Cricket Avenue Is Becoming Downtown Ardmore's Dinner Street

At 24 Cricket Avenue, a wine bar now has a mezzanine for private gatherings, and every wine on its list comes from a vineyard in Kutztown. Vintner's Table opened there on September 28 with a limited number of reservations at first, so the staff had time to settle in, according to the Radnor-Haverford Herald. Walk a few doors in either direction and you'll pass a BYOB Italian restaurant that opened in April and an all-day café that opened in January. A Sichuan restaurant has also signed for a storefront farther down the street.

Lancaster Avenue still carries downtown Ardmore's traffic. But most of 2026's new places to sit down for dinner are on the short cross street that runs off it. The Downtown Ardmore District will also hold its December holiday market at the corner of Cricket and Lancaster.

One Short Street, Four New Tenants

Pieced together from 2026 reporting, here is Cricket Avenue's year so far.

The first two rows come from the Philadelphia Inquirer's July roundup of new Ardmore businesses. The same roundup reported that EMei's expansion had been pushed back by permitting and architectural issues. Bored Trading Café took over the former Bagels & Co. space, which AroundMainLine reported closed in September 2025. So that address went from closure to new tenant within a few months.

Greenfield Avenue, one block over, has had its own small run. OGYU Japanese BBQ & Bar opened at 60 Greenfield Ave. in June with tabletop grills and a full bar. Mango Mango, an Asian-inspired dessert café, held its grand opening at 38 Greenfield Ave. on July 31. Together the two side streets now cover a full evening: dinner, wine and dessert, without Lancaster Avenue at the center of it.

The New Arrivals Already Run Restaurants Elsewhere

Look at who is opening on these streets, and the pattern goes beyond their addresses. Most of the new restaurants are second or third locations of businesses with established kitchens elsewhere.

Vintner's Table is the Folino family's third location, after Phoenixville and Wyomissing. Andrea Folino started the concept in 2015 at Folino Estate, the family winery in Kutztown, which now has more than 23,000 vines on 14 acres. As the Radnor-Haverford Herald recounted, she told PennLive in January that the family wants to keep expanding into downtowns. "We like the idea of going into the downtown areas and being a nice hangout spot, welcoming people to our table," she said.

EMei's planned spot at 98 Cricket would be an outpost of a Philadelphia Chinatown restaurant. Around the corner at 64–66 E. Lancaster Ave., Blue Elephant plans to open its third restaurant this November. The first two are in Pottstown at 152 E. High St. and in Wayne at 110 N. Wayne Ave.

Blue Elephant also has the deepest roots on the block. The Radnor-Haverford Herald reported that Sutida Somboonsong opened Thai Pepper at that storefront in 1991. She and her husband, Win, opened Mikado next door in 1999 and later took down the walls between the two restaurants. Their daughter, Pearl Somboonsong Murphy, created Blue Elephant. The new restaurant will use part of the Mikado Thai Pepper space, and Mikado Thai Pepper will keep serving its full menu from its side of the building. Blue Elephant Ardmore will be a BYOB. Its menu will draw on the Wayne and Pottstown locations, which serve dishes like miso butter gnocchi, sushi rolls and Thai-seasoned pastas. The Herald, citing the Philadelphia Business Journal, put the renovation at more than $100,000.

So the new dining in downtown Ardmore comes largely from operators expanding from existing restaurants. A family running its third wine bar, a Chinatown restaurant opening an outpost and a restaurant group adding a third location all chose the same few blocks.

Opening Dates Here Tend to Slip

Several of this year's downtown openings have moved past their first announced dates, and some still have no date at all.

• Vintner's Table first aimed for early August. By early September it was aiming for October, according to the Lower Merion Times. It opened September 28.
• Calm & Strong Pilates and Yoga, at 46 Rittenhouse Place, expected to open in September, per the Lower Merion Times on September 3. The studio's own site now says the space is under construction and invites people to "Get Ready to Join in December 2026."
• EMei had no firm opening date when the Inquirer reported in July that permitting and architectural issues had delayed it.
• Pure Green, a cold-pressed juice shop at 56 E. Lancaster Ave., is aiming for 2027 with no firm date. It would be the franchise's first location in Philadelphia's western suburbs.
• VEG ER for Pets, a 24/7 emergency veterinary chain with more than 130 clinics across the U.S. and Canada, is coming to 167 W. Lancaster Ave. with no opening date announced.

One firm date is on the calendar. Solis Mammography lists November 9, 2026, as the opening date for its Ardmore location at 163 W. Lancaster Ave., Suite 110, on its location page. Blue Elephant's target is November, but as of the Herald's October 13 report it had not announced a specific day.

On Lancaster Avenue, the newest completed opening is Half A While at 22 W. Lancaster Ave. It serves cold-brewed tea, Asian-influenced cakes, pastries and buns, and the Inquirer reported in late July that it had opened in soft-opening mode. Its posted hours have differed from one source to another, so check the shop's own channels before a weekday visit.

The District Is Building Up Around Them

Behind the storefronts, the business district has also changed this year. The former Ardmore Initiative now goes by the Downtown Ardmore District, a name meant to make clearer which area and businesses it serves. Executive director Alec Hersh told Main Line Media News that 10 businesses had opened in the district in 2026 as of July 20, with three more on the way. Eleven opened in all of 2025. That put 2026 one short of the previous year's total with more than five months left. Vintner's Table and Half A While have opened since.

The same Main Line Media News article described the district's A-Team. Its members handle clean-and-green work and also act as downtown ambassadors, on the streets Sunday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. The district has installed 24 benches at bus stops and expected pedestrian-scale wayfinding kiosks to go in by the end of the year.

A longer-term project is under way at 100 W. Lancaster Ave. The $187 million Piazza at Ardmore broke ground in May and is expected to add 270 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail space, with completion around February 2028, according to the Lower Merion Times. That is more than a year away. For now, the side streets are where downtown dining is growing.

The Calendar Through the Holiday Market

Here is what is on the downtown calendar from late October into early December, in order:

1. October 30, 5:30 to 8 p.m. The Trek Halloween Trick-or-Treat Ride, hosted by Trek Bicycle Ardmore.
2. October 31, 8 p.m. The Halloween Bash at Mystic of the Main Line.
3. November 9. Solis Mammography's listed opening date at 163 W. Lancaster Ave.
4. November, date to come. Blue Elephant's target month at 64–66 E. Lancaster Ave.
5. December 5, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Ardmore Holiday Market, curated by Art Star Bazaar, with more than 20 local craft vendors and live music at Cricket Avenue and Lancaster Avenue.
6. December, date to come. Calm & Strong's current target at 46 Rittenhouse Place.

For a dinner reservation before or after the market, Vintner's Table lists hours of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with reservations taken through the restaurant's website. December 5 is a Saturday, so brunch on Cricket Avenue overlaps with the start of the market.

As downtown Ardmore changes, short walks to places like Cricket Avenue are part of how buyers think about the houses nearby. If you're curious what that means for your own home, Megan Van Arkel and our team can prepare a discreet, block-specific estimate. Get Your Home Value whenever the timing suits you.