Just seven months after opening at 40th and Baltimore, Trolley Car Station restaurant has closed its doors. A new operator is currently being sought for the 125-seat restaurant, according to a report by Philly.com.

The highly anticipated restaurant opened in a new two-story building next to the remodeled 40th Street Trolley Portal in September 2018, but things didn’t go as well as the owner, developer and restaurateur Ken Weinstein, who had reportedly invested $2.5 million in the new restaurant, had expected. The restaurant concept, which included hiring 20 staff members with the neighborhood’s diversity in mind, didn’t turn out to be financially viable, according to Weinstein. “We opened with a concept that I thought would work and it just didn’t resonate,” Weinstein told Philly.com’s Michael Klein.  Continue Reading

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A relatively high number of crimes has been reported in the University City District area last month. In March, 33 crimes serious crimes, including gunpoint robberies, residential burglaries, aggravated assaults with a gun, stolen cars and thefts from cars, were committed within the UCD boundaries and reported to the police, according to the latest UCD Crime Update. Twelve arrests were made in connection to those crimes, according to the report.

The UCD Public Safety Division alerts residents to a high number of robberies in March (they say that this trend has continued in April), particularly near the Market-Frankford Line and several trolley stops (see map below).  Continue Reading

A computer rendering of the redesigned main entrance hall at the Penn Museum, where the famous 3,000 year-old Sphinx will rest (from the Penn Museum website).

How does one move a 25,000-pound Sphinx up a couple flights of stairs? Very carefully, we presume. That’s what folks at the Penn Museum are mulling over right now as they plan to move the Museum’s best-known artifact, a 3,000-year-old, red granite Sphinx, into its redesigned main entrance hall.

“The Sphinx has long been our mascot and this puts it front and center, as the anchor of our new visitor experience,” said Julian Siggers, the Museum’s Williams Director.

Moving day is scheduled for June 13th and the new location will be unveiled in the fall.  Continue Reading

Penn Book Center, one of Philadelphia’s oldest independent bookstores, will close its doors next month. The reason for closing is not surprising: the business has been experiencing losses due to online sales giants, like Amazon, selling textbooks at cut-rate prices.

Penn Book Center was founded in 1962, and current owners – Ashley Montague and Michael Row – purchased the business in 2005. Located on Penn’s campus at 130 S. 34th St., the store carried many books that appealed to students, professors and scholars.  Continue Reading

The two-story restaurant space on the southwest corner of 40th and Walnut, where Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar used to be located, is finally getting a new tenant. Panera Bread is coming soon to the space, according to a sign posted outside. The space, which also includes an outdoor seating area, is currently undergoing renovation.

Harvest Seasonal closed its doors in early 2017 and until now the space remained vacant. The University of Pennsylvania owns the building and had been looking for “a tenant that will appeal to both the University and surrounding community,” according to an earlier report.

There is no official opening date for Panera Bread yet, but it is expected to be this Spring.

The City has begun rehabilitation of two I-76 (Schuylkill Expressway) viaducts – in Center City and West Conshohocken. The project in Center City will include repairs or replacement of the concrete joints and deteriorated sections of the concrete deck, rehabilitating piers and columns, and repairing the viaduct’s drainage system.

Due to the project, overnight and weekend closures will take place intermittently from April to July at the following locations:

• University Avenue Exit 346B
• South Street On-Ramp
• South Street Exit 346A
• Walnut Street On-Ramp

The nearly $40 million project is expected to be completed in Fall 2020. More information is available at: https://i76viaduct.com/. For construction schedule, go here.