A new Mexican place comes to GradHo and Point Breeze
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Sometimes, it seems as though you can’t have a neighborhood — a real, vibrant neighborhood — without having a Mexican place. It’s the corner bar of 2014, embodying that same convivial spirit, casual atmosphere with a dose of Latin panache. Fishtown has Loco Pez. Passyunk has Cantina. Fairmount has Calaca Feliz. And now, Graduate Hospital and Point Breeze have Café Ynez.
Along with Kermit’s, Ynez is a one-two beautification punch amid Washington Avenue’s drab granite yards and construction hangers. It’s housed inside design lab NextFab Studios, whose president, Evan Malone, also owns Jet Wine Bar on South Street with archaeologist wife, Jill Weber.
“Evan wanted to have affordable, healthy and appealing food and coffee in the space,” says Weber. “He thought it would be good for the community, too.”
He was exactly right. Café Ynez’s hours hew a bit closer to a business schedule — they close at 8 during the week, at 3 on the weekends — and the menu could stand a bit more variety, but the neighbors have latched onto this charming diner. They’re lining up at the glowing, slatted coffee bar for canela-and-orange-spiced café de olla, viscous Mexican hot chocolate and squishy, tire-sized doughnuts from Las Rosas bakery. They’re colonizing the faux-crocskin banquettes and dragging Jetsons-print Formica tables together to drink watermelon-mint margaritas — you supply the tequila — in cactus-stem cups. They’re grabbing takeout rotisserie chickens (dry one night, moist another; flavorful, citrusy skin both) and making Ynez their date-night taco spot.
JC Piña, who’s been with Malone and Weber at Jet from day one, is in the kitchen, doing the food he grew up with in Mexico City: lime-y corn elotes, juicy carnitas, whipped guacamole dusted in extra-sharp cotija. Chunky and frosty, the gazpacho with shrimp is an antidote to summer’s stick. Smoky chicken tinga sings in a burrito or on tacos.
My only complaint: I want more. More food, more hours. Fortunately, both are in the works later this summer.
CAFE YNÉZ | 2025 Washington Ave., 215-278-7579, cafeynez.com. Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Appetizers, $4-$8; entrees, $7-$15.
