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Notes from the Weekend: New Year's Weekend Edition
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.
Notes from the Weekend: New Year's Weekend Edition
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. (Friday to Monday this time, for the holiday weekend.) Consider this a place for good deals, great dishes, wicked cocktails, recipe triumphs (and tragedies), bizarro conversations and more. We're eager to share our notes, but especially excited to read yours.We encourage you to leave notes from YOUR weekend in the comments. Have at it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)
Adam Erace: AE
Drew Lazor: DL
Katie Linton: KL
Alexandra Weiss: AW
Started Friday off with a late breakfast/early lunch at the Melrose (1501 Snyder Ave.). It was in that weird time period where the craving for bacon and eggs melds with one for turkey clubs and cheeseburgers. What to do?! Gooey, brown, bubbly French onion soup seemed right, a $2 prelude to crispy chicken cutlet with fries and brown gravy. Solid! —AE
I started the weekend strong on Friday with homemade croque madame, the centerpiece of a brunch whipped up for me by my dear friend Sara. She added fruit salad and Chemex-brewed coffee to boot. Unfortunately, she could not save me from the alcohol-induced trainwreck that would come that evening: 2nd Street Brewhouse (1700 S. Second St.) to Cantina Los Caballitos (1651 E. Passyunk Ave.) to Salt & Pepper (746 S. Sixth St.) … we hit a wall after Obama Bombs at National Mechanics (22 S. Third St.). —KL
Kept hearing nice things about the food at McCrossen's (529 N. 20th St.), so stopped in Friday evening after we bought some sort of end table from a rich guy off Craigslist. People were right. Townsend Wentz's menu makes so much sense — it's got your burgers, wings and things, but also plenty of more ambitious dishes that are clever without being self-indulgent (befitting a bar). Split boquerones, some fatty littlenecks in a unreasonably tasty red miso/crab broth and a nice French onion soup modified with tripe. Good ideas, sweetheart staff. I'll be back. —DL
I was proud of myself for cooking at home most of the week, so I allowed myself to go out Friday night. Some friends and I had drinks (Sly Fox Christmas Ale for me) at Standard Tap (901 N. Second St.) before heading to the Blind Pig (702 N. Second St.). My friend Kasey had been there twice already that week and said there was a brown-haired waiter there I should date. Gotta check out the local talent, know what I'm sayin'? I got a Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar and mussels. We split poutine, as it should be; otherwise I'd fear for the state of our arteries. Take a guess where I ended the night. It starts with El and ends with Bar. —AW
I've devolved, Gollum-style, into an unabashed New Year's Eve hater in the past couple years, so I decided some time ago I wasn't gon do shit to ring in 2012. Earlier in the evening, though, took M's family to American Sardine Bar (1801 Federal St.), where our six-top succeeded in ordering pretty much everything on the menu. Attempted to regale M's sister with tales of the now-deleted Yelp review that railed on the semi-nude painting above our table. Pork and beans soup was new for me, goodgood. —DL
I'd been wanting lemon ricotta pancakes with honey syrup for a while, and figured since I'm on this whole cooking kick, why not make them for breakfast on Saturday? Oh, because I am apparently terrible at making pancakes. They look pretty good, but just wouldn't cook all the way through. I ate them anyway. —AW
Saturday night. Oh dear. Well, roommate brought home stuff to make tacos for dinner like a good little housewife. We then proceeded to drink all the drinks. A summation: went to a party full of bros, played beer pong (why?), won a few times, went to a weird party, popped a bunch of balloons, watched fireworks on a roof, tried to go to the Barbary (951 Frankford Ave.) only to find out it cost $15 (I had $3), went to El Bar, drank a Citywide, fell in love with some guy I refused to go talk to because I'm a gutless freak, harassed an out-of-town friend to hang out at 3 a.m., then finally went to bed. [Isn't this the plot of Rihanna's "We Found Love" video? —DL] Reading that long sentence was probably similar to how the night itself felt. See above pic for how I felt Sunday morning. —AW
New Year's Eve? Child, please. Me and C stayed in, ordered Santucci's and whipped up impromptu coconut/sarsaparilla floats with Little Baby's ice cream, P&H Soda Co. syrup and my SodaStream. Neighbors set off an impressive illegal fireworks display up the block. Stood on the stoop, wrapped in a blanket and gaped at the Disney-worthy display. Not a bad way to ring in 2012, not bad at all. —AE
I got a text from my friend Marc on Sunday morning asking if he'd ever called me back from the night before, and NO he hadn't. He made it up to me with brunch. We attempted to go to Cafe Lift (428 N. 13th St.) but it was closed, as was sister bar Prohibition Taproom (501 N. 13th St.). Settled at Frankford Hall (1210 Frankford Ave.) because roommate told me they had $2 Bloody Marys. Apparently they are only $2 if you were wearing pajamas. We weren't. Whatever, I got one anyway and Marc got a Yards IPA. We ate spatzle and weisswurst. He says he got the sausage because my last name is Weiss and I'm the worst. Cool joke. —AW
Friday-night revelry destroyed my New Year's Eve. I tried to pair a healthy breakfast with my pounding headache but was eating a bagel from Gleaner's (917 S. Ninth St.) by noon. I drank water and coffee until my man and I enjoyed kids' meals at Chick-fil-A. (Best deal they’ve got — and they replace the toy with ice cream for free!). We topped off the night with sushi, soup, hot tea and two movies. Still had a headache at midnight. —KL
Up at C's parents', pork and sauerkraut is a New Year's Day tradition, so we rode up 95 Sunday afternoon for dinner. MiL adds brown sugar, cinnamon and green apples to her kraut — SICK! The pork loin cooks right in the cabbage, piggy juices mingling with spices and vinegar, two becoming one, like me and the gym (allegedly) now that the holidays are over. —AE
Quick drive to Maryland for my fam's annual New Year's Day get-together. Some classic Filipino dishes made an appearance, but this year the spread was pretty spread-out — peep the ribs, southern-style fried fish and mac 'n' cheese, dressing with gravy (miss T-Day?) and from-scratch empanadas made by my cuz Ainna. One of my aunts told me my face looked chunky while I was in the act of shoveling all of this into my craw. I was gonna object but then I started eating my mom's black bottoms (better than any dummy cupcake out there). Later that night, like way later, I made myself a patty melt with a Griggstown turkey burger. Face def chunky. —DL
Sunday dinner was at Westbury (261 S. 13th St.) purely because of its proximity to my friend's apartment, where we were drinking whiskey and watching Nicki Minaj videos on YouTube. Some strange man who hit on my friend offered me a job while we were there. What is his line of business? Beats me. I don't think I'll be taking that job. —AW
Sunday: Still not feeling myself after Friday’s night escapades (I am getting very, very old), I made one of my top five comfort foods: chicken and rice. This is pretty much all I ate the whole day until 5 p.m., when I feasted on buckeyes and chocolate cake at a church potluck. I know, I know, I am posting about another dessert table. They find me, y’all, I promise. —KL
Tried to get brunch at Honey's (800 N. Fourth St.) on Monday with roommate and her bearded boyfriend, but the wait was an hour plus. We decided to go to Green Eggs Cafe (719 N. Second St.) instead because their wait was only half an hour. Got a soy latte from Soy Cafe (630 N. Second St.) in the meantime. I got the eggs benedict and asked for them poached medium. That's a thing, right? I'm pretty sure it's a thing, but I don't think the waitress thought so. I just want to avoid runny whites because that's gross, OK? —AW
Later, went to take some pictures and talk to the nice people at Oddfellows Cafe (1201 Spruce St.). I snapped some cool pics and then we headed over to their sister location, Spruce Street Espresso (1101 Spruce St.), to talk shop. They made me a cappuccino using Trickling Springs milk, which they will be carrying at Oddfellows when it opens. —AW
Monday: I was off! Purchased random items (aka "shopped") during the day and then met up with Friends of Meal Ticket BV and JC at Stateside (1536 E. Passyunk Ave.) for a drink ahead of dinner at Le Virtu (1927 E. Passyunk Ave.). Long overdue return visit I'm mad at myself for not making it earlier; with all of Joe Cicala's dope braises, ragus and pastas, it's easily one of the best wintertime places to eat right now. Too many stellar plates to detail 'em all here but faves were the taut taccozzelle, touched with Abruzzese sausage, porcini and truffle; BV's spinach fazzoletti with duck ragu; porchetta-style rabbit over a lentil/chestnut ragu (still have some in the fridge!); and the gnocchi fritti with a lemon curd sidecar. —DL
1. Yes, that is exactly what happens in that Rihanna video, except for the whole thing about that odd-looking fellow she's all up on.
2. I had $3, not $13. Let's be real, I ain't got that many clams.— aweiss- Most noteworthy and notable thing that belongs on NFTW: NYE Wknd Edition is Lolita's New Year's Eve dinner. The three-course menu included seared tuna tortinas, braised short ribs and a Mexian tiramisu. Couldn't resist an extra order of chips and guacamole, on top of the Blood orange margaritas. A good end to 2011, and a good beginning to 2012.— Neal Santos
- Kicked off the holiday weekend with far too much Santucci's. We ordered two pies for our big group thinking we'd have some leftovers. We are fools. We never have leftovers. My brother, god bless his soul, made the most amazing NYE dinner: A Philly-style surf 'n' turf with lobster rolls and fancy cheesesteaks, using the most tender beef chuck I've ever had and high class cheese from Reading Terminal. Holy god, it was so good.— molls to the wall
- Come on Molls... short rib, not chuck, with homemade sharp prove "whiz".— bje55
- EICHEL FIGHT — Drew Lazor
- I find crowds and the bar scene intolerable on New Year's so after two consecutive years staying home and cooking for ourselves me, the boyfriend, and a good friend of mine took advantage of In Riva's $35 prix fixe menu. It was perfect, great interesting food for a reasonable price and all 3 minutes away from our door. The tuna carpaccio with anchovy and olive was nice and tangy, the lamb meatballs were earthy and fun, and out of the two pizzas (duck confit with cherry and foie gras mousse and short rib with mostarda and arugula) I enjoyed the duck the most. I didn't order it but the artichoke bruschetta was really tasty and I loved the wooden board and mason jar presentation. We decided not to stay for the live band and instead met up with some friends at Deke's BBQ on Shurs Ln. It was perfect, not crowded (basically just my friends and Deke's own guests) I got a dark and stormy and Deke handed out free cups of champagne.— JulieC
- I've heard nothing but great things about the food at In Riva, JulieC. Thinking of swinging by there tomorrow for an early bite, will report back. — Drew Lazor
- McCrossen's Tavern has some seriously good food and I cannot wait to go back and try more. I could eat those boquerones with pesto, castelvetrano olives and grilled bread everyday.
Spent NYE in the best way possible: On the couch, drinking sparkling rose, eating spinach and artichoke dip and watching North by Northwest.
I had a lovely Americanized French 75 at Stateside before dinner on Monday night, because having a cocktail before dinner is the civilized thing to do. I had the maccheroni alla mugnaia at Le Virtu and it was seriously awesome, everyone should go eat it soon!— MLF
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