A new restaurant by the name of King Tut will be replacing what was formerly the Leila’s Café hookah bar on 13th and Pine Streets. The cuisine (according to the poster on the window) will be a fusion of Egyptian, Roman, Greek and Indian with a “Middle Eastern Hookah” type of atmosphere. The space is quite small and intimate, and this sort of cuisine will definitely be something different for Pine Street as well as Washington Square West. The space was sold on July 30 of 2010 for $285K to Dang Huu and Thuc-Hoang Trin. (Interesting seeing that Vietnamese was not in the extensive list of cuisines covered.)
This is the second restaurant that will be arriving soon to Pine Street as The Farm and The Fisherman will be opening only about one block away from King Tut; both are planning to be opening in spring of this year. Washington Square West has become a booming location for great restaurants of all origins and price points, so assuming food and service are top-notch, King Tut should have no problem making a new home for itself in Philadelphia.