The Rittenhouse veteran trades full service for a 30-seat Milan-style aperitivo bar, complete with a vintage Lambretta parked out front.
Ellen Yin, the Rittenhouse restaurateur behind years of Philly fine dining, is going small this August. Bar Cicci, her new aperitivo den, seats exactly 30 people and operates all day as a casual Italian drinking den built on the Milan model, where drinking and eating happen as one fluid thing rather than two separate acts. No reservations, no pretense, just low-ABV cocktails and snacks that blur the line between bar food and proper meals.
The space itself reads like a love letter to 1960s Italy. A vintage Lambretta scooter sits parked out front, the kind of detail that tells you immediately this isn’t another Philadelphia restaurant playing at Italian aesthetics. It’s the genuine article from someone who clearly understands the difference between copying a vibe and living it. Everything about the 30-seat footprint says intimacy over volume, texture over spectacle.
What makes this move notable isn’t just the size or the aesthetic, though both matter. It’s the philosophical reset it represents. Yin spent years executing the full-service playbook, the kind of restaurant that demands consistency across 80 seats and a brigade of servers. Bar Cicci is the opposite move, the kind of place where a restaurateur can actually be present, where the bar itself becomes the focal point rather than a supporting player. It’s the career move of someone confident enough to prove they don’t need scale to move culture.
