The backers of four bar-restaurant projects in the Philadelphia suburbs filed applications for liquor licenses in the last two weeks.
The owners of a fifth restaurant, the South Jersey BYOB Cafe Le Jardin, told The Inquirer that they will change the French cafe into an Italian restaurant called Pops Trattoria.
Though each deal is separate, all told it suggests that the region’s restaurant scene is continuing its post-pandemic growth spurt.
The prices of liquor licenses, which are traded on the open market in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have returned to pre-pandemic levels, said John McCreesh III, a lawyer who specializes in liquor law in Pennsylvania. Currently, he said, restaurant licenses are selling for about $175,000 in Philadelphia, $300,000 in Delaware County, $375,000 in Bucks County, $400,000 in Montgomery County, and $500,000 in Chester County. Licenses in New Jersey also vary widely by county, but average about $350,000. In the most recent sale in Cherry Hill, where licenses are scarce, Mikado Japanese Sushi & Grill paid $1.07 million last December, according to the township manager’s office.
Here are the coming projects from the recent applicants. Note that liquor-license purchase prices in Pennsylvania are not public record.
L’Olivo Trattoria. Francis and Nui Pascal of the French-Italian charmer Birchrunville Store Cafe and Butterscotch Pastry Shop in northern Chester County are going Italian as they take over Suburban Restaurant & Beer Garden in Wellington Square in Exton, which closed in January.
The French-born Francis Pascal was known as Francis Trzeciak when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1989 as sous chef at the old Monte Carlo Living Room at Second and South Streets in Philadelphia. He opened Tartufo in Bala Cynwyd, then moved to the old general store in Chester County, changing his last name in 2013 after he obtained his American citizenship. (Nui Pascal, née Kullana, formerly owned Thai L’Elephant in Phoenixville.)
At L’Olivo, they’ll specialize in pastas — some with Thai touches — when they open in August or September.
Ogyu. Japanese tabletop barbecue, or yakiniku, is coming to the former Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant in Ardmore Plaza at 60 Greenfield Ave. Sam Li, behind the Osushi locations in Wayne, Ardmore, and Marlton, as well as the higher-end Hiramasa in Newtown Square, is planning 250-plus seats and a menu with all kinds of meats, including wagyu, for grilling. There’s no timetable for opening yet.
Cugini’s. Cousins Frank Picone and Anthony Adragna —both with extensive restaurant backgrounds — are revamping the shuttered New Hope Star Diner on Route 202 in Solebury Township, just south of New Hope, into what they say will be a 135-seat Italian kitchen and bar. Adragna says it will be “between high-end/couples’ night out and family-friendly.” The cousins — cugini, as the name says — are aiming for late summer.
Salt II and an unnamed Japanese restaurant. The extravagant La Jonquille and Shiraz in Devon, which have sat idle for two decades, will become the second location of the popular Salt Korean BBQ restaurant on the ground level and a luxe Japanese restaurant above. A timeline is not fixed, but Rich Kim, an owner, said they are hoping to open in eight months.
Pops Trattoria. After two years, Richard and Christina Cusack, who own June, the high-end French BYOB in Collingswood, are shuttering their second place, Cafe le Jardin in Audubon, after service on May 4. (June will be unaffected.)
After a quick redecoration, they will return May 7 with Pops, a trattoria that, Cusack thinks, will better serve his Camden County community.
The Cusacks are calling it “a love letter to classic Italian American cooking, seen through the eyes of a French-trained chef who grew up with Sunday sauce and stuffed shells” in South Philly. They say it’s not red-gravy Italian, and it’s not French-Italian fusion. “It’s just Rich being Rich,” Christina said — with such dishes as spaghetti all’assassina, braised short rib ragu with rigatoni, potato “Parisian” gnocchi with brown butter sage and ricotta salata, braised short rib with polenta, and roasted branzino with sundried tomato, capers, onion, and lemon. “Pop” is an ode to Cusack’s father and cheerleader, Richard.