See inside as 'authentic' Italian-American foodspot opens second NI location

Philadelphia may be known across the globe as the “city of brotherly love”, but one Pennsylvanian family has been building a community of their own in Co Armagh.

One year after opening Taste of Philly in Lurgan, owner Nicole Doyle has now launched a second store in Armagh City, with doors opening this week at Linenhall Car Park.

For Nicole, who moved to Northern Ireland during the pandemic with her husband and children, the new site marks a chance to expand what Taste of Philly offers. While the Lurgan shop quickly built a loyal following for its cheesesteaks and hoagies, the Armagh branch has been designed with more space and more ambition.

“We want to have a bigger space where we can offer more of our Italian food, so this place has got a lot more seating,” she said. “There’s a lot more that we can do with it. We can have events and things like that which we’ve always wanted to do.”

The menu will still feature the staples that made the Lurgan store such a hit, but Nicole hopes the new shop will allow her to lean more heavily into her family’s Italian-American heritage. “Here we’re really going to do our dinners and concentrate on lunches as well. We’ll have a lot more lasagna, Italian food and pastas. We’re just getting ramped up for that, but we want to bring our Italian dinners,” she explained.

Taste of Philly has already made its mark on the food scene, attracting not only regulars from Lurgan but customers from far beyond. “We’ve gotten a great response. We’ve got to know everybody in Lurgan, and people have come from all over Ireland with some driving five hours for a cheesesteak. We’ve heard all their stories, we’ve talked to them, and it’s been exciting,” Nicole said.

That passion for recreating a slice of Philadelphia life is what she now wants to bring to the centre of Armagh. “I’d love to give the vibe of how we are in Philly, the restaurants, the bars, just for people to know how fun Philly is. It’s a whole experience, and that’s what we want to bring here.”

For Nicole and the four generations of women who have built Taste of Philly together, the opening of a second store is another step in a family journey that began with recipes passed down from Sicily and reimagined in the Italian-American kitchens of Philadelphia. Now, those traditions are rooted firmly among the orchards of Armagh.

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