The legacy of Thomas Edison is electrifying a retro-minded new restaurant at Philadelphia’s historic Bellevue Hotel.
Mr. Edison, the latest project from restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow of China Grill and Asia de Cuba fame, dishes out 1940s supper club vibes along with shareable plates of sturgeon caviar dip, seared foie gras, tuna tartare-topped deviled eggs, lobster tortellini, and a crab galette based on the classic version served at Philly’s shuttered French icon Le Bec-Fin, all washed down with high-voltage cocktails inspired by the legendary inventor.
Edison—the mastermind behind the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and an astounding 1,093 patents—designed the Bellevue’s original decorative lighting fixtures and engineered its electrical switchboard system when the Center City landmark opened in 1904.
His influence is readily apparent when entering the bilevel 150-seat Mr. Edison space, which features a dramatic canopy of hanging Edison bulbs, lightning bolt details crackling across the ceiling, and a 12-foot Ferris wheel full of rarefied spirits rotating over the bar.
Designed by Spanish architecture firm Clavel Arquitectos with a celebratory mood clearly in mind, the show-stopping eatery may feature a jazzy combo playing on a dinner theater stage while guests tipple decadent Edison-themed cocktails, including the Patent Pending—made with duck fat, thyme rye and Yellow Chartreuse—and the Filament No. 6 blue cheese-infused martini.
The restaurant was fairly packed during a recent Friday dinner service that featured several date night tables, a few animal-print dresses, and burly staffers wearing tailored suits and earpieces who checked on orders and adjusted dimmable table lamps. The bustling scene impressively blends fine dining spectacle with more than a whiff of Vegas-style excess. “This is not a tiny little neighborhood restaurant,” Chodorow told the Philadelphia Inquirer after Mr. Edison’s late-June opening. “This is a place where you come to have a night.”
Helming the kitchen is chef Matt Levin, who returns to the neighborhood after an acclaimed run at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel. His “Grand Plates” for two include La Panetière’s Roasted Half Duck (a tribute to another long-closed Philly French eatery), Lobster Thermidor, Chilean Sea Bass, Whole Roasted Brick Chicken, Grilled Whole Dorade, and a Bone-In Veal Chop Milanese, accompanied by steakhouse-style sides like a macaroni gratin and steamed asparagus with whipped hollandaise.
Mr. Edison is the latest addition to jolt the venerable Bellevue, which reopened in 2025 after a major multi-year restoration of the “Grande Dame of Broad Street.” Seven entire floors were converted into 155 luxury apartments, downsizing the sprawling hotel’s room count to 184 guestrooms and suites, including a luxe new 2,000-square-foot Presidential Suite overlooking Broad Street.
The Bellevue also hosts the 100,000-square-foot Sporting Club, a massive fitness facility that’s billed as Philly’s biggest private gym. The hotel’s recent restoration added an indoor track, pickleball/squash courts, boutique retail spaces, and a lap pool. The Hyatt-owned property is set to burnish its wellness offerings even further with the opening of a Bathhouse branch this fall, which will be the upscale sauna brand’s first location outside of New York City.