If You’re Living In University City, 2017 Is Going To Be A Very Good Year

We've announced seven new and upcoming openings in the neighborhood since New Year's Day.

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So we’ve already talked about the donuts that are coming your way. And yesterday, it was dim sum. And now? Well, how ’bout we add to the list Korean fried chicken, cheesesteaks, bubble tea, gyros, falafel and Thai-style ice cream?

I know, right? Sounds pretty good. Don’t you all wish you lived in UCity right about now?

Okay, so let’s start with the donuts. Over the holidays, Beiler’s Bakery (which had been talking about their University City expansion since summer) announced that they’ve got a rough idea of an opening date for their newest donut, coffee and ice cream operation–hopefully sometime in February, but definitely over the winter.

Then, earlier this week, we had news that Jane Guo and her crew from Jane G’s had opened the new Dim Sum House at 3939 Chestnut Street, offering two different kinds of dim sum (plus a whole lot of other stuff).

And now, just across the street and right down the block, there’s this: Post Brothers have just announced five restaurants coming to the Hamilton Court building that they’re redeveloping at 39th and Chestnut. The renovation is (among other things) allowing for the conversion of the ground floor spaces into retail properties, and so we’ll now have another Bon Chon location (second in Philly, offering Korean fried chicken out of a fairly spacious 8,238 square foot space), a second location for Halal Guys (they’ve got another one recently opened on Market Street), a new Steve’s Prince Of Steaks, a second Tea Do (which does bubble tea, and already has a location in Chinatown), and a tiny (900 square foot) location of ICE NY, the Thai rolled ice cream shop out of New York (which also has a second location working at the Chinatown Square complex on Race Street).

The Hamilton Court building itself is still being renovated, but Post Brothers is looking to restore as much of the historic fascade, landscaped grounds, and residential spaces as possible. It’s a big project that’s been on-going for some time, but at the moment, they’re targeting the restaurant openings for summer 2017.