University City is About to Undergo a Serious Restaurant Boom

Today, local real estate company Post Brothers announced their hefty plans to open five new restaurants inside their recently-acquired apartment building Hamilton Court.

The historic structure (erected in 1901) on 39th and Chestnut Streets is preparing itself for a dramatic facelift, and five big-name restaurant chains — four of them with locations already in Chinatown — have already signed leases to the ground level:

• Steve’s Prince of Steaks (cheesesteaks)
• Bon Chon (Korean fried chicken)
• Halal Guys (gyros and falafel)
• Tea Dó (bubble tea)
• I-CE-NY (Thai-style rolled ice cream)

With these casual eateries, Post Brothers CEO and co-founder Michael Pestronk hopes to reinvigorate the block, bringing “the public back into Hamilton Court, which was long known as one of the city’s most trafficked public venues, but has been a private building for decades.”

This, combined with the news that Philly’s favorite doughnut family is getting closer to opening up shop just around the corner, plus the Michelin-starred restaurant team behind NYC’s Rebelle coming for the brand new FMC Tower, means an entirely different University City food-scape in 2017.