A new Afro-Latin restaurant headed by Felicia Wilson – the owner of Old City's Amina and BlackHen – will open Friday in the former space of Libertine at Center City's Fairfield Inn & Suites.
The 80-seat restaurant, called Fia, will be Wilson's third with chef and business partner Darryl Harmon. It will occupy the ground floor of the hotel at 13th and Spruce streets, where Libertine opened in 2018. Marriott's Fairfield Inn & Suites opened the same year after the former Parker Spruce Hotel underwent renovations following a 2014 fire at the 12-story building.
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“We wanted to revitalize the space with a different cuisine, and bring more energy to that corner,” Wilson said of the new restaurant.
The menu at Fia will be heavy on seafood, offering wood-fired grilled oysters, crab pot pie bisque and jumbo lump crab cake pops. The $99 seafood tower comes with oysters & caviar, chilled gulf shrimp, jumbo lump crab, Alaskan king crab, poached Maine lobster and a variety of sauces.
Other entrees will include braised Caribbean oxtails with Jimmy Red grits, a flaming dry-aged tomahawk steak, and chicken and waffles. Sweet potato wedges, mac ‘n’ cheese and giant tostones are among the sides.
The restaurant will have a 44-seat dining room, 22 seats at the bar and 14 outside.
Wilson broke into Philly's restaurant scene in 2022 with Amina, a Southern restaurant with a Nigerian-inspired menu. BlackHen, a 40-seat BYOB focused on fried chicken, opened in April. Wilson also plans to open a second, larger Amina location in University City that will have a seafood fusion menu and live jazz and blues performances.
Starting hours at Fia will be Tuesday through Thursday from 5-10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5-11 p.m. Weekend brunch service will be added in the future.