ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Asher, Sandra, Jen, Diplo, etc.

The only other woman more out in front of the Philly news loop than Zoe Strauss is Sandra Bernhard, who started her weeklong run of I Love Being Me, Don't You? at Painted Bride with a poke at the arts center's sound people ("they're probably high," she joked) and merrily mean end runs on Tim Tebow, Bristol Palin and Philly's own Camille Paglia. After that, Sandra and her all-boy band hung out at a cocktail reception at Hotel Palomar where I snapped her with Britanny Lynn (see photo), the Philly drag queen that Bernhard performed with several years back at Pure. While Bernhard has been spied supping at the Palomar's Square 1682 restaubar, her band ate at Jim's Steak courtesy Philly ChitChat's HughE Dillon.

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ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Asher, Sandra, Jen, Diplo, etc.

POSTED: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Icepack Illustrated

The only other woman more out in front of the Philly news loop than Zoe Strauss is Sandra Bernhard, who started her weeklong run of I Love Being Me, Don’t You? at Painted Bride with a poke at the arts center’s sound people (“they’re probably high,” she joked) and merrily mean end runs on Tim Tebow, Bristol Palin and Philly’s own Camille Paglia. After that, Sandra and her all-boy band hung out at a cocktail reception at Hotel Palomar where I snapped her with Britanny Lynn (see photo), the Philly drag queen that Bernhard performed with several years back at Pure. While Bernhard has been spied supping at the Palomar’s Square 1682 restaubar, her band ate at Jim’s Steak courtesy Philly ChitChat’s HughE Dillon.

Off-Rittenhouse saloon Rogues Gallery and David Carroll are gearing up for their 2012 Friday DJ series with a new name (Rogue Sessions), a new crew (Schoolly D, Robert Drake, Bobby Startup) and a new start date — Fri., Jan. 13 with Diplo’s Holletronix cohort Low Budget. Diplo, on the other hand, has taken to publishing. 128 Beats Per Minute is out in April through Universe/Rizzoli and his writing travelogue (he writes a column for Vanity Fair online already) features photography by former assistant to Annie Leibowitz Shane McCauley, with a foreword by award winning fashion designer, Alexander Wang.

There’s nothing like the Walnut Street Supper Club at 1227 Walnut. The newly refurbished spot that long held Portofino has spruced itself up with onyx everywhere, high back booths, table lamps and balcony seating for that darkly romantic ’40s dinner club vibe (thanks to new GM James McManaman who founded the Midtown Village Merchants Association and owns the Absolute Abstract art shop around the corner). There’s a pianist and musical director (Jeremiah Downes) who leads a singing waiter crew (Temple and UArts alums) through floor shows filled with the standards of jazz and Broadway. They’ve mixed up the Italian fare with an old school steakhouse vibe (when was the last time you had a baked potato with a hearty New York Strip Steak?). They pour a mean martini. Then there’s Ralph Berarducci the suave Italian gent who has owned the spot for 40-plus years, a gentleman who has stories about the glory days of Philly nightlife and stop-ins from guys like Sinatra, Rickles, and Liza. Oooh, ask Ralph how he coaxed the normally reclusive Liz Taylor, then in town with Richard Burton to stage Private Lives, from her hotel into the swanky confines of his restaurant. You can’t hear this any where else in town.

When Verve drops the swinging ’60s-ish soundtrack Pan Am: Music From and Inspired By the Original Series, look for Philly’s own S-Curve/Universal recording artist Nikki Jean to take on the Lennon/McCartney classic “Do You Want To Know a Secret.”

Did Wiz Khalifa steal “Black and Yellow” from fellow Pennsylvania rapper Maximilian and his “Pink and Yellow” as the latter is asserting? Didn’t they both nab it from “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon?” Or “Tie a Yellow Ribbon?”

Two-time Top Chef Jen Carroll spent her birthday weekend (at least part of it at Brauhaus Schmitz) trailed after by a Bravo film crew. Not certain why yet other than that there’s a “where-are-they-now” joint rumored to be in the works.

Another Top Chef lady alum, Jen Zavala (ex-El Camino Real) is launching her own food bus, Cherry Bomb, and will begin hosting monthly female food industry parties one Monday month. Hen’s Revenge begins Jan. 23 at Teri’s on Ninth Street in the Italian Market and feature other gal cookers and bartenders from Resurrection Ale House and Watkins Drinkery to start.

Dumb-and-dumber: There was a moment on Mario Lopez’s Extra where Jersey Shore stars Snooki and JWoww talked about getting their own spin-off show when Lopez commented, “I heard it’s like a modern-day Laverne & Shirley,” only to have Snooki say “I don’t know who they are.” Has she ever been near a iPhone or Google?

Foodspotter Mikey Ilagan celebrates the second anniversary of Philly’s Foodspotting.com at Khyber Pass Pub Jan. 15, 7-9 p.m. with nibbles from Cupcake Karma and tall Kenzinger drafts.

WHOWHATWERE: When Asher Roth sold out Milkboy Center City, we grabbed the suburban stoner in the MB green room changing into Flyers jersey chic. Last weekend The Pool at Harrah’s AC had an oddball batch of celebs throwing down and hosting parties. Dustin “Screech” Diamond turned 35 with a bash at the Pool, Sean Combs co-hosted Harrah’s NYE 2 last Saturday with Mob Wives star Drita D’Avanzo by his side. Hmm. (That reminds me: Mob Wives wives Karen Gravano and Renee Graziano will sign autographs at the Comcast Xfinity booth at the Philadelphia Home Show, Jan. 19, 6-8 p.m. Really). Tovah Feldshuh had a guided tour of National Museum of American Jewish History while in town doing Gypsy at the Bristol Riverside Theatre. Feldshuh stars in a film about Golda Meir in the museum’s Only in America Gallery. Cuba Libre in Old City — Guillermo Pernot, Larry Cohen and Barry Gutin — started its “Pop-up Paladares” dinners (with visiting chefs from Cuba) the other night. The first chef in the series (Jan. 11-13) was chef Luis Alberto Alfonso Perez of El Gijonés, Bar Oviedo, La Terraza and Asturias. Along with serving up his tasty four-course joint (eggplant-wrapped raviolis with lamb ropa vieja filling and a hierba buena infusion was great but the Pategras cheese flan with guaya coulis and slightly sweet confitted garlic was amazing), Perez went on a shopping spree with Pernot beforehand. The pair shopped at Whole Foods, Samuel & Sons, Biehn Ho and the Italian Market. When asked what he was most impressed with, Pernot translated Perez as saying the word “everything.”

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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