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Tuesday's restaurant stuff

As the Dow roller-coasters, the restaurants keep opening: Tiedhouse, Camac, Mix, Melograno, Mémé, Sakeya ...

    by Michael Klein
    Published 

Credit is tight, the economy has gone south, and yet restaurants keep opening.

The last two weeks have seen these rollouts:

  1. Melograno, in new quarters at 2012 Sansom St.; details in Thursday's "Table Talk" column

  2. Mémé, at 22d and Spruce Streets.

  3. Sakeya, a dark and sexy Japanese pub in the Academy House, 1420 Locust St.

  4. Mix, a pizza/pasta/coffee joint with bar at 21st and Chestnut Streets

  5. El Fuego's second location, now getting its footing (the grill is not quite there yet) at 2104 Chestnut St.

More to come. A sampling:

  1. Around the corner from El Fuego/Mix is a not-quite-named pub from bartender-about-town Laurentiu Muras at 102 S. 21st St.; when I first wrote about it back in March, Muras was considering the name Mamaia (to honor his Transylvanian ties), but he is reconsidering it. He seems to be only a few weeks away.

  2. Tiedhouse, in the works for nearly a year, has its soft opening up for Oct. 9 in the ground floor of CityView Condos at 20th and Hamilton Streets. By "tiedhouse," it's associated with Lafayette Hill's General Lafayette Inn. Chris Leonard plans 19 draft beers of 19 different styles, "select" bottles to fill in styles that won't be on draft, and a tight wine list whose choices will be available by the half-glass, full glass and bottle. Menu will be international small-plates, and he's promising great prices ($4 to $5, and nothing over $15). Atmosphere will be dark and pubby.

  3. South Philly's Lucky 13 (1820 S. 13th St., a few steps off Passyunk) has been in soft-opening mode to keep its liquor license intact. The grand opening is penciled in for Oct. 13.

  4. Camac, a brick-oven pizzeria/lounge, is under construction at 1305 Locust St., the spot that most remember as Girasole; the owners are suggesting a late-November opening.

  5. What was Citrus at 8136 Germantown in Chestnut Hill is being taken over under the name Soul by a well-traveled server most recently at Parc.

  6. What was Clementine's at 1617 E. Passyunk in South Philly is being converted into Lynda's Mediterranean.