tacos, Buttercream Cupcakes, Tyson Bees, and Little Baby's Ice Cream. The series will start May 7 with saxophonist Wade Dean and include vocalist (and South Philly resident) Venissa Santi on May 14, The Mini Q's on May 21, and Three Blind Mice on May 28.