Árdana Food & Drink in Newtown, Pennsylvania is closing for good on October 10, ending a three-year run at the Village at Newtown shopping center on South Eagle Road. The Christou family, which owns the Cypriot-inspired mezze restaurant, says the space has been sold to LaScala Restaurant Group, a South Jersey-based dining company, and that the transition will happen this fall.
According to 94.5 PST, the Christou family announced the closing date via Facebook, writing, “Our last day at Árdana Newtown will be Saturday, October 10. Until then, we are open Tuesday through Sunday and closed Mondays. Come see us before we go. Thank you Newtown.” The restaurant remains open on that Tuesday-through-Sunday schedule until the final day. Árdana employees are reportedly being offered jobs with the new restaurant taking over the space, though LaScala Restaurant Group has not announced an opening date for whatever concept replaces Árdana there.
A Homecoming Story Comes to a Close
Árdana's Newtown location opened in March 2023 as an expansion of the original Árdana Food & Drink, which the Christou family first launched in December 2019 at The Shops at Valley Square in Warrington. That Warrington restaurant will remain open, according to the Inquirer's reporting cited by 94.5 PST — only the Newtown outpost is shutting down.
The brand's name carries personal meaning for co-owners Mike and Antoni Christou. Árdana is named after a small farming village in Cyprus where their grandmother was raised, and it shaped the restaurant's Cypriot and Mediterranean-style shared mezze menu, according to Newtown Patch. The mezze format centers on small shared plates drawn from Mediterranean coastal eating traditions. The brothers built the concept on decades of family restaurant experience: they also operate KC Prime Steakhouse in Warrington, part of a family business that traces back nearly 40 years to the Golden Dawn diner in New Jersey, according to Doylestown Patch.
Opening the Newtown Location Wasn't Simple
Bringing Árdana to Newtown in 2023 required more than a lease signing. The Christou family needed conditional use approval from the Newtown Township Planning Commission and had to transfer an existing township liquor license that had formerly belonged to Friends Bar and Grill, according to municipal records referenced by Scoop.it, which has no listed byline URL beyond its topic page. Before Árdana moved in, the 6,700-square-foot space had been home to Solstice, a seasonally focused restaurant that closed in early 2022 after two years in business.
Who Is Taking Over the Space
The buyer, LaScala Restaurant Group, is a growing dining company with restaurants across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Its founder, Rob LaScala, entered the regional restaurant industry in 2000 by purchasing Philadelphia's historic Apollo Pizza, then launched his flagship wood-fired Italian-American concept, LaScala's Fire, in Marlton, New Jersey, in 2016, according to LaScala Restaurant Group. That concept has since expanded to Newtown Square, Center City, Northeast Philadelphia, West Chester, University City, Villanova, and Upper Dublin in Pennsylvania, plus Marlton, Atlantic City, and Glassboro in New Jersey, with a location coming soon to Princeton's MarketFair mall, per 94.5 PST's reporting.
Beyond LaScala's Fire, the group has grown by acquiring established regional dining names. That includes the Long Beach Island breakfast and wings spot The Chicken or the Egg, known as “The Chegg,” which LaScala picked up in 2017 and later expanded to Marlton in 2023, according to PhillyVoice. The group's broader portfolio also includes Beach House in Brigantine, Birra in Pennsauken, and Lorenzo Pizza & Steaks in Marlton, per 94.5 PST.
Why the Location Is Valuable Real Estate
The Village at Newtown itself has become a heavily trafficked shopping destination in recent years. Property owner Brixmor Property Group completed a multi-phase overhaul of the center in late 2021, adding 60,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space along with outdoor gathering areas and an amphitheater, a project that Brixmor Property Group says drove a 30% increase in foot traffic. More recent leasing data from Brixmor puts the center's annual visits at an estimated 3.7 million.
That commercial profile helps explain why a growing operator like LaScala Restaurant Group would move quickly on the space once it became available. In the meantime, the Christou family has kept close ties to the Newtown community during Árdana's run there, including participating in the town's October 2024 “Light The Night Pink” fundraiser, which topped $90,000 for local breast cancer patients, according to Newtown Patch.
For now, Newtown diners have until October 10 to get one more visit in before Árdana closes its doors there for good. The Warrington location will carry the brand forward, while Newtown waits to see what LaScala Restaurant Group ultimately opens in its place.
