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Chick's Social Kitchen + Bar | Wanting to get away from the wine-bar vibe and back to an Italian-food focus, Jim Piano has reconceptualized Chick's into Chick's Social, a redo of the long-running Bella Vista bar. (To give you an idea of how long the space has been around and pouring booze via various owners: Chick's has liquor license No. 376!) Piano's cooking a taut selection of cicchetti, antipasti, panini, housemade pasta and entrées. For professional belt-looseners, try the timpano, a stuffed-dough specialty made famous by the movie Big Night, as a group tasting option. More on Meal Ticket. 614 S. Seventh St., 215-625-3700, chickssocial.com.
Alla Spina | Marc Vetri's fourth Philly restaurant, joining Vetri, Osteria and Amis, is a bar done Italiano-style. Alla Spina, or "from the tap," pours 20 craft drafts (many from The Boot) and offers an unorthodox pub-inspired menu. Sharing real estate with Stephen Starr's Route 6 and Joe Volpe's Vie, the polished industrial space, tricked out with graffiti from local tagger Distort, features distinct lounge and bar areas, plus a cool elevated perch atop the walk-in beer fridge. Look for downmarket-by-Vetri-standards eats like pig tails with fennel agrodolce, poutine with guinea hen Bolognese, a swordfish BLT and mortadella hot dogs. 1410 Mount Vernon St., 215-600-0017, allaspinaphilly.com.
Reserve | This swank steakhouse, which shares a building with City Paper, grand-opened last weekend. Staged in the soaring space best remembered as Rococo, Reserve focuses on locally raised cuts (10-ounce New York strip, 20-ounce porterhouse) dressed up in complementary styles ("Chesapeake Bay," with crab meat). The bar program is big on brown liquors, and they're also offering manly diversions like a cigar lounge on the second floor. More on Meal Ticket. 123 Chestnut St., 215-964-6262, reservephilly.com.
