Saad’s Halal is closed until Monday, July 11. (Photo West Philly Local)

Ramadan Mubarak to our Muslim neighbors! The holy month of Ramadan began on Sunday, and as always, some of Muslim-owned restaurants will be closed for a month or will have limited hours.

Saad’s Halal restaurant at 45th and Walnut has closed and will reopen on Monday, July 11. Manakeesh Café and Bakery will be closed during the day starting Monday, June 6 and will be open for pickup starting at 7 p.m. Dinner will be served starting at sunset, and closing at 11 p.m. every night. The restaurant is also offering special catering for iftar. For more information, visit Manakeesh’s Facebook page.

Other restaurants may also offer specials during this month. Feel free to post this information in our Comments section below.

When I walked into Youma (Facebook page), a new African restaurant at 4519 Baltimore Ave., I was glad to finally get to spend some time with owner Youma Ba. When I met with her, she was covering for a server who was out sick. It was somewhat of a homecoming for Youma, since this very location was where she got her start as a server in Philly back in 2001, when it was known as La Calebasse. She left there to open Kilimanjaro on Walnut St.

Youma Ba

She was recruited by La Calebasse to work in their New York City location and was invited to West Philadelphia when the owners expanded into the area. “I’ve been a server, I’ve been a cook, I’ve been a manager,” she recalled. A veteran of the industry, she decided she was ready to open up a new restaurant when she saw the vacant storefront.

Youma Ba never intended to work with food. Her mother, Vice Mayor of Dakar, wanted her to be an economist so she got an economics degree from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. Her mother also taught Youma to cook for her large family twice a day. As one of 12 children, Youma gained the skills that helped her open her first restaurant.  Continue Reading

Mubarak Shawarma now open at 225 S. 45th St. (Photo by Rana Fayez)

The 45th street block between Locust Ave and Walnut Ave has seen a couple of new restaurants as of late, the newest of which is Mubarak Shawarma, has opened in the space where Ethio Cafe used to be.

Helmed by Jemila Mohamed, the restaurant will be offering Ethiopian and Middle Eastern food – breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you’ve had injera bread at a restaurant in Philly, chances are good you have already tasted her cooking. She has been making the signature bread out of her home kitchen and supplying it to restaurants, grocery stores and bodegas.

“So far I’m the No. 1 injera maker in Philadelphia,” says Mohamed. “It’s always been my dream to cook, I’ve always been cooking.”

Mubarak Shawarma has been open for about two weeks, but does not plan on making any drastic changes to the interior of the restaurant and the menu, only make additions to the menu. Mohamed says she was friends with the previous owner and that was how she found out about the storefront vacancy.  Continue Reading

When walking down South 40th Street over the weekend, we noticed a new sign in the window next door to The Green Line Cafe. A Taiwanese dessert shop is in the works for 32 S. 40th St., the storefront formerly occupied by Dr. Wyatt’s University Herbs. According to the Office of Licences and Inspections records, work is currently underway on the first floor of the three-story building, still owned by University Herbs, to re-fit the space for the new shop, which will include a non-commercial use kitchen and some seating (less than 20 seats).

The business owner, Xia Yang, lives in Chinatown, according to L & I records. We’ll post more information about this new shop when it becomes available.

And we hope that the store has a lot of this stuff when it opens.

After a year-long hiatus, a popular local Mexican eatery, Guacamole Mex-Grill, has reopened its Woodland Avenue location. The restaurant, owned by the De Luna family, shut its doors last may for the summer with an intention to re-open in late August or September, but had to postpone its opening due to its manager Rony De Luna’s moving out of town. During this time, Guacamole opened a spot at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Despite being closed to customers, the kitchen at 4612 Woodland has been operational. The business also has a food truck, El Guaco Loco, that services Temple University and goes to events.

The restaurant is open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. and is currently closed on weekends (until mid-August).

For more information, go to: www.guacamolemexgrill.net

Montrose building at 47th and Baltimore (Photo West Philly Local)

Many people have been wondering what business is coming to the vacant storefront in the Montrose apartment building at the northeast corner of 47th Street and Baltimore Avenue. It was revealed last week (Michael Klein of Philly.com’s The Insider broke the news) that a Fishtown-based L.A.-style taco bar, Loco Pez, is branching out to West Philly and chose this location. No further details were revealed, including the timeline for the opening, and we couldn’t get more info from the restaurant folks either at this time.

One of our readers asked about vegetarian options at the restaurant, and there are quite a few at their Fishtown location, which offers brunch, lunch, dinner and happy hour. What’s interesting is that they only accept cash. Check out their website for more info and the menu. And we’ll keep you posted on this new location.

And here’s a little bit of history of the old Montrose building, which has housed many businesses in its four ground-floor retail spaces over the years. The beloved Carrot Cake Man, Vernon Wilkins, used to have a store in the building for 17 years until 1996.