Delaware
A dining spot from Bardea tops new restaurants opening in Delaware
New Delaware restaurants opening or coming soon
Here is a look at some new restaurants and food shops that are coming or have recently opened.
The end of the year is fast approaching, but that hasn’t stopped the Delaware restaurant industry.
Here is a look at some new restaurants and food shops that are coming or have recently opened.
Casa Nonna
DE.CO Food Hall, DuPont Building,10th and Orange streets, Wilmington
A new downtown Wilmington Italian American restaurant has a name that owners hope evokes warm, cozy feelings.
The owners of Bardea Food & Drink said the new restaurant at DE.CO Food Hall will be called Casa Nonna, or Grandmother’s House.
The name is an ode to Italian grandmas of chef/co-owner Antimo DiMeo’s grandmothers and their recipes. The Bardea team said it also represents “all the Nonnas of our region and their contributions to what we know as Italian-American cooking.”
The menu has not yet been released. The opening date, likely in early 2025, has not been set.
The restaurant will occupy the seating area adjacent to the bar in DE.CO that extends along Orange Street. The Italian trattoria will have about 70 seats and a full bar. It will offer lunch and dinner daily.
316 S Ridge Ave, Middletown, 302-295-5657, everestindiancuisinede.com
One of the world’s great treats has landed in Middletown: Himalayan-style momos.
Momos are Nepal’s delicious answer to the soup dumpling, a juicy veggie or meat-filled purse usually served with spicy sauce – and until now, they’ve been vanishingly hard to find in Delaware. Now you can slurp the garlicky minced-chicken middles out of a plate of momos at Everest Indian Cuisine, which opened in August next to Kohl’s in a dense Middletown commercial center along Ridge Avenue.
Everest serves some other Nepalese-style treats, including a chicken noodle soup called thukpa. The rest of the vegetarian or chicken-centric menu includes a broad array of Indian fare that includes biryani; chole bhatura; tandoor chicken; chicken kebab; butter chicken; and Indo-Chinese fare like chilli chicken and chicken 65.
600 N. Broad St., Middletown (inside Land of Spice supermarket), 302-380-2644, littlespiceusa.com.
Indian flavors in Middletown keep on coming, with a second location for beloved Newark-area Indian restaurant Little Spice.
The new location is tucked inside South Asian supermarket Land of Spice Desi Farmers Market. The opening menu is perhaps surprisingly broad for grocery store kitchen, from a wide variety of dosas – crisp South Indian crepes often packed with spiced potato – to a wealth of curries and gravies slathered over veggies, paneer cheese, chicken, goat or lamb.
The Middletown location also boasts street-food-style items perfect for a stroll through a supermarket, including protein-filled frankies sometimes dubbed Bombay burritos, or a sandwich stuffed with spicy ground-goat kheema.
The location allows online ordering for takeout, and catering for parties.
Word is out that the former Cafe Americana, and later the short-lived Ameri Home Cooking, in the Linden Hill Station, 4500 New Linden Hill Road in Pike Creek, will soon become home to Cafe Scalessa.
It’s a spinoff of the flagship Scalessa’s Old School Italian Kitchen in Wilmington’s Forty Acres neighborhood. We don’t have many details yet, but the cafe could open by the end of October, according to a social media post.
1128 Forrest Ave., unit C, Dover, 302-744-8010. locations.cleaneatz.com/de/dover/meal-prep-154.html
On a trip to their son’s hockey tournament in Ohio, Andrea and Ryan Maloney took a chance on a restaurant they’d never visited before. They liked it so much they decided to start one themselves.
In September, they opened the first Clean Eatz in Delaware across from the Modern Maturity Center in Dover.
Closed permanently: These Delaware restaurants and food businesses have closed in the past few months
Clean Eatz has 119 restaurants in 24 states with a menu that includes wraps, flatbreads, build-your-own bowls, protein smoothies and coffees, cauliflower crust pizza and burgers with turkey, bison, salmon or black beans.
They offer meal plans for the whole week, with take-home meals that are made fresh then frozen with directions for thawing or reheating. The meal packages list the calories, protein, fat and carbs in each serving.
The Dover restaurant is open Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
4008 N. Dupont Highway, near Minquadale, 302-991-1044. Visit chick-fil-a.com
On Thursday, Oct. 3, the newest location of the cultishly popular fried chicken spot opened at 4008 N. Dupont Highway, just south of Wilmington near Minquadale. The new location is 5,400 square feet, according to plans submitted with the county, with two drive-thru lanes – a feature that’s become commonplace at fast-food restaurants across the country to accommodate advance orders from phone apps and delivery websites. Chick-fil-A’s dedicated phone-app lane is called Mobile Thru.
The opening date underscores Chick-fil-A’s ever-increasing speed at plunking down new locations. It was just four months previous that construction fencing first came up on North Dupont Highway, in front of a self-storage facility.
The location was opened by franchisee Angelo Santos, a native of nearby Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, who got his first job at the Chick-fil-A in Ridley as a teen. The new location is holding giveaways for Chick-fil-A app users throughout the month of October. Details can be found on the North Dupont Chick-fil-A page.
379 Chestnut Hill Plaza, Brookside, 302-454-9938, tacobell.com.
A Taco Bell near Newark, so busy it was known for drive-thru lines that pushed back onto the street, was demolished this spring. Now it’s back as of the beginning of October, new and maybe improved, with multiple drive-thru lanes and a nubmer of self-service digital ordering screens inside.
The revamp comes as part of a contractual obligation to overhaul old stores, said Joe DePascale, development manager at Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based franchise operator Summerwood Corp.
“In this case, the store does well enough and was old enough to warrant a full scrape and rebuild,” DePascale told The News Journal in March.
The new location is 2,700 square feet, according to plans submitted with New Castle County, built in accordance with an industrywide shift toward delivery, mobile apps and drive-thru – which means side-by-side drive-thru lanes and digital menu boards that theoretically help alleviate some of the drive-thru waits and lines.
9 W. Main St. in Middletown. facebook.com/ppfmiddletown/
The nation’s largest Philly-style pretzel brand opened its newest Delaware location in Middletown on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Owners are Middletown residents Angela White and Tyeesha Edwards, who began training at Pretzel University at the Philly Pretzel Factory home office in July. Visit the Philly Pretzel Factory Middletown’s Facebook page for hours of operation and menu offerings.
Shops at Sea Coast, 19266 Coastal Highway, Unit 1, Rehoboth Beach. firststatebrewing.com/
First State Brewing Co.’s second location will be in Rehoboth Beach, at the former home of The Pond and TGI Fridays.
First State opened a brewery and restaurant in Middletown in 2020 and, in 2023, was named the best brewery in the country by USA TODAY.
More: First State Brewing Co. to open 2nd location on Coastal Highway in Rehoboth Beach
Details about the Rehoboth location, including an opening date, are still sparse, but First State spokesman Jeff Horne said food will be served there, as well.
Patricia Talorico writes about food and restaurants. You can find her on Instagram, X and Facebook. Email ptalorico@delawareonline.com. Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.
Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.
What to know on how bills are created in Delaware
From substitutes to amendments to everything in between, lawmaking in Delaware can be a bit confusing. Here’s how it works.
The countdown to 2026 begins.
Several new Delaware laws, including health care initiatives and public utility protections, are slated to go into effect in the new year.
Here’s a look at what goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026 – alongside other new changes Delawareans should expect in the year ahead.
Medical aid in dying law soon to take effect
This legislation had been long in the making.
Signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer earlier this spring, the Ron Silverio/Heather Block End of Life Options Law will allow terminally ill patients who have six months or fewer to live access to medication that will “end the individual’s life in a humane and dignified manner,” according to the law’s text.
The legislation also has several guardrails in place.
Qualified patients must be “adult” residents of the First State and have at most six months to live – a prognosis that must be confirmed by an attending doctor or an advanced practice registered nurse and a consulting doctor or nurse.
Practitioners must also present eligible patients with the opportunity to rescind their request for medication before writing a prescription and inform them of other end-of-life options available, including hospice and palliative care.
The law is set to go into effect either when regulations are finalized and published or on Jan. 1, 2026, whichever happens first.
As of Dec. 8, a federal lawsuit filed by a coalition of disability and patient advocacy organizations hopes to block the law. Plaintiffs argue that such a change could “single out” individuals with disabilities and other vulnerable communities and put them at risk for untimely death, instead of necessary care.
As written, the law does not allow individuals to qualify for the life-ending medication due to age or disability.
Paid family medical leave coming online
Paid family and medical leave is also making its way to Delaware next year.
First signed into law back in 2022, the Healthy Delaware Families Act provides First State employees 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave through a designated state trust fund.
This initiative specifically applies to life events, like caring for and bonding with a new child; taking care of a parent, child or partner “with a serious health condition”; or addressing one’s own serious injury or illness.
Employees can begin to submit claim applications starting Jan. 1, 2026. More information can be found on the state Labor Department website.
Delaware seeks public utilities payer relief
Delawareans are also set to see some potential accountability from public utilities.
This and other efforts followed sudden spikes in energy bills across Delaware last winter, a topic that became a chief concern among lawmakers last session.
Backed by Sen. Stephanie Hansen, another law coming into effect adjusts the standards for what costs can be included in “a utility’s rate base” and presented to the Public Service Commission.
This means the commission would have the power to reject certain costs or expenses put on ratepayers, which could lead to less impactful or frequent increases.
Special enrollment period for Medicare
Back in health care, one bill that establishes a “special open enrollment period” for residents currently enrolled in a Medicare supplement policy will also take effect at the top of the calendar.
This gives Delawareans the opportunity to cancel their current policy and purchase another “that provides the same or lesser benefits,” according to the law’s description. That window begins roughly a month before an eligible individual’s birthday and will stay open for no less than a month afterward.
This change would only apply to those enrolled in a supplement policy under Medicare.
As written, anyone switching from one plan to another during this period “cannot be denied coverage,” nor can rates or coverage be determined by one’s medical history.
Offshore wind set to fly
Delawareans will also see an effort related to one of last session’s most controversial bills take effect later this month.
Also backed by Hansen, the bill overturns Sussex County Council’s rejection of a permit needed for US Wind to build a substation critical to plans to erect more than 100 wind turbines off the Delmarva coast.
Several Republicans fought against the bill’s passage. Many argued that bringing this decision to the hands of state government would strip local leaders of autonomy over what happens in their county, while some pushed for the courts to make the final decision.
State GOP members even spent the last night of session holding up necessary support for Delaware’s billion-dollar bond bill, which helps fund several projects, renovations and improvements across the state.
However, after a few hours of deliberation, lawmakers were able to reach a compromise. And the offshore wind legislation will go into effect Jan. 31, 2026.
And it didn’t end there. A state Superior Court judge ruled in early December to pause US Winds’ challenge in light of this new effective date.
“This is the result we wanted,” Hansen said in a statement following the decision, adding this marks “a key step in our efforts to increase Delaware’s energy supply and ensure energy reliability for all ratepayers in our state.”
What other bills will go into effect in 2026?
Another once-Senate bill aiming to expand the criteria for those incarcerated to petition for early release based on serious illness or rehabilitation – also known as the Richard “Mouse” Smith Compassionate Release Act – will go into effect on Jan. 10.
Another law providing First State tenants “new protections” by allowing specific eviction records to be restricted from public view will also come online Jan. 29.
Two additional health-centered bills signed by Meyer earlier this year will take effect this coming July. One creates a breastfeeding and lactation program for individuals in custody of the Delaware Department of Correction, while the other helps provide equipment and telecommunications assistance to Delawareans who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Joining them is a law to bar public and charter schools from selling or serving food containing the synthetic food dye Red No. 40, which is set to be implemented same month.
The wait will also soon be over for those longing to have wine shipped right to their doors, as a bill allowing wine producers to obtain a license and ship wine directly to Delawareans will go into effect in August 2026.
Olivia Montes covers state government and community impact for Delaware Online/The News Journal. If you have a tip or a story idea, reach out to her at omontes@delawareonline.com.
Delaware protesters rally against Avelo Airlines’ deal with ICE
A protest against Avelo Airlines’ deal with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is held at Wilmington Airport, near New Castle, on April 19, 2025.
Delaware’s only commercial airline continues to find itself in hot water with elected officials, and not because of any flights from Wilmington.
Members of the state Senate have introduced a resolution calling for more scrutiny over contracts and incentives with companies that work with ICE. Avelo Airlines has a charter agreement with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement to run deportation flights out of the country. The flights do not leave from Wilmington Airport.
The airport is run by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which also runs the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. DRBA is a two-state operation where the Delaware legislature has limited power, but this resolution sends a message of discontent around Avelo’s continued service and deportation flights.
The Delaware Senate is not the first public body in Delaware to send this message. Wilmington City Council approved a similar resolution urging the city to avoid companies who work with ICE’s elevated deportation campaign under the Trump Administration. The city does not have contracts with Avelo or companies who operate with ICE, but the resolution passed regardless.
Avelo’s agreement with ICE led to multiple protests outside of Wilmington Airport in early 2025. Dozens of people would line up on Dupont Highway with signs to show passing drivers their displeasure with the airline.
“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic. After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come,” Avelo’s founder and CEO, Andrew Levy, said in an April statement.
Despite the rancor from elected officials, Avelo continues to expand its service from Wilmington. It recently announced new routes from Delaware to Atlanta and to Chicago O’Hare starting in 2026. That expansion makes it 14 destinations.
Avelo benefits from a fuel-tax exemption and has a marketing incentive from DRBA. The agency does not receive money from financial support or tax receipts from either the State of Delaware or New Jersey, its website says. Most of its revenue is generated by tickets, fees and tolls. A DRBA spokesperson old the News Journal/Delaware Online in April that they are “disappointed” in the ICE deal.
The resolution simply urges DRBA to prohibit deals with companies who work with ICE deportations “without sufficient due process.” For now, it is “laid on the table,” and will not be considered until the legislature starts up again in 2026. It was introduced by Sen. Raymond Seigfried, a Democrat representing Claymont.
Shane Brennan covers Wilmington and other Delaware issues. Reach out with ideas, tips or feedback about reassessment and property taxes at slbrennan@delawareonline.com.
Delaware State Police announced funeral arrangements for Cpl. Matthew Snook, who was shot and killed earlier this week while on duty.
The funeral service is scheduled for Jan. 5 at the Bob Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware, state police announced Saturday. Public visitation will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed immediately by a memorial service. Final honors will be presented outside the building at the conclusion of the service, with all ceremonial events expected to end by 3 p.m.
Snook was shot and killed Dec. 23 while working an overtime shift at a Delaware Department of Motor Vehicles office in Wilmington. Authorities said the shooter, 44-year-old Rahman Rose, was killed by responding officers.
Snook, a 10-year veteran of the department, was a graduate of the University of Maryland and member of the Terps’ wrestling team. Fundraisers to help his surviving wife and their 1-year-old daughter have raised thousands of dollars and Barstool Sports was selling T-shirts and sweatshirts to benefit the family.
The shooting remains under investigation, and police have not released a motive. Rose’s last known address was in Wilmington, according to state police.
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