After six years of providing affordable acupuncture treatments to West Philly residents, Philadelphia Community Acupuncture (PCA) announced that it’s closing its doors in mid-October.

According to owner Ellen Vincent, the decision to close PCA came after facing a lease renewal and learning that its current practitioners—Billy Scott, Bob Conrique, and Sarah Lefkowich—have or are relocating out state and leaving the clinic. Vincent, who herself now lives in Tuscon, Arizona, also stated that plans to bring in another lead acupuncturist to replace Lefkowich and to transfer ownership fell through, informing her “heartbreaking” choice to shut down PCA. She is currently working on establishing a firm closing date for the clinic.

Photo from Philadelphia Community Acupuncture’s Facebook page.

“I am heartbroken that the clinic needs to close. [Philadelphia Community Acupuncture] has been such a second home to so many people … more like a third place for them to go to rest, recharge, and heal,” Vincent, who moved to Tucson last year, wrote to West Philly Local in an email. “So many relationships have been formed and nurtured there and I hope they can somehow continue.  I have many incredible memories of being there, but the best are always those of a full room of people napping with needles—that’s what we’ve been trying to accomplish every day.”

Philadelphia Community Acupuncture, located above Satellite Café at 701 S. 50th Street, was one of the first businesses to move into the reincarnated firehouse on 50th Street in 2007. The mission of PCA was to always provide affordable acupuncture (at a sliding scale of $15 – $35) in a community setting—breaking away from the tradition of individualized, private sessions of typical U.S. acupuncturists to Asia-inspired settings where patients are gathered in groups in a large, relaxing space. PCA has serviced nearly 10,000 acupuncture treatments yearly “for the majority of our open years,” Vincent said.

PCA’s location in Mt. Airy, at 538 Carpenter Lane, is still open to the public, though. According to Vincent, her partner at that locale, Erin Schmitt, is “committed to the area and to the clinic long-term,” and she hopes West Philly patients will make the trip to Mt. Airy for treatments. Patients that are unable to use gift certificates and/or credits with PCA before it closes in West Philly can redeem them at the Mt. Airy center.

Still, Vincent hopes an acupuncture clinic similar to PCA opens in its place in West Philly, and is open to discussion with anyone interested in taking over ownership.

“All of this is way too difficult to manage long-distance without a partner at that location,” she said. “If I weren’t in Tucson, the clinic wouldn’t be closing.   I wanted that clinic to be there forever.”

Until it closes, Philadelphia Community Acupuncture will operate on limited hours: Mondays through Thursdays, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Saturdays & Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

–Annamarya Scaccia

Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local.

The wait is finally over for all-day breakfast fans as the popular neighborhood diner the Cedar Park Cafe reopened Thursday. Located at 4912 Baltimore Ave., the cafe had been closed for many months after the Christmas Eve 2012 fire destroyed Elena’s Soul Lounge next door and poor demolition job of their building caused extensive damage to the adjacent cafe building. It took a few months of renovations and uncertainty during which the cafe opened another location, in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia.

No word yet whether Elena’s Soul or Gary’s Nails salon, which also was damaged by the demolition, will ever reopen.

Cedar Park Cafe hours are: Monday to Friday 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 7 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Many of our readers expressed concern about Cafe Renata at 43rd and Locust being closed last week. So here’s what happened – Renata owners, Katie and Yasser, were doing a little facelift and also installed a new counter. Katie said that they moved the bar out of the center of the room and Yasser, actually, built the new bar and a bunch of tables himself with recycled pieces of wood. After the remodeling the cafe space for seating has increased by about 30%. The new counter and long table were made from salvaged trees and Yasser did the finishing work.

“We couldn’t have done it without the West Philly Tool Library. I think we borrowed a zillion different thingamajigs from them for this project,” said Katie in an email.

UPDATED 7/12/13 at 9:52 A.M. Many readers have contacted us here at West Philly Local wondering about updates on some of their favorite chew spots in the neighborhood. Well, we’ve asked around and got the scoop (plus more) on what’s going on in the hood’s restaurant and booze scene. Here are some highlights:

• Dorinda Hampton of Planet Vegan told West Philly Local Friday morning that she is ready to build out her sit-down vegan juice bar at 310 S. 48th Street as soon as she secures her permits. She is aiming for a late August opening.
• Zagat’s Danya Henninger reported Thursday afternoon that Thai Singha House at 3939 Chestnut Street is closed for the summer, as the Thai spot is moving a block down to a new location at 3900 Chestnut Street. A note on the website says Thai Singha plans to open sometime in around September.
  
• Everyone’s beloved local diner, Cedar Park Café, will open its original location at 4912 Baltimore Avenue come mid-August (if not then, by September 1^st, owner Nicole Lee told West Philly Local). The breakfast and lunch joint, which opened in 2011, relocated to 2035 North 63rd Street in Overbrook (pictured right) after its flagship spot was heavily damaged during the questionable demolition job following the Christmas Eve fire that engulfed—and destroyed—another local favorite, Elena’s Soul, in the adjacent building. But don’t expect the same Cedar Park on the 4900 block of Baltimore—as far as we can tell, the diner is receiving a bit of a facelift, with a new bright red and white awning, dark tiled façade, and a richer neutral-colored interior accented by what looks like faux-brick wainscoting.
• As for Elena’s Soul, West Philly Local got in touch with owner Algernong Allen this week, who told us by email that there is no update on the future of the popular restaurant and bar as he’s still “sorting the situation out with the insurance company in litigation.” We were also unable to contact the owners of Gary’s Nails, so no word on what’s happening there.
• West Philly Local also learned that Taco Angeleno will have to delay its opening. According to owner Vanessa Jerolmack, the anticipated taco truck/outdoor eatery, which we profiled in May, may not open until late summer or possibly next spring, depending, due to bureaucratic red tape. The Los Angeles native has a zoning hearing for Taco Angeleno, located at 5019 Baltimore Avenue, scheduled in early August.
• Speaking of opening delays, Rx The Farmacy—a rebirth of the original Rx restaurant at 4443 Spruce Street—is also pushing back its launch until August 1st from mid-July because of snags in inspection and issues with kitchen equipment among other things, said owners and chefs Ross Scofield and Danielle Coulter.

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Photos by Dylan Moore.

UPDATE (6/12/2013): The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll has been postponed until July, 2013 due to heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast for this Thursday, according to an announcement on the University City District’s Facebook page posted this evening. We’ll post more information about the new date as soon as we have it.

The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll, the highly-anticipated annual event celebrating local businesses where most things are just a buck, is returning this Thursday, June 13. The stroll begins at 5:30 p.m. (it is always a good idea to get there early to avoid the crowds) and a record-setting 35 businesses will offer $1 deals along Baltimore Avenue, between 43rd and 50th Streets.

Besides the long-time participants, like Milk & Honey, Dock Street Brewery and Firehouse Bicycles, there will be some newcomers who recently opened shops in the area, including Little Baby’s Ice Cream and The Green Tambourine. This Dollar Stroll also showcases new parklets at Fu-Wah and Little Baby’s Ice Cream and the new pedestrian plaza at 48th and Baltimore.

In addition to storefront businesses, food trucks and vendors such as Jimmies Cupcake Co., Sunflower Truck Stop and Lil Dan’s will also be selling $1 items along the avenue. Also, don’t miss live music and entertainment: XPN favorite, The Fleeting Ends will perform live at 46^th and Baltimore, along with fire artists and street performers such as the Give & Take Jugglers. There will be also giveaways, face painting and balloon artists.

If you can’t make it this week there will be only one more stroll this year, on September 12.

Check out the flyer below for more details on what businesses are taking part in Thursday’s Stroll and what they are offering. For more information about this event, visit: http://universitycity.org/baltimore-ave-dollar-stroll

Click to enlarge.

Lois Zucker, owner of Lee’s Hoagie House – a neighborhood institution. (Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

Lee’s Hoagie House, a Walnut Street institution on the west edge of Penn’s campus for 28 years, is closing for good tonight at 10 p.m.

Lee’s owner, Lois Zucker, is retiring and a new restaurant is moving into the space at 4034 Walnut, which is owned by Campus Apartments.

Lois has run the business on her own since her husband Jan died 14 years ago. “He was the heart and soul of this business,” she said.

Lee’s is a licensed chain that once had several independently owned shops. Lois and Jan opened the Walnut Street location in September, 1985. Its closing leaves only two Lee’s shops left in the city. The rest are in the suburbs.

A possibility remained that Lee’s would stay open under another owner. But Campus Apartments, which owns the Lee’s property and is one of West Philly’s biggest landlords, “wanted a change” for the storefront location, a valuable property on a block that has nearly exclusively student housing, Lois said. The potential buyer of the Lee’s license is scouting other locations in the neighborhood.

It remains unclear when the new restaurant, which will specialize in chicken dishes and “savory pies,” will open. There will be extensive renovation to the space.

The Zuckers built their shop around the area’s student presence and Lois said that students returned to the shop long after they graduated.

“The kids now come back with their own kids,” she said.

Lee’s also delivered subs via Fed Ex to Philadelphians or Penn students who had moved out of the region. She recalled sending two hoagies to a woman in Texas who was pregnant.

“She said all she wanted was tuna hoagies from Lee’s,” Lois said.

So there are just a few hours left to get a Lee’s hoagie in the neighborhood. Be sure to thank Lois. She’s the one in the green Lee’s t-shirt and ever-present white apron.

By the way, they don’t have any of their iconic t-shirts left to buy. We asked.

– Mike Lyons