When Pod opened in 2000, it was a sushi spot known for its Space Age dining room designed by the esteemed Rockwell Group, with whom Starr has worked on many ventures. The room featured a sushi conveyor belt and booths set inside pods with interactive lights that diners could change. Eventually, it flipped to be a menu that was more broadly pan-Asian. Starr redesigned the restaurant on its 20th anniversary, flipping to Kpod, and serving Korean food. However, it never quite found its footing. Yet, it wasn’t done making flips.
“When we reopened the space as Kpod in 2022, our customers kept asking us, ‘Where’s the sushi?’” Starr told Eater in 2024. “So we listened to them and transitioned the space back to its original beloved concept, a Japanese restaurant and izakaya, but this time with a bit of a grown-up twist.”
When the restaurant flipped again, it made homages to the original iteration, focusing on larger portions and returning to the more college-student-friendly color-changing pods. But it never went back to its early design: “We’ve said farewell to the retro-modernist all-white space accented with colored lights in favor of a more contemporary look with natural woods, plywood paneled ceilings, and warm lighting,” Starr told Eater.
When Pod first opened, it was Starr’s third Philly restaurant, following the Continental in Old City (which closed in 2020), and Buddakan. The Inquirer reports that Pod has acted as an incubator of sorts. It’s a site where some of the city’s top chefs have worked over their careers, including Michael Schulson who went on to help open Buddakan’s New York location before returning back to Philly.
