Notes from the Weekend is a Monday Tuesday (this week) feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. 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.)
DL: Drew Lazor
MD: Marie DiFeliciantonio
Friday night, revisited my old pal chicken and waffles at
Jones (700 Chestnut St.). We hadn't spoken in a minute. Drank bourbon and talked about the cult of
Sex and the City with the quite-chipper bartender.
—DL
Family LBI weekend plans were derailed by the slow-moving construction company that's remodeling our house, so I offered my pad as
a getaway from city life. We sat out back, smoked cigars, drank Stellas and ate hot dogs and fancified burgers made with oyster sauce, soy sauce, cilantro, garlic and ginger. We also drank a
$10 Chardonnay from Cupcake winery, which wasn't bad for the price.
—MD
Saturday brunch: Mowed through a purple broccoli/cheddar/bacon omelette, plus a side of scrapple (gotta do it!), at
Café Estelle (444 N. Fourth St.), home of the city's sweetest servers (and most elaborately festooned fruit/granola plate).
—DL
Met out-of-town family friends for an early dinner at
Beau Monde (624 S. Sixth St.), where their 10- and 12-year-old sons downed frothy mugs of hot chocolate (in 90-degree heat!) and tore through 1.5 crepes apiece without blinking. They still looked a little sleepy afterwards. If I ingested that much sugar at once you'd find me clawing at the walls and screaming "COQ AU VIN! COQ AU VIN!" over and over again in a cartoon French accent.
—DL
Saturday I was enjoying a quiet spot of sushi at my local/low-key joint when it was invaded by five overdressed girls. They boisterously raised their glasses to each other —
and to their alleged Sex And The City counterparts — a conversation that makes me want to rip my ears of. This raised the question: when is it appropriate to approach a table and tell them, âYou're ruining your night. Shut the hell upâ?
—MD
Who makes tastier drinks than
George Costa at
Southwark (701 S. Fourth St.)? Raise your shakers. It was at his bar that we pow-wowed with pal
Preston Eckman (formerly of
APO) and were sweetly treated to a drink by the one and only
Suzy "Beer Lass" Woods. Ordered a
Pikeland Pils in Suz's stead despite her insistence that we were not contractually obligated to drink
Sly Fox just because she works for them.
—DL
Post-Southwark, beer-y whirlwind (fuzzy, but it did involve a big bottle of
Ballast Point Sculpin IPA on a roof), then ordering late-night pies, for whatever reason, from
a pizzeria that shall remain unnamed. Above is what one showed up looking like. Still ate it!
—DL
At a friend's BBQ Sunday I tried
Michelob Ultra Pomegranate-Raspberry and
Dragon Fruit-Peach beers. Once removed from Crystal Light.
—MD
Famous 4th Street Delicatessen (38 S. 19th St.) told us they were unable/unwilling to make a tuna melt, so we opted instead for a corned beef special, egg salad and a scoop of chopped liver. Grubbed on it all for the next 20 or so hours.
—DL
Resurrection Ale House (2425 Grays Ferry Ave.) has a tasty new chicken sausage sandwich. But the sausage, which tastes like delicious sausage, is shaped like a burger patty and served on a burger bun. It comes with a fennel/raisin mostarda and it is awesome.
—DL
Tip: Substituting
unsweetened applesauce for oil and butter in baking recipes (brownies, especially) is a great way to cut calories and keep a moist, chewy consistency without losing flavor.
—MD
It's summer. Where is all the
Dogfish Head Festina Peche?!!? A beer distributor told us it's stocked in every state except Pennsylvania. Porque?! —
DL
