Cantina La Martina, chef Dionicio Jiménez’s highly regarded Mexican restaurant in Kensington, will close in November after nearly four years at the corner of D Street and Kensington Avenue.
Jiménez, his co-owner and wife Mariangeli Alicea Saez, and general manager Tina Stanczyk announced the forthcoming closure in an Instagram post and video that also invites customers and community members to a “celebration of life” marking the restaurant’s successful run on Nov. 2, Cantina’s last day.
“After four amazing years here in Kensington, we have made the difficult decision of not renewing our lease in our Kensington location,” Saez said, sitting in the restaurant’s courtyard, in front of its underground barbacoa ovens. “We are actively looking for a new home for Cantina La Martina.”
In an email to The Inquirer on Tuesday afternoon, Saez cited multiple factors for the decision not to renew the lease. “The space we’ve been operating out of has become financially and logistically unsustainable,” she wrote. “The overall difficulty of doing business in Kensington, combined with ongoing challenges with the City, have not made things any easier. The past two years have been particularly hard.
“In the last year alone, we’ve tried everything we could to adapt — from pop-ups and collaborations to participating in festivals and expanding the Cantina brand outside of Kensington,” Saez continued. “Despite our efforts, the increasingly unsafe and unstable environment of the building makes it impossible to operate.”
Saez wrote that she and Jiménez do not yet know where the couple might relocate the restaurant.
Since opening Cantina in 2022, Jiménez‘s work at Cantina has won recognition from the James Beard Awards (he was a finalist for best chef Mid-Atlantic in 2023, and a semifinalist for outstanding chef in 2024) as well as local press. Inquirer critic Craig LaBan said the restaurant delivered “the most thrilling Mexican flavors in the city” in his 2022 review, and Philadelphia Magazine‘s critic awarded it four stars, its highest rating.
That praise was sprinkled in among other bright spots of the team’s own orchestrating, including its annual cemita festival — gathering a diverse array of chefs and vendors making extravagant Mexican-influenced sandwiches — and its onetime 40-pound tamale bonanza earlier this year. They’ve also held an open Dia de los Muertos celebration each year, transforming their patio for an all-day affair with family-friendly events that attracts repeat customers bearing photos of their loved ones. This year’s observance of the holiday, Jiménez‘s favorite, will coincide with Cantina’s last day.
Saez and Jiménez have been advocates for Kensington since they opened Cantina. “People in this neighborhood deserve to go somewhere and have a nice meal and go home,” Jiménez told the Kensington Voice in 2022. “A lot of families live here and instead of driving into Center City or Fishtown, they should be able to walk to a restaurant like this one.” Cantina has also partnered with and raised funds for nonprofit Philly Bridge & Jawn, which provides programming and support for young people in Kensington.
But they have also been open about the challenges of doing business in the heart of Kensington over the years, telling The Inquirer in 2023 that various vendors severed ties with them due to the neighborhood’s open-air drug market and activity. The couple publicly expressed concern last spring, when Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration launched a five-phase plan to clean up the neighborhood, starting with the clearing of a homeless encampment at Kensington and Allegheny; that led to increased activity along Somerset Street, which also intersects with the corner on which Cantina is situated.
By year’s end, the situation had improved a bit, thanks to communication. Saez and Jiménez had contemplated ending their lease when it came due, Saez told The Inquirer in December 2024, but “We don’t see ourselves going anywhere unless we have to … as long as the administration is working with us.”
In the meantime, the couple — who lives in Montgomery County — has opened La Baja in Ambler, a Main Street BYOB that blends Mexican cuisine with Italian and Asian influences, as well as a Cantina outpost inside Human Robot’s Jenkintown brewery. (They have also operated seasonal spaces in Fishtown as well as Cherry Street Pier in recent years.) Just last week they announced plans to open a third suburban location, Cantina on the Go in Cheltenham.
The other locations did not detract from their commitment to Kensington, Saez said. “In fact, they have actively helped keep Cantina la Martina in Kensington going this past year.”
In their video announcement of Cantina La Martina’s impending closure, Jiménez, Saez, and Stanczyk directed followers to their other locations. They also thanked their Kensington neighbors for their support.
“This transition does not change our core mission, which is to continue supporting the Kensington community,” Saez wrote in her email. “We became a vital part of the local and broader community, and that means the world to both Chef Dio and I.”
Dining and Cooking