The owner of Ardmore's DePaul's Table steakhouse is bringing a scaled-down, takeout-only version of the restaurant to Philadelphia, setting up shop in Graduate Hospital at the former home of Southside Pizza. DePaul's Pronto is planned for 917 S. 20th St., at Carpenter Street, and is targeting a late-November opening, though the exact date has not been finalized.
Owner Anthony DePaul has taken over the space, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, describing the new venture as a fast-casual companion to his full-service steakhouse on the Main Line. The storefront previously housed Southside Pizza for more than a decade before that shop closed in September, as PhillyVoice reports.
No Table Service, Just Counter and Kiosk Ordering
Unlike DePaul's Table, the new spot will skip the white-tablecloth treatment entirely. The restaurant will have a few tables for dine-in customers, but table service will not be offered — instead, diners will order at the counter or through self-service kiosks, per whatnow.com's reporting. Pickup and delivery will also be available, the outlet notes.
The menu is expected to blend Italian-American comfort food with some steakhouse flourishes. Expect pizza, cheesesteaks and selections adapted from DePaul's Table's existing menu, alongside dishes like rigatoni vodka, chicken parmesan, braised beef short rib and pan-seared salmon. Higher-end options including filet mignon and double-cut lamb chops will also make the cut, with salads, appetizers, a kids menu, desserts, catering and beer and wine to-go rounding out the offerings.
DePaul described the concept's dual ambition in comments shared with reporters, saying Pronto aims to be a place for family pizza pickup and at-home filet mignon alike. He added that the new venture brings the restaurant's passion for food to Philadelphia in a new way.
Why a Smaller Format, and Why Now
The move toward a leaner setup wasn't incidental. DePaul chose the smaller format after watching delivery demand grow and deciding to avoid the rent and overhead that come with running another full-service restaurant, according to the Inquirer. The storefront is undergoing renovations on 20th Street ahead of the opening.
DePaul's Pronto brands itself on its own site as an elevated takeout and delivery experience, with a lineup spanning pizzas, salads, pasta, seafood, chicken and steaks, according to depaulspronto.com.
The Ardmore Original's Pedigree
DePaul's Table itself opened in Ardmore in 2021, a partnership between Anthony DePaul and Jose Galicia that also involved Stove and Co. Restaurant Group's Justin Weathers and Joe Monnich, according to Main Line Today. The steakhouse sits at the corner of Lancaster Avenue and Station Road, occupying the first two floors of a 19th-century building that began as the Merion Title and Trust Company before later becoming a Haverford Trust branch and, more recently, the French-inspired brasserie The Bercy.
That 10,000-square-foot space now carries a menu built around high-end steakhouse fare, including sea scallops with a porcini dusting, a 28-day dry-aged Pat LaFreida New York strip steak, wood-fired flatbreads, bone-in veal Milanese and a seafood tower, the same outlet reports. Its priciest item is a 48-ounce Tomahawk ribeye at $135 — a far cry from the counter-service pricing expected at the new Graduate Hospital offshoot.
