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Closings
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Looks like Bish Bish Caf�, the pizzeria/Middle Eastern eatery that took over the old Philly Falafel space back in March, has closed already. A Meal Ticket tipster spots a "For Rent" sign in the window, and while the Web site is still active, the phone number is disconnected.
Bishes ain't shit.
[...] Bish Bish Cafe, we hardly knew you. OK, we didn’t know you at all. Gone after just a couple months. [Meal Ticket] [...]
As of 3:44 p.m. I got the last of the tripe being served at Shank's & Evelyn's, the S. 10th Street Italian luncheonette that is, after is 48 years in South Philly, closing its doors and moving to 15th and Sansom (into the former J.B. Pastrami's spot). Tomorrow, April 30, is closing day, and Evelyn Perri and daughter Pamela Poppa will be serving food to the locals as a sort of bon voyage until the rabe runs out. But tripe � cow�s stomach to the uninitiated � won�t be making the trek to the new location, according to Poppa. It�s mostly only South Philly old heads and me who like it.� So I snagged the last batch with some chicken cutlets to go, while my wife Glamorosi got eggplant parm and veal scaloppini � the latter being another dish that won't survive the move.
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| thefoodtrust.org |
We touched on this in the latest Feeding Frenzy � Joe Coffee Bar, a member of Philly's Independents Coffee Cooperative and a vocal advocate for fair trade products in the city, is closing its caf� location at 1100 Walnut Street toward the end of May. Owner Joseph Cesa (above) announced as much in a recent e-mail statement:
Together with my customers, joe supported over 200 fair trade coffee producing families (collectively) by selling their fairly-produced coffee, tea, chocolate, nuts, spices, fruit (sometimes), mugs and other accessories-anything we could sell.� And we did it while we recycled everything imaginable-and got a good laugh reading how the corporates said you can't cut your waste-stream by half or more.
We made a difference with you. Just by buying a cup of coffee, organic locally-grown and milled wheat flour in your banana bread, or organic fruit in granola, a mug changed peoples' lives. The students I met who said they were encouraged to volunteer, do social work or seek employment in alternative industry to make more change possible convinced me we made progress.� How do you top that?
Thank you all for being there. We're gonna miss you in June. Ciao.
Customers and fans shouldn't fret too much, though � Joe's organic and fair trade beans will still be available for purchase at the Headhouse Square Farmers Market (launching this year on Sunday, May 3) as well as online at joecoffeebar.com. Caf�/restaurants locations that'll carry the same coffee include Kaffa Crossing (4417 Chestnut St.) and the three Pumpkin locations (the BYO, the caf� and the market) on South Street west of Broad.
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It was sad coming home from Manhattan last weekend to hear that Chef's Market, the gourmet shop and caterer that's been open at 231 South Street since 1985, would close on Sun., March 1. Its goodies will be gone, and I’ll never be able to snag a Manyunk sandwich or grab a bag of fresh ground coffee.
“Had I known before the vultures swooped in I would’ve snagged your espresso,” manager MJ Jordan told me. The
Georgiou family-owned biz got hit — like most bizzes on South got hit — by a lousy economy and the change in the block’s audience from adult to kids. Other likely contributors include the long-brewing streetscape project as well as a neighboring farmers market. “Even little things like increased parking prices haven’t helped,” said Jordan.
But it meant more than just that to most of us shoppers. When my mom was sick, I got them to cater more than a few Thanksgiving meals. When I schmoked a bunch of weed (uhm, ah, years ago), there was no better come down than a basket of pignoli nuts. “Since we made the decision last Thursday, we’ve only been open to sell off equipment and the remainder of our stock,” said Jordan. (Remaining are being offered at a 50 percent discount.)
The bright spot is that Chef’s Market will keep its catering operations — for family, private and corporate events — in one third of the building. “We’re going to play to our strengths,” said Jordan. “By streamlining and doubling our catering business, we’re doing the right thing. But that doesn’t make it any less hard.”
We will miss having this fabulous little store in our neighborhood, but we are thrilled catering will still be going strong. Hint to all: Chef's Market makes the world's best black & white cake!! ~ Lee & Andrew Sparkle Plenty Designs, Inc. Philadelphia, PA www.Sparkle-Plenty.com "making the world sparkle, one tee at a time"
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A Meal Ticket tipster informed us that today might be the last call for Paxia, the Mexican BYO that replaced Molcajete Mixto at Eighth and Christian. We called over to see if we could confirm.
"We're having a little issue with the owner of the restaurant and the owner of the building," said Xochitl chef/owner Dionicio Jimenez, who co-owns Paxia with his brother-in-law Ismael Torrez. "The lawyers are starting to figure it out. I hope nothing happens." Though there has been some speculation that February would be the restaurant's last month, he added that they would definitely be open for the rest of this week.
CP critic Trey Popp had nice things to say about Paxia's food back in August.
[...] Paxia looks to be on shaky ground but remains open. [Meal Ticket] [...]
please go to this restaurant!!! the food is delicious, but no one is ever in there! it is so worth it and they can handily accomodate big groups of people too. the tres crepas is one of the best mexican dishes i have ever had. mmmm.....
wow, really...are you sure you ate at Paxia? Everyone that works there is very nice, but the food is overpriced & kinda crappy. There's a reason no one is ever in there.
[...] restaurant space at Eighth and Christian, which was Molcajete Mixto (that closed), then Paxia (that closed), then Mezza Luna (that closed, shadily), looks like it’s coming back as a Mexican restaurant [...]
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You might've noticed that the storefront of Caffé Hausbrandt (207 S. 15th St.) has been dark for weeks. Carrie Lapp, who purchased the café in 2004 with Trieste-born husband Massimo Taurisano and partners Max and Nicoletta Tuccone (at that point, it'd been open for a year already under different management), says shuttering was a business decision, and that the building will be coming down, so the fate was inevitable. The café was the retail face of Hausbrandt USA, which held exclusive import/distribution rights to all of the Italian roaster's products in the United States.
Though the flagship is gone, they're still plugging along with six locations of Academia del Caffe — 1 S. Penn Square, 1616 Walnut, in the Design Center at 2400 Market, in the Public Ledger Building at 620 Chestnut and in the Curtis Center at 601 Walnut — the espresso bar brand the couple first introduced to Philly in 2006. One important distinction: All the Academias are now serving Miscela d'Oro, a coffee brand from Sicily, instead of Hausbrandt.
For more on Philly's caffeine cognosceti, see my Nov. 2007 story on Saxbys Coffee.
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