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ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Seven Deadly Fishes
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ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Seven Deadly Fishes
As an Italian, I like seven fishes during the holiday. Not stretched through the season — I like them all at one shot. Christmas Eve. Some of the fishes (smelts, shrimp) are small so don’t get to thinking Italians are a particularly gluttonous lot (we are). Anyway, this year the seven fishes dinner, has become a de rigueur test for Philly’s best chefs to stretch their briny muscles. East Passyunk’s Le Virtu cooks up awesome Adriatic fish dishes on Dec. 24. Davio’s on S. 17th is doing all seven with lobster bisque and short ribs in the mix. Amis on S. 13th is doing its four courses on the 23rd. Old City’s Panorama on Front Street is doing its seven fish menu through Dec. 30 with a Mediterranean wine pairing if you ask nicely. Still, Route 6 and chef Anthony DiRienzo? I’ve wanted to mention him and it for awhile. DiRenzo is cooking eight-courses on Christmas Eve with a house-made egg nog ice cream sandwich finish. But, the last of Stephen Starr’s spots (for a while anyway) has more than seven fishes. Opening as it did right after Starr’s more publicized Il Pittore, Route 6 is a coolly appointed bleached white-and-woodsy wide nook (reminded me of a ’60s rancher) with handsome dark accents. As a go-to spot R6 is a gateway to the further development of North Broad. And its menus are crammed with magnetic raw bar bites and hot plates like johnny cakes apps, chicken fried lobster tails with Tabasco aioli, and a sweet selection of wood oven roasted seafood items like monkfish tails, diver scallops with Meyer lemon broth and Black Bass with escarole. Do it.
Know how you’re shopping for pricey gifts and you hit Daffy’s on 17th Street because it’s got the most of the same stuff for scads less? Well, the Daffy’s Corp got a new CEO in Feb. 2011 (Caryn Lerner) and the 17th Street property in Philly supposedly got sold after that. So why are employees worried? A few off-the-record employees are worried that the work force might get trimmed considerably or worse that Daffy’s will go away entirely. Where will I get my endless array of funky designer socks?
Since I first Icepack-ed it in October, I’ve been waiting for the closed-through-summer Portofino at 12th to blossom into the ’40s style Walnut Street Supper Club. Restaurateur Ralph Berarducci and Nolan’s Music Hall alumnus James McManaman held auditions so to make WSSC into something between Palumbo’s, Victor’s Café and Riverfront Dinner Theater with its sleek and tony retro décor (table lamps, lots of onyx) and a singing theatrical wait staff in smart suits serving up steakhouse favorites and Portofino’s traditional pastas. Well, the time has come and the SupClub is set to open Dec 28 with more than a few Temple U. vocal students and folks from area theater companies overseen by musical director Jeremiah Downes. Look for the ribbon cutting to feature peeps from the Midtown Village Association to boot.
It’s uptown party time. Or at least a high wattage light bulb bash. The Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation (UEDC) is booting up the marquee atop the famous Uptown Theater at 2240 North Broad on 5 p.m. Dec 22. They’re going to keep it lit through New Year’s Day while they get ready for its next ceremony in March 2012 — the completion of the theater’s education and technology tower. It’ll also be the Uptown’s 83rd anniversary. They got to pay for those bulbs though: Tax-deductible donations of $25, $50 or $100 will help with donors names to placed on the wall outside the theater. Pledges? philadelphiauptowntheatre.org. http://philadelphiauptowntheatre.org/
WHOWHATWHERE: On the day that the Bill Conlin sports-writer scandal broke, I was in Rittenhouse Square (Barnes & Noble to be precise) talking to local CBS sports casting legend Al Meltzer and Philly scribe Robert S. Lyons (Eagles Encyclopedia) about Big Al: Fifty Years of Adventures in Sports Broadcasting. We never dished the dirt or talked trash. My wife Glamorosi and I just rhapsodized about seeing the white haired lion of Philly sports behind the anchor desk when we were tots and how great it was to see them both in the here and now. Fork’s Ellen Yen and its exec chef Terence Feury made the merry bright when they donated holiday deals to The Gift of Life Family House their Home Cook Heroes division and Howard N. Nathan, the CEO of the Gift of Life Donor Program for Philadelphia-area transplant patients and their loved ones. http://www.giftoflifefamilyhouse.org/volunteer/homecookheroes/ Soul singers made their presence known in Philly this week, at WDAS in particular: Anthony Hamilton and Carl Thomas both visited on-air jock-ess Mimi Brown at WDAS’s iHeart Performance Theater in Bala Cynwyd. While we Christians go in for Santas and mangers, our Jewish friends like Icepack photographer Scott Weiner hold dear Hanukah and Menorahs. Weiner stopped by the Lubavitch Of Castor Ave. the other day to take part in its Menorah Car Parade on the first night of Hanukah.
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