After months of uncertainty, Simsum, a Mediterranean restaurant and hookah bar, has closed its doors for good, and will be replaced by a permanent location of the Greek Lady.
"It wasn't really meeting expectations," said Amin Bitar, Simsum's owner, noting that the restaurant at 222 S. 40th St. did fairly well on weekends, but not during the week.
"We felt it was in our best interest to step aside and give someone else a chance," Bitar said.
That someone is Dimitrios Dimopoulos, owner of the Greek Lady. According to Bitar, Simsum's lease and the contents of the restaurant are being sold to the Greek Lady in the near future.
Dimopoulos confirmed the pending transaction, saying that the decision to move into a permanent location was necessary to expand the business.
Adding the new location will enable the restaurant, which has been in food trucks on Penn's campus since 1985, to cater, deliver food all day and possibly stay open as late as 3 a.m. on weekends.
"We don't have the capacity to serve the customer base we have," 27-year-old Dimopoulos said. "We're pretty much maxed out on how many people we can serve now."
And with a target closing date of Feb. 9, it is possible that students will be able to satisfy their late-night cravings for Greek food very soon.
"We're planning to open in early to mid-March," Dimopoulos said.
However, although optimistic, the University was quick to point out that the sale has yet to be finalized.
"That's not a done deal," Real Estate spokesman Tony Sorrentino said. "There are some details we still need to work out, but we support the Greek Lady taking over that location ... [and] we hope to get the lease signed sometime during the winter."
But if the sale does go through, fans of the Greek Lady's food trucks need not worry, as they won't be closing anytime soon. Dimopoulos said that the plan is to keep the two food carts open, with the only visible change being shorter hours of service.
"For next fall, we're closing the food trucks at 3:30 or 4" p.m., Dimopoulos said, as opposed to the current 8 p.m. closing time.
Additionally, the closing of Simsum will not leave University City devoid of the pita sandwiches that were the specialty of Simsum and its predecessor, Bitar's, which opened on campus in 2000. The owner and his family also operate a Mediterranean-style restaurant in the Moravian Cafes, at 3401 Walnut St., as well as two locations in Center City.
And despite the closing of his restaurant, Bitar remains optimistic about the long-term vitality of Penn's 40th Street corridor.
"The area is really hot, the area has value ... we've just learned our lesson in opening [our restaurants] so close to each other," Bitar said.
