This Is Lower Merion And Narberth
Serving the Main Line Community
Two New High End Bala Restaurants And A Marriott Hotel Set For Historic Area Overlooking Schuykill River
Among the “15 Highly Anticipated Restaurants Opening in 2021,” recently listed in Foodandwine.com, two of them will be located in Lower Merion. The local entries in the group are Lark and Landing. Both new restaurants are part of a complex that will be anchored by the still-under-construction, Marriott Residence Hotel, at Pencoyd Landing.
Pencoyd Landing, for the unitiated, is on the verge of becoming one of the most “in-spots” in Lower Merion. It’s located along the Schuylkill River, about halfway between where City Avenue meets the Expressway, and the popular pedestrian/bicycling bridge that looks onto the Green Lane Bridge, and connects the Cynwyd Trail to Manayunk.
According to FoodandWine.com “Philadelphia-based chefs and restaurateurs Nicholas Elmi (Laurel, In the Valley, Royal Boucherie) and Fia Berisha (Aether) have teamed up to bring two new dining concepts to the region. Slated to open in February, northwest of Center City in Bala Cynwyd, the riverfront all-day café the Landing Kitchen will showcase baked-in-house bread and pastries, breakfast and lunch options, and a dinner menu of small plates and seasonally-changing entrees. Lark, the duo’s coastal restaurant featuring sustainably-sourced seafood and handmade pasta, will open in March.”
Landing will offer outdoor, riverview patio seating. Lark will be located on the seventh floor, overlooking the bridge, the river and Manayunk.
The restautarants will be opening in advance of the hotel, which is expected to start hosting guests “a little later this year.”
Not to be outdone, Pencoyd Landing has its own bridge, which is smaller, but much prettier than the one overlooking Belmont Avenue.
The new hotel is being developed by the Penn Real Estate Company, which is part of the Penn Group of Companies. Their offices are situated in a historic building that’s next to where the new hotel and restaurants will be located.
The building where the real estate company has set up shop was originally the office for Pencoyd Iron Works. The Marriott complex is being built into the remains of one of the buildings that the Iron Works used for manufacturing.
Source Penngroup.net Originally constructed around 1883, the Pencoyd Iron Works Building was ravished by a catastrophic fire in 1990. Penn Real Estate acquired “the ruins” in 2000 and embarked on an ambitious restoration (see below).
