A large sinkhole has opened up on 40th Street between Chestnut and Walnut Streets, according to an announcement by Penn Public Safety, and this portion of the street is closed to all vehicular traffic, including SEPTA Operations. Philadelphia Water Department has been notified, but due to the impending snowstorm, this closure will potentially last for several days.

Philadelphia and Penn Police will be on location throughout the weekend to assist with the closures and detours.

Lovers and Madmen Coffee at 28 S. 40th St.  (Facebook photo).

The Green Line Cafe announced today that it will soon be taking over Lovers and Madmen Coffee at the corner of 40th and Ludlow. The new shop is expected to be fully operational by January 15, 2015, according to an announcement on Green Line’s website.

Green Line will be rebranding the shop, which will offer a mix of fair trade coffee and teas along with their signature foods. “…We hope to continue the vision of a welcoming neighborhood coffee shop that Lover’s and Madmen established so nicely,” the announcement reads.

Lovers and Madmen Coffee has been in operation since early 2009 and was popular with students due to its proximity to Penn’s campus.

This will be Green Line’s fourth location in West Philadelphia, adding to the shops at 43rd and Baltimore, 45th and Locust, and 38th and Lancaster.

Green Line also announced today that they are closing their only Center City location at 15th and Moravian due to new plans for the building, which recently was sold. Currently, Green Line owners, Douglas Witmer and Daniel Thut, are exploring a potential new location in Center City.

Where an old, grand church building stood for 136 years until last December there is a glass box now. Well, at least it’s a useful box.

Many of our readers will be excited to know that the new retail space at the corner of 40th and Sansom was completed earlier this month and already started welcoming its first occupants. Dunkin’ Donuts, Zesto Pizza, and Jake’s Sandwich Board already opened their doors. Hai Street Kitchen, a Japanese burrito shop, is coming in early 2015, according to Philly.com’s The Insider.

Demolition crews have begun tearing down the 40th Street Methodist Episcopal Church to make room for retail space. The two-story Romanesque-style church has stood at the corner of 40th and Sansom for 136 years. The construction of the new space, which will host Dunkin Donuts, Zesto Pizza and a couple of other retailers, is expected to be completed by April 2014.

(Photo by West Philly Local reader Karl Munkelwitz.)

Pitruco’s Salame pizza / Photo from Pitruco Pizza’s tumblr

Chowing down on a slice of pizza while downing gulps of beer—seems like the perfect match for a college bar. At least, that’s the thought behind the Smokey Joe’s and Pitruco Pizza partnership that launched three weeks ago.

A few weeks ago Nathan Winkler-Rhodes and Jonah Fliegelman—the boys behind the sought-after Pitruco Pizza food truck—began running Smokey Joe’s kitchen, serving their signature fare as Enjay’s Pizza (a play on their names, said Smokey Joe’s owner Paul Ryan). With Rhodes and Fliegelman at the helm, Smokey’s, located at 210 S. 40^th Street will now offer a revamped menu with pizza as the star and offered in seven small or large varieties including spicy, sausage and pepper, and tomato—plays (but not direct copies) off their Pitruco menu. Chicken cutlet, meatball and fried cauliflower hoagies are also on the list of options, in addition to salads, Italian vegetable plates, and pub starters like garlic knots and artisan fries.

Ryan was looking to serve pizza and turned to Pitruco after checking out foodie reviews. In turn, he said, the duo was looking to set up a brick-and-mortar shop for their highly rated truck, so they were on board when approached by Ryan. And so far, says the owner, the partnership is “terrific.”

“The reviews of the food have been great,” Ryan told West Philly Local. “I think it’s a great match for a college bar.”

Smokey Joe’s has long sublet its kitchen to budding culinary entrepreneurs looking for a built in audience and good location without the overhead of their own space.

Fliegelman and Winkler-Rhodes will run Smokey Joe’s kitchen from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Currently, takeout is only available.

–Annamarya Scaccia

After six years of uncertainty and false starts, it seems that the 40th Street Methodist Episcopal Church will finally undergo demolition to make way for 7,000-square-feet of retail space—or so the Daily Pennsylvanian reports.

Photo by Annamarya Scaccia/West Philly Local.

According to the DP, construction on the former house of worship, which stood at 125 S. 40th Street for 136 years, is expected to be complete by April 2014, but the developers, P&A Associates, have yet to release a specific work timeline. A search on Philadelphia License & Inspections site, though, does return multiple hits for the church address, one being a new construction permit that was issued in June to architectural firm Albert Taus & Associates and contractor Joe Freidman Construction Corp. If finished by next spring, the humble Romanesque-style two-story church—a gaping shell of its prior appeal—will become home to Dunkin Donuts, Whirled Peace Frozen Yogurt, Zesto Pizza and a fourth yet-to-be-identified commercial space.

Designed by leading mid-nineteenth century architects Samuel Sloan and Addison Hutton, the 40th Street Methodist Episcopal Church was home to three congregations before it was sold to P&A for $2 million in 2007. The previous owners, St. Joseph’s Baptist Congregation, worshipped in the village sanctuary for 50 years until it moved to a larger space six years ago, according to Hidden City Philadelphia. Prior to St. Joseph’s, it served First Church of the Covenanters from 1908 to 1954, which took over the church from Centennial Methodist Episcopal—the budding congregation that originally purchased the land in 1860 and erected Methodist Episcopal in 1871. Continue Reading