What's Cooking on 1060: New Restaurant Brings Vietnamese To Fairmount
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Fairmount Avenue gets its third new restaurant this year. So what kind of food is offered and how is development changing the neighborhood?
Andy Siegel, a Fairmount resident owns Fare, Fairmount Pizza and now Ipho Philly at 1921 Fairmount Avenue says prior to Ipho, the restaurant was Blue Cat, and the former owners gave no indication that they planned to sell.
"I had no clue. The restaurant was always busy, their food was great," Siegel said. "Having the restaurant down the street, somebody stopped in and said 'hey, I think they might want to get out (of the business),' and we actually wanted to do something different."
Kuznits: "You basically just walked over and said, 'Hey! I heard a rumor!'"
"Basically," Siegel said, "and they were like, 'you heard correct.'"
Siegel turned the restaurant into a Vietnamese place quickly and brought in his old high school friend Van to run the kitchen.
"As he says, 'they're going to love me soup.' His soup definitely has its own little flair that I think people are really going to like," Siegel said, "and his ability to get the flavor out of the grill is just unbelievable."
Siegal anticipates the commercial corridor on Fairmount Avenue will soon stretch to Broad Street.
"It's starting to become a destination for food," he said. "I mean, it's lighting up like Center City with tons of people walking the sidewalks at night. It's really great walking from place to place."
As for IPho Philly, Siegel says a big deal about the restaurant is that they deliver.
"People have already told me you can't order Vietnamese in Fairmount because nobody wants to bring it," he said. "So, we're bringing it!"
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And for this week, that's "What's Cooking on 1060!"
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