New Restaurants in Ambler PA in 2026: Downtown Changes

"I can't be in two places at once," Rich Sorrentino told the Philadelphia Inquirer in late September, explaining why he closed his Butler Avenue pasta shop to focus on wholesale.

A list of everything that opened or closed in Ambler this year looks like a lot of churn. Look at who made each change, though, and a pattern shows up. The former owners of a Main Street café opened a new place on the same block. An Upper Dublin native bought the old Wyndam Hotel building on Butler Avenue and kept a restaurant running inside it. A restaurant group closed its dining room in order to remake it. Even the pasta shop that closed is still making pasta, in a garage on a nearby side street. Downtown Ambler changed its menus in 2026 and kept most of its people.

The pasta moved to a garage on a side street

Sorrentino Pasta & Provisions opened in 2021 in a narrow storefront on Butler Avenue near Ridge, next to Alice Bakery. It combined a dining room, a pasta workshop and an Italian specialty market. Regulars knew about the 15 seats under a blackboard where the menu changed often, with dishes like pappardelle al cinghiale and casarecce with 'nduja. Sorrentino announced on August 12 that the storefront would close on August 30.

The business has not left Ambler. For about three years, wholesale has been Sorrentino's main line. He runs it out of a small garage on a nearby side street that he turned into a 1,200-square-foot production space, and he supplies local restaurants and country clubs. He has sold the Butler Avenue building and is building out a small shop nearby, but he does not have a timeline for it yet.

Until that shop opens, you can still buy his pasta in these places:

• Weavers Way, where Sorrentino makes the co-op's private-label ravioli and gnocchi
• Dave's Backyard Farm in Huntingdon Valley and Sam's Italian Market in Willow Grove
• Skippack Italian Market and Tredici Market in Wayne
• The Conshohocken and East Falls farmers markets, on alternating Saturdays
• Horsham's farmers market on Sundays

His best seller is potato gnocchi. Because the restaurant kitchen is closed, he cannot make or package sauces for now.

One Butler Avenue building, three owners since 2015

The biggest change on Butler Avenue this year happened at 34 East Butler, the old Wyndam Hotel building. In February, Upper Dublin native Barry Caplan, a 1982 graduate of Upper Dublin High School, bought the Wyndam Hotel and El Limon properties at 34 and 38 East Butler, along with the Gypsy Blu restaurant. It took two deals. Michael Golden sold the property and the liquor license, and Bob Ross sold the restaurant.

Golden had owned the building since 2015. As part of the Conshy Girls group, he opened Gypsy Blu there that year, and Ross bought the restaurant in 2020. Golden called the property an 11-year passion project and said after the sale, according to Around Ambler:

"We left it a lot better than we found it."

Caplan split the building into two places. On the ground floor, Porter serves upscale American food. It is named for old-time hotel porters and decorated with vintage luggage, brass and leather. Upstairs, Gaslight is a dimly lit cocktail bar that serves small bites and has a chef's table for private dinners. The opening was set for the first week of April. By August, Porter and Gaslight were on the list for Ambler Restaurant Week, next to From The Boot, La Baja Cocina de Frontera, La Provence, Lucky's Roadside Stand and Pie & Plate Cafe.

Porter's website lists lunch Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., brunch on weekends from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., light bites from 3 to 5 p.m., and dinner Tuesday through Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. The sale also included the El Limon building next door, but the restaurant itself kept its existing owners and stayed open.

Here is where each changed address stands as of early October:

Main Street gained two places built for lingering

On North Main Street, this year's two openings share a pace: both are built for sitting a while.

Yellow Tea House opened on March 28 at 61 North Main Street. Its owners, Kurt and Kristen Wente, previously owned and operated Pie & Plate before selling it at the end of 2025. Pie & Plate is still open under new owners at 43 North Main, so the couple's old business and their new one sit on the same block. The tea house serves teas, a daily soup and frittata, sweet and savory scones, desserts and sandwiches, all on vintage china. It has two English-themed dining rooms, a little outdoor seating, and two party rooms on the second floor.

Bookshop on Main had its grand opening on June 20 at 5 North Main Street. Owner Lindsay Hamilton runs the independent store with her husband, Brian. "You can't go into a bookstore and have a bad day," she told Wiss Now. Blue Bell author Lee Kelly called the Hamiltons as soon as she heard about the shop and offered to help organize local author events. In August, after two months open, the store joined the fourth annual Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl.

With these two openings, plus Pie & Plate and the Ambler Theater around the corner, it is easy to spend a whole afternoon downtown without getting back in the car.

Luna is the last change still to come

The one Butler Avenue change still unfinished is at 129 East Butler. Fine Line Dining, led by Michael Sloane and Jay Rosenthal, announced on April 15 that Dettera would close three days later and reopen as something new. The group did not leave the area in the meantime. In late May it opened Academy Grill, an Italian-inspired restaurant with white tablecloths at 424 South Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington, and put former Dettera chef Jeffrey Power in charge there.

The Ambler space will reopen as Luna, a Mediterranean restaurant. Chef Marie Lavizzo-Mourey is building the menu around the 20-plus countries that border the Mediterranean. The Inquirer's fall forecast, published September 9, said the project was "on track for fall." As of early October, no opening date has been announced. Luna's own channels are the place to watch.

The rest of the season on Butler and Main

First Friday ended for 2026 on September 11, a week later than usual because of Labor Day. That leaves these dates downtown between now and Thanksgiving weekend:

1. Saturdays through October 31. The Ambler Farmers Market sets up Saturday mornings at Butler and Maple avenues, next to La Provence.
2. October 6 to November 8. Act II Playhouse stages The Lifespan of a Fact.
3. Saturday, October 17. The Ambler Community Garden Fall Fest runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Knight Park. The rain date is October 24.
4. Sunday, October 25. Ambler's Halloween Extravaganza includes trick-or-treating at participating businesses. Official listings give different start times, so check Ambler Main Street before you go.
5. Saturday, October 31. The Ambler Theater, at 108 East Butler, shows John Carpenter's Halloween at 9:45 p.m.
6. November 13 to 15. NOIR CITY: Philadelphia 2026 comes to the Ambler Theater. This year's theme is "Face the Music," with nine classic films about musicians, including The Man with the Golden Arm and Sweet Smell of Success. Eddie Muller, founder of the Film Noir Foundation and host of TCM's "Noir Alley," introduces each film.
7. November 27 and 28. Ambler Main Street's calendar lists Black Friday shopping, followed by Small Business Saturday.

Small Business Saturday lands at the end of the year that brought Yellow Tea House, Bookshop on Main, Porter and Gaslight to downtown, and possibly Luna if it opens on schedule.

If you're thinking about how Ambler's changing downtown fits into your own plans, or what life within walking distance of Butler Avenue looks like in practice, Nicole Miller-DeSantis is glad to talk it through with you. Schedule a free consultation, and we'll start with the blocks you know best.