Bridge Street backs up on Saturday afternoons, and the kiosk line at the Union Square lot is usually four people deep. That is the first thing to know about eating in New Hope. The borough has only a couple thousand residents and absorbs day-trippers from Philadelphia, Princeton and New York every weekend. The restaurants are built for that volume. Book ahead, or eat at 4pm like a local.
This guide covers what is actually open. That matters more here than in most towns, because several New Hope landmarks have closed recently and still turn up in other roundups.
Closed, despite what other lists tell you
- Russo’s Pizza, 41 N. Main St. Closed permanently. The owners moved the operation to Center City Philadelphia. The address is now home to a cafe.
- Triumph Brewing Company, Union Square. The New Hope brewpub closed permanently. Triumph still operates in Princeton and Red Bank, New Jersey.
- Sprig & Vine, 450 Union Square Dr. The vegan restaurant closed after fifteen years.
- Marsha Brown, 15 S. Main St. The Creole steakhouse in the old stone church never reopened after the pandemic. The building is now Oldestone.
- The Landing, 22 N. Main St. Closed. Maddy Rose took over the riverfront site.
- New Hope Star Diner, 6522 Route 202. Closed. Cugini’s Italian Kitchen is there now.
Even the local chamber and LGBTQ business directories still list a couple of these. Call before you drive.
Fine dining
Oldestone (15 S. Main St) is the big one. Four partners took over the old Methodist church, kept the pews and the 30-foot Valeriy Belenikin mural, and put a steak and seafood menu in it. Executive chef Seth Wheeler holds onto some of the Creole dishes from the Marsha Brown era. The third-floor balcony runs as a speakeasy-style jazz room with a stage, and there is live music daily across three floors. It seats 250, which sounds enormous until you see the building.
Hotel du Village (2535 River Rd) sits on a wooded property north of town and leans French. Inn at Phillips Mill (2590 River Rd) is the low-ceilinged, candlelit kind of country French that Bucks County has done for decades. Felina (9 S. Main St) and The Salt House (7 E. Ferry St) handle the more contemporary end in the middle of the borough, and the Salt House is easier to get into on a weeknight than its reputation suggests.
Logan Inn (10 W. Ferry St) claims a spot among the oldest continuously operating inns in the country. The restaurant does brunch and dinner, and the whiskey lounge with the wood-burning fireplace is the better room if you are only having one drink. There is a members-only cigar lounge upstairs with day passes.
Riverside dining and the view
River House at Odette’s (274 S. River Rd) is the purpose-built river property, with Odette’s Restaurant and Lounge downstairs and an indoor-outdoor rooftop bar. The rooftop is the reservation people actually want in warm weather. Call 215-682-2022.
Maddy Rose (22 N. Main St) opened on the old Landing site, right on the water, with a Mediterranean-leaning menu. Martine’s River House (14 E. Ferry St) is smaller and older and closer to the bridge. Drive twenty minutes north on River Road and you reach the Black Bass Hotel in Lumberville, an inn that predates the Revolution, with dining rooms hanging over the Delaware. They bake biscuits daily, make their own ice cream, and take reservations through OpenTable. It is worth the drive and it is the prettiest river view in the county.
Bowman’s Tavern (1600 River Rd) is between the two. Complimentary valet, a working piano bar, jazz brunch, and a kitchen that buys from Blue Moon Acres, Vacchiano Farm and Fulper Family Farmstead. Open Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays.
BYOB and the good middle
New Hope has fewer BYOBs than Doylestown does, partly because so many restaurants here are attached to inns with liquor licenses. Zoubi (7 W. Mechanic St) does Mediterranean. Cross Culture (32 S. Main St) is the reliable Indian option, and Jaffron (11B W. Bridge St) is the other one. Blue Tortilla (18-20 N. Main St) and Los Catrines (82 S. Main St) cover Mexican. For the vegan and plant-based crowd that lost Sprig & Vine, GreenHouse (90 S. Main St) is the remaining option in the borough.
If you want pizza, Dough Nation (7 E. Bridge St) and Spatola’s (82 S. Main St) are the in-town choices. For the county-wide picture, see our guide to the best pizza in Bucks County.
Casual, lunch and the food hall
Ferry Market (32 S. Main St) solves the group-with-different-opinions problem. A dozen stalls under one roof: Market Pizza, The Pork Shack, The Good Gyro, Lima Fusion, SABOR, Smell the Curry, Alta’s Kitchen, Booza Plus for frozen dessert, Sciascia Confections for pastry, and SkyRoast for coffee. Order separately, sit together.
Elsewhere: Asad’s Hot Chicken and The Burgerly for fast and cheap, Nosh Empanadas (127 S. Main St) for something to eat while walking, Karla’s (5 W. Mechanic St) for the courtyard, and The Dubliner on the Delaware (34 N. Main St) when somebody wants a burger and a Guinness.
Bars and live music
John & Peter’s (96 S. Main St) is one of the longest-running live music rooms in the region and the reason a lot of people know New Hope at all. Small room, loud, no pretense, music most nights.
Havana (105 S. Main St) is open daily until 2am with a dance floor and a front patio that is the best people-watching seat on Main Street. Nektar (8 W. Mechanic St) is the opposite: 28 wines by the glass on a cruvinet, eight taps, a deep whiskey list with a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, and small plates. It sits directly across from the Bucks County Playhouse, so book 24 to 48 hours ahead on performance nights.
The Deck at Bucks County Playhouse (70 S. Main St) does indoor and outdoor dining on the water and is the obvious pre-show move. Fran’s Pub (116 S. Main St) and Square One Pub (15 Market Place) are the neighborhood bars.
Breakfast, brunch and coffee
Stella of New Hope (50 S. Main St) does lemon ricotta pancakes and a proper cocktail list at brunch. Karla’s has run brunch for decades. Logan Inn, River House at Odette’s and Bowman’s all serve weekend brunch, and Bowman’s version comes with jazz.
For coffee, SkyRoast started here at Ferry Market before opening its Doylestown shop at 122 N. Main St, so the New Hope stall is the original. Blue Moose (9 W. Mechanic St), River Cat Cafe (142 S. Main St) and Bridge Street Cafe (6 Stockton Ave) round it out.
Nina’s Waffles & Ice Cream (110 S. Main St) makes Liege waffles and has grown to five Bucks County shops including Peddler’s Village, Doylestown, Newtown and Dublin. Moo (137 S. Main St) is the other ice cream stop. For a full county rundown, see the best breakfast and brunch in Bucks County.
LGBTQ-friendly rooms and the town’s institutions
New Hope has been a refuge and a destination for LGBTQ visitors since long before that was common in small American towns, and the restaurant scene reflects it rather than advertising it. New Hope Celebrates maintains a directory of welcoming businesses, and the names that recur are Karla’s, Zoubi, Havana, John & Peter’s, GreenHouse, Logan Inn, Square One Pub and Martine’s. Note that the directory is not always current, so cross-check hours.
The historic institutions overlap heavily with that list. Logan Inn, the Playhouse, Bowman’s Tavern and the Black Bass have all been operating long enough to be landmarks in their own right.
Parking in New Hope
Getting this wrong ruins a dinner reservation. Street parking is enforced from 10am to 9pm, seven days a week. Borough lots post their own enforcement hours at the lot, so read the sign.
| Situation | Rate |
|---|---|
| Standard on-street and borough lots | $1 per half hour |
| S. Main St, Waterloo St and W. Ferry St, first four hours | $2 per hour |
| Those same streets, after four hours | $4 per hour |
| Credit card minimum at kiosk or app | $3 |
| Minimum cash purchase | 25 cents |
The borough runs about 25 kiosks that take quarters, bills and cards, and supports the ParkMobile app. Kiosks do not give change, so pay for exactly the time you need. The main public lots are at 41 N. Main St, next to Union Square, the New Street lot at 123-125 New Street, the North Main lot at Parry and North Main, and the Verizon lot on West Randolph Street. If the lots near the bridge are full, the New Street lot usually still has room and it is a three minute walk.
Reservations, patios and dogs
| Place | Reservations | Outdoor or river view |
|---|---|---|
| Oldestone | Recommended | No river view, live music instead |
| River House at Odette’s | Call ahead, essential on weekends | River, plus rooftop bar |
| Black Bass Hotel | OpenTable | River, best in the county |
| Bowman’s Tavern | Online or phone | Yes, valet parking |
| Logan Inn | Yes | Terrace |
| Nektar | OpenTable, walk-ins welcome | Small, indoor |
| Havana | Walk-in | Front patio, dog-friendly |
| The Deck at the Playhouse | Walk-in and reservations | Yes, on the water |
| Ferry Market | Walk-in only | Some outdoor seating |
| John & Peter’s | Walk-in | No |
For dog owners, the front patios along South Main are the reliable bet, Havana in particular. Policies shift with the season and the manager on duty, so ask at the host stand rather than assuming.
Across the bridge: Lambertville, New Jersey
New Hope and Lambertville work as one dining destination. The walk across the free pedestrian bridge takes about four minutes, and parking on the New Jersey side is frequently easier and cheaper. If New Hope is booked solid, cross over.
Anton’s at the Swan (43 S. Main St) in the Swan Hotel is the long-running contemporary American room. d’floret, The Hawke for steak, T54 for modern Italian and farm-to-table, Broadmoor for handmade pasta, Revolution Woodfire Grille for wood-fired cooking with outdoor seating, and The Ethnico for Turkish and Mediterranean. Under the Moon (23 N. Union St) is the casual cafe that New Hope regulars cross for. El Tule does Mexican and Peruvian. Bell’s Tavern (183 N. Union St) is the old-school neighborhood spot.
One note for planners: Hamilton’s Grill Room, the Lambertville institution behind the Boat House, has closed. It appears on a lot of stale lists.
New Jersey has more BYOBs than Pennsylvania does, which is the practical reason to cross with a bottle in hand. More on the two-town relationship on our New Hope tag page, and the wider county on our towns index. If you are working your way through Bucks, where to eat in Doylestown is the other half of the picture, and the farmers markets guide explains where a lot of these kitchens buy.
Sources and Further Reading
- New Hope Borough, parking information and kiosk map
- Bucks County Herald, New Hope adopts new parking fees
- PhillyVoice, Oldestone opens in the historic church
- Triumph Brewing Company, New Hope location notice
- Ferry Market vendor list
- New Hope Celebrates, Out and About directory
- Greater New Hope Chamber of Commerce
- Visit Bucks County
- OpenTable, Lambertville restaurants
Hours, menus and ownership change constantly in a town this seasonal. If you find something here out of date, or a closure we missed, send us a correction and we will fix it.
