ARDMORE, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Lola’s Garden, an indoor-outdoor 300-seat restaurant, opens later this month in Ardmore’s Suburban Square.
The outdoor mall-turned-hip hangout space has been redeveloped over the years with the addition of restaurants and shared public gardens, and Lola’s Garden came at an opportune time.
“The landlords here were kind enough to kind of dig out the center of the courtyard of Suburban Square and build this beautiful outdoor trellis for us,” said Lola’s owner Avram Hornik.
The restaurant features new American cuisine by chef Andrew Wood.
“Grilled fish and steak and pasta and sandwiches, but with a Pennsylvania-oriented take,” said Hornik. “He owned (the restaurant) Russet for a lot of years, which was one of Philadelphia’s first 400-table restaurants. He was really a pioneer in that.”
The eatery puts an emphasis on sourcing the menu locally, including the bar.
“We sourced everything from the liquor to the wine to the beer to exclusively Pennsylvania manufacturers and suppliers,” he added.
Lola’s Garden is Hornik’s ninth restaurant. He hopes spring weather and the influx of COVID-19 vaccinations will encourage customers to check it out, though he will still enforce some pandemic limitations on dining.
COVID-19 is likely to have a lingering impact, he said, even when the threat eventually decreases.
“A lot of places are using self-ordering. I think that’s probably going to stay,” Hornik predicted. “I think the increase in delivery is probably going to stay, but I think people are wanting to revert to be together with other people — and that’s the thing we all miss, being together.”
For more on Lola’s Garden in Suburban Square, listen to the KYW Newsradio original podcast What’s Cooking on the Audacy app.