Chef Tyler Akin will debut his anticipated Mediterranean restaurant Bastia in one week at the newly opened Hotel Anna & Bel in Fishtown. The all-day cafe is part of a renovation of the Penn Home building that once operated as an asylum for women during the 18th century.
Akin’s new concept will occupy the ground flood of the former mansion at the corner of Susquehanna Avenue and Belgrade Street. The restaurant is inspired by seasonal Mediterranean cuisines from Corsica and Sardinia.
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The dinner menu features dishes heavy on seafood and vegetables with options like grilled lobster Algherese with legumes and skate cheeks with corn and bonito beurre blanc. The cafe’s brunch menu, served on weekends from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be available a la carte or as a chef’s selection of seasonal and off-menu dishes. The bar opens at 4 p.m. and dinner is served between 5-10 p.m. Weekday breakfast and lunch hours will be added later in August.
Bon Appétit included Bastia among its “must-visit” restaurants in the U.S. this year before it opened, noting that it marked Akin’s return to Philly a decade after he opened his pho shop Stock in Fishtown (and then added a second location in Rittenhouse).
The magazine previously named Res Ipsa, another of Akin’s former restaurants, one of its best in the country in 2017. All of the chef’s Philly restaurants closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and Akin returned to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, to open Le Cavalier, a reimagined version of the century-old Green Room at the Hotel Du Pont. Akin had previous stints in Philly at Zahav and at Washington, D.C.’s Komi and Little Serow.
Provided Image/Birch Thomas
Bastia’s Mediterranean menu includes dishes like grilled lobster Algherese with legumes and skate cheeks with corn and bonito beurre blanc. The cafe also will serve brunch on weekends from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Akin’s culinary projects are part of Form-Function Hospitality, which develops restaurants at historical properties. The 50-room Hotel Anna & Bel was developed by Foyer Project and designed by architecture firm B March, which preserved the building’s original staircase and other features in the hotel.
The Fishtown property received local historic designation in 2020 — protecting it from demolition — because it had operated as an early model of social services in Philadelphia. It most recently served as a retirement complex.
The center courtyard of the hotel has a pool and a cocktail lounge, Caletta, that will open in the coming weeks.
Akin has previewed Bastia’s dinner menu in recent months at Philly restaurants Fiore, Laurel and a.kitchen. Reservations are being accepted via OpenTable for the restaurant’s opening.