Artsy New Restaurant The Common Opens in University City

Taiwanese street food restaurant Danlu only lasted six months in University City, but chef-owner Patrick Feury and team aren’t giving up on the space. After a revamp, they’re going for something a little more, shall we say, common in Philly. The new restaurant, named The Common, serves what they’re calling new American cuisine with Mediterranean influences. It opens Wednesday, January 23, at 3601 Market Street.

It’s a 180 for the venue, with spicy lamb shoulder on Xi’an pan bread departing to make way for crispy artichokes with hummus, pan-roasted striped bass, and a cheeseburger on brioche (full menu below). Feury, working with chef Lucio Palazzo, planned a seasonal menu that relies on local farmers and other suppliers, with lots of vegetarian options and pastas and cheeses made in-house. Bien Cuit in Brooklyn, from James Beard Award-nominated baker Zachary Golper, will provide the bread and baked goods.

Feury hopes the new menu and more casual vibe of the redone restaurant will attract the neighborhood’s college students, professors, and staffers and hospital employees.

Eric Ashleigh

Sandwiches on the dinner menu are in the $9–$14 range. Pastas are $12–$17 and the big dishes, made for sharing alongside a selection of small plates, top out at $27.

The Common’s décor is entirely different from Danlu’s moody look. The bi-level restaurant is now brighter and more colorful, with plants, a mix of regular tables and long, wooden communal tables, and metal chairs made from old oil drums.

Cesar Viveros, a Philly artist who works with Mural Arts Philadelphia, painted a colorful two-story mural on one of the restaurant’s walls. Upstairs, Canadian artist Daniel Mazzone created a collage piece titled “Love Sees No Colour.”

Eric Ashleigh

It’s open for lunch and dinner, Monday to Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m.

Feury and his Common partners, Henry Chu, Kenny Huang, and Michael Wei, also own French-Asian eatery Nectar outside the city in Berwyn.

Eric Ashleigh