January 08, 2024
Provided Image/Foxglove Communications
Bastia will open at Fishtown's new Anna & Bel hotel in March. The restaurant is listed among Bon Appétit's 'must-visit' spots in 2024. Bastia's clams with fregula and wild fennel dish is shown above.
Chef Tyler Akin's latest project in Philadelphia, the all-day Mediterranean café Bastia, is getting some buzz from the culinary press ahead of its opening in March.
The veteran chef's restaurant will be at Anna & Bel, a 50-room hotel in Fishtown that will occupy the historic Penn Home building at Susquehanna Avenue and Belgrade Street. Bastia, which will be on the ground floor, will operate as a café by day and a full-service restaurant by night.
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Based largely on Akin's track record and a promising menu, Bastia has been included in Bon Appétit's list of eight "must-visit" restaurants in the U.S. in 2024. The restaurant will feature seafood- and vegetable-heavy dishes and have Mediterranean coastal wines, spritzes and aperitifs to drink. Bon Appétit's write-up says:
Tyler Akin is returning to Philadelphia’s Fishtown... At Bastia, Akin is cooking...dishes like amberjack crudo with whipped cannellini, finger lime, and clementine, veal tail with olives and vin de Corse, and ratatouille with Calabrian chile and grilled sourdough... There will be coffee and breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunch service for hotel guests and Fishtown residents alike.
Bastia has shared photos of some of the planned dishes, which are inspired by plates served in Corsica and Sardinia and take influence from Sicily and Croatia.
Bastia's burrata with blood orange, pomelo, hazelnuts and dark chocolate.
A look at Bastia's veal tail with olives and vin de Corse.
A look at the dishes planned at Bastia.
Akin opened his first restaurant, Stock, in Fishtown in 2014. Res Ipsa, which he opened in 2016, was named one of Bon Appétit's "Best New Restaurants in America" in 2017. After opening a Stock location in Rittenhouse in 2018, all three restaurants closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. Akin then returned to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware to reimagine the Green Room at the Hotel du Pont. That year, Akin told Men's Journal that the decision to close Res Ipsa happened at "a vulnerable time" and that he had been "imagining bankruptcy scenarios" for his restaurants.
"I charted the steps of grief, denial — is this really happening? — then I was massively depressed, and from weeks two to five, I jumped into advocacy to distract from the fact that I felt like I’d lost limbs," Akin said of the early days of the COVID lockdown.
Akin became active in the leadership of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, which pushed for federal relief and organized on behalf of businesses impacted by the health crisis. Akin permanently closed both Stock locations in 2022, citing the effects of the pandemic and the business model for the concept.
Bastia will be Akin's first new concept in the city since Res Ipsa. His résumé also includes stints at Michael Solomonov's Israeli restaurant Zahav and at Washington, D.C.'s Komi and Little Serow, which he helped open with mentor Johnny Monis.
The new hotel that will house Bastia hopes to bring new life to the 18th century property, which originally operated as an asylum for women and later transitioned into a retirement complex. The property's restoration was overseen by the Philadelphia Historical Commission.
Bastia will include indoor and outdoor seating, as well as a 14-seat bar, a lounge and poolside food and beverage service for hotel guests.
