Why Graduate Hospital's New Treat Shops All Landed on the Same Stretch of South Street

"Mod Spuds needed a place that is a fine balance between good traffic, neighborhood-y, and affordable," chef Ange Branca told The Philadelphia Inquirer this summer. She described her stretch of the 1400 block of South Street as a "less desirable block" and said the location was perfect anyway, possibly because of it.

Her potato shop is one of four places selling snacks, sweets and coffee that opened on South Street between May and July 2026. The other three are Winners Ice Cream, Sandpiper Cafe and Sweet Mousse, and all four sit within about two blocks of each other. The Inquirer explained what they have in common: these operators don't need the ventilation systems most full-service restaurants require, so their build-out costs stay comparatively light, and a small kitchen without a hood also keeps the rent low.

That kitchen economics explains why these shops showed up now and why they're on this stretch.

A Neighborhood Without a Restaurant Strip

For years, the Inquirer noted, Graduate Hospital had few places to stop for a pastry, a snack or an ice cream cone. The usual answer was a short walk north. On the 200 block of South 20th Street in Rittenhouse, between Walnut and Spruce, there's 1-900-Ice-Cream, open since 2022, plus All Aboard Candy and the appetizing shop Biederman's.

Location was part of the gap. In the Inquirer's words, Graduate Hospital "has no established restaurant corridor," which sets it apart from South Philly and Fishtown. A full-service restaurant typically carries the cost of ventilation and the rent on a space that can hold it, and that bet is easiest to make where diners already gather. A shop scooping ice cream or slicing mousse cake has much less to pay back, so it can take a storefront on a block without a dining track record. Between May and July, four of them did.

What Fits in a Kitchen Without a Hood

Here are the four shops. Addresses and current hours come from each shop's own website or ordering page, or from local coverage where noted.

Every menu on that list can be run without a hood. Ice cream is made in a freezer and served from a dipping cabinet. Mousse cakes are assembled and chilled. Drinks and matcha are mixed at a counter. Branca has been specific about her own kitchen: the space is too small for an exhaust hood, and that is what kept her rent down.

Taken together, the four shops cover the stretch from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Sandpiper does mornings and lunch, Mod Spuds and Sweet Mousse open late morning, and Winners runs into the evening, because each one sells something people want at a different time of day.

Mod Spuds Found Its Customers on the Walk Home

Mod Spuds began as a one-month residency at Comfort & Floyd, and the loaded jacket potatoes caught on there. City Cast Philly listed it among its May 2026 openings. The signature Mod Spud comes with baked beans, chili con carne and scallion. The Philly Spud has cheesesteak and pepper relish, and there's also a build-your-own option. The Mod Spuds website also lists the Happy Jack, Bollywood, Malaysian and Nacho spuds.

Branca told the Inquirer she figured out the block's biggest advantage only after opening: it sits on Graduate Hospital residents' commute home from jobs in Center City. For a cheap storefront, that's a good fit. A shop with low fixed costs can make a living from people walking past on their way home, where a full-service dining room would need people to plan a night out.

Branca also runs Kampar, a Malaysian restaurant. Its website says it is rebuilding, and no reopening date has been announced.

Winners Is Aiming at the Block First

Anh Nguyen opened Winners Ice Cream at 1610 South St. and makes the ice cream in-house. A photo in the Inquirer's August story showed a cookies and cream scoop in a waffle cone.

"We're two months in and it's been awesome," Nguyen told the Inquirer. "Many are saying Grad Hospital needed an ice cream shop, so I'm happy we opened here." He told the paper that most of his customers are neighborhood residents and families, and he described his plan this way: "My aim is to win the block, then win the city."

Nguyen's plan matches the economics. A shop with a light build-out can afford to start with its own block and grow its following from there. It doesn't need to pull in the whole city on opening weekend to cover a big construction loan.

Sandpiper and Sweet Mousse Fill the Gaps Around It

Sandpiper Cafe, at 1640 South St., is run by partners Gunawan "Gunner" Raharjo and Deddy Pornomo. 6abc described its menu as breakfast, lunch, coffee, smoothies and salads. In July, the plan was 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The café's online ordering page now lists 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily, so the afternoon cutoff is earlier than first announced.

Sweet Mousse, at 1622 South St., sells mousse cakes and drinks. The Inquirer covered it in an August piece on the banana and matcha drink trend and showed a dark chocolate banana mousse cake in its Graduate Hospital story. Its menu page lists the latest hours on the block, open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Posted hours can change as the weather turns, so check the shop's page before you head over on a weeknight.

Both shops ride the demand for matcha and ube. The Inquirer reported that demand for both ingredients has been high enough to cause global supply shortages.

Jezabel's Is a Different Kind of Bet, on a Different Street

Jezabel Careaga's project at 617 S. 24th St., between South and Bainbridge, is a bigger undertaking. The Inquirer says it sits "right on the cusp of Grad Hospital." According to the Inquirer's March report, the space is on the ground floor of a new building. Plans called for an open kitchen, a front counter for coffee, pastries and empanadas, a 24-seat dining room with table service, and a rear garden. Coffee comes from Rival Bros. The plan was to open first as a bakery and lunch spot seven days a week, with dinner to follow. The larger kitchen gives her room for plated dishes like steak, pasta and small plates.

She has a long history nearby. She opened Gavin's Cafe at 26th and Pine in 2010, renamed it Jezabel's in 2016, and has run a West Philadelphia shop since 2018. She has lived in the neighborhood since 2010. "What is really special to me is seeing the generations grow up here," she told the Inquirer. The Jezabel's menu lists empanadas, an empanada-and-soup offer, medialunas, facturas, pastafrola, ricotta cake, alfajores and espresso drinks. The March announcement targeted early summer. Check her site for the 24th Street location's current status and hours before you go.

Jezabel's shows the other way to get a food business into a neighborhood without a restaurant strip. A new building can include a restaurant-grade kitchen from the start. Without that, an operator has to find a space that doesn't need one. The South Street shops took the second route, and that's how four of them could open between May and July.

A Weekday Loop Through All Five

If you want to try them all, here's one way to spread them across a day:

1. Morning, 1640 South St. Coffee or a matcha latte at Sandpiper, open from 7 a.m.
2. Lunch, 617 S. 24th St. Empanadas at Jezabel's, once you've confirmed the storefront's hours on her site.
3. Late afternoon, 1424 South St. A Philly Spud at Mod Spuds on the way home from Center City. It's closed Tuesdays.
4. Evening, 1622 and 1610 South St. A mousse cake at Sweet Mousse, then a cone two doors down at Winners.

If the new storefronts near you have you wondering what this year's openings mean for your home's value, The Rosenthal Group can put your block in context. You can start with our Graduate Hospital neighborhood page, request a home valuation, or schedule a free consultation to talk it through with our team.