At the new Percy, the creators of Forin are dishing brunch through late night under the El in Fishtown

As development transforms Fishtown and Kensington, the hospitality veterans behind the Forin cafes decided to jump in, opening modestly in 2021, then following up two years later with a more ambitious spot 10 minutes away with housemade wines.

They saw how the big restaurant groups have come in with their dinner-house destinations: Starr Restaurants, expanding beyond Fette Sau and Frankford Hall with LMNO. Defined Hospitality, backing Pizzeria Beddia, Suraya, Kalaya, and Picnic. CookNSolo, with Lilah, Goldie, Laser Wolf, and Jaffa Bar. Method with Wm. Mulherin’s Sons and Hiroki.

What Forin partners Kyle Horne, Seth Kligerman, and Will Landicho saw in this growing landscape — the three-quarters of a mile between the Girard and Berks stops on the Market-Frankford El — was a need for brunch, beyond such all-day places as Middle Child Clubhouse, Front Street Cafe, and Liberty Kitchen.

For their next project in the neighborhood, they wanted to go bigger, but “we didn’t want to compete on a dinner level yet,” Kligerman said.

They decided to lean into brunch with a side of late-night. “We thought doing something that is more community-based and more approachable makes more sense for the [family] demographic that I have been catering to for the last four years,” said Kligerman, who lives with his family five minutes away, in Fishtown. (The partners also have a Forin location in the Yowie Hotel on South Street.)

Last month, the partners — known as BIKCG Hospitality Group — opened Percy on the ground floor of the new Fishtown Urby, a five-story building with about 200 apartments at 1700 N. Front St. It’s two blocks south of the Berks Station and just up the block from chef Frankie Ramirez’s new Amá. Urby also has locations in Dallas; Harrison, N.J.; Jersey City; Newark; Stamford, Conn.; and Staten Island, N.Y., and will be opening soon in Washington, D.C.

Percy offers counter service with coffee and pastries while serving a full-service daytime menu daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., as well as dinner Thursday through Saturday starting at 5 p.m.

There’s also an open-air courtyard, and — after dinner, from about 9 p.m. to midnight — a “sound lounge,” a semiprivate room off the bar. It’s a cozy, den-like space with a fireplace, comfy furniture, and a vinyl-spinning DJ feeding tunes through Altec Lansing speakers. Percy is named after the Kinks’ 1971 soundtrack album.

Shawn Hausman Design (Parc, Dandelion, Butcher & Singer) did a bold Euro design, mixing a midcentury look with modern touches such as hand-blown glass, black-and-white checkered floor tiles, and lots of natural light.

On the brunch menu, chef Jack Smith, formerly of a.kitchen+bar, offers his father’s recipe for ricotta pancakes ($20), topped with a cinnamon sugar-whipped compound butter; a Philly play on a croque monsieur ($24), with roast pork, broccoli rabe, provolone, an egg, and a side salad; a potato latke ($18) artfully topped with everything spice gravlax, crème fraiche, and caviar; and BBQ Gulf shrimp ($26 for brunch, $32 for dinner) with carrot harissa, coconut lentils, and ramps.

There’s also a riff on a Cobb salad ($14) with cupped butterhead lettuce layered and tossed with lemon, olive oil, salt, and pickled shallots, then topped with saltwater-preserved Golden Roma tomatoes, bacon crumble, dairy-free blue cheese vinaigrette, shaved cured egg yolk, and chives.

The dinner menu includes sunchoke soup with wild garlic kosho and preserved lemon ($11), gnocchi ($22), a cheeseburger with provolone fondue, giardiniera, hot sauce aioli, and fries ($24), and a 10-ounce New York strip steak with cone cabbage ($46).

Forin’s own housemade honey wines are on the drinks list, as well as seven beers and eight cocktails; the citywide ($10) is Kenwood lager and a mystery rye.

The lounge’s debut last weekend “felt like a cool friend’s living room,” Kligerman said. “People were in the lounge — some were dancing, some were [hanging] at the bar, some couples were eating deviled eggs in the dining room with a martini. People were using the whole space and making themselves comfortable where they wanted to. Nothing wild. Just what we need around here.”

Percy, 1700 N. Front St. Hours: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily for brunch. Dinner/lounge: 5 p.m.-midnight Thursday to Saturday. Walk-ins are accepted. Reservations via Resy.