The Group Behind Semma Is Taking Butter Chicken Theater to Philly

Unapologetic Foods’ first restaurant outside New York is Adda in Fishtown, still listed Coming Soon for an October open.

Updated October 1, 2026United States · Pennsylvania · Philadelphia

adda
philadelphia
fishtown
unapologetic-foods

East Village Adda dining room through a matchbook-lined arch: striped booths, rattan pendants, and a glowing bar — Alex Lau · Courtesy of Adda: Alex Lau · Press / promotional use

Unapologetic Foods is putting its first restaurant outside New York City in Fishtown. The room is Adda, the group’s classics-canteen brand, at 1700 Frankford Avenue across from the 19125 post office. The house site still reads “Coming Soon.” Fall forecasts have pointed at an October open after the late-2025 target slipped a full year.

The same partners built Semma, the Michelin-starred Tamil room in the West Village, and Dhamaka inside Essex Market. Philly is their first room outside New York, and they are leading with the hangout brand. This is reported opening coverage, not a review.

Why Philly gets Adda

Restaurateur Roni Mazumdar and chef Chintan Pandya opened the original Adda Indian Canteen in Long Island City in 2018. Pandya later won the 2022 James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York State for Dhamaka. In May 2025 they closed the Queens canteen and reopened Adda at 107 First Avenue in the East Village as “classics reimagined,” carrying over the newspaper and matchbook walls from the LIC room.

They signed the Fishtown lease in summer 2024 for a new three-story building, then chose the Adda name after the East Village reboot landed. Adda is Bengali for hangout. The Philly pitch has been a neighborhood room with its own voice that stays true to the original: bheja masala, curry leaf crab, a full Butter Chicken Experience, and an intimate downstairs for chef-driven projects. Wid Chapman Architects is listed for the design.

The butter chicken they put back on stage

The tentpole traveling with the brand is the Butter Chicken Experience, the East Village tableside show that defined the reboot. In New York it is a full-table, pre-ordered feast: wood chips chosen for a tableside cold smoke, house-churned butters tasted before they hit the sauce, then dal makhani, basmati, or lacha paratha on the side. Recent New York pricing has been around $42 a person; confirm Philly pricing when reservations open. Mazumdar has said Indian restaurants grew embarrassed to list butter chicken even though it is one of the cuisine’s biggest modern additions. Adda’s answer was to stage it.

Preview notes also flag a live-fire hearth and new dishes for the Fishtown card, plus New York hit-list plates like baby goat biryani and lamb parcha. Treat those as placeholders until the kitchen publishes a menu.

Before you book

If you are in Philadelphia, watch addaphilly.com and local reservation drops, not the East Village SevenRooms page. Philly already has denser South Asian corridors and older kitchens. What is new is Unapologetic’s canteen-plus-theater format walking into Fishtown: goat brain and a butter-chicken cart on the same night, if the room opens on the October window the fall forecasts still cite.

If you already know the New York rooms, Philly is the first out-of-town pin: the group that made Semma hard to book is planting Adda first. For how butter chicken became the American default those rooms argue with, see Why Non-South Asians Love Butter Chicken. For the Michelin side of the same company, see New York’s Hardest Table Serves Village Tamil Food.