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.)
Rachel Burgos: RB
Adam Erace: AE
Drew Lazor: AE
Friday, had a cousin from Jersey City visiting Philly. Snacked on cilantro-jalapeño hummus (amazing, and tastes like sofrito for you Latinos out there!) and baby pitas from
Trader Joe's, washing it down with some
JK Scrumpy's hard apple cider.
—RB
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Also had friends from out of town visiting on Friday, so we hit up the perpetually slept-on
Locust Rendezvous (1415 Locust St.) for pitchers, shots, patty melts and Spanish fries (above — oof!), then an absolutely-bananas-madhouse
Drinker's Pub (1903 Chestnut St.), where it pays to have a friend (hi Amy!), and then
Snackbar (253 S. 20th St.), for a frenetic crammed-full French dance party complete with live timbale playing and blackout Europeans wearing heavy sweaters. Then we ended up buying about eight drunk go-go taquitos at
7-Eleven.
—DL
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Leftover pizza from
Zavino (112 S. 13th St.) on Friday for dinner. Pictured @ right is the Diavolo pie, a demon dressed in spicy pepperoni,
Claudio's mozz and marinara dusted in oregano and chili flakes. Despite the
departure of opening chef Steve Gonzalez, the straightforward pies here are still as strong as they are thin.
—AE
Saturday, went to
The Sidecar (2201 Christian St.) and got the eggs and biscuits with chorizo gravy, plus a great side of cheesy grits. Spent the afternoon walking around Rittenhouse sightseeing and people-watching with a pumpkin spiced latte from
Starbucks (I know, I know, but its soooo tasty). Saw a group of Ghostbusters in the park. Sang the theme song to them.
—RB
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Adding
Cafe Estelle bacon chips and bacon grease to this lush vegan cauliflower bisque from
Miss Rachel's Pantry probably bought me a one-way ticket to vegan detention, but it made for such a delicious Friday lunch. Dusted the surface with a little of
my homegrown fennel pollen. —
AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
AE's
Green Aisle Grocery (1618 E. Passyunk Ave.)
justttt started carrying Momofuku Milk Bar cookies, so we copped a tin on Saturday afternoon. COMPOST COOKIE IS MY FAVORITE AND I MUST SAY THAT IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE THE COOKIE REALLY IS THAT GODDAMN GOOD. I suggest calling GAG and reserving yours as they come in because good people have been hurting other good people to get these.
—DL
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
A late dinner at my fave place
Mémé (2201 Spruce St.) on Saturday night. Had the pleasure of grubbing on the agnolotti
AE highlighted in his pasta piece last week, but my favorite plate of the evening was a roasted wild boar special chef
David Katz put over a chickpea purée with roasted Brussels sprouts. The guy knows his pork.
—DL
Saturday night saw the trippy-as-shit Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the
Core States First Union Wachovia Wells Fargo Center, then headed to the
Penrose Diner (2016 Penrose Ave.), where the cream chipped beef was piping hot and our waitress had futomaki tattooed on her arm.
—AE
 |
| Photo | Adam Erace |
Shout-out to ma dukes, who added to my
Le Creuset collection with this five-quart cadet-blue looker on Saturday. Thinking paella.
—AE
Sunday I went to the new
Tres Jalapenos (744 Christian St) for a late lunch and got tacos al pastor. They were so good. I will definitely be returning to try some of their other menu items.
Check out our coverage here. —RB
 |
| Photo | Adam Erace |
Sunday brunch at
South Philly Tap Room (1509 Mifflin St.). Chef
Scott Schroeder (
follow him on Twitter unless you're overly sensitive) knows his way around a cornmeal pancake. This golden, blueberry-studded short-stack achieved that elusive ratio of crispy perimeter to fluffy middle — and paired well with a pint of Oregon's
Anthem Cider.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Here's an easy cocktail you can make at home (I usually leave
anything more complicated to the professionals): Equal parts
Bulleit bourbon and locally produced
Jin-Ja, and a coupla dashes of
Angostura bitters. Anyone got a good name for it?
—DL
 |
| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Sunday night, got down like my Filipino mom gets down and made a big-ass pot of
sinigang na hipon, a tamarind-based sour soup with head-on prawns, kale, tomato, shallot and tofu cubes. You can really put whatever the hell you want in it; it's all about the broth, baby. Patient people make their own but this time I was impatient and used half a packet of
Mama Sita's sinigang seasoning. MSG headache = worth it.
—DL
