March 13, 2026
Provided Image/Jezabel's/Lucas Careaga of Innprodev Agency
Jezabel's, an Argentine cafe and bakery, will return to Fitler Square. Above, some of its menu options.
At the new location for Jezabel's, an Argentine restaurant and bakery, chef Jezabel Careaga said she's eager to bring a new community space just around the corner from her own home in Fitler Square.
"It's in my neighborhood, and I'm creating this place where I want to eat with the things that I want to drink on a regular basis," Careaga said. "... I'm being honest and true to myself. I eat on the healthy side. I eat with a very Argentine focus, a very Spanish focus ... so my food is really informed by Argentina and Spain, and I'm happy to create that place for the neighborhood."
The second location of Jezabel's will be open seven days a week as a to-go bakery and sitdown lunch spot when it launches at 617 S. 24th St. in early summer, though Careaga plans to add dinner hours later. In the meantime, Careaga will be hosting a number of pop-up events starting Sunday, March 15, in the lead up to the opening.
At the existing location on 45th Street in University City, Jezabel's is known for its empanadas. But Careaga plans to expand the menu at the Fitler Square spot, incorporating salads, pastas, steaks and pascualinas, a type of savory pie, and Argentine wines. The food will be inspired by Careaga's family recipes as well as Argentina's bodegón and fonda-style restaurants.
But expanding the menu is only one part of Careaga's plan for the restaurant. For her, it's also about returning to Jezabel's roots. She opened the first iteration of the business at 26th and Pine streets in 2010 in Fitler Square and added the second location at 208 S. 45th St. in 2017. The following year, she had to close the original spot, but she knew she'd be back someday.
"Since before I left, I was just like, this is the place that I want to come back and that felt like the right place for us to have a business," Careaga said. "I've been making strides to return for years now."
Careaga said she's made multiple attempts to return to the area, including signing a lease in 2023 for a space at 2101 Lombard St. that never came to fruition due to neighborhood organizing, Philadelphia Magazine reported. This one, though, felt like the right space, especially because it was tucked away off the main thoroughfares, she said.
This will likely be Careaga's last restaurant in Philadelphia — though she'd love to open up a space in London or Argentina. But she plans to make it a community staple, with an outdoor patio and large front windows where residents can see the dough being made by hand. It will also be partially supported by the community, as Careaga hopes to operate the restaurant without investor funding by launching a Kickstarter campaign.
More than 15 years after launching her initial restaurant, Careaga said building community is really important to her, and she hopes to bring that back with the new location.
"Something that people had mentioned to me over the years is 'Since you left, we don't have that place that our kids just will pop in and they will be like, "Mom and Dad will pick them up later," right?'" Careaga said. "I think it has to do with those kind of relationships, and that we will be that safe place that many, many kids grow up around."
