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ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Sbraga springs, Carroll pops, mrCharlie reunites with Randy Alexander and Rocky Horror returns to TLA
Before he heads into incarceration for tax evasion, Beanie Sigel has been busy nailing down a label deal (Capitol/EMI?) and shooting an as yet unnamed video at Soundstages.
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Sbraga springs, Carroll pops, mrCharlie reunites with Randy Alexander and Rocky Horror returns to TLA
Since Icepack Illustrated’s top graph has become home to spring’s top restaurant tastings, what better place to start this week than Bravo network Top Chef victor Kevin Sbraga and the victorious spring tasting menu he previewed on Monday night at his namesake joint on Broad Street. Acting as host and exec chef, Sbraga introduced each item and its primary ingredients. Since Monday night was damp and freezing, it made sense that Sbraga started with his creamy peppery and honeyed (yes, honeyed) fois gras soup poured atop crushed rose petal relish. The deep fried green tomatoes with cumin crème fraiche, cherry tomatoes, dill and feta was paired with the most tenderly spongy sweetbreads I’ve ever eaten. The secret to that last dish was the buttermilk. The seared scallop with crispy pork belly, shaved jalapeno atop watermelon with tabouleh made with quinoa (rather than bulgar wheat which really made all the difference), mint and cilantro had the heat and the sweet. The thick rich meatloaf patty topped with marmalade came with several forms of asparagus (shaved raw, blanched, pureed) rather than the winter’s heavy potato usual, and the whole meaty affair was feathery, light and luscious. The dessert was Sbraga’s wife’s new special Orange Creamsicle dish with chilled yogurt mousse and several fresh layers of orange variations like granita. Despite this week’s winter chill, spring just got hotter.
That same Monday night, Top Chef alum and current star of Life After Top Chef for Bravo, Jen Carroll, held a pop-up event at David Katz’s Meme on Spruce Street in order to test drive possible menu items for her soon-to-debut Concrete Blonde eatery. Those of you paying attention will recall that two weeks ago I wrote that Carroll and her investors had honed in on the now-vacant Marathon space on 13th and Chestnut for C-Blonde, mere doors from her previous employ, 10 Arts at the Ritz Carlton. Word has it at present that the deal for the Marathon spot has fallen through (we called Carroll who hasn’t returned our message) but that Jen was getting anxious to try out her Blonde menu items, hence the pop-up. Carroll brought along Top Chef bud Spike Mendelsohn, her 10 Arts’ collaborators Monica Glass (on dessert duty) and Aaron Gottesman and fed local restaurant owners Rob Wasserman (Rouge), Tamar and Steve Olitsky (Table 31) and Jon Gosselin.
Speaking of pop ups, the Philly Art Alliance has had a busy week to speak of — Nic Elmi’s sweet-as-pie Rittenhouse Tavern opened inside the Alliance’s hallowed halls, Jared Miller’s second “Craft of” tasting hits the Alliance on April 29, and Harshita Designs’ wearable art for men and women starts its pop-up run April 27. The Harshita crew will be at PAA until May 3 and they’re selling tunics. Tunics, I tell you.
Mancation, that dopily romantic flick that N’Sync-er Joey Fatone and Wonder Years’ Danica McKellar shot in Philly last year (Frank Vain directed, Tommy Avallone and Derek Linderman amongst others produced) just got picked up by Lionsgate Home Entertainment’s Grindstone home entertainment division. Cheggout MancationMovie.com for info.
Last year, the good folks at Live Nation’s Theater of the Living Arts department began discussing the revival of its much-loved Midnight Movie schedule, a large factor in the original TLA’s success with a young projectionist named Ray Murray (from TLA Films/Entertainment and Artsploitation, neither of which has anything to do with TLA, the venue). In the early ’80s, Rock n’ Roll High School was a big screen fave. Hair too. Yet, nothing was as a smash success or had a more interactive toast-tossing audience and sell out showings as the legendary Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings at midnight. A little inquiry into whom might be the best aptly-dressed cast to play Frank N. Furter, Biff, Magenta and Rocky on stage while the film un-spooled behind them has yielded Philly’s own Transylvania Nipple Productions Co., a troupe that has done their Horror show at the William Way Center, Club HP and campus gatherings at Drexel and Tyler. Catch the Nipple on April 28 at 11:30 p.m.
Before he heads into incarceration for tax evasion, Beanie Sigel has been busy nailing down a label deal (Capitol/EMI?) and shooting an as yet unnamed video at Soundstages.
The Smiths Social, a full night of dancing and daring with DJs and cover acts such as 18th Pale Descendants descends upon the Balcony on April 29. If holograms have any real future in pop, they shouldn’t just concentrate on re-animating the deceased but will start reconfiguring busted-up bands (a la Morrissey and Johnny Marr) that are unlikely to again re-convene. The again, if rumors out of the UK are true and the Smiths are negotiating for a reunion tour, then Socials like this may become a thing of the past.
When Delaware Valley-based mrCharlie play at Tin Angel April 28, there’s a whole long story to go with the one-time Dead-cover-band’s ties to publicist Randy Alexander. Alexander has had a busy week running interference between journalists and his clients Gamble & Huff, the Dovells and FMQB’s Kal Rudman when Dick Clark died. “Sadly, I’m getting used to this,” says Alexander who has had to bug his PR charges for similar quotes with the recent deaths of Whitney Houston and Soul Train legend Don Cornelius. Thirty-one years ago when he was starting out in the exciting field of print journalism, Alexander wrote his first feature for the Philadelphia Journal (if you remember that tabloid, how old do you feel?) on mrCharlie, previewing one of its early performances at the (prepare to feel older) Bijou Café. “We were working on a cover story package celebrating the Grateful Dead coming to the Spectrum for multiple nights that weekend,” Alexander recalls. “In fact, future Daily News writer Chuck Darrow, who was the lead entertainment writer for the Journal then, did a phone interview with Jerry Garcia for the lead story, and I was assigned to write about mrCharlie for the sidebar. I was thrilled to get the shot, and it was even sweeter because I was still a bit of a Dead Head. I’ll never forget, the leader, Lloyd Bashkin, not only sang and played guitar like Garcia, but he had the same wooly hair and beard. Lloyd still sounds the same today, but he’s totally clean shaven.” Now Alexander represents Charlie along with penning his first feature in over ten years — a story for South Jersey magazine tracing Bruce Springsteen’s South Jerz roots starring Rudman, WXPN’s David Dye and Haddonfield rock photographer Frank Stefanko. See how much fun journalism can be.
Telling you early since the last one sold out quick: Cuba Libre’s second Pop-Up Paladar (read about the first one here) offers the coal-cooking services of Alain Rivera Santana from the renowned Doctor Café for several evenings of dining starting June 19. Book early.
WHOWHATWHERE: Staring at Colin and Terrence just got a little bit harder now that the cast of Dead Man Down had to go and start work. No more loafing and hanging around Rittenhouse Square, CF. The film’s production announcement occurred on the historic SS United States at Pier 82 with Mayor Nutter, executive producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and co-exec producer Joseph Zolfo and Philm doyenne GPFO executive director, Sharon Pinkenson. Yay boats. And you too, Sigourney Weaver, get to work on Political Animals and stop hanging around the Continental Midtown and the Parkway’s Philly Science Fest. We’re not paying you to hang out. The Lumineers stopped by Radio 104.5’s iHeart Radio Performance Theater for a song and a laugh. Jersey Shore meatball Deena Nicole Cortese was spied at the Nickelback concert at Wells Fargo Center with a small crew of family members. The opening act for Nickelback, Bush, found its lead singer, Gavin Rossdale, out and nosing at Talula’s Garden. While rap snapping K’Jon hit up WDAS studios and blabbed with on-air lass Mimi Brown, hip-hop foreign born favorite K’ Naan stopped by Q 102 FM for giggles, as did B.o.B. The latter is making radio station stops discussing his new album, Strange Clouds and its big time collaboration with Pennsylvania’s own Taylor Swift. The Rolling Stones won’t be playing any shows to celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2012 but that didn’t stop Ronnie Wood form showing off his art works or playing his only concert in the U.S. at the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City. Safe star Jason Statham wasn’t on board to kick in any windows, but Philly Style mag and some of its local celeb constituents — including GOP giant/filmmaker Sam Katz — celebrated the filmed-in-Philly flick at Positano Coast after a mag-sponsored screening at the Riverview. And two hot couples double dated at the AIPA Gala at the American Jewish History Museum the other night — the Joe Liebermans and the Arlen Specters. They’re the ginchiest.
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