A new wave of restaurants is reshaping the Montco landscape, and the momentum is hard to ignore, writes Michael Klein for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
From Fort Washington to Ardmore to Bala Cynwyd, independent chefs and homegrown concepts are staking their claim in towns that, until recently, weren’t on anyone’s must-eat list.
The most closely watched opening is Academy Grill in Fort Washington, where Jeffrey Power, the chef behind Ambler’s recently shuttered Dettera, is resurging with an upscale Italian-inspired restaurant inside the former Cantina Feliz space.
The menu will feature seafood, steaks, and house-made pasta, the kind of white-tablecloth ambition that would have seemed out of place in this stretch of Montgomery County not long ago.
Bala Cynwyd is making its own moves. Bart’s Bagels, which built a devoted following across its West and South Philadelphia locations, is bringing its kettle-boiled bagels and smoked fish counter to Montgomery Avenue.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for cofounders Brett and Kyle Frankel, who grew up just blocks from the new storefront.
Down in Ardmore, Bikini Burger has opened a permanent shop on Rittenhouse Place, where owner Mia Robertson is serving up no-frills Lancaster County beef burgers in a town that has quietly become one of the region’s most competitive dining corridors.
The forces driving this shift are both economic and cultural. Rising rents and operating costs in Center City have made the suburbs increasingly attractive to chefs and operators who might once have planted their flags closer to downtown.
Montgomery County offers something Philadelphia often can’t: built-in foot traffic, easier parking, rapidly growing residential populations, and a BYOB culture that lets independent restaurants survive and thrive without the crushing weight of a liquor license.
The result is a county that is shedding its reputation as a dining afterthought. Towns like Ambler, Conshohocken, and King of Prussia have developed genuine restaurant identities, drawing diners who are no longer making the trip into the city out of obligation, but out of preference.
The pipeline suggests that the trend is nowhere near its peak. If anything, Montgomery County’s dining scene is just finding its footing.
Read more about the new restaurants shaping the dining scene in Montco and across the region in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
