As Fishtown and South Kensington continue to evolve from a development perspective, the retail mix on Frankford Avenue seems to get more and more appealing. Take, for example, Cheu Noodle Bar, opening this week on the 1400 block of Frankford. This block is on the rise in general, having seen the opening of a new City Fitness location earlier this year and with a new gastropub opening soon at the old Yachtsman location. And if that isn’t enough, we learned earlier this week that an exciting new restaurant will soon open on the 1500 block in what was previously an industrial building.

We’ve covered 1526 Frankford Ave. several times over the years, first checking in on the property at the end of 2012, when a tarp was covering the building’s facade. At the time, we told you that the property was previously owned by Samuel Machinery Company, a familiar name because they also were previously connected to a long blighted building on 3rd Street in Old City. As we told you before, that building, like their former structure on Frankford Avenue, has undergone a major transformation.

Developers started renovating 1526 Frankford Ave. back in 2012, but it’s still sitting vacant. A few years back, we told you that a partnership between Stephen Starr and Aimee Olexy had a plan to take over the building, but that clearly fell through. While that would have surely been an awesome addition to the corridor, we won’t mourn too much, because the current plan is similarly exciting.

According to Michael Klein, a partnership between the owner of Café La Maude and the owners the Root will be opening a restaurant called Suraya. Suraya will serve Levantine cuisine, with multiple concepts in the same building. In the front, look for a cafe/market space with a limited food menu and various retail offerings. In the middle of the building will be an open kitchen and a dining room with seating for over a hundred people. In the rear of the property, on Front Street, will be a garden space that will seemingly focus on alcoholic beverages.

The cafe/market should be opening this summer, while the restaurant and garden are expected to open in the fall. We might not live in the neighborhood, but we cannot wait for this place to open its doors. And because it’s opening in phases, we’ll enjoy the experience of checking it out piece by piece.