Forty Years of Stories & One Legendary Address: The Former Irish Pub is Ready to Write its Next Chapter
The Irish Pub gave this location its soul for 4 decades. Now 2007-11 Walnut has a new owner, a bold vision, and a neighborhood watching with great anticipation.
Pour one — no, pour two! — because 2007 Walnut Street just got the news we’ve all been waiting (impatiently) for!
The cream-brick landmark that housed the Irish Pub which had a green canopy, gold finials, and a dramatic curved bay window, has finally found the one who looked at it on one of the most-walked streets in Center City and said: yes.
The owner behind Chinatown’s EMei, Dan Tsao, has bought the former Irish Pub. The concept for what eventually moves in is still TBD. But happily, and finally, this iconic building is embarking on a well-deserved brand new chapter — and Rittenhouse gets front-row seats.
38 Years of Last Calls
Before we look forward, the Irish Pub deserves its proper send-off, because this is one of the Rittenhouse institutions that has earned it and more.
It opened in 1984, on the former site of Da Vinci, as a Philadelphia branch of the Atlantic City original. For nearly four decades, 2007 Walnut was less a bar and more a civic institution — you know the kind of place that belonged to everyone. Hospital workers winding down after a shift. Grad students who made it through finals. Regulars whose bar stools had effectively earned their names. Politicians holding court in the back. And, of course, office workers! And every single March 17th, the entire neighborhood descending like it was a legal and social obligation.
The Irish Pub was also, quietly, a piece of Philadelphia film history — it made a cameo in the 2006 Rocky Balboa. A bar that showed up in a Rocky movie feels exactly right for a place that never quit on anyone.When the pandemic hit in 2020, the lights went out.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the lights went out — but we never stopped wondering when someone would come along and see what we’ve always seen: a location holding decades of memories on one of the most-walked streets in the city.
The Building That Stumped Everyone
Here’s the part of the story that makes the ending (to date) so satisfying.
2007-11 Walnut didn’t sit empty for five years because nobody wanted it. According to the Inquirer, Brokers at Coldwell Banker Commercial approached more than 50 regional and national restaurant operators. Turns out that it was the building’s bones that were the problem.
The upper floors, long used for employee housing, offices, and storage, were accessible only through what one broker described to the Inquirer as “a maze.” The renovation scope was significant and the layout was, to put it generously, unconventional. It was essentially The Shining of commercial real estate — gorgeous, full of history, and capable of breaking lesser people’s spirits if they weren’t up for a challenge.
“The real issue was the amount of renovation required,” broker Jonathan Dubrow told the Inquirer. “It took someone’s vision — wanting to be in the Rittenhouse market and understanding how to operate multiple locations — to really grab it and say yes.”
Translation: the building wasn’t waiting for just anyone. It was waiting for the right someone.
Enter: Someone Who Finally Said Yes
That someone is Dan Tsao, who operates the acclaimed Sichuan restaurant EMei out of Chinatown. He closed on the property in May and his interest in this particular corner of Rittenhouse is rooted in something more concrete than gut feeling — it’s delivery data!
“I’ve been checking DoorDash and Uber Eats, so I have a pretty good idea where my customers are,” Tsao told the Inquirer. Turns out, a strong slice of EMei’s customer base is already coming from Rittenhouse. Moneyball, but make it dan dan noodles.
The vision as shared now — because construction and city zoning laws, you know — is to combine all three storefronts into a single roughly 5,500-square-foot restaurant space on the ground floor. The upper floors are being eyed for conversion into 16 to 20 residential units, which would mean connecting all three buildings and establishing a new primary residential entrance.
What Comes Next: The Best Kind of TBD
Okay, here’s where we embrace the uncertainty: because the honest answer is that the concept hasn’t been finalized yet, and that’s actually kind of exciting.
One strong possibility is a Rittenhouse location of EMei as the size of the space and the existing neighborhood customer base makes a compelling case. But Tsao himself is keeping his options genuinely open. “That was the initial plan, but I also have concern maybe [we’ll] have too many EMeis in the city,” he told the Business Journal. So: watch this space. Actually, literally watch this space (also, we like it when you look at our what we ramble about!)
What is more certain: a full opening isn’t happening in 2026. The renovation scope alone from what the articles have mentioned means this is a project that will take time to do right. What could happen sooner is a pop-up activation, which Tsao has floated as a possibility ahead of the city’s expected wave of visitors for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration. Seriously, though, a pop-up on Walnut Street while the eyes of the world are on Philly? We’d say we’ll believe it when we see it, but honestly — we’d just very much like to see it.
One more thing worth celebrating: Tsao has said he intends to preserve the exterior. The buildings sit within a historic district, requiring review for major changes, and it sounds like he’s genuinely on board with that. The canopy, the finials, the curve — all staying put. The neighborhood can (finally) exhale.
The Block That Was Already Ready
It’s worth pausing on where exactly this building is coming back to life — because the 2000 block of Walnut has been quietly having a moment.
My Loup, the Montreal-inspired bistro from chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp, sits directly next door on one side. Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese, the replacement for Taco Revolution from chef Carolyn Nguyen, is going to open soon on the other side. Vernick Food & Drink (and of course Vernick Wine!) anchors down the block.
This stretch didn’t set out to become a dining destination. It just became one anyway, the way the best blocks do: gradually, then all at once.
Whatever opens at 2007 Walnut is inheriting a remarkable address on a block that’s already doing the work. The building has been the missing piece, and now we’re hopeful that The Bard at 2013 Walnut Street will get snapped up soon too.
We’ll Be Right Here, Watching
Five years. Fifty-plus operators. Triple-digit showings. And one beautiful, complicated, patient building on one of the most-walked streets in the city — just waiting for someone who could see it clearly.
2007-11 Walnut Street is no longer a sad footnote in the neighborhood’s pandemic story. It’s the next chapter. And we are absolutely here for every permit, every pop-up announcement, and the moment those doors finally open again!
Thoughts? Intel? Feelings you need to process about the Irish Pub? You know where to find us — rittenhouseramblings@gmail.com. We hope you know we love to hear from you!
