Fishtown's Newest Mornings Come From Philly Businesses on Their Second Address

How many bagel and coffee places does Fishtown need? Gabriela Rivera, a longtime resident, asked exactly that in September. She had walked into the new Call Your Mother at 1500 Frankford Avenue on a Tuesday morning during its soft opening, and she put the question to an Inquirer reporter. It's a fair question for a neighborhood where Philly Style Bagels, Bagels & Co., and Kismet were already within a short walk of that corner.

The fuller answer has more to do with location than with bagels. The new names on Frankford's busiest blocks came from other cities. The independent morning spots that opened this summer came from elsewhere in Philadelphia, as second chapters for businesses that started in Hunting Park, a Temple dorm room, and a South Philly pizza family. Most of them set up a block or more off the main strip.

The Question on Frankford Avenue

Call Your Mother was founded in Washington, D.C., in 2018 by husband and wife Andrew Dana and chef Daniela Moreira. After the investment firm Invus bought a stake at the start of 2025, the chain grew to 28 locations across five states. Fishtown is its first in Philadelphia, with Rittenhouse Square and Washington Square West locations to follow. The shop has clearly worked to fit the block. Its shelves hold Phillies bobbleheads and thrift finds from Thunderbird Salvage, and the merch wall carries jars from Fishtown Pickle Project. The bagels are hand-rolled and kettle-boiled on site in nine flavors, and sandwiches run $9 to $15. Seating is limited to a few two-tops and a counter.

The Starbucks across the street has a longer history on this block than most of the businesses around it. When Starbucks first proposed a Reserve shop here in 2018, residents objected that a national chain didn't fit a corridor made up mostly of independent businesses. They voted against it at a community meeting the following year, and the Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected the permit. In May 2024, the Inquirer reported a new Starbucks lease at 1405 Frankford. In August, the New York-based 7th Street Burger opened four blocks south.

Not every neighbor minds the arrivals. Jordan Price, a Fishtown content creator, told the Inquirer the chains were already here, mentioned the Sweetgreen down the street, and said this one at least makes bagels her kids will probably like. Across the city, the Inquirer counted nearly a dozen bagel shops that opened or signed leases in Philadelphia and its suburbs between the start of 2025 and late August 2026. Kismet, whose Fishtown shop is at 113 E. Girard Avenue, went from seven locations to five after closing its Reading Terminal Market stand in 2025 and its Ventnor shop this year. Cofounder Jacob Cohen said the 2026 focus is on running the existing stores better. In the same story, he said simply, "More is not always better."

Front Street's Second Act

Café Tinto has been in Philadelphia since 2008. Its owner, Giselle Poveda, told Wooder Ice that the business started in Hunting Park and Feltonville and has become a Latin staple there. The original location runs mostly as takeout. Poveda and her partner, chef Daniela Garcia, first aimed to open the Fishtown café at 1701 N. Front Street in summer 2025. It arrived a year later. The plans also included a small mercadito for pantry staples.

The Infatuation's September review addressed its opening line straight to the neighbors:

"Do you currently live near Front Street in Fishtown? Congratulations."

The same review credits Café Tinto with explaining "why Front Street suddenly has a morning rush hour." On the plate, that means smoky chicharrón over plantains and eggs, sandwiches on house-made pan sobao, and breakfast platters around $10. Unlike the North Philly original, there are counter seats and low tables to sit at. The café also stays useful after breakfast. On weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m., Garcia serves a $5 Colombian hot dog on a house-baked roll, topped with pineapple salsa and crushed potato chips.

A Bakery That Grew Up at Farmers Markets

Saif Manna started baking cookies in a Temple University dorm during the pandemic. He began selling online in 2021, then moved into pop-ups and the Rittenhouse, Headhouse, and Clark Park farmers markets, baking overnight at Char Pizza until he outgrew it. On July 30, Manna Bakery opened at 110 W. Berks Street in the former Essen Bakery space. Philly Mag places the shop in Fishtown, while the Inquirer places it in Kensington. Either way, it's a short walk up Front Street from Café Tinto.

Manna calls it a third-culture bakery, rooted in Palestinian and Levantine baking. Weekday staples include manakeesh, chicken sumac buns, fatayer, cardamom buns, and Basque cheesecake, with a wider spread on weekends. The coffee comes from Seekers Coffee in Princeton, with drinks flavored with rose, cardamom, tahini, dates, and saffron, plus his grandmother's orange blossom lemonade. Inside, a window looks into the working kitchen, a small souk sells Levantine spices and pantry goods, and a rear room is set aside for future baking workshops and classes. Manna told the Inquirer he plans to keep his farmers market stands, so the business that grew up across the city still sells across the city.

Breakfast Behind the Glass at 1105 Frankford

The one new independent morning spot on Frankford itself is inside a building most people walk past without knowing what's in it. Cannonball, Chris Allen's private club for car enthusiasts near the Fillmore, occupies the former Morse Elevator Works at 1105 Frankford Avenue. The club has a public café where anyone can order an espresso and look through the glass at the stored classic cars.

The café's food comes from Focaccia Affair, a new business from Anthony Santucci and Gianluca Mazzarelli. Santucci's family runs Santucci's Original Square Pizza. He developed his focaccia, made with a 48-hour cold fermentation, after first considering expanding the family pizza business in San Diego. The rotating menu has included the Muse, with mortadella and stracciatella, and the Situationship, with turkey, goat cheese, arugula, and fig jam. A breakfast version with soft-scrambled eggs, bacon, and Calabrian chile hot honey is in the works. Allen explained his thinking this way: "You can visit the most amazing car collection in the world, but after 15 or 20 minutes, you want to sit down, have a coffee, and eat a sandwich."

Next door, the corner has lost a regular hangout. Source Urban Brewing, which opened in 2021 in the former Fishtown Brewpub, served its last weekend on August 15 and 16. The owners said they chose not to renew the lease, and the closing announcement said nothing about what comes next at 1101 Frankford.

The Morning Map, by Opening Time

Opening hours are where these shops really differ. Here they are as each business or its most recent coverage lists them. Hours change, so check before an early run.

Two of the newcomers, Call Your Mother and Focaccia Affair, open at 6:30 on weekdays, half an hour before the bagel shops that were already here. Neither beats Johnny's Hots, which traces its roots to Nunzio "John" Danze's 1950s lunch truck for waterfront workers. Its window on Delaware Avenue goes up at 5:45 every weekday morning for ride-share drivers, truckers, and early risers who want hot dogs, fishcakes, and breakfast sandwiches.

If you're getting to know Fishtown's mornings ahead of a move, or thinking about how a block's mix of shops shows up in a home's appeal, Arielle Roemer follows these corners as closely as the listings. Schedule a Consultation to talk through the streets that fit your routine.