Rooftop Restaurant Attico Is All About the Views

The new Cambria hotel at Broad and Locust is about to open. Philadelphians will have to wait until fall for the hotel’s Del Frisco’s Grille at street level, but several stories up a rooftop restaurant should be ready for diners next month. Attico (219 S. Broad Street) is going for a late April opening, with chef Tony Sindaco on board.

Attico is big, at about 4,000 square feet counting the outdoor space, and will seat around 140. About a third of those seats are outside, where diners (or drinkers) can soak up the views to the south and east at tables or in a lounge area.

The restaurant’s name means “attic” in Italian, a nod to its rooftop location. But don’t expect meatballs and red sauce. Sindaco describes the food he’s planning for Attico as “contemporary American/Mediterranean.”

The chef, originally from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area, spent 20-plus years in Florida with Sunfish Grill and then Sea Restaurant. He just moved to Philly — and he already knows the right things to say. “When I was a kid I would come to Philly for concerts at the Spectrum or the Troc, but usually we went to New York City,” Sindaco says. “So I’m just starting to get to know the city. I already like it even better than New York.”

Running Attico, in partnership with the hotel, are Alan Ezzedine and Tito Anouti, who own Pulse, the dance club at 1526 Sansom Street, and have been involved in a few other area bars. Their newest venture sounds more like a lounge-y restaurant than a bar, and it’s not at all a nightclub, Sindaco says.

He’s still in the process of finalizing Attico’s menu, but expect several raw bar items (oysters, jumbo shrimp cocktail, Maine lobster). On the sandwiches list: a seared tuna club on sourdough bread and a turkey melt with roasted apple and gouda cheese.

The biggest section of the menu is devoted to small plates, which include charred Spanish octopus, beet carpaccio with nut-crusted goat cheese and a red pepper syrup, and a tuna tartare, done more like a beef tartare with Dijon mustard, shallots, and avocado jam. For those who want a more traditional restaurant meal, there will be a few bigger fish and meat entrees.

The Del Frisco’s Grille — the more casual chain in the Del Frisco’s family — going into the ground floor of the hotel won’t be open for a few months at least.

Eater Philly

Eater Philly

Eater Philly

• Steakhouse Del Frisco’s Plans Grill Restaurant for Philly [Eater Philly]
• New Cambria Hotel Renderings Revealed [Curbed Philly]
• Cambria Hotel Breaks Ground at Broad and Locust [Curbed Philly]
• 15-story Cambria Hotel on South Broad tops off [Curbed Philly]
• Cambria hotel [Official]