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Dealage
Lemon Hill, BlueCat, Fare, La Calaca Feliz and London Grill are among the participants in the first-ever Fairmount Restaurant Week. The promo, produced by With Art Philadelphia, is sponsored by the Fairmount CDC and intentionally coincides with the splashy debut of the Barnes Foundation. Three-course menus that vary in price from $20ish to $35 abound at the eligible venues; Lemon Hill's Mitch Prensky and Joel Mazigian, for example, are cooking crispy chicken livers with pickle celery, rye toast and celery; pork belly with black beans and clams; and banana/chocolate bread pudding. More menus on the FRW Tumblr.
View galleryIs placing a burger on a menu — even a house-ground sirloin one, topped with bourbon/soy-glazed mushrooms on a fresh-baked black sesame bun — a creative concession for someone like Jason Cichonski? Yes, he admits. But there she is, in all her Cabot cheddar-draped glory, on the brand-new happy hour menu at the chef's progressive Ela (627 S. Third St.). Cichonski's modern-cookery meanderings aren't going anywhere, and his tasting-format dinner menu continues to evolve. But he views this new happy hour, which launches tonight and will run Tuesday to Friday and on Sunday from 5 to 6:30 p.m., as a chance to crank out some comparatively down-market plates. Think the burger (only 10 available each day), think crispy boneless sous-vide-then-fried thighs ("Chicken Chomps"), think jarred bacon-marinated sardines, think house pickles and chewy "beet jerky." Deals on drinks, too: $3 draft beer, $5 wine and a $6 rotating cocktail. A burger chef Cichonski ain't, but catch him in this 90-minute window to see how well he plays one.
Best of Philly 2012 voting is upon us, and best-burger contender Pub & Kitchen (1946 Lombard St.) is giving away free Churchill sliders today for the masses to sample. They did the same thing last year for Philly Mag's "Best Burger Bracket" and the tactic worked; P&K's La Frieda beast (above) beat out Village Whiskey's Whiskey King burger for that honor. They'll put out 400 sliders starting at 4 p.m., a time that happens to coincide with the bar's $1 oyster and $3 local draft happy hour. The petit patties will be free, and all the P&K crew asks in return is for you to vote for the Churchill every day until the polls close on Monday.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Sometimes we think we should start a restaurant name consultation service, the way people do for rich white babies. SoWe (918 S. 22nd St.), whose name we can't even see without wanting to holler it like a freckled farm boy chasing a greased pig at the Biloxi County Fair, would be our first client. Parters Nancy Law and Troy Barton don’t need any help on the promotion side, though. At just a few weeks old, they've got all kinds of deals up and running. Starting on May 14 and continuing every Monday, all bottles of wine are half-price, and during happy hours (5-7 p.m. and 11 p.m.-1 a.m. daily), beers and bar menu items are all a buck off. SoWe is getting into the industry game, too, offering $2 High Lifes and $3 shots of Jim Beam any time for restaurant comrades. SoWe going?
The primary gripe people seem to have about The Food Trust's Night Market series, which kicked off in October 2010 in East Passyunk, is the crowd crush — daps to FT for rolling out one of the city's most popular and prominent food series, but that often translates to long lines, interminable waits and vendors running dry of product. If you ask us, it's shortsighted not to expect as much — toss a bajil hungry people into an annexed area and there will be bottlenecks. Deal with it. But The Food Trust has developed a new bit of programming to introduce a VIP-type element to its 2012 events. For $50, you can become a "Friend of Night Market," which entitles you to beer from Yards, cocktails from Quaker City Mercantile, vouchers for food from various participants and a comfy place to perch, beneath a tent complete with snack spread from Catering by Design. For queue haters, note that FoNM status will not grant you the power to skip lines at vendors and food trucks.
The Food Trust will roll out the Friend program at the first Night Market of 2012, scheduled for Thursday, May 24 at Second and Poplar. Friend tix are available online, and if you purchase before midnight tomorrow, you'll lock in an early-bird price of $45 a head.
WHERE YOU AT? I've been meaning to get to Fish since January, when it officially reopened at its new location on 13th and Locust. I finally made it in on a Friday at 4:55 p.m. The staff hustled around me as I got situated, but I didn't absorb the frenzied pace until 10 minutes had elapsed and about 20 other fellow happy hour hoppers people joined me at the bar. Even before the crowds materialized, two of the bar staffers seemed harried and a bit snappy; thankfully, there were superceded by wonderful bar manager and mixologist extraordinaire (though he prefers the term "boozehound") Theo Webb.
WHAT'S THE SCENE? All the patrons at Fish seemed to be having a good time. On my right were three gay fellas wearing incredibly good-looking suits. They drank Champagne (into which Theo dropped bourbon-soaked cherries) and ordered plate after plate of oysters (the buck-a-shuck rule applies to all happy hours). To my left was the proud father of Fish pastry chef Monica Glass. Some parents had their kid at the bar at 5 p.m., but an hour later there was nary a toddler to be found. Overall, the bar was brimming with polished, well-dressed patrons, either out and about in work clothes or dolled up for the evening to come.
WHAT'S THE DEAL? My original intention had been to swing by for Fish's late-night happy hour (from 11 p.m. to midnight Friday or Saturday), but the old lady in me opted for early-bird hours. More than half of Fish's multi-page beverage menu is wine, and that includes many options by the glass. In addition to dollar oysters, they offer a select red and white for $5 during happy hour. I went for the red, the Quinto do Casol Branco, which normally goes for twice that price. They also do a lineup of three bottled beers for three bucks. During my drop-by, Theo concocted a Lynchburg Lemonade for the rotating $5 cocktail special — way tasty, way too easy to drink. All these deals apply weeknights from 5 to 7 p.m. in addition to the aforementioned late-night hours.
The last time we visited Paloma (763 S. Eighth St.), the vivid haute Mexican in Bella Vista, the Phillies were struggling against the Giants in the 2010 NCLS. And that's the problem, according to Barbara Cohan-Saavedra, who co-owns the Northeast Philly transplant with chef/husband, Adán. "We've been packed on Saturdays, less so on Fridays and slow during the week," she reports. Those all-too-common sluggish weekdays are the reason for the restaurant's Tuesday-through-Thursday prix-fixe, where $30 buys three courses of Michoacan-born Saavedra's alta cocina. Choose from five apps (don't sleep on his caesar, arranged in vertical romaine tower ringed in hibiscus petals), six entrées and three desserts from Cohan-Saavedra's pastry repertoire. Full menu after the jump.
Tomorrow night is the last chance to get a discounted VIP or general-admission ticket to Flavors of the Avenue, the East Passyunk food/drink blowout scheduled for next Saturday, April 28. Securing your spot before midnight on the 19th shaves $5 off of your purchase (get 'em online), knocking VIP down to $45 and the GA down to $25. A total of 21 area bars and restaurants are participating in the event including the not-yet-open Garage and Noir, and live music and a craft market will round up the festivities. VIPs will get access to premium menu items, specialty cocktails and an extra hour in the tent before the rush. Full list of participants is below:
- Belle Cakery
- Birra
- Cantina Los Caballitos
- Chhaya
- Chiarella's
- El Zarape
- Fond
- Fuel
- Garage
- Green Olives Café
- Izumi
- Kris
- Le Virtù
- Marra's
- Mamma Maria Ristorante
- Ms. Goody Cupcake
- Noir
- Paradiso
- South Philly Bar & Grill
- Stogie Joe's
- Tre Scalini
Shank's Original is feeling sentimental. In honor of their 50th anniversary, they are planning on showing a little Phillies love come Monday, April 9, the day of the Phightins' home opner. The first 100 customers who show up at Shank's Pier 40 (Columbus and Christian) wearing Phillies gear can order any sandwich off the menu and pay just one dollar. They’ve more than 20 sandwiches to choose from, including their classic roast pork and a pretty fierce cheesesteak.
Photo: Shank's Pier 40 on Facebook
Tomorrow, March 20, is the first day of spring, so that means it's also free Rita's Water Ice day! For the 20th year in a row, Rita's is spending the day giving away one free regular water ice to every customer across the country. In honor of this momentous anniversary, Rita's will debut its first national television commercial. Produced Philly's Shooters Inc. and Trenton's EFK Group, the spots features the whole Cool Treats gang, whose members include The Great Blendini, Buster Custard, Jil-lati and Mista Misto. We don't know about you guys, but we sure can't wait to sit down in front of the TV in the rec room with a cherry cup and tune in.
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