Hi Readers,
I wish all a Happy New Year and a special shout-out to my friends and family in LA. My thoughts are with you. Be safe.
The bread and butter of my business is selling residential homes—historic homes, new construction, condos, and everything else. You name it. I also sell some multi-unit buildings and some commercial spaces. Not always, but often the commercial buildings are mixed-use or have some kind of residential component.
And a few times, I have sold properties that have been turned into popular eating spots (or converted from a restaurant back to residential). One example of this is when I sold the building that was the Marigold Kitchen in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of University City. Marigold had closed after decades as a restaurant, and the owner wanted to sell the building. For those who knew Marigold, it was a corner Victorian residential home that had originally been converted into an eatery in the mid-20th century.
It was always called Marigold or Marigold Kitchen, yet it had many different concepts over the years, including a molecular-gastronomy-laden tasting menu. The Marigold was home to many superb chefs, and it was Marigold Kitchen where one of Philly’s most deservedly celebrated restaurateur tandems first teamed up. If it weren’t for Marigold, we might not have Zahav, Laser Wolf, Federal Donuts, Goldie, Dizengoff, and K’Far, among others. And the James Beard Awards and overall stellar food that this duo has brought to Philly. You can read some history on how Steve Cook and Michael Solomonov first teamed up here. While CookNSolo went on to become a smashing success, the Marigold ultimately fell on hard times and closed down.
Okay, so cut to December 2019, and I listed that now vacant Marigold building. It went under contract in January 2020 with a residential buyer—a family who wanted this stellar UCity location for their home. Wonderfully, they hired one of the city’s premiere architects to create a gorgeous home, including a tasteful addition to the late nineteenth-century home that housed Marigold for all those years.
By the way, that architect is Jim Cassidy of C2 Architecture, the same architect who designed many City Block Team listings, including the current 54 E Penn and the upcoming 116 W Mt Pleasant.
Another example is 401 S 17th, which I listed and sold in 2023. The southeast corner of 17th & Pine had a very small commercial space that was being used as an office with a residential apartment upstairs. We found the perfect user, one who added a significant enhancement to the neighborhood. The building was purchased by the owner of the superb French bakery J’aime on 12th off Locust in Wash West. They used this location to open a Rittenhouse Square retail shop selling J’aime’s incredible pastries, viennoiserie, and coffee. By the way, I had no idea what viennoiserie was. I had to Google it.
A final recent example was 1522 Locust, which I listed and sold in 2024. This was a 3-story office building that housed an owner-occupied law office, as well as a former dentist’s office (Dr. Docktor, I kid you not. And not the Thompson Twins version. Another bizarre coincidence is that Dr Michael Docktor is the husband of Joan Docktor, the erstwhile long-time leader of my previous brokerage (from 2001-2018), Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS®. What are the odds of that? 1522 Locust also included a defunct day spa and a 1-bedroom Airbnb unit. So, quite eclectic in its day, but now mainly vacant as the owner-attorney was preparing to retire and sell the building.
Well, the building has now been totally gutted and is being renovated into Kissho House, with this further information from the Inquirer’s Michael Klein:
“Chef Zhengmao ‘Jeff’ Chen, whose resume includes Royal Izakaya and more recently Hiroki, is behind this multi-level Japanese restaurant in a former law office. ‘Kissho means “auspicious”— I would like to say, “lucky omen,”’ he said in a message. ‘The vibrant first floor will see a full liquor-licensed bar and modern Japanese food, not limited to sushi, yakimono, agemono, mushimono, etc.’ He mentioned a grill, too. What he calls ‘the basement sanctuary’ will house an omakase room serving seasonal seafood from Japan.”
I believe a mid-2025 date is expected for this new high-end Rittenhouse eatery.
So, stop for a croissant at J’aime and eventually some fish at Kissho House. And enjoy your weekend.
Warm regards,
Jeff