Some restaurants change hands. Gnocchi’s Restaurant is being handed down. At 613 Passyunk Avenue, the South Philadelphia institution has reopened under new ownership — Maria Enokian and Chef Ryan Moore — carrying forward a lineage that stretches back 36 years on one of the city’s most storied dining corridors. This isn’t a restaurant relaunch so much as the next chapter of a story that’s been unfolding on East Passyunk since 1989.
36 Years on East Passyunk: From Mama Frusone to a New Era
The story starts at the now-legendary Ristorante San Carlo, where Gnocchi’s Restaurant was founded in 1989 under the guidance of Mama Frusone — a matriarch of South Philadelphia’s Italian kitchen whose handmade pasta and exacting standards shaped a generation of cooks who came up under her.
From there, the restaurant passed to Missoum Khemici, who arrived in Philadelphia from abroad and learned Italian right alongside English, falling in love with the dining room and its customers along the way. Khemici spent decades building Gnocchi’s Restaurant into exactly what a neighborhood fixture is supposed to be — not just a place people ate, but a place people belonged to. When he retired, he didn’t sell a business. He passed down a legacy, entrusting Enokian and Moore with 36 years of tables set and meals shared.
For Maria Enokian, taking ownership was never purely a business decision — it was an act of community building. “Life is short,” she said. “This restaurant has witnessed generations come and go; so savor every moment, cherish every breath, and remember: even the darkest days can be softened by hospitality, compassion, and a memorable meal. I would love people to dream of working here and dream of eating here someday.” For Chef Ryan Moore, it’s the realization of a career’s worth of ambition. “Food means the world to me,” he said. “And cooking is its finest language. At this kitchen, we treat every batch as a craft, honoring tradition while reimagining what casual fine dining can taste like.”
The Menu: Where Italian Tradition Meets American Creativity
Together, Enokian and Moore have rebuilt the kitchen around a guiding philosophy the restaurant now calls Italian American Fusion: Italian tradition as the foundation, American creativity as the engine. The menu moves through classic Italian categories — Antipasti, Insalata, Primo, Mare, Terra, Contorno, and Dolce — with each course reflecting the kitchen’s dual allegiances. Housemade Ricotta Mascarpone Gnocchi and Wild Mushroom Ravioli in four-cheese alfredo sit on the same menu as a 14oz Prime Ribeye with blackberry brandy gastrique and a Braised Lamb Shank with smoked gouda polenta and merlot jus — each plate its own negotiation between two culinary identities.
Some dishes lean harder into the fusion than others. The Fettuccine Boscaiola pairs provolone-stuffed chorizo with oven-roasted tomato in a creamy vodka sauce. A whole Branzino arrives stuffed with mussels, shrimp, and fresh herbs in a curry broth — a genuinely adventurous move for a fish usually kept close to its Mediterranean roots. A 12-ounce Bone-In Pork Chop comes glazed in peach bourbon over black forbidden herb rice.
Dessert stays mostly traditional — Homemade Tiramisu, Limoncello Mascarpone Cake — before the Sweet Potato Bread Pudding closes things out with the clearest American accent on the whole menu. The Bevande program keeps the house’s Italian roots front and center: proper espresso service, imported waters, and Sicilian sodas — Limonata and Aranciata di Sicilia — alongside whatever bottle you bring, since Gnocchi’s Restaurant remains BYOB.
Thirty-six years in, on one of East Passyunk’s most celebrated blocks, Gnocchi’s Restaurant has found a way to change everything on the plate while keeping the thing that actually mattered all along — a room where people still come back to belong. Go hungry, and go ready to stay a while.
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