A Mediterranean-inspired cafe will open inside Anna & Bel, the boutique hotel planned for the historic Penn Home building in Fishtown.
Bastia, the new restaurant from Chef Tyler Akin, is being billed as a leisurely, all-day cafe that offers a vegetable and seafood-driven menu and a selection of wines from the coastal Mediterranean. The food will be inspired by dishes from Corsica and Sardinia, with nods to the cuisines of Sicily and Croatia.
Akin is now the chef at French brasserie Le Cavalier, located inside Wilmington’s historic Hotel Du Pont. He formerly was the chef and owner of all-day Rittenhouse cafe Res Ipsa, which was named one of Bon Appétit’s “Best New Restaurants in America” in 2017. The restaurant closed in 2020.
Akin also previously worked at the James Beard Award-winning Israeli restaurant Zahav. His first restaurant, Stock, was located on Girard Avenue in Fishtown.
Bastia is expected to have indoor and outdoor seating.
Anna & Bel, the 50-room hotel being developed by Foyer Project, is expected to open in March. It will bring new life to the former Penn Home building at Susquehanna Avenue and Belgrade Street.
The hotel rooms will feature distinct designs that preserve the character of the building, which was constructed in multiple phases beginning in 1769. The Penn Asylum for Indigent Women and Single Widows began operating there in 1858, and several additions were built during the century that followed. It later served primarily as a retirement complex.
After the Penn Home closed during the pandemic, the building received local historic designation because it had served as an early model of social services in Philadelphia. The designation protected the property from demolition, and permits were issued for the hotel in November 2021.
Restoration work has been overseen by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, with modern hotel amenities worked into the redesign of the building. Plans include a pool, fitness room, lounge and spa. Guest rooms will range from studios to two-bedroom units.
The renovation is the latest example of an historic Fishtown building being converted into a restaurant and hotel. Italian restaurant Wm. Mulherin’s Sons opened in 2016 inside a century-old whiskey blending and bottling facility at the southeast corner of Front and Master streets. A boutique hotel opened above the restaurant the following year.