Jake's Last Call, Aogami's First Month: Manayunk's Main Street Changes Hands This Fall
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
Bruce Cooper opened Jake's at 4365 Main Street on October 19, 1987, which was Black Monday, the day the stock market crashed. As he told The Philadelphia Inquirer, the street back then had "practically tumbleweeds floating down the street. You could find parking on a Saturday."
He plans to close Jake's & Cooper's Wine Bar on October 19, 2026, one week from today and exactly 39 years after opening night. Until then the restaurant is keeping its September restaurant week pricing, and past employees get 50% off on Sundays and Mondays. On the final night a party will clear out the bar and kitchen, with the proceeds going to a local charity.
The restaurant is only half of the news. Cooper is also selling the two side-by-side buildings at 4365 and 4367 Main, along with the four apartments upstairs. He told the Inquirer he wants a clean break. That is the pattern up and down Main Street this fall. The buildings are changing hands along with the menus, and the people moving in are mostly small, local operators who worked their way up from somewhere else on the same street.
Jake's is the most visible sale, but it isn't the biggest. The Inquirer's August look at the corridor describes Dan Neducsin as the largest property owner on Main Street for decades. Over the past few years he has sold 12 of his properties to long-term tenants and small-business owners.
Neducsin started buying in the late 1980s, when much of the strip southeast of Cotton Street sat vacant. He told the paper his idea was that owning enough buildings would let him "set the direction of the street" and choose tenants who would draw more people. Today the busy part of Main Street runs all the way to Shurs Lane, roughly twice the stretch that was occupied when he began. He also said he isn't selling everything. In his words, "it does make sense now for some new people to come in and take advantage of what's here."
One of the buyers he named is Tim Spinner, who owns Taqueria Amor. In June Spinner opened Riptide Tavern at 4388 Main, right next to the taqueria. It's an ocean-themed neighborhood bar with creative cocktails and a cheap beer list. He told the Inquirer he'd wanted to be "in the Caribbean or down the Shore," but that a spot on the Schuylkill with the canal behind it was "close enough."
The Inquirer counts 12 new businesses on Main Street over the past two years. Some of the people opening those businesses are also buying the buildings they operate in.
Several of the new storefronts got their start in programs run by the Manayunk Development Corp.
Cupid's Bookshop was the first business in MDC's incubator at 106 Grape St. The Inquirer reports that the building belongs to the business association, which leased the space to owner Tina Long for $1,000 a month, below market, for up to three years. Cupid's left early. In August it moved into a larger storefront at 4347 Main on a five-year lease. MDC executive director Gwen McCauley told the paper the program "turned out beyond our wildest dreams."
Baby Face Studio came through the Manayunk Arts Festival. In 2022 owner Kim Canefield applied for MDC's emerging artist tent, which cost $100 compared with $500 for a regular Main Street tent. She went on to run a full vendor tent at the next three festivals, each time parked in front of the gallery space that later became her studio.
Eleanor's Consignment at 4359 Main is the newest storefront of the three. Owner Emily Mannix had lived in Manayunk for two years when the Inquirer interviewed her this summer. The shop's website now says it is open. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and closed Mondays.
The Inquirer also quotes a local Realtor who says Main Street rents aren't low but cost less than South Street or Queen Village. Put that together with a $1,000 incubator, a $100 festival tent and owners willing to sell to tenants, and Main Street has several ways in for a small operator.
The two most-watched restaurant spaces this fall follow the same pattern: compact formats and operators with ties to the area.
Aogami opened beneath Chabaa Thai at 4343 Main. 6ABC's first look on October 1 describes a 16-course omakase for $85 per person, and it's BYOB. The Inquirer's fall forecast had expected service to begin September 25. Reservations are open on Aogami's site.
The former Winnie's at 4266 Main is still empty. The restaurant closed last November, and the space sat vacant for months. In August the Inquirer reported that chefs Justin Bogle and Arthur Cavaliere, both Roxborough natives, had signed a lease for a "punk French" restaurant and were keeping its name under wraps. They were aiming for late fall, but said that if construction slipped into December, the opening would likely move to after New Year's. We haven't found an update since then.
The Winnie's timeline matches what Main Street owners describe. The Inquirer reports that permitting is slow, especially when a project has to go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment, and that business owners can end up paying rent before they're allowed to open. "When it takes longer, you have to have deeper pockets," Neducsin told the paper. The incubator rent and owner-occupied buildings help with that wait, and the slow approvals help explain why those arrangements matter.
The other big closing this fall involves a site where housing has been proposed. The PHS Pop Up Garden at 106 Jamestown Ave. closed for good on October 5 after six years. In a statement reported by PhillyVoice, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society said the beer garden was always meant to be temporary and that it is "actively exploring and vetting" sites for similar projects.
A six-story, 73-unit apartment building is proposed for the site. According to the Inquirer's September 10 report, the developer still needs zoning approval for residential use and for going above the height limits in the Main Street Manayunk overlay, and no new hearing had been scheduled as of that date.
That proposal is one of many. The Inquirer counts more than 1,800 new residential units proposed along or next to Main Street. People disagree about what that will mean for the shops. Neducsin expects new residents to "come to Main Street to shop and eat." John Hunter, zoning chair of the Manayunk Neighborhood Council, told the paper that few of the new buildings include commercial space, and that "fifteen years of those promises has proved that is not the case." The apartments are still being argued over. The storefront turnover is already happening.
MDC's event schedule runs straight through this changeover, and in December the incubator building at 106 Grape St., where Cupid's got its start, hosts Santa.
If you own a rowhome or mixed-use building near Main Street and the Jake's and Neducsin sales have you wondering what yours might be worth, Michael Newns Homes offers free valuations backed by local market knowledge, including for estate and investment properties. Call or email when you're ready to talk it through. Work With Me.
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