James Beard Award-Winner Ellen Yin Is Soft Opening the All-New Bar Cicci in Rittenhouse This Month

James Beard Award-Winner Ellen Yin Is Soft Opening the All-New Bar Cicci in Rittenhouse This Month

Bar Cicci, pronounced “CHEE-chee,” will soft open on Monday, August 18, in Rittenhouse at 1620 Sansom. The neighborhood café and aperitivo bar comes from James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Ellen Yin’s High Street Hospitality Group and is designed around the daily rituals of Northern Italy, from morning espresso and house-baked pastries to evening cicchetti, spritzes and wine.

According to the company, Yin developed the concept following years of travel throughout Italy, drawing inspiration from the bacari, or wine bars, of Venice, with the goal of creating a café guests can return to throughout the day.

The name Cicci is the plural of “Ciccio,” an Italian term meaning “little ones” or “little bites.” The menu was developed by Yin alongside Christina McKeough, Culinary Director of High Street Hospitality Group’s High Street and The Bread Room concepts, following a research trip to Milan and Venice. Cicchetti — small snacks traditionally served alongside wine and aperitivi in Venice — served as the foundation for the menu. The café will be led by Chef McKeough.

Seasonally rotating daytime dishes include:

• Pizza Bianca, a sandwich on traditional Italian flatbread, with options including Prosciutto, Pesto & Burrata, Eggplant, Bomba (a Calabrian chile paste), and Basil & Radicchio
• Sfilatino, an olive-studded breadstick filled with thinly sliced mortadella
• Maritozzi, a traditional Roman yeasted roll filled with lightly sweetened whipped cream
• Cornetti, offered in plain, lemon, chocolate, marmalade, pistachio and mortadella varieties
• Cannoli cruffin, a croissant-like bun filled with ricotta and mascarpone and topped with an amarena cherry
• Budino di Riso, an orange cardamom rice pudding tart with pistachio

As the day transitions into evening, the space becomes an aperitivo bar serving wine and cocktails. The evening menu is anchored by a daily-changing selection of roughly a dozen cicchetti varieties, including different cheeses, meats, seasonal vegetables and fish, sold in groups of three. Additional evening offerings include freshly sliced salumi — such as mortadella, coppa, bresaola and prosciutto — cut from a flywheel slicer, along with a Wagyu beef carpaccio tonnato.

Dessert options include zabaglione with seasonal fruit, house-made Campari sorbetto with an optional prosecco pairing, classic tiramisu, and an assortment of Italian biscotti, including gluten-free Sardinian amaretti, baci di cioccolato, pignoli, and cantucci, which is not gluten-free.

The wine program is overseen by Frank Kinyon, Wine Director of High Street Hospitality Group. The cocktail program was developed by Omy Bugazia, formerly of The Sergeantsville Inn and the award-winning Ladder 4 Wine Bar in Detroit. Aperitivi offerings include a classic Negroni, a Negroni Sbagliato, a Garibaldi made with Campari and fresh-pressed orange juice, an espresso martini featuring Onyx Eclipse Espresso and vodka, and a Martini Sporco, a savory vodka martini garnished with pickled onion and anchovy.

“One of my favorite parts of traveling through Italy is seeing how neighborhood cafes serve as the heartbeat of daily life,” Yin said. She said the goal behind Bar Cicci was to bring that same sense of ritual and community to Philadelphia.

Bar Cicci joins a number of established restaurants in Rittenhouse’s dining corridor, including Jesse Ito’s Dance Robot and Amanda Shulman’s Her Place Supper Club.

The 600-square-foot, 30-seat café was designed by Marguerite Rodgers Interior Design, a longtime collaborator of Yin’s, and draws on design elements from 1960s Milan. The space includes a natural stone bar, banquette seating, marble-topped tables, and a color palette of bold oranges, blacks and blues accented by rustic Italian clay tile. Equipment includes a Faema Jubile E61 espresso machine and a Berkel flywheel slicer used to shave prosciutto and mortadella. Vintage fashion sketches on the walls reference Milan’s design heritage.

Bar Cicci will operate on a first-come, first-served basis, opening for coffee and pastries at 8 a.m. Tuesday through Friday and at 9 a.m. on Saturday. The café will close at 9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 p.m. on weekends. Hours are expected to be adjusted in the fall.