Nearly a Year After Laurel and Marra's Closed, Who's Moving Into East Passyunk's Empty Rooms?

On Nov. 21, 2025, Laurel served its last dinner at 1617 E. Passyunk Ave. Nine days later, on Nov. 30, Marra's closed after 98 years at 1734 E. Passyunk Ave. In about a week and a half, the Avenue lost a 12-year chef's restaurant and a pizzeria that had been at the same address since 1927.

Nearly a year later, the two closings have played out differently. The small bar attached to Laurel has a tenant on the way. The Marra's building has a buyer whose plan is to open in stages. Laurel's dining room, the bigger of the two rooms at that address, is still for lease. On East Passyunk Avenue right now, the rooms that fill are the ones an operator can open small.

One week, two endings, four addresses

The trail of moves starts with those two closings and runs up and down the Avenue. Here is where each space stands heading into winter.

Neither closing came from a lack of customers. Nicholas Elmi told The Philadelphia Inquirer in June 2025 that Laurel's lease was ending: "South Philly has always been great to us, and we love being in South Philadelphia, but our lease is up and it's time." He wanted the last months to be a celebration, and Laurel went out on its own terms. In the Inquirer's November 2025 report on its final weeks, Elmi said the timing gave his staff a break before their next jobs and gave him December to clear out the space.

Marra's ended over a problem with the room itself. In the Inquirer's account of the closing, Mario D'Adamo Jr. called parking the "biggest killer" for a 160-seat restaurant. Co-owners Robert D'Adamo and Maurizio DeLuca said they wanted to carry the "same love" to a location that would serve guests better, and the family began looking at new sites.

So the Avenue had a fine-dining room and a very large pizzeria to fill. Almost a year on, both are being reused, but at a smaller scale than before.

The half that rented first

Laurel and ITV were joined. Elmi merged the restaurant and its bar in 2023, so when Laurel closed, the two spaces closed together. At first they were marketed together too.

According to the Inquirer's Oct. 28 report, Mardhory Santos-Cepeda noticed in mid-October that the former Laurel and ITV spaces were now being offered separately. She contacted the owners and made a deal for the bar side. Santos-Cepeda had been looking. Her lease at 1647 E. Passyunk Ave. expired in August, the landlord did not renew it, and she had been renting month to month while considering other neighborhoods. She did not want to leave the Avenue, where Kouklet has been since late 2021. "It took five years for us to build this beautiful community we have here," she told the Inquirer.

The bar side fits the bakery's next step. Kouklet's current storefront is 800 square feet. The ITV space is about 1,200, half again as large, with a basement walk-in refrigerator, more kitchen space and room for tables. Santos-Cepeda plans to make Kouklet an all-day cafe:

• The pastry counter stays, with sonhos, the filled doughnuts; bolo de rolo, the thin rolled layer cake; cookies; and savory pastries.
• New breakfast and lunch dishes include eggs, tapioca flatbreads and rice bowls, plus a coffee and beverage program.
• An open kitchen will put the baking in view.
• A window counter with about six seats, plus tables elsewhere, brings seating to about 15.
• The bright yellow color scheme moves up the block with the bakery, inside and out.

Kouklet will keep operating at 1647 until the new space is ready, then move its equipment up the street. She is aiming to open by February.

Kouklet's earlier move shows the same pattern. Last year Santos-Cepeda opened a second takeout bakery and production kitchen at 1429 Wolf St., well south of the Avenue's core, and left it over the summer. That storefront also went to someone who started small. Sal Burgese's Backyard Cravings began in 2020 as pizzas and rolls from his South Philadelphia backyard and grew into a weekend operation turning out roughly 500 cheesesteaks, as Philadelphia.Today recounted from Inquirer reporting. Backyard Cravings opened on Wolf Street on Oct. 24. The Inquirer described a cash-only, takeout-only schedule of pizza on Thursdays and Fridays and cheesesteaks on Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 7 p.m. or until sold out.

A 160-seat room, opened in stages

The Marra's building is the opposite case. The room is large, and parking was the problem its last operators named. The buyer is planning around that.

On Dec. 1, 2025, a day after Marra's closed, the Inquirer reported that Dan Tsao had bought 1734 E. Passyunk Ave. to expand EMei, the Sichuan restaurant founded in Chinatown by his mother-in-law, Jinwen Yu, and chef and business partner Yongcheng Zhao. Both founders remain involved in the kitchen. Tsao planned to open in phases, starting with takeout and delivery and adding full dine-in service later. His original targets were February for takeout and summer 2026 for the dining room.

Reusing a 98-year-old pizzeria takes major work. The Inquirer listed structural and mechanical upgrades, a first-floor accessible restroom, new HVAC and electrical systems, and renovated dining areas. When the sale was announced, Tsao had not yet decided what to do with the century-old pizza oven. Eater Philly's fall preview said in September that the renovation was still underway, noting that "pizza and mapo tofu require a pretty different kitchen," and that the team hoped to open before the end of the year.

Under that plan, takeout and delivery can start from the rebuilt kitchen before the dining room that once held 160 seats is finished.

What a small opening looks like a few blocks over

The same pattern shows up off the Avenue. On South Ninth Street, Liv Arterbridge and Gina Piccari are turning the former Dino's Party Center at 1636–38 S. Ninth St. into Mylar Bar, a neighborhood bar inspired by parties. The Inquirer's November openings roundup reported the owners were aiming to open later this month. A party-supply store becoming a party-themed bar fits the pattern of the past year: an existing building, an operator with a clear concept, and a format sized to the room.

The rooms still waiting

Two addresses on this stretch still have no announced next tenant. The first is Laurel's dining room at 1617 E. Passyunk Ave., which is available for lease now that it is offered without the bar next door. Elmi has not been tied to the space since he left. In November 2025 he told the Inquirer he was keeping his options open, weighing concepts that would not repeat Laurel, and focusing on his Bala Cynwyd businesses.

The second is 1647 E. Passyunk Ave., which will empty once Kouklet moves out. At 800 square feet it is the smallest room in this story, about the size that has been filling fastest. The last year suggests what kind of operator to watch for. The Avenue's recent openings have come from people who are already established: a Chinatown restaurant family adding a second location, a bakery growing in the same few blocks where it built its following, and a backyard pizza maker who took over that bakery's old Wolf Street storefront.

Until then, the Avenue's holiday calendar goes on around the construction. The East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District lists "A Magical Morning With Santa" on Sunday, Dec. 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 1919 E. Passyunk Ave., with photos, children's crafts, refreshments, raffles and a new-toy collection. More about the blocks around it is in our Passyunk Square neighborhood guide, and our earlier look at the Avenue's fall season covers the fall run of openings and events that led up to this winter.

If you own a home a few blocks from these addresses, a new cafe or Sichuan dining room can change how buyers see your block, sometimes before the doors open. The Eric Fox Team watches these storefronts as closely as the homes around them. Request your free market valuation and tailored selling plan, and we'll show you how East Passyunk Avenue's next chapter fits into your home's story.