8 new restaurants in and near Delaware offer steaks from a 'Top Chef' and Turkish pizza
These restaurants and food places recently have opened or are coming soon:
Al Forno, Wilmington
Chancery Market, Food Hall & Bar, 1313 N. Market St., Wilmington; thechancerymarket.com/al-forno/
Al Forno is a new pizzeria that opened on Thursday, Feb. 15, in downtown Wilmington's food hall, Chancery Market. It takes over the space formerly occupied by Toscana Pizza e Panini. It's run by chef/owner Jhonathan Gomez, who also has been operating the market's Pokelicious stall since July 2023.
Al Forno from Venezuelan-born proprietor Gomez is selling pizzas ranging from a traditional Margherita for $11.99 to $14.99 for a white pie with shrimp, chives and horseradish sauce.
The menu also includes antipasti and pasta such as carbonara, alfredo, and spinach and ricotta. Gomez also is offering a plated dinner catering menu.
Sunny's Pizza, Hockessin
Shoppes of Hockessin, 7288 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin; sunnyshockessin.com
A former Pat's Pizza in a strip shopping center that includes Quinn's Cafe and Doc's Meat Market has been revamped as Sunny's Pizza. The 50-seat restaurant, which opened in October, isn't just takeout and operates as BYOB, one of the few in the state.
It offers mozzarella sticks, subs, chicken wings, club, and wrap sandwiches as well as a full array of pizzas, flatbreads and stromboli. Those looking for Italian dishes can get chicken parmigiana, baked ziti, fettuccine alfredo and lasagna.
But what's even more interesting is the new "Mediterranean" menu.
Dishes include pide, or "Turkish pizza," and the lahmacun, a flatbread topped with minced meat, onions, tomatoes, parsley and spices. Grill items include chicken, lamb and beef kebabs, served with rice and a side salad. The dessert menu also includes baklava.
9 Prime, West Chester, Pennsylvania
9 N High St., West Chester, 610-365-3309, 9primewestchester.com.
A new luxury steakhouse conceived by "Top Chef" alum Fabio Viviani opened Saturday, Feb. 10, in West Chester, with every trapping of red-meat luxury you can conceive of. Massive chandeliers? Check. White tablecloths? Check, A "speakeasy" hideaway that's perfectly legal and pretty well-advertised? Wet- and dry-aged steaks? Check, check and check. Wagyu? Scottish Angus? Filet mignon? Big ol' Tomahawks? You needn't even ask.
Which is to say 9 Prime is indulgent, maybe even extravagant, and it is big: 400 seats and multiple stories big. Triple-decker chandelier big. And multiple millions of dollars big, courtesy of owner and local real estate impresario John O'Connell.
Expect multiple visions of tiered seafood tower, tableside-smoked burrata (cold-smoked, we hope), chops from Duroc pork to Australian lamb, pan-roasted branzino and steak after steak after steak. Steak prices range from $49 for a wee 7-ounce filet mignon to $159 for a 40-ounce wet-aged Tomahawk that your doctor insists you split with someone else. Entrees and pastas hover mostly around the $30s. Burgers are $23, and involve a house blend of prime beef.
It's a lot of muchness. But don't expect to hang out with Viviani too often. Viviani's Chicago-based restaurant group encompasses more than 50 properties, and the chef's concepts in Delaware include Chuck Lager House in Pike Creek and Colbie's Southern Kissed Chicken in Stanton.
Del Pez, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania
914 Baltimore Pike, 484-842-1363, delpezmexicanpub.com. Soft opening Feb 2. Grand opening March 1.
Popular riverfront Wilmington Mexican restaurant Del Pez quietly slipped across the border to Pennsylvania on Friday, Feb. 2, part of a growing empire for Hakuna Hospitality Group founder Javier Acuna. The Pennsylvania location for the Wilmington Riverfront Mexican restaurant softly opened its doors at its new Concordville Town Centre location in Pennsylvania. Del Pez's flagship restaurant first began serving customers shortly before Christmas 2016, a raucous and tequila-fueled mix of Baja, Tex-Mex and fusion fare that can range from octopus-ceviche guacamole to cola-braised short rib chimichangas to Peruvian style sushi rolls with aji amarillo chiles.
The grand opening in Glen Mills is scheduled for Friday, March 1. But already, Del Pez's website promises a Newark location at fast-growing shopping center The Grove. (Del Pez previously operated a second restaurant in downtown Newark, but that closed several years ago.)
Acuna's fast-expanding Hakuna Hospitality Group also includes Santa Fe Mexican Grill in Newark and Wilmington, La Taqueria and Savanna Salad Bowls & Sandwiches in Wilmington's Riverfront Market, and Mi Ranchito Mexican Market in Newark.
More: These Mexican and Italian-American restaurants are opening near Delaware in 2024
Singas Famous Pizza, Middletown
1901 Lake Seymour Drive, Middletown, 302-698-8690; singaspizzas.com.
At the end of January, Delaware got its first location of Singas Famous Pizza, a Greek-founded pizza franchise that opened its first location in Queens, New York, in 1967. CEO Gregory Tsanis began franchising in 2004 and rapidly expanded Singas to more than 30 franchise locations, mostly across the Mid-Atlantic.
The menu at the new Middletown location, opened by first-time franchisees Jay and Harry Patel, offers the usual mix of pies, wings and chicken parm sandwiches found at pizzerias all over this region.
But there are a few unique touches. In accordance with the chain's roots, both Greek pizzas and salads are on the menu. The former comes topped with spinach, Kalamata olives, tomato, feta cheese and Greek oregano. More surprising, perhaps, are Indian pizza flavors such as paneer and chicken tikka — a trend that stems from pizza's newfound wild popularity on the subcontinent, which also has traveled to South Asian communities in the United States.
That said, the most popular pizza topping at Singas is pepperoni, Jay Patel told Delaware Online/The News Journal when reached this month. The Patels are already planning more Singas locations in Dover and in the Newark area.
Tornado Gyro & Grill, Wilmington
414 N. Union St., Wilmington; 631-660-4134.
In a Little Italy hole in the wall once home to longtime favorite Borgia's Subs and Steaks, and then to likewise popular Christa-Bell's Caribbean Cuisine, Tornado Gyro & Grill opened at the beginning of February with a humble, economical menu of gyros, subs and steaks.
Specialties include chicken gyro wraps and platters, Italian or turkey subs, cheesesteak subs with mushrooms and peppers, and Buffalo chicken cheesesteak smothered in hot sauce and cheese.
The Cured Plate, Milford
27 S. Walnut St., Milford, 302-242-0487; instagram.com/the.cured.plate.
In downtown Milford in the former Josephine Kerr building, The Cured Plate claims to be Delaware's very first Prohibition-style charcuterie and cocktail speakeasy since opening officially on Tuesday, Feb. 13. We see no reason to dispute this claim.
Owners Kenny and Liz Klingensmith have leaned hard into the concept with decor, outfits to match, painstakingly Prohibition-era cocktails, fine cured meats and swanky cheeses. Food items also include chicken and waffles, multiple takes on mac and cheese, the kind of olive or stuffed-date snacks you'd expect at a wine bar.
Or, as the owners state, "We’ve spent years researching, and taste testing to bring you the best of an era we’re clearly (our whole vibe) passionate about." Beer, wine and mocktails also are on hand. So is Gwyneth Paltrow's favorite "healthy" non-GMO soda, Olipop.
Stewart’s Gourmet Candies & Snow Cones, Milford
27 S Walnut St., Milford, 302-222-6929; freezedriedcandiesmilford.com
In the same building as the charcuterie speakeasy, you can visit what's almost certainly another Delaware first: a sweets shop devoted to freeze-dried candy and snow cones.
Stewart's Gourmet Candies & Snow Cones, like a lot of new ideas, began out of the boredom of the pandemic. While scrolling through TikTok, co-owner Melissa Stewart discovered the strange magic of freeze-dried candy, sapped of all its moisture so it puffs up and becomes airy and crisp. Sticky things also become un-sticky, and therefore safe for those with braces or dental issues.
"Chewy things like Skittles become light and crunchy," Stewart said. "Jolly Ranchers are big round balls, like biting into a snowball. Taffy dissolves on your tongue like cotton candy."
At Stewart's since Jan. 29, she and her family serve up her house-made freeze-dried treats alongside gourmet chocolates, nostalgic candies, lots of modern sour sweets, and 32 flavors of snow cones.
The shop is open from Wednesday to Sunday.
As for Stewart's personal favorite freeze-dried treat? She favors the Jolly Ranchers, she said. It's also a customer favorite, alongside the Skittles.
Contact Patricia Talorico at [email protected] or 302-324-2861 and follow her on X (Twitter) @pattytalorico Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.
Matthew Korfhage is a business and development reporter in the Delaware region covering all the things that touch land and money. A longtime food writer, he also tends to turn up with stories about tacos, oysters, and beer. Send tips and insults to [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Turkish pizza, high-end steak, gyros at new Delaware restaurants
