After 86 Years, McMillan’s Bakery in Haddon Township Is Closed

McMillan’s Bakery in Haddon Township / Photograph by Kae Lani Palmisano

End of the Road for a Classic

Over the weekend, McMillan’s Bakery in Haddon Township closed after 86 years in business. Originally opened in 1939, it has been in the McMillan family through four generations. But now that’s done, and the official closing announcement was made via Facebook on May 16th. It reads, in part:

“The time has come to say goodbye. We have worked hard to continue serving our beloved community for as long as possible, but as they say, ‘all good things must come to an end.’ We’ve had many offers to buy our beloved business, but our Matriarch insisted that our family business end with our family. She was clear that she did not want our name or our legacy to be carried on by anyone outside our fourth-generation family. And so, we are honoring her wishes and closing our doors after 86 wonderful years in business. Our building might still stand, but the McMillan’s legacy has come to an end.”

May 18th was the final day. There has been some confusion over the past year as to what’s going to become of the actual building that housed McMillan’s. It’s been for sale for quite some time, and that sale may (or may not) have been finalized recently. You can read all the details about that particular aspect of the story here.

But what gets me is that this place has been up and running under the same family for eight decades. That’s a lot of institutional wisdom and baking expertise to lose. And say what you will about the lure of the shiny and the new, but these kinds of places can’t just be replaced. They are a finite resource — places that have fed generations, survived the test of time, and learned decades-long lessons about serving the community. With every closure like this, we’re losing knowledge and tradition, and no number of new bakeries opening can replace that until, in the year 2111 — when we’re all riding through space on flying squids and everyone eats lasers — a bakery that opens today can finally take its place.

Anyway, places like McMillan’s are becoming vanishingly rare. And while I can completely understand the family’s decision to shut the place down rather than passing it on to someone from outside the clan, it’s still a sad day.

No word yet on who (or what) might be taking over the space. You’ll know more when I know more.

An Early Preview for Corio

A preview of dishes from Corio’s menu / Photograph by Gab Bonghi

At the beginning of May, I told y’all about the new Italian concept Corio being opened by three Vernick alums in University City. This was the place inspired by Italian modernism and the old Corio Lounge at Eastern Standard where restaurant crews used to gather after shift back in the day. It’s all chicken riggies and custom cocktails, handmade pastas and the Eagles game on the TV. Most important, the new spot was looking at a spring opening which, even just a couple weeks ago, didn’t leave the team with a lot of runway left for getting Corio up and running before summer hit.

Well guess what? With Memorial Day weekend looming, it looks like Corio is going to sneak in just under the wire.

Kinda.

I got word last week that Corio decided to open for takeout-only service with a limited menu and schedule last week. They’re treating it like an introductory pop-up — a sort of welcome for the neighbors, offering everyone who shows up a taste of what the place is going to be when it opens for full service sometime in the coming weeks.

The menu is a sample of what the full board will look like: short rib sandwiches with tonnato, four different 14-inch pizzas (including a charred asparagus and lardo pie that looks excellent), a mushroom duxelle sandwich with sharp provolone and cherry peppers, hoagie salad (which is exactly what you think it is), and a nice spring panzanella. Last week, the hours were 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. And this week, they’re expanding on that schedule by adding an actual dine-in lunch service which started today, May 20th, at 11 a.m. Like last week, they’ll run this from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (or until sell-out), and will be doing services today through Saturday.

So yes, it looks like things are progressing quickly. If you’re interested, I’d keep an eye on Corio’s Instagram for more updates — including (one would assume) an actual opening date.

Peter Woolsey’s Next Big Swing

Peter Woolsey has been a part of Philly’s restaurant scene for as long as I can remember. He opened his classic French farmhouse restaurant, Bistrot La Minette, in 2008 and ran it for 16 years in Queen Village. I wrote about its closure back in June of 2024 (almost exactly a year ago now) and mourned its passing along with everyone else.

Woolsey was also the chef behind La Peg — the large-scale bar, restaurant and beer garden at FringeArts which started life as a huge, glossy brasserie and became, in time, a straight-up regional American experiment, applying French technique to the greater glorification of fried cheese and pot roast — and the short-lived Gabi on North Broad which opened (unfortunately) late in 2019, just months before the start of the pandemic, and was never really able to recover.

Bistrot La Minette, La Peg, and Gabi are all gone now, but on May 5th, Woolsey resurfaced in Yardley, way up in Bucks County, as exec at the new La Grange — part of the mixed-use planned development/town center project that’s been building in the area for years.

And La Grange? It’s massive. Around 200 seats in a completely remodeled stone barn (hence the name) with balconies, outdoor seating, cocktails, a raw bar — everything a modern brasserie needs. The joint is running a seven-day schedule and an all-day menu, with lunch and dinner services, plus weekend brunch and mid-day menus, and happy hour at the bar from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday. The menu is basically French comfort food (as a brasserie menu should be). Potato leek soup, salade Lyonnaise, escargot, tartar, a foie gras terrine with shallot marmalade, quiche Lorraine, a croque monsieur, coq au vin, steak frites and trout meunière — which is just about the only thing on a French menu that I never order.

The menu is a solid classic, and Woolsey has been cooking exactly this kind of traditional, rustic, distinctly un-modern French cuisine for years. He’s really good at it. So personally, I’m psyched to have an excuse for a road trip to Yardley.

You can check out the menu and details here. Instagram here if you want to look at some pretty pictures.

In the meantime, who’s in the mood for some leftovers?

The Leftovers

River Twice’s 16-course chef’s counter tasting / Photograph by Mike Prince

Over on East Passyunk, Randy and Amanda Rucker’s River Twice is bringing back its exclusive, expansive, legendary 16-course chef’s counter tasting menu for the first time in over two years. There’ll be a single 7 p.m. seating for nine people total, happening every other Thursday night starting on Thursday, May 29th.

Reservations are available now on Resy for $198 a head (plus tax), but when I checked, there was just one seat left for the May 29th seating. So if this sounds like your kind of thing, I’d start making plans now for June and beyond.

At Emmett, chef Evan Snyder is continuing his “Not-a-Pop-Up” dinner series with chef Tim Dearing from Üle dropping by for a four-course collaborative tasting menu featuring monkfish liver on a rye cracker with sesame caramel and limequat; grilled shrimp with shiso and amazake shrimp head aioli; lamb carpaccio and a rye tartlet with wagyu, horseradish, and smoked mustard. And that’s just the first course. Other highlights include lobster with plum broth, wild king salmon with smoked tomato labne, a main course of halibut with kelp ragù and preserved lemon, and dessert — yogurt sherbet with stewed cherries, cherry pit oil, and nigella granola, as well as English pea curd with blueberry ice cream.

So yeah, it’s a lot. And it’s unusual. And it looks awesome. Last time Snyder did this (with Nich Bazik from Provenance), the whole thing sold out. So this time around, maybe get your reservations early.

The Üle dinner is happening on Tuesday, June 10th at 5 p.m. at Emmett. Make your reservations here.

Korea Taqueria’s new Fishtown/Kensington location is just about ready to open.

We’ve talked about the new spot before, but now I can tell you that there’s an actual date. The grand opening will be happening on Saturday, May 24th and Sunday, May 25th. There’ll be a ribbon cutting at noon on Saturday, free giveaways, a “Kickflip for a Taco” contest at Pop’s Skatepark across the street, half-court shot contests on the basketball court, and more.

They’ll also have their full menu available, and the old food cart on site to handle some of the crowds. Check out the details here.

Women Against Abuse, Philly’s domestic violence agency, is throwing their 17th annual “Dish It Up” fundraiser on June 11th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Crystal Tea Room. They’ll be bringing together some of Philly’s best women chefs for a night of snacks, tastings, an open bar, DJ sets and more. So if you’re looking to have dinner for a good cause — and to help the survivors of domestic abuse — this is your night. Tickets are available right here.

Yards, Attic Brewing Co, Evil Genius, Human Robot, Sacred Vice, and Wissahickon Brewing Company have come together for a collaborative brew called “Six Degrees of Fermentation” / Photograph courtesy of Six Degrees

And finally this week, six Philadelphia breweries are coming together with Kevin Bacon’s charity, Six Degrees, to raise funds for the organization. Basically, all six breweries (Yards, Attic Brewing Co, Evil Genius, Human Robot, Sacred Vice, and Wissahickon Brewing Company) got together and created a single, collaborative brew called “Six Degrees of Fermentation” (get it?), and they’ll be celebrating the launch of it alongside SixDegrees.org at a public event in the Yards Brewing Company taproom at 500 Spring Garden Street.

The party is happening on May 28th, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free, but a $6 donation gets you a souvenir to take home. And after the event, fans can spend all of June hitting all six different taprooms to get six different collectible cans. Fill an entire punchcard with all six stops, and you get entered for a chance to win VIP tickets to a Bacon Brothers concert.

So if you like beer, like the Bacons, or just like doing a little bit of good with your drinking, go check it out. More info here.