The harp still plays this weekend at 210 W. Rittenhouse Square. In the Mary Cassatt Tea Room, the three-tiered trays still come out Thursday through Sunday between 12:30 and 3:30, at $70 a person, according to Billy Penn's October guide to afternoon tea. The last of those afternoons is Sunday, November 15. After that the room closes for a renovation at The Rittenhouse that will bring a steakhouse, a new bar and redesigned public spaces to the hotel's side of the square.
The tea room is the second room to go this fall. The Library Bar served its last guests on October 31. Scarpetta, the hotel's Italian restaurant for nearly a decade, closed back on January 31. By Monday, the hotel's formal afternoon and its late-night bar will both be closed until at least late spring 2027.
The hotel gave its reason months ago, and the streets around the square had already been moving the same way.
What the Hotel Says It Is Building
When the steakhouse was announced in January, hotel spokesperson Cole Hernandez told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the changes reflected an effort to keep pace with a dining scene that is becoming "more vibrant, more interesting, and less formal and stuffy," as Billy Penn later reported.
The new restaurant is The Ruxton, from Baltimore-based Atlas Restaurant Group. Billy Penn describes the plan:
- 220 seats
- Three private dining rooms
- Two bars
- A seasonal outdoor patio overlooking the square
- A Jazz Age interior with velvet upholstery, walnut woodwork and Murano-style glass chandeliers
- A menu of steaks and seafood under corporate chef Aaron Taylor
The hotel's own announcement also lists "an intimate new bar" and places the first new spaces in late spring 2027. No completion date has been given for the full project. Construction is limited to weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., so the square's weekends stay quiet. The hotel itself remains open, and Lacroix keeps serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktails throughout.
In a statement to Billy Penn, the hotel described the goal for the rooms that remain:
"We're thinking more intentionally about how guests can interact with the bar, lounge, and courtyard space to make them more accessible for events and socializing."
The hotel's plan is to be easier to walk into, and the fall's openings on the blocks around it are already built that way.
The Blocks Got There First
Nearly every business that opened within a few blocks of the square this fall is the kind you stop into on the way somewhere else.
| Opened | Place | Address | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 9 | Carolyn's Modern Vietnamese | 2015 Walnut St. | Vietnamese-Louisiana cooking, in the former Revolution Taco |
| September | Blank Street | 1801 Spruce St. | Coffee |
| September | Haraz Coffee House | 1822 Chestnut St. | Coffee |
| September | Page Burners | 2036 Sansom St. | Romance-focused bookstore |
| Oct. 2 | Somedays Bakery | 1601 Walnut St. | Bakery |
| Oct. 13 | Rothy's | 1613 Walnut St. | Retail |
| October | Call Your Mother | 262 S. 19th St. | Bagels |
| Oct. 22 | KYN | 1807 Chestnut St. | Korean-inflected matcha café |
| By late October | Gregg's of Philadelphia | 401 S. 16th St. | Vintage clothing |
Three of these are within two blocks of the tea room's door: Blank Street on Spruce, and KYN and Haraz on Chestnut. KYN opened October 22, the week before the Library Bar closed. Palm Vintage at 1414 S. Penn Square went a step further. It added evening sushi and cocktails to its daytime café and held a grand opening on September 29, so one room now covers the morning and the night.
The seasonal retail follows the same pattern. The Vestige Salon, a holiday shop rather than a hair salon, was set to take over 235 S. 17th St. for November and December. It is a short-term storefront, which fits the turnover on these blocks.
The Late Drink Moved to Sansom Street
The Library Bar offered cocktails, rare spirits and live music in a tucked-away setting, as Billy Penn described it. Its closest new counterpart is three blocks east. No Name Social, a members-only after-hours venue for cocktails and music, opened at 1526 Sansom St. in October, the same month the hotel bar wound down.
The next group of evening places had set November openings, and none of them are in a hotel lobby:
- Bar Nostra, 2101 Chestnut St. The Bar 1010 team is replacing Mix Bar & Grill with pizza, pasta, cocktails and wine.
- Ayat, 2021–23 Sansom St. A Palestinian restaurant.
- Bar Caviar, 256 S. 16th St. It scheduled an invite-only weekday soft opening through November 6, with its public opening described as very close.
- A neighborhood bar at 222 S. 15th St.
- 7th Street Burger, 1518 Chestnut St.
Bar Nostra makes the clearest comparison. It takes over a corner a block from the square, and its plan is pizza and wine. The hotel is aiming for that same easygoing tone in its own new bar.
Where a Tiered Tray Still Lands
After November 15, the nearest tea services run on weekdays or only in December.
The Dandelion, 124 S. 18th St., is the closest option, a short walk up from the square. Billy Penn's guide lists afternoon tea on weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m., with two- or three-tier menus at $20 to $60 a person, served in the pub's dark-wood rooms. That is close to the reverse of the Cassatt schedule, which ran Thursday through Sunday.
Liberté Restobar and Lounge at the Sofitel, 120 S. 17th St., served weekly afternoon tea for years as Chez Colette before pausing it. According to the same guide, it is bringing tea back in December "for a special festive edition featuring seasonal flavors and festive touches." That puts a December holiday tea three blocks from the square.
Farther afield, the guide lists Prince Tea House at 203 N. 9th St. as the only tea service it found that runs daily and takes walk-ins, at $60 for two. Bloomsday, at 414 S. 2nd St. in Headhouse Square, holds a monthly high tea built around a different local bakery each time.
So on a weekend afternoon after Sunday, the nearest formal tea is no longer facing the square. Lacroix stays open inside the hotel for breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktails.
The Winter Calendar Is Outdoors
With the hotel's public rooms closed, the dates on the square's winter calendar are outdoor ones.
Saturday, November 14. The day before the last tea, the Friends of Rittenhouse Square hold their fall Love Your Park Day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., planting spring bulbs. Those bulbs should come up around the time the hotel's first new rooms are due in late spring 2027.
Saturdays through the season. The Rittenhouse farmers market at 18th and Walnut runs 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and shifts to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. from December through the end of March.
November 21 through December 27. Christmas Village runs at LOVE Park and City Hall, 1500 Arch St.
Sunday, December 6. This is the busiest day on the winter calendar. Center City District's Open Streets: West Walnut is scheduled to close Walnut from Broad to 19th, plus 18th from Chestnut to Locust, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is the only winter date after seven fall Sundays that ended October 25. The October 25 finale added a farmers-market extension with 10 local vendors, as PhillyVoice reported. The same day, the Made in Philadelphia Holiday Market is listed at Dilworth Park, 1 S. 15th St., from noon to 8 p.m. The closed stretch of Walnut ends at Broad, a short walk south of Dilworth.
That Sunday, the eight car-free blocks of Walnut pass Somedays Bakery and Rothy's on the 1600 block and Carolyn's on the 2000 block, all of which opened this fall. On the square itself, the hotel's construction stops for the weekend, as it does every weekend, and Lacroix stays open.
If you own a residence on or near the square, the hotel's work and the new businesses around it bear on how a home here is presented. BlackLabel follows these blocks closely and is glad to talk through what the coming year may mean for yours. Request a Private Consultation.
