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Notes from the Weekend: December 3
This weekend we've got Adam eating his way around Orlando AKA Chain Restaurant City, USA and Caroline at The Mildred, Alla Spina and Stateside for some serious cocktail action.
Notes from the Weekend: December 3
Notes from the Weekend is a feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. We'd love to hear all about YOUR weekend eating adventures in the comments. Go for it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)
Adam Erace: AE
Caroline Russock: CR
Spent this weekend in Orlando for some good, clean, impromptu family vacation time. Friday night, C and I caught a six-thirty flight out of PHL full of tiny children and tiny old folks and arrived in MCO ready to grub. Found a lovely little cantina called El Porto, where I fortified myself on fajitas and a terrific caldo de pollo, a kitchen-sink soup full of carrots, broccoli and chicken you dress up like posole with table-side additions of cilantro, chopped onion and lime.—CR
After an epic day of touring South Philly sandwich spots with The Taproom's Scott Schroeder, Tom Lax of Siltbreeze records and Fork's new chef Eli Kulp I headed over to the ever-empty but totally awesome Station Bar and Grill to knock back a few happy hour pints of Kenzinger with my hot dog illustrating pal Hawk Krall. Next stop was The Mildred for a few bites of comfortacular mac and cheese and chicken and dumplings and several well-crafted cocktails including an expertly mixed Corpse Reviver #2. Although I'd like to say that the evening didn't end with Long Island Iced Teas at basement bar Oscars, it totally did.—CR
Woke up early on Saturday to catch the hotel shuttle to Universal Studios, where we broke up the ride-riding with West Coast-style double cheeseburgers at Mel's Drive-in and lemon slushies, soft pretzels and other assorted treats from kiosks sprinkled through the park. Later, hit up crowd-pleaser Maggiano's for dinner (this is Orlando AKA Chain Restaurant City, USA), and the food was actually not bad. Little dry on the veal parm, but also well seasoned calamari and an apple crostada whose recipe I'd knock out someone's nonna for.—AE
Suburban errands are the perfect excuse for me to indulge in a chain restaurant meal and this Saturday it was an ill-advised trip to P.F. Chang's where I had a crappy Vietnamese crab salad and an okay glass of Riesling. Should have stuck with the tried and true lettuce wraps. Later that evening I headed to my favorite pre-Union Transfer haunt, Alla Spina for a Negroni, a lovely plate of albacore crudo with pickled pears and some pig's trotter lettuce wraps (had to get those lettuce wraps in one way or another) before seeing Tanlines for the billionth time this year.—CR
Islands of Adventure on Sunday, where all the hullabaloo centers around the newish Harry Potter kingdom. There, rolling carts serve Butterbeer, a spectacular frozen cream soda topped with a sticky, frothy foam of butterscotch whipped cream. I drank two. For dinner, decamped to Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort for the kitschy Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, a boot-scootin' ragtime dinner show where food (super-smoky ribs, fried chicken, baked beans, strawberry short cake) is served in metal pails and is so much more delicious than haters would suspect.—AE
Although I probably should have been responsible and dug into my fridge full of groceries, instead I decided to make my way over to Stateside for a couple of cocktails and the Chef's Board. On this particular evening the pork-heavy board was loaded with chicken liver-stuffed porchetta, Korean rillettes, hosemade pickles and a wedge of creamy Moses Sleeper with chards of peanut brittle. The cocktail menu is looking real good at Stateside with new additions like the California Trade Winds, a brilliant blend of Riesling, gin and celery bitters.—CR
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