Restaurant notes: July heats up with openings

Nothing like a few restaurant openings to make life in July a bit more interesting.

Days old, and opening for lunch Monday (7/12), is the rustic Timber Wood-Fired Grill, across from Abington Memorial Hospital in the former Inn Flight/WingWalker (1301 Old York Rd., Abington, 215-884-7932). Here's the menu.

Wednesday (7/14) marks the debut of Radice, the Italian farmhouse concept in Blue Bell from the operators of Moonstruck in Fox Chase. (Read more here.) This slice of Central Montco has been in flux of late, with the closings of the short-lived Domenico's and Alison two.

Thursday (7/15) will be the first night at Paloma, the haute-Mexican that previously graced a sorry-looking block of Castor Avenue in the Northeast. It's taken the longtime former home of Mezza Luna at 763 S. Eighth St. (the corner of Eighth and Fulton, 215-928-9500). Owners Barb Cohan-Saavedra and chef Aden Saavedra are still hammering out their menu, but a tasting Sunday yielded a few samples: wild mushroom flan studded with cilantro pesto; twin soups (a puree of roasted poblano peppers, side by side in the bowl with corn pureed with vegetable stock and cream); the signature Crab Cake Carmela; and a most interesting dish called Robalo Paloma, which is a filet of branzino crusted with nopalitos and served atop asparagus spears and a habanero-chardonnay sauce.

July 21 is the debut of Mumbai Bistro at 930 Locust St., a casual Indian buffet/sit-downer.

Openings due in August include Barbuzzo (13th and Sansom), Speck (Piazza at Schmidt's in Northern Liberties), and Biba (the Tria offshoot at 3131 Walnut St.).