From Estia to The Pelican Club: Rittenhouse’s Mediterranean Era Is Official
Starr’s fourth restaurant on the Square is taking over the old Devon Seafood space at 225 S. 18th Street — and the neighborhood’s Mediterranean moment just got a whole lot louder.
For months, the old Devon space sat behind blue scaffolding like the world’s most frustrating Rittenhouse advent calendar. No doors to open. No hints. Just boards. Well — someone finally peeled back the curtain.
A banner appeared at 225 S. 18th Street — the nearly 9,000-square-foot space that Devon Seafood called home for 25 years — and it reads “YOU DON’T FIND PETRO…” alongside a trident logo, shell motifs, a vintage coastal postcard, and the name The Pelican Club the day before they did the full reveal:
So what about “PETRO”? It’s a nod to Petros the pelican — the legendary mascot of Mykonos who became the island’s beloved icon after a fisherman rescued him back in 1958. Not petroleum. Not petroglyphs. A pelican. We love it.
It’s Sort of All Greek to Us
Let’s get the headline out of the way: The Pelican Club is going to be a Greek restaurant.
Starr confirmed to Mike Klein aka The Philly Insider that the concept is rooted in Greek cooking with touches extending into the broader Mediterranean. But this isn’t your neighborhood taverna because Starr said he wants to evoke the jet-set fantasy of Greece during the Onassis era: yacht-club luxury, island sensuality, cosmopolitan polish. Honestly, this sounds like the perfect neighbor for nearby hot spot Rouge.
The name came together after Starr came across the story of Petros the pelican and was drawn to both the image and the symbolism. He deliberately chose not to use a plainly Greek name for the restaurant — the idea being that The Pelican Club has a little more mystery to it.
On the kitchen side, Starr has been auditioning chefs from Greece — several have already flown in for tastings, and another is due in from Athens this week. He’s looking for someone who grew up with the food. That’s a real commitment to authenticity, and we’re SUPER excited to see who lands the gig.
The Starr Keeps Rising on the Square
Here’s where this gets wild. The Pelican Club would be Starr’s fourth restaurant on The Square itself and ninth restaurant in the neighborhood. Ninth! The man has been collecting Rittenhouse storefronts the way some people collect Eras Tour friendship bracelets — Parc, Butcher & Singer, Barclay Prime, Continental Midtown, The Dandelion, El Rey, Ranstead Room, The Love, and Borromini, the Italian spot that just opened last summer at 1805 Walnut.
Call It the Mediterranean Mile
Ok here’s the thing we can’t stop thinking about – look at what’s been quietly building in the neighborhood:
Estia has been the Greek seafood anchor on Walnut for YEARS — the OG that made Rittenhouse regulars care deeply about whole branzino. Almyra, its cheeky younger sibling, brought a modern Greek kitchen + women in stilettos waving blue napkins to 17th and Chancellor. Dear Daphne, from Schulson Collective, added wine-bar-meets-taverna energy to the mix. Spice Finch has been doing modern Mediterranean out of the Warwick since 2018, drawing on flavors from Morocco to Greece. And now The Pelican Club is planting a coastal flag on 18th Street with full-on Mykonos jet-set energy.
Rittenhouse isn’t just getting restaurants. It’s getting a whole coastline.
The Mediterranean wave has been building for a while now, and The Pelican Club feels less like a coincidence and more like confirmation that this stretch of Center City is becoming Philly’s answer to a seaside promenade — minus the sand in your shoes. (Sadly for us, we love beach sand.)
What’s Next
We’ll be keeping a close eye on construction progress, and we know you will too! An October opening gives us a long, long, long summer of watching this come together. Spotted anything new at the site? Chef rumors? Construction updates? Do drop us a line at rittenhouseramblings@gmail.com — we love hearing from fellow Ramblers.
The Square smells like the Aegean. And we’re here for it.
