When Chad and Hanna Williams’ Friday Saturday Sunday won the 2023 James Beard Award for outstanding restaurant, it was a clear referendum that Philadelphia was an official dining destination. The ceremony also celebrated the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection with two other honors: Ellen Yin of High Street Hospitality Group (Fork, High Street, A.Kitchen + Bar) won outstanding restaurateur, and Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon won best chef, Mid-Atlantic for Kalaya. Burning questions emerged: How did this consistently dismissed town finally dominate the Oscars of restaurant awards? What are chefs doing here that isn’t happening elsewhere?
All three honorees weren’t buzzy new concepts, but reinventions of old brands. The Friday Saturday Sunday that recently won big wasn’t the same restaurant that opened in Rittenhouse Square more than 40 years ago; the Williams family has only owned it since 2015. The grand Kalaya in Fishtown was a smaller (more aesthetically meek) restaurant in Bella Vista when it first opened in 2019. Ellen Yin’s popular High Street restaurant left Old City in 2020, risking its established position as a regional landmark for a new neighborhood.
These aren’t exceptional examples of popular restaurants that have survived evolution with their loyal fanbases intact. They’re the norm. Local hot spots in Philly routinely find success reimagining their kitchens and venues.
Philadelphia is often described as a small town masquerading as a big city. In keeping with this small-town spirit, socially and culturally the community is hyperinvested in supporting homegrown talent and rebuffing outside interests (national restaurant chains don’t last long here). Even though Philly is the second-largest city on the East Coast, the dining scene avoids the churn of openings and closings that characterize other U.S. metropolises. Diners aren’t quick to disrupt their beloved restaurants.
“I’ve experienced the food scene in other major cities like New York or Chicago, and what I know about Philadelphia is that, no matter how vast the restaurant landscape has become, we have always managed to maintain a small-town feel,” says local food writer George Banks-Weston, publisher and producer of Geo’s Table and the Table 86 podcast.
As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In Philly, though, you can enhance it. Despite — or arguably because of — customers’ loyalty to stalwart businesses, Philly’s restaurants have consistently broken out of their same old routines. They expand, rebrand, relocate, and evolve, making the dining scene more broadly both exciting and stable.
A single large map used to dominate the dining room at restaurateur Ellen Yin’s seminal restaurant in Old City, back when the business was called High Street on Market. It depicted Philadelphia in 1803, when Market Street was still called High Street and the area was surrounded by farms. In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant closed following steep rent increases, pivoting into a delivery/pick-up business for gourmet sandwiches, soups, salads, and pastries. Yin knew that wouldn’t be the end of the sit-down restaurant, though, and the team finally reopened High Street in Center City in fall 2023. Yin dropped the “on Market” from the name, but the old map made the move to the new location.
“The original iconic map of Philadelphia in 1803 lives in the takeout shop, but we included a portion of it in the new restaurant, as well as newer maps showing the city’s progression into the 20th century,” says Yin, who is founder and co-owner of High Street Hospitality Group. “One thing we wanted to show is that High Street is continuing to progress and the maps demonstrate that in a clear manner.”
The maps symbolize the conceptual growth of the restaurant; the new location came with a revamp of the design, dining program, and beverage offerings. But they also tell a story of how the High Street restaurant, like its eponymous roadway, remains the same in some sense, even as its environment changes.
The airy new space, located at 101 S. 9th Street, has tall ceilings and huge windows that wrap around the corner, providing tons of natural light. But the building is supported by large steel columns, which break up the space and initially created design challenges. Ultimately, the quirky layout became a chance to highlight long-established aspects of the restaurant that deserved to shine brighter. Marguerite Rodgers Interior Design built a bar between the columns, providing more space for the restaurant’s already critically acclaimed beverage program. A larger bakery space allowed the team to expand their often sold-out bakery and pizza classes. And the Back Room, an elegant private dining and event space, honors the old shared dining room between Fork and High Street in the original location.
Despite the changes in look, the menu remains familiar to diners. It’s still focused on hyper-regional ingredients, introducing customers to local purveyors, artisans, and cheesemakers. The new executive chef, Christina McKeough, has been with the company since 2019. And one thing that will never change about High Street is the loyal embrace of carbs; many menu items beg for a fresh piece of bread.
“With dining tastes constantly evolving, it felt like an opportunity to take this concept to the next level rather than creating something completely new,” Yin says. “It demonstrates our resilience.”
When Stephen Starr opened Pod in 2000, it was an entertaining restaurant. Set near the University of Pennsylvania, the restaurant sported a futuristic design by the Rockwell Group, including three booths set inside sleek pods (where diners could change the bright colors of the lights) and a memorable conveyor belt that delivered daily varieties of sushi to diners. Customers could enjoy nigiri, crab spring rolls, tempura rock shrimp, and a popular express bento box.
But after celebrating its 20th anniversary, Pod reinvented itself as Kpod, departing from Japanese cuisine to serve Korean food. According to local restaurant insiders, the transition was inspired by the “K-wave” of Korean culture in America; critics saw the move as Starr trying to cash in on the trend. The futuristic, white-lacquer furniture got replaced with earth tones and brown wood accents. The conveyor belt of sushi was removed, traded for a menu of mandu (Korean dumplings), rice cakes, banchan, and bibimbap by newly hired chef Peter Serpico.
While the new spot was fun, diners made it clear in their reviews and on social media that they wanted the old flame back.
“When we reopened the space as Kpod in 2022, our customers kept asking us, ‘Where’s the sushi?’” says Starr, founder and CEO of STARR Restaurants group. “So we listened to them and transitioned the space back to its original beloved concept, a Japanese restaurant and izakaya, but this time with a bit of a grown-up twist.”
A new menu embraces the essence of the original Pod but with a bit more polish. Unlike the small plates of old, courses are fuller, and they exude clear odes to traditional Japanese cooking, like mentaiko spaghetti, curry udon, and rib-eye sukiyaki, served alongside popular new rolls like a Butter Krab Roll.
Those changes were reflected in an updated interior design, which could appeal to a wider audience than just college students. “We’ve said farewell to the retro-modernist all-white space accented with colored lights in favor of a more contemporary look with natural woods, plywood paneled ceilings, and warm lighting,” Starr says.
Still, the team kept certain aspects of the old restaurants that were popular among diners. The three coveted, color-changing, group dining pods are back, available for parties of six or more. After abandoning Korean-inspired cuisine, STARR brought back many of the most popular Pod menu items too, such as spicy tuna crispy rice and wagyu beef hot stone, which allows diners to sear cuts of Snake River Farms beef on a hot Japanese river rock. Perhaps one key to Pod’s revival came in the return of its talent, a rare accomplishment for restaurants since the pandemic began.
“While Pod’s signature conveyor belt remains in Pod’s past, we’ve brought back in sushi whisperer Kevin Yanaga to spearhead Pod’s sushi program with a plethora of maki, specialty rolls, sushi, and sashimi,” says Starr of the reputable sushi chef, who briefly ran his own omakase in Fishtown after leaving Pod.
“It’s been a pleasure welcoming back those who’ve missed us,” Starr says. “We’ve missed them too.”
After closing down the original Bella Vista location of Kalaya in October 2022, chef and owner Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon took a month to redevelop the menu and make some notable changes. She transitioned the cozy 30-seat BYOB spot into a grand 145-seat restaurant in Fishtown complete with a full bar and architectural design by Stokes Architecture. Suntaranon describes the new Kalaya as “bigger and better.”
To land the massive leap, Suntaranon partnered with Defined Hospitality, the renowned restaurant group that also partners with award-winning restaurants such as Pizzeria Beddia, Suraya, and Condesa. While the partnership has given Suntaranon a dining spot where she feels “there is no slowing down,” it came with the obvious risk of losing Kalaya’s soul. That was never a possibility for Suntaranon.
“I started this concept to honor my mother, so there was never any other direction I would go in,” the chef says. “The original Kalaya was so successful, and I wanted to make it bigger, more accessible, and better, and I think we — my partners, my entire team, and myself — did just that. We did what we set out to do, and there was no other direction for Kalaya but this.”
Even as the kitchen team grows and new dishes go on the menu, the core tenets of the restaurant remain the same.
“The recipes still come from my mother. We use local purveyors. We make the dishes we grew up with, ones that come from South Thailand and beyond,” Suntaranon says. “Endless amounts of time, hard work, and heart go into running this restaurant. It is not easy. But we do the best we can. As long as people love it and keep coming back, we will continue to strive to be the best we can each and every day.”
“Similar to myself, I’ve observed that Philadelphia diners are fiercely loyal, wielding significant influence in sustaining the restaurant scene,” Banks-Weston says about why restaurants like Kalaya have been able to maintain support throughout reinventions. “[Customers’] investment of time and support for long-standing restaurants as they evolve, as well as holding newer restaurants to high standards, play a crucial role in keeping the dining landscape vibrant and alive.”
That doesn’t mean all businesses are immune from the pernicious whims of customers. “Not all restaurants possess the financial means or established customer base to be able to push boundaries in the way some chefs have,” Banks-Weston clarifies. He also believes there’s room for more local establishments rooted more directly in local staple dishes, such as cheesesteaks, soft pretzels, and water ice, which still define the city’s culinary identity. Not every dining spot should feel pressure to shake things up.
Still, more restaurants probably will feel pressure to change soon, if they haven’t already. Gentrification has spread through areas like Center City, Fishtown, and South Philly, pushing longtime diners into the suburbs or out of the city altogether. Whether restaurants want to remain the same or evolve toward new ideas, both routes may become impassable if they lose the support of their loyal fanbases. Even as some notable restaurants adapt to changing conditions, they gain nationwide popularity, which fosters more change within their communities.
“One thing I do find interesting is the changing demographic of diners here and how that may play a part in why some restaurants have chosen to reinvent themselves or venture into new territory and why they are succeeding,” Banks-Weston says.
Philly’s dining scene is in a unique position, in the middle of staying put and moving forward. That ambiguity — a surprisingly fruitful environment for restaurants to grow — may soon evaporate. While businesses like Kalaya, High Street, and Pod have been able to thrive in the gray zone, it’s unclear exactly how they’ll continue to play with new residents, or how other restaurants will navigate the shifting tides.
But, Philly has been doomed before and always bounced back. If there was a James Beard Award for reinvention, there’d never be any doubt who would win.