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Dealage
WHERE YOU AT? MilkBoy (1100 Chestnut St.) has been open for about six months now, the newest member of a family that includes older siblings in Ardmore and Bryn Mawr. Philly's the baby, but it's got a serious leg up on its Main Line counterparts: a liquor license. They had a tempting draft list when I showed up with some girlfriends for happy hour around 4:30 one evening last week. We sat at the bar (specials apply to booth sitters, too), and I was glad I did — our bartender was extra-generous, letting my friends and I try a sample a few drafts before committing. I ended up with the smoky Williamsburg Alewerks Washington's Porter; friends grabbed a Mission Shipwrecked IPA and an "Auntie Maxie" cocktail, a combination of Absolut wild tea, Barenjager and lemon sweetly served in a mason jar.
This week, Fish (1234 Locust St.) joins the Philadelphia happy hour force. Starting out strong, Mike Stollenwerk's restaurant is offering three select craft beers for $3, Anjos Vinho Verde and Cantine Povero Tralcio Rosso for $5 and the cocktail of the day for $6. From Monday to Friday, happy hour runs only from 5 to 6 p.m., but they make it up to us on weekends with additional dealage from 11 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. I might have to push back my Happy Hour Hopper exploits to capitalize on these late-night specials.
Photo: Drew Lazor
View galleryWHERE YOU AT? Jake's and Cooper's is a swanky-but-cozy wine bar and restaurant on in Manayunk (4365 Main St.). Owner Bruce Cooper's Jake's stood alone for years until he launched the attached Cooper's, a more casual pizzeria/wine bar, in 2008. I took a load off at their 15-seat bar on a recent Tuesday at 6 p.m., halfway through their 5-to-7 p.m. "happiness hour."
Despite its decidedly downtowny feel, Munish Narula's Tashan (777 S. Broad St.), chillin' at Broad and Catharine, is outside the participatory boundaries for Center City District Restaurant Week, which runs Jan. 22 to 27 and Jan. 29 to Feb. 3. In reponse, the upscale Indian is gerrymandering the RW borders — always looking for an excuse to use the word "gerrymandering" on Meal Ticket — by creating a special discount for those dining in. Tashan will eat $15 a head on every $50 spent to bring the per-person base price down to $35 — the price of your typical Restaurant Week dinner. For example, a $100 check between two people would end up costing only $70; a $200 check for a party of four would be discounted to $140. Tables must mention the dealage to their servers when seated, and the restaurant requests that eaters tip on the pre-discount total.
Photo: Neal Santos
Starting today, Opa (1311 Sansom St.) is launching two new happy hours — one from 5 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and another late-night option from 10 to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Pretty much everything you can imagine is being offered for five bucks or under — to drink, $3 craft beers, $4 house wines and $5 specialty cocktails and sparkling wine; to eat, $1 skewers, $2 sliders and $3 fries and meatballs. To mark the kickoff, Opa will pass out complimentary food and booze tonight between 5 and 7. Moving forward, be aware that this dealage will only be available at the 24-seat bar (above).
Photo: Drew Lazor
Joe Beckham's Loco Pez (2401 E. Norris St.), which Adam Erace gave a nice nod to back in November, is rolling out a tacos-for-a-buck promotion, but it won't be a static weekly situation, as is the case for many tortilla fillers. "For a while we were planning on doing a Taco Tuesday thing," says Beckham, "but then we thought it would be more fun to randomize [it] and link it to our Twitter and Facebook." That means you need to keep your eyeballs on the Fishtown Mexi bar's social media to catch exactly when you can cop carnitas for four quarters (it was yesterday, most recently).
Photo: Neal Santos
East Girard Gastropub, aka The E.G.G. (200 E. Girard Ave.), is hosting a grand opening party tonight. Chef/owner Rob Holloway will pass around free hors d'oeuvres between the hours of 6 and 9; from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., he'll host a late-night happy hour, with discounted draft beer and $5 select pub-fare items. Peep our December 19 post for more info and the menu.
Zavino (112 S. 13th St.) and its new chef, Carlos Aparicio, just got a boss shipment of truffles from Oregon, and they've wasted no time massaging them into their small plate-driven menu: Aparicio's already cranked out housemade gnocchi and fettucine specials infused with flecks of the Pacific Northwest fungi, and starting this weekend, he's shaving the jet-black jewels directly onto pizzas. The $18 beaut pictured above starts with the crust — that's their new whole-wheat; a gluten-free option's coming, too — and builds up from there with truffled bechamel, roasted sunchokes, fontina cheese, a pair of runny eggs and a bit of truffle to finish.
In late December, Dock Street (701 S. 50th St.) announced a new weekly promotion of sorts that jived with the anti-corporate ethos of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Every Wednesday, from open to close, the West Philly brewpub temporarily adopts a cash-only policy. This keeps them from having to pay the requisite 2 to 2.5 percent fee for every credit-card transaction, a discount they pass along to drinkers in the form of 3 percent off all food and drink. "Operating on a cash-only system allows us to keep the money in the pockets of the 99%," writes Dock Street on its website.
New Year's Eve is up there with Valentine's and Mother's Day in terms of restaurant cashcowitude, so opulent tasting menus with hefty prix-fixe price tags and shmancy wine pairings is often the move. But two local hangs are pulling a casual 180 for Dec. 31.
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