Where to Eat in December: Little Nonna’s, High Street, Ambra, and More

Long known for everything bread and grains, High Street is expanding into full-service offerings with private dinner parties for groups on Saturday evenings. Grab five of your favorite people and split a family-style five-course dinner and wine pairings for $600 (or $100 per person, including gratuity).

The meal begins with a cocktail hour and appetizers — local cheeses, pickled eggs, smoked fish — plus seasonal vegetables like roasted brussels sprouts with fish sauce. Then it’s time to commune over a table and enjoy three courses plus dessert. Think: two to three pizzas, large portion pastas, slow-cooked pork shoulder, whole chicken, or braised brisket. Similar to your own at-home dinner party, the evening is informal and leisurely, but this time the hospitality doesn’t fall on your shoulders.

Plan ahead: Resys open 10 days ahead of time; and ask about dietary restrictions or non-alcoholic drink options.

Opened earlier this March, owner and long-time Media resident Michael Hackett features upscale comfort food at Two Fourteen. After cooking in French kitchens in the city for 25 years, Hackett has found his calling with French and Korean ties based on his own tastes and his wife’s background.

Current fall and winter specialties include earthy French dishes like duck leg confit; pan-seared cod over white bean cassoulet with shrimp, mussels, and pork; and carrot confit poached in white wine. Bonus: most of the menu is gluten-free (shout-out to potato flour) and cooked with, or finished with wine (opt for a Willamette Valley pinot noir).

Consider happy hour for smaller portions of their popular plates, fall cocktails at $10, plus $2 off beer and wine by the glass.

Industrial development in northeast Philly has kicked off a distillery operations boom over the last half-decade, welcoming boutique tasting rooms like Four Humours Distilling.

Here, Pennsylvania-bottled spirits — including 60 bottles of whiskey, plus agave, rum, and vodka — are turned into craft cocktails with freshly muddled berries, and housemade syrups and bitters. There’s an atmosphere of glamour and fun in the contemporary barrel-designed bar, which seats almost 50 people inside, made popular by folks stopping in for weekend pre-dinner drinks and sweet vermouth and amaro flights. Plus, there’s reason to return often this winter: Four Humours currently has 68 whiskey barrels aging, their deviled eggs with bacon, cornichons, and Old Bay seasoning are a mainstay, and food trucks pull up outside on Sundays.

Chef-owners Chris D’Ambro and Marina de Oliveira are the latest leaders in the rise of chef’s counter and intimate dining experiences in Philadelphia with the reopening of Ambra.

Adjacent to their first restaurant Southwark and shared by the same minimal kitchen team, Ambra now offers the Kitchen Table: front-row seats for up to four guests literally in the restaurant’s kitchen — a theater-like experience for those obsessed with behind-the-scenes cooking operations. Meantime the Dining Room at Ambra invites eight to 10 guests for family-style private dinner party bookings at their 12-foot communal table. Each is complemented by a wine pairing curated by sommelier-consultant Jamie Harrison Rubin.

Consider this your holiday splurge: The Kitchen Table is $300 per person and includes the chef’s tasting menu of six to eight courses (plus a few surprise bites throughout the meal), beverage pairing, tax, and gratuity. The Dining Room is $2500 for eight to 10 guests and includes hors d’oeuvres, a multi-course menu, beverage pairing, tax, and gratuity.

Philadelphia’s historic Black foodways continue to evolve thanks to the arrival of Honeysuckle Provisions, an Afrocentric grocery and cafe in Black Walnut Hill run by award-winning restaurateur couple Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate.

Think DiBruno Brothers, but exclusively featuring Black-made, -owned and -grown foods inspired by St. Aude-Tate’s Haitian roots and Tate’s South Carolina roots. Expect fresh produce, made-to-order cafe items, vegetarian options, and pantry goods like nutrient-rich Cowpea coffee, a sweet potato-based Black English muffin breakfast sandwich (a play off James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”), “dollar” turkey hoagies, black-eyed pea vegan scrapple, Jamaican patties, and more.

No reservations; walk-ins only.

Pasta lovers: this is your moment to feast. If you’re craving grandma’s Sunday gravy, especially during the holidays, then head to Little Nonna’s on 13th Street — it’s served every day! The intimate Italian American joint has remained a nostalgic favorite for longtime regulars and neighbors in the eight years since its opening.

Spaghetti and meatballs, bucatini cacio e pepe, short rib radiatori, and rigatoni alla vodka are all classic comforts here that will never go away and remain top sellers. But this month’s Resy is a must for their legendary Feast of the Seven Fishes, returning December 19 through 23, with a $50 menu that includes baked clams, warm seafood salad, fritto misto, shrimp scampi and more. Make sure to end your meal with an espresso tiramisu served in a warm mug.

Skip the cooking and let the team at Lark host you this month with a prix fixe menu for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. With chef Michael Millon’s background in Italian fare, housemade pastas and fresh seafood shine across this Mediterranean menu.

Designed by Donna Galvin and Fia Berisha, the restaurant inside Ironworks at Pencoyd Landing is named after the array of birds often seen from its seventh-floor deck. Groups from across city limits — plus hotel guests — drop in for signature dishes like gnoccho fritto with fresh whipped ricotta; dorade (a type of bream) cooked whole with braised fennel, Calabrian chile, and golden raisins; and striped bass ceviche with green tomato, grapefruit, quinoa, and Asian pear. Got a shellfish allergy? No worries, the kitchen will happily accommodate.

Come January, stay tuned for a guest chef dinner with Milwaukee’s Justin Carlisle and Lark’s Nick Elmi splitting a six-course tasting menu. Private wine dinners with rotating winemakers are also on deck.

The dreamy all-day cafe off the Tioga El stop has quickly become a cult favorite known for its creative food and drink menu.

Originally a small roastery in 2018, Càphê Roasters has evolved into a brick-and-mortar shop with familial recipes and foods modernized by adult cravings: fried chicken and eggs bánh mì with the classic fixings, Vietnamese porridge made with veggie stock and roasted kabocha, kimchi fried rice, and coco-bocha chè parfait with kabocha squash and coconut purée. It’s a playful menu that refreshes every few weeks with input from every team member resulting in exciting additions like salted brûlée cà phê.

Regulars from the neighborhood come here to eat, drink, and work; in the future, you may even spot current and alumni students from the local 12PLUS program training here. Stay tuned for a dinner service launch, too!

No reservations; walk-ins only.

Walnut Street Cafe is here to keep diners coming back for breakfast, lunch, and dinner service every day, for the long haul — and not just for hotel guests.

Chef Jack Peterson and his team aim to please: Breakfast mains, pastries, and sides are offered along with coffee, tea, and juice Monday through Friday mornings. Brunch runs til 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays with live music. Spend golden hour enjoying snacks and drinks for less than $10 each from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. or stick around to share platters later in the evening. Dinner ranges from pasta with clams, ricotta, and butternut squash ravioli, to a chickpea eggplant veggie burger and rib-eye steak frites.

Head to Cantina la Martina, where chef Dionicio Jimenez and his former Xochitl sous chef, Jennifer Zavala of Juana Tamale, are teaming up for a seven moles dinner on Thursday, December 22nd.

This is a one-night-only event featuring a seven-course tasting menu of seven different moles created by seven different chefs, including chef Eli Kulp, chef Felipa Morales (Taqueria Morales), chef Randy Rucker (River Twice), chef Jesus Garcia (Nemi), and chef Isrrael Romero (Izzy 33). Expect chips and salsa to start, plus a complimentary ponche hot cocktail made with guava, apples, sugar cane, and Tequila, and a live mariachi band playing all night. Guests will receive gift bags with handmade Mexican keepsakes.

Call 267-519-2142 for reservations.