Michael Klein: 60 new restaurants coming

Sharing the same economy with double-digit unemployment is a rush of restaurant openings.

Construction and real estate costs are down. The workforce is eager. Entrepreneurs want to put their money where (patrons') mouths are.

A review of 60 restaurants due to open in the remainder of 2011 shows a mix of price ranges, styles, and ambition.

Pockets of Center City, especially near Broad Street and Rittenhouse Square, are the hottest areas.

The restaurant zone of Washington Square West, now concentrated on 13th Street between Chestnut and Walnut Streets, will expand south. On one corner of 13th and Locust Streets, a strip club has given way to a tot gym that includes a future location of the family-friendly Green Eggs Cafe. Next door, at 1305 Locust, the owners of the posh Le Castagne plan an Italian restaurant. On another corner, formerly a series of bars, Mike Stollenwerk plans to relocate Fish, doubling seating from the seafooder's home at 17th and Lombard.

On the 1200 block of Locust, the brownstones that housed Deux Cheminees are being readied for Vedge, an uppity vegetable destination restaurant from Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, who previously owned Horizons on Seventh Street near South.

For every luxe destination (Sbraga, Tashan, Il Pittore), there's something casual (Nomad Pizza, Grill Fish Cafe, Bubba's Texas BBQ). More blue-collar bars (Stateside on East Passyunk, American Sardine Bar in Point Breeze, Interstate Draft House in Fishtown) are on the way, too.

September's bumper crop of openings may be ripe as soon as this weekend with Honest Tom's Taco Shop at 44th and Spruce Streets, a brick-and-mortar version of the popular truck.

Then will come an expected reopening of Bliss, the bistro at the Bellevue, next week.

Opening dates are subject to construction and permitting issues, staffing woes, and lord knows what else.

I'll start here with highlights for September and October. But I'm maintaining a real-time map, complete with web links and more details, at philly.com/Food.

Looking further ahead: November and December burn bright. At 600 N. Broad St., Marc Vetri will open the beer bar Alla Spina and Stephen Starr is doing an unnamed seafooder beside Vie, a catering room from Cescaphe's Joe Volpe. Iron Hill Brewery will open in Chestnut Hill. Royal Izakaya, a Japanese bar from the Khyber Pass/Cantina crew, is preparing to open in Queen Village. Honey's Sit 'N Eat is on its way to a second spot at 21st and South Streets.

But first things first: