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Archive: March, 2012
"Hopefully people don't steal stuff and the animals don't eat it." That's Scott Schroeder, ladies and gentlemen, on the garden he and John Longacre have planned for the backyard of American Sardine Bar and 18th and Federal (check my CP review next week). The pic above is pre-Sardine, and a few raised beds have already been installed. "We put the beds in when we first opened in the winter, and they got ignored immediately," laughs Schroeder, whose green thumb itching to get growing this season. "I've been talking to my farmers about what I can grow here, and grow well." The plan for now includes tomatoes, chilies, lettuce, herbs and strawberries vining along the fence that's going up soon, all to be used at ASB and South Philly Tap Room (1509 Miffin St.). Once everything is copacetic with the city's outdoor seat enforcers, there'll be tables in the yard, as well; Schroeder's hoping for a beer garden vibe. We'll bring the ping-pong paddles.
Freshly renovated Pumpkin (1713 South St.), which has been enjoying plenty of praise since chef Christopher Kearse came on board, earned got a Slow Food Snail of Approval, an honor reserved for restaurants and individuals who contribute heavily the food sustainability of the region. To celebrate the success, Kearse and owners Ian Moroney and Hillary Bor are teaming up with the crews at Stateside, Fond and Lacroix for a five-course dinner on Monday, March 26. Each chef will prepare one course, and all proceeds benefit our local Slow Food chapter. The dinner is $125 per person including tax, tip and wine. Stay tuned to Meal Ticket for the menu.
- With its pretty DIY aesthetic, The Pickled Heron is easily Fishtown's best-looking restaurant, writes Adam Erace. But how does the food from chefs Todd Braley and Daniela D'Ambrosio stack up? The dishes he does like, including their creative updates on classics, show promise, but other issues need to be buttoned up.
- Harry Baker, aka "Bakeowski," has been organizing Philly events commemorating Charles Bukowski's March 9 death day for the past three years. In 2012, he's borrowed Occupy tactics to bolster a full day of heavy drinking in honor of one of the great alcoholics in literary history.
- In What's Cooking: bourbon and raw chocolate at 1 Shot, stouts like crazy at Johnny Brenda's, a local pastamaking class and more.
- In Agenda: Preview of a March 13 reading with Philly author Michael Levy, whose new book Kosher Chinese chronicles a Jewish guy's time spent living and eating in China. Price of admission includes a glatt kosher Chinese meal.
Photo: Neal Santos
The weather is slowly getting warmer, and we all know what that means: shad. (Just us?) As a restaurant precursor to the fourth annual Fishtown Shad Fest (to be held April 28), Oyster House (1516 Sansom St.) is hosting what they're calling Shad Week ("kinda like Shark Week, but totally different"). For those who've never sampled what some refer to as "poor man's salmon," shad is an oily critter from the herring family. Its roe is considered a delicacy and is usually cooked in the egg sac. From March 12 to 17, Oyster House will be offering a three-course shad tasting menu for $40 per person in honor of the fish that gave Fishtown its name. Details after the jump.
Looks like our hunch from August was right on: A new Chipotle — yes, just three blocks down from the cornerstone shop in the old Susanna Foo (1512 Walnut St.) — has taken over the sweet 12th-and-Walnut space previously held by Potbelly. It opened up quietly last week. Same menu and same hours (11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily) as other local Chipotle locations.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Nice little piece for a nice little day like today. Which restaurant is this? Guess in the comments.
UPDATE: Lil' hard? Thought that wallpaper would be a giveaway! Clue: This restaurant was reviewed by CP's Adam Erace in 2012. So pretty recently.
High Times is releasing its first-ever cookbook (!) later this month, and Meal Ticket has an advance copy we'd love to give away. Written by marijuana cooking expert Elise McDonough, The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook "provides tasty recipes that go beyond the brownie, making cannabis a culinary experience." Featured recipes include Kind Bud Bruschetta with Pot Pesto, Cream of Sinsemilla Soup and Chicken/Andouille Ganja Gumbo. Tongue-in-stoned-cheek dish names aside, the on-record purpose of the book is to provide creative cooking alternatives for medical marijuana users, making it of particular interest to our New Jersey readers. (Pennsylvania's Governor Raymond Shafer Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act is still pending.)
You want? Simply leave a ONE-SENTENCE COMMENT ON THIS POST, BETWEEN NOW AND 5 P.M. TOMORROW, MARCH 8, convincing us why you deserve it. Make it funny, make it snappy, make it thoughtful. Most importantly, MAKE IT ONE SENTENCE. We'll pick our favorite and ship the book on out to you. For new commenters, be sure to register with an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll notify the winner. Good luck! Hopefully there is a big plate of Grandma Purp's Laidback Latkes in your immediate future.
UPDATE [09mar12]: Commenter daniela_meow wins with this: "I can't believe learning how to cook at the age of 22 is finally going to happen how i've always dreamed." You've got your whole weed-cooking life ahead of you!
Chances are the date March 9 doesn't hold broad significance to you. That's why Harry Baker wants you to take off work and come marathon-drinking with him to commemorate the passing of one of America's most treasured alcoholics.
Eighteen years ago Friday, Charles Bukowski succumbed to cancer after decades of rakish existence, during which the Angeleno writer cranked out countless stanzas, chapters and paragraphs. Most all of those words were spurred into a gallop by Bukowski's meticulously documented drinking, as vital a part of the writer's mythology as any turn of phrase. "He wrote his own legend," says Baker, a poet, rugby player and former bartender. (Fittingly, we first met Baker, in his third year of organizing Bukowski death-day tributes, over rocks glasses at The Khyber.)
To commemorate Buk's passing, Baker, who now makes his rent working for SEPTA and coaching high-school tennis, has organized a series of events at bars throughout the city. His Occupy Barstools plan capitalizes on the strength-in-numbers strategies of that protest movement with an honest purpose: getting loaded, the most populist of all playing-hooky persuasions.
Paul Davis and Steve Renzi snuck out their Kung Fu Hoagies cart, which we first mentioned back in November, out for a quick run the other day, practice for their official rollout at Clark Park this coming Saturday, March 10, at 10 a.m. The partners plan on vending their vegetarian fare — they're not a strictly vegan operation, though everything on their opening menu does happen to be vegan — from Clark Park on the weekends (Sunday, March 11 too) and from 34th and Chestnut on weekdays. If you miss that paint job, inspired (like the name) by Davis' practice of martial arts, you need way better glasses.
Is Manayunk, the city's former "it" strip for Philly dining, finally poised for the food comeback we've all been blabbing about for years? Han Chiang's recent opening of a Han Dynasty location on Main Street was a hell of a coup, as were the debuts of Clark Gilbert's Gemelli on Main and Arthur Cavaliere's Ridge Avenue pizzeria In Riva. Belvedere Restaurant Group is expanding both Agiato and Main Street Market, and they'll soon open Dos Vatos Tacos. And now comes word that Jake's and Cooper's, veteran Bruce Cooper's duo'd concepts at 4365 Main, is set for a major facelift.
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