Notes from the Weekend: June 7

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Notes from the Weekend: June 7

POSTED: Monday, June 7, 2010, 8:27 PM

Filed Under: Notes from the Weekend

Notes from the Weekend is a Monday 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.)

Photo | Drew Lazor

Friday: Met food scribe/Green Aisle Grocery guy Adam Erace at the P.O.P.E. (1501 E. Passyunk Ave.) with every intention of downing a few pints to kick off Philly Beer Week, only to find that their draft system was down due to an overheated compressor. Cruel, malicious fate screwing with all us alcoholics! Luckily they got her going again like 30 minutes later. Drank a couple Yards bottles and a gigantic Maker's rocks in the meantime. Introduced to potato pizza (above) from La Rosa (Broad and Snyder) by two friends. Initially skeptical — carb stacked on carb? should we go running after? — but was quickly won over after embracing the white pie's crispy-thin slices of tater, dusted with herbs and a bit of olive oil. It's awesome sauceless wonder.

Photo | Drew Lazor

Saturday, day: Hauled out a bunch of Israeli soul food from La Va (2100 South St.) — hummus, schnitzel, shakshuka, even Yemenite jachnoon (at right), a twist-up of slooooowww-baked dough that's sweeter than it seems. Check out CP's food section this Thursday for a fuller take. The Ranstead Room, behind El Rey (2013 Chestnut St.), boasts more naked booby pix than your 13-year-old cousin's browser history. They also offer good drinks, like the bittersweet Boulevardier (bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth), and better guest protocol — if you're a solitary lady who wishes to step outside for a cigarette or a phone call, Ranstead's doorman will join you to make sure no lowlifes surface from the alley shadows to get on your case. A very nice, very safe touch. Later-later Saturday night, dropped by The Sidecar (2201 Christian St.) to peruse an all-Ommegang draft list — the Cooperstown brewery's addictive Tripel Perfection bopped us on the head a lil'. When you're in a late-night beer pinch west of Broad, is there any better, quicker destination than the little bodega on the corner of 17th and Ellsworth? In and out in no time, and they even got that Boone's Farm if you're really, really drunk and you want to sip on something neon because it's funny.

Photo | Drew Lazor

On hot-and-damn-humid Sunday: Smoke 'Em If Yous Got 'Em at Yards (901 N. Delaware Ave.), featuring dozens upon dozens of smoked beers, pro 'cue from Percy Street and Tommy Gunn's and an amateur cook-off, as well. Served as one of four judges for the latter competition, and landed on an amazing smoked country ham (served on a fresh biscuit, with red eye gravy ladled over) as top dog.

Photo | Drew Lazor

Sunday night: All that meat called for some vegetables, maybe one or two. Hit up Dmitri's (2227 Pine St.) for shrimp pil pil (at right), sautÃ©ed mussels (theirs are good; MÃ©mÃ©'s are great) and some grilled-off green stuff with hunks of salty feta. Finished off with some creme caramel, aka flan aka eat this right now because it's among our favorite sweet endings.

Kibby

Posted 2010-06-07 15:41:19

Friday night was an order pizza and drink lots of cheap wine kind of night after an expensive day of PPA-related trauma.  Saturday while running errands stopped by Chick Fil-A with the hopes of sampling a spicy chicken sandwich but they hadn't debuted yet.  Went with the old faithful- nuggets with polynesian sauce and hot sauce. Yum.  Saturday night had an impromptu BBQ and made burgers and a huge pasta salad.  Also made a drink with Ruby Red grapefruit vodka and a target brand energy drink that made me, who is usually immune to the powers of energy drinks, feel like I was on a shitload of adderall.  Go get some of that energy drink!! Sunday had dinner at the always delicious South Philly Tap Room.  Drank two beers from Pretty Things brewery that were really great and ate a bigger than expected cheese plate and a MASSIVE side of tempura asparagus.

Carolyn Huckabay

Posted 2010-06-07 15:52:36

Friday night I had aaa beer at the Khyber — Flying Fish Exit 4 (I think?); amazingly sweet and delicious — before heading home to eat on the cheap (in the form of a pathetic turkey sandwich on a potato roll) before the official Beer Week kickoff at Beneluxx. They had three Pretty Things brews on tap — Jack D'Or, Baby Tree and Field Mouse's Farewell, my personal fave. Also ate some cheese and chocolate accidentally (budget dinner fail).

Saturday had lunch at Village Whiskey and couldn't not order the Village burger (not the crazy foie gras'd one, but plus avocado and chevre). Yum x 100. Also on the menu: East Coast oysters, cheese puffs, pickled artichokes, and a Ginger Rodgers. (Mom ordered the Harvard Girl, which is cute of her.) Drank Pacificos with friends in the backyard that night; Beer Week would hang its head in shame in my direction were it animate.

adam

Posted 2010-06-07 15:53:41

Friday: Celebrated the first day of PBW with a few at POPE with D. Lazor. Mah girl Duchesse, 1809, Gaffel Kolsch.  Chips and guac to counteract a happy hour load. 

Saturday: Slipped away to the Shore, where I subsisted on ice cream, kettle corn and coconut water. Dinner at a newish spot where 40 minutes passed before my first appetizer even arrived. Sucks for them. 

Sunday: More beach time, more kettle corn. Dinner at Izakaya in AC, where the cucumber-gin-shiso cocktail was extra gin-y and the Kinki chicken wings were good as ever.

Tweets that mention Notes from the Weekend: June 7 :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2010-06-07 16:16:09

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: The latest installment of NOTES FROM THE WEEKEND is live! Share your eating/drinking notes with us in the comments: http://bit.ly/9ytujh [...]

Molly Eichel

Posted 2010-06-07 16:16:57

Played the greatest food game ever: The Grocery Store Game. Each person picks one item from the grocery store (best to start with the basics) and reveals their item. In the next round, players have to build off what other people get. Then you have to create a smÃ¶rgÃ¥sbord out of your purchases. It takes ingenuity, creativity and daring. We ended up with tacos, a rice-a-roni-esque mixture and a couple of other difficult to explain (but still delicious) concoctions.

Fidel Gastro

Posted 2010-06-07 16:38:09

Friday: Started with wings, pork slider, an Ola Dubh, and as many half-pints as I could for the 10 minutes that the Hammer of Glory was at Varga Bar; then made my way to Opening Tap, where I told Mitch from Yards that he looks like Jake Gyllenhaal. Soaked up the craftiest of beers with soup dumplings from Dim Sum Garden.
Saturday: Spent the day trying to recover in b-school class. Recovery finally achieved with samosas, butter chicken, and malai kofta from Tiffin Mt. Airy.
Sunday: Started off strong with sausage pancake bites from Dunkin' Donuts, finished off even stronger (or stupider) with an order of 6 BK fire-grilled ribs.

Danya

Posted 2010-06-07 21:02:31

Poor Drew, all alone. Good thing you go out to / are invited to 6 restos per day. Works just fine. 

Adam - Kinki wings? Your fave?

Philly Beeraholic

Posted 2010-06-08 13:46:59

Chunks of marinated chicken breast on a kebab with mushrooms, red peppers, pinapple, garlic cloves and onions (these marinated sepereately in Sofia Zinfandel / EEOO / jerk seasoning). Grilled over charcoal at the lake, ate with Jim Beam Hot Sauce and washed down with Anderson Valley High Roller Wheat ale. And my issues worsen...

Paul Tsikitas

Posted 2010-06-08 17:11:43

Best food event was at McGillin's Olde Ale House for the 150th Anniversary Dinner. My sister's painting was unveiled and a print was given out as a favor for those in attendance. Buffet style Irish Classics and some amazingly tasty wings accompanied two very fantastic beers: McGillin's 1860 IPA and Victory's Summer of Love Ale. Fantastic night. I missed the Budweiser Clydsdales though. Not to bent out of shape about it.

Adam

Posted 2010-06-08 17:23:46

One of my gave wings around fo sho.  Others: POPE's mole wings, Varga's and For Pete's.

Drew Lazor

Posted 2010-06-08 17:27:51

Shall we revisit the terrifying "best wings" thread of September '09? http://bit.ly/4dOPZO

Screw the stupid iPhone 4G: Let’s “unbox” a La Rosa pizza! :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-06-23 14:34:47

[...] maker at Broad and Snyder. (We know their potato pizza is the truth, but decided to switch it since that’s what we got last time.) We “unboxed” it, ate it, thoroughly enjoyed it and are now very proud to share our [...]

Posted by Drew Lazor @ 8:27 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews here — those are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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