A Historic Philly Landmark Is Reborn with Rex at the Royal
Rex at the Royal is unquestionably one of Philadelphia’s loveliest and most historic dining rooms. After all, when Sojourn Hospitality’s Rex 1516 moved a couple of doors down South Street back in 2021, it took over the space that was once the Royal Theater, a 1920 venue that hosted acts such as Bessie Smith and Cab Calloway, and became known as “America’s Finest Colored Photoplay House.”
By the time the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in 1980, the theater had been closed for 10 years. It stood as an example of urban blight for half a century but today, it has returned to glory with a reimagined interior and, as of this past October, another Philadelphia icon — chef Angie Brown — in charge of the food.
While Brown has only been culinary director here for a few months, her connection to the Royal Theater goes back much further — to before her birth, in fact. “My grandmother used to bring my mother and her brother here, probably in the late 1930s,” she says. “They used to have an event called ‘Amateur Hour.’”
Brown herself never attended a show at the Royal, but that same grandmother, Elenora, sparked her initial love of food. As a chef, she went on to open four different Zagat-rated restaurants in Philadelphia, including her eponymous Angie Brown’s, and in 2009 she competed on NBC’s reality cooking show, “The Chopping Block.” In 2023, she sold out a takeover night at Rex at the Royal, and when the opportunity to take over the kitchen full time arose last year, she decided to go for it.
“When the culinary director piece came up, I was like, ‘Why not me?’” she says. “Philly people are unique, and you got to know your crowd. I know my folks, and I know they’re going to follow me wherever I go.”
We sat down for dinner with Brown at Rex at the Royal to learn about what she’s bringing to the restaurant.
The Resy Rundown
Rex at the Royal
-
Why We Like It
With its glowing chandeliers, dark wood furnishings, and peacock-blue booths, Rex at the Royal is an almost theatrically perfect setting for the kitchen’s coastal driven, Southern-inspired cuisine, which is set in part of the historic Black-owned Royal Theater. -
Essential Dishes
Grilled oysters; bourbon mussels; biscuit with rock shrimp; and catfish and waffles. -
Must-Order Drink
The Royal Curtain Call, a mix of foie gras-washed bourbon, sweet vermouth, and blood orange amaro, served with a box of duck fat popcorn.
-
Who and What It’s For
Anyone who loves rich Southern seafood dishes, grand spaces with high ceilings and chandeliers, and immersing themselves in urban history. -
How to Get In
Reservations are available up to two months in advance on Resy. -
Pro Tip
The fried chicken dinner (four pieces of bird with collard greens, mac and cheese, and cornbread) is only available Friday through Sunday. The restaurant also hosts live music on Sundays.
1. Brown updated the existing menu and concept, but didn’t reinvent the wheel.
“I’m a Creole chef,” Brown says, “but this is a Southern menu. It’s a lot of seafood on this menu. It was always Southern coastal — I walked in on that. I just brought it up a couple notches. The things that were here, I enhanced them.”
Among the dishes that she inherited are the Frogmore stew, a traditional Low Country boil, and fried catfish and waffles. She also brought in a number of her own inventions, including grilled oysters she has been making for decades, seared scallops, and her signature fried chicken, which is only served Friday through Sunday. While she updated the menu, she didn’t feel the need to engage in a complete overhaul, and she cites a famous old influence to explain why.
“I worked under Dooky Chase,” Brown recalls. “I used to say, ‘Chef, should I do this? Should I do that?’ One day she said to me, ‘Baby, don’t call me chef. I’m a cook.’ It humbled me, because I thought, that’s what I am, I’m not a chef. I don’t have a toque on my head with 10,000 pleats. Did I go to culinary school? Was I classically French trained? Yeah, but you don’t know sh*t until you’ve worked under somebody.”
This attitude comes through in the food at Rex, which is rich, satisfying, and carefully sourced. The seafood, for instance, comes from the century-old Philadelphia institution Samuels & Son. And the dining experience as a whole has a certain down-home feeling that’s just perfect for this city.
“In Philadelphia, we’re not real picky, but we like good food,” Brown says. “If it’s good, it’s good. Our people are down to earth.”
2. And these are Brown’s essential dishes to order…
… In her own words.
Grilled Oysters
“I brought this recipe to the Rex. I’m sitting at a bar in Louisiana — by myself at this corner bar in New Orleans, the French Quarter — and I’m looking at the menu, and I said, ‘I want to try those oysters, they’re grilled.’ And he brings ’em to me, and and I’m looking at it, and I said to myself 40 years ago, ‘Oh, honey, I’m taking this back to Philadelphia.’ You always sit down and steal, you know what I mean? We’re using Wellfleets, and we put the collard greens on top, the Gruyère cheese, stick it on the grill, [add] a little pot liquor, let it bubble up, and then we put on some soft cornbread sprinkled on top. It’s served warm, and it is scrumptious.”
Bourbon Mussels
“We sauté the mussels, throw in some bourbon, and some bacon. First, I do the bacon in the pan — get that nice and crispy. Then I throw in the mussels, the andouille sausage goes in — we smoke our own andouille — the Fresno chile, the bourbon, tomato sauce. I put a lid on it, let it bubble up, boom, it’s done. That comes with a little piece of grilled house bread.”
Biscuit and Rock Shrimp
“Oh my god, it’s really good. I sauté the shrimp and crawfish butter, get it nice, and then I add some cream, my [Creole] seasonings. Boom. The [housemade] biscuit is in the center, [with the shrimp] tossed around it. The crunchiness of the biscuit with the creaminess, that texture combination — so good.
2. The drinks range from bright to heavy hitters.
There’s an orange box around the signature “Royal” section on the cocktail menu, and these drinks, from Sojourn Hospitality’s Nick Baitzel, are all spirit-forward heavy hitters. There’s a Sazerac with rye and Armagnac, a martini with extra-virgin olive-oil-infused gin, and, finally and fittingly, the Royal Curtain Call, made with foie gras-washed bourbon, sweet vermouth, and blood orange amaro, served with a box of duck fat popcorn. (Brown ended up getting a second box of popcorn for herself during our chat.)
The broader cocktail menu employs some brighter flavors, with ingredients ranging from turmeric in the Por Dio to stinging nettle in the Derby. Aside from the selection of wines and beers on the menu (the former leaning Old World, the latter more local), there’s an expansive bottle shop up front.
3. And the space is truly celebration worthy.
Brown compares running a restaurant to throwing a shindig. “It’s a dinner party every night, and you’re the one that’s hosting,” she says. The interior at Rex gives the vibe of a see-and-be-seen spot. The ceilings are high, the light fixtures in the bar and bottle shop look like disco balls. The arched windows have an Art Deco feel. Plush blue-green booths circle the dining room. A stage is tucked underneath a balcony that evokes the venue’s history as a theater.
Speaking of that stage, the restaurant hosts live music, often jazz, on Sundays, as well as a variety of special events. In February, for instance, Brown served a meal of fried chicken for the “Letters to Lincoln” luncheon, at which author Michael Twitty, actor Elijah Pringle, and journalist Ernest Owens read selections from “To Address You as My Friend: African Americans’ Letters to Abraham Lincoln.” More than a few eyes welled up with tears at the performance — “everybody,” Brown recalls — while the food stirred up emotions in its own way. “I have to tell you that everyone that was in this room could not believe how good the chicken was,” she says.
Rex at the Royal is open for dinner daily beginning at 5 p.m. Weekend brunch is served from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and happy hour is from 4 to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 3 to 5 p.m. on weekends.
Justin Goldman is a Brooklyn-based writer covering travel, culture, food, and wine. A former editor at Hemispheres, he contributes to Condé Nast Traveler, Wine Enthusiast, the Los Angeles Times, and Eater. Follow him on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.
