Frankford Avenue changes storefronts the way some blocks change seasons. A slice shop closes, a coffee bar takes over the lease, and eighteen months later that space is something else entirely. If you've lived in Fishtown for more than a year, you've watched this happen enough times to stop being surprised by it.

Which is what makes the current wave of openings worth paying attention to. Look closely at the businesses that have actually landed on the Avenue this year, and a pattern emerges that has nothing to do with speed. The places generating the most staying power right now are the ones that took the longest to get here.

The bakery that waited years to get a storefront

Saif Manna didn't start as a baker. He started as a Temple student making cookies in his apartment during the COVID lockdowns, first for his girlfriend, then for anyone who'd order them. From there he spent years working farmers markets and pop-ups around the city before he ever signed a lease. His brown butter chocolate chunk cookie was named the best in the city on Philadelphia magazine's 2026 Best of Philly list before Manna Bakery had a single permanent address.

That changed on July 30, when Manna opened his first brick-and-mortar shop in the former Essen Bakery space in Fishtown, years after the first tray of cookies came out of his oven. The menu leans into Palestinian and Levantine traditions: Jerusalem-style bagels, muhammara, rose and pistachio shortbread, coffee from Seekers Coffee out of Princeton. The build-out includes travertine tile as a nod to his father and a small souk section selling Levantine spices and pantry goods.

That kind of runway is unusual for a shop this size. It also means Manna had already built a following before the storefront existed, which is a different kind of opening than most of what rotates through the Avenue.

The winery that had to make its own wine first

A few blocks away, Shannon Leocata Figueras and Justice Figueras spent years working toward LeoFigs, the restaurant, wine bar, and in-house winery that opened at 2201 Frankford Ave on June 10 after a soft opening that ran through April and May. The idea started during the pandemic, when the couple began rethinking what they wanted out of careers spent in hospitality, wine sales, and hotel marketing.

The delay wasn't just planning. To open a winery, Justice Figueras has said, you have to make wine first, and that alone takes at least a year. The pair built LeoFigs around a modern American menu and house-made wine, plus a cocktail list that includes what they call the coldest martini in the city. Shannon still works full time as a director of events for Bacardi. This wasn't a fast pivot into restaurant ownership. It was a slow accumulation of the exact skills the concept required.

The chef who waited six years and left his name off the door

Then there's Emilia, which opened in January at a new apartment development on Frankford Avenue. It's chef Greg Vernick's first restaurant outside Center City, where he built his reputation with Vernick Food & Drink, Vernick Fish, and a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. It's also the first of his restaurants that doesn't carry his name.

Vernick doesn't move fast on new projects. He waited six years between his last major openings, and by his own account he passes on most opportunities that come across his desk. Emilia happened because a group of longtime regulars developing an apartment building on Frankford Avenue approached him directly, and because the timing lined up with where his longtime chef de cuisine, Meredith Medoway, wanted to go next. She now runs the Emilia kitchen, focused on pasta-driven Italian cooking that Vernick has described as personal rather than an occasion restaurant.

A chef with three successful restaurants under his own name choosing to open a fourth without it suggests something about how deliberately these decisions get made once the stakes involve an unfamiliar neighborhood.

What's happening at the other speed

None of this means Frankford Avenue has slowed down. Liguria Pizzeria, the New York-style slice shop from brothers Sherif and Amro Nagud, filed its LLC in March 2025 and spent roughly a year on build-out and ingredient sourcing before opening at 1826 Frankford Ave. In Crust We Trust, a new pizza concept from owner Anyae Wilson-Worley that doubles as a hub for community engagement, moved into 965 Frankford Ave. This Saturday it's hosting a Back to School Pizza Party with DJ sets, giveaways, and school supplies alongside slices topped with oxtail and collard greens.

Even the slower-moving concepts aren't immune to delay. Cannonball, the members-only car club combining vehicle storage with a bar and co-working space at 1115 Frankford Ave, was first announced in October 2024 and originally expected to open in summer 2025. Zoning and construction pushed that back a full year.

Compare that to the previous decade on this same stretch. Rocket Cat Cafe, a beloved independent coffee shop, was demolished in 2017 to make way for redevelopment. The Fishtown Collective apartment complex that rose in its place was announced with plans to bring Shake Shack and Sweetgreen to the Avenue, a move that split longtime residents between those glad for the convenience and those who felt the corridor's independent character was getting priced out. That earlier wave moved fast on paper, backed by national chains before a single local following existed. The current one is slower and more homegrown, even when the backers are national names.

The Avenue isn't just restaurants right now

The same patience shows up in how the neighborhood gathers, not just where it eats. Fishtown Taps runs every Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. through September 29, pulling in more than two dozen participating bars and restaurants, including longtime spots like Barcade and LMNO, for discounted beers, wines, and small plates. It's not a one-time promotion. It's a standing appointment the neighborhood has kept for years.

The same goes for Under the El Bazaar, the free block party series that closes down the 1700 block of North Front Street beneath the Market-Frankford Line for sidewalk chalk murals, local vendors, and live music, with food from International Bar, Percy Diner & Bar, and LMNO alongside a beer tent from Evil Genius Beer Company. The Fishtown Beer Festival returned to that same stretch of Front Street on June 20 for a second year, expanding past its sold-out debut to more than 20 regional breweries. The Fishtown Music & Arts Festival, now in its fourth year, spread across seven stages along Front and Palmer streets in May.

None of these are new ideas executed for the first time. They're existing ones that keep coming back, which is a different kind of investment than a single splashy launch.

What might test the pattern next

The one open question is Whole Foods. The chain has proposed a compact, Daily Shop-style store on the ground floor of a 40-unit apartment building at 1716 Frankford Ave, near West Palmer Street. At roughly 9,400 square feet, it would run a fraction of a typical Whole Foods, and the plan was presented directly to the Fishtown Neighbors Association rather than announced from outside. Whether that counts as the neighborhood absorbing a national chain on its own terms, the way LeoFigs and Emilia built their timelines around this specific stretch of Frankford Avenue, or something closer to the Shake Shack model, is still an open question. No construction timeline has been announced.

For now, if you're deciding where to spend a Tuesday evening or which new spot to try before the weather turns, the businesses that spent the longest getting here are a reasonable place to start. They tend to know something about the neighborhood that a faster opening hasn't had time to learn yet.

If Fishtown is home and you're ever curious what any of this means for your own property here, whether that's a rowhouse near the Avenue or something a few blocks off it, The Robin Gordon Group knows this corridor block by block. Contact Robin whenever the conversation makes sense.