The pasta nearly disappears under the shaved truffle. There is a candle to the left, a glass of red to the right, and a bottle behind the plate, all on a pale marble tabletop. That is one of my photographs from dinner at Cicala at the Divine Lorraine on North Broad Street. I’m Harry Hayman, and my first response to this meal was GOOD LORD, what a wonderful dinner. Looking back at the pictures, I can see why I wanted to stay put. Oysters on ice. Wine by candlelight. A lamp with glass drops hanging from its shade, tucked in among the bottles. Dessert with the menu still underneath the plate. Joe and Angela Cicala have a beautiful restaurant, and the pleasure of the evening was how easily the food, the service and the room let me settle into it.

Joe and Angela’s Restaurant

Cicala at the Divine Lorraine is at 699 North Broad Street in Philadelphia. Southern Italian cooking, a room worth spending time in, and people who take care of you. That was my experience, and I appreciate the hell out of it.

The place has a history of its own now. In his November 2019 opening report for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Michael Klein described the restaurant the chefs were preparing to open at Broad and Fairmount, with November 15 as the planned debut. His January 2020 conversation with the couple confirms that it opened that November. He identifies them as Joe Cicala and Angela Ranalli Cicala, with Joe focused on savory cooking, including pasta and salumi, and Angela on pastry. Their Philadelphia work before this restaurant included Le Virtu and Brigantessa.

What caught my attention in that conversation was the way they talked about the room. Angela wanted it to feel like coming to a family dinner. Joe described rustic Southern Italian food in surroundings that suited the building. They had spent two years putting the restaurant together, including family photographs and antiques, according to Klein. I like knowing that the room grew out of their own lives. The lamp and the little figurine beside the bottles in my photograph feel entirely at home there.

Oysters, Truffle and a Bottle by the Candle

The oysters came on a round metal tray of ice, with lemon wedges and a blue bowl of red sauce in the middle. Six open shells, the pale tabletop around them, and very little to distract from what was on the tray. Then there is the pasta photograph, with those broad, thin truffle shavings overlapping across the plate. I could spend another minute just looking at that one.

The wine bottle is readable in the next picture: San Felo, Lampo, Morellino di Scansano, Toscana. The candle sits in front of it, its light catching the glass, and the bar shelves behind it fall out of focus. It is a photograph of the part of dinner when another glass seems like a perfectly reasonable use of your evening.

At the end, the dessert plate overlaps the words I DOLCI on the menu. A dark slice, a pale scoop beside it, scattered almond pieces and a streak of red on the plate. The printed menu names pistachio gelato and baba au rhum among the choices. There is plenty to read even with the plate covering part of the page.

Cicala’s menu page says the menu changes with seasonal ingredients. I would check it when planning a visit. What I can tell you from this dinner is that I ate extremely well, right through dessert, and the photographs bring me straight back to that table.

The Building Around the Dinner

And then there is the Divine Lorraine itself. What a magnificent Philadelphia building. I love seeing this kind of history brought back into daily use, especially when part of that use is a restaurant where you can spend an evening like this.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s account of the Divine Lorraine dates its construction to 1892 through 1894 and credits architect Willis G. Hale. It began as the Lorraine Apartments, a luxury residential building, and became a hotel in 1900. Father Divine bought it in 1948. A single address has held some very different ideas about how people ought to live together.

That history deserves more than a passing reference to an old hotel. The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia’s history of Father Divine and the International Peace Mission Movement describes the Divine Lorraine as Philadelphia’s first fully racially integrated hotel after his purchase. Guests had to follow the movement’s rules, including prohibitions on smoking and drinking, and men and women stayed on separate floors. The building also contained a public dining room offering inexpensive meals and a place of worship on the tenth floor.

I keep coming back to that dining room. Feeding people is part of this building’s history, alongside its architecture and the people who stayed there. Today’s Cicala has its own purpose and its own way of welcoming guests. Learning about what came before makes me look at the address with more curiosity. Who got to come through the door? Who could sit down and eat? Those questions belong in the history of a building as much as the architect’s name does.

When the Lights Came Back

The National Trust’s account reports that renovation work began late in 2015, the rooftop neon returned in November 2016, and the first apartment tenants moved in on January 1, 2017. Cicala arrived later, in November 2019. There were different stages to getting this building occupied again, with different people doing the work. I like thinking about the building gradually filling with people, and then a kitchen getting ready to feed them.

Bradley Maule’s North Broad Rising for Hidden City Philadelphia puts the restoration into the larger story of North Broad. Writing in 2017, he described the Divine Lorraine alongside other historic buildings and the businesses moving into reused spaces on the corridor. He also asked what development would mean for historic buildings still without protection. That is a useful question to keep beside any celebration of a restored landmark.

For me, a restaurant gives the restoration a very practical next chapter. Somebody has to receive the deliveries, prepare the food, look after the room and take care of the guests. The building needs that attention again tomorrow. I have spent a good portion of my life in this business, and I know how much effort goes into a dinner that feels easy from the guest’s chair. At Cicala, I got to enjoy the result.

A Reason to Spend the Evening on North Broad

Visit Philadelphia’s guide to North Broad places the Divine Lorraine on a corridor that also includes The Met Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and The Rail Park. There are plenty of ways to build an evening around this part of the city. Cicala gave me a reason to make dinner itself the plan.

I’ve always believed a great restaurant can do a lot for a neighborhood. It gives people somewhere to meet and a reason to make the trip. I’m speaking as somebody who had dinner there and knows the work of running restaurants. A kitchen, a dining room and guests who want to stay awhile are things I care about seeing on a Philadelphia street.

North Broad deserves that care. So do the people working a service, whose contribution can be easy to miss when everything is going well. My dinner was outstanding, and the service was terrific. Joe, Angela and the entire team earned the big BRAVO in my post. I would happily send somebody over there to make an evening of it.

The amaro photograph is still on my mind: Nepeta on the bottle in front, Lucano behind it, the little figure beside the lamp, those glass drops catching the light. I like a room that gives you something to notice after the plates have been cleared. Take somebody you like. Leave enough of the evening for dessert.

Cicala at the Divine Lorraine, With Time to Stay for Dessert

Joe and Angela’s Restaurant

Oysters, Truffle and a Bottle by the Candle

The Building Around the Dinner

When the Lights Came Back

A Reason to Spend the Evening on North Broad

Sources and references