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Food News
Mary Ann Ferrie and Dan Grimes' long-running Chloe (232 Arch St.), which just celebrated 10 years in business this past fall, does not waver on much: They're cash-only, they only serve four nights a week and they do not — DO NOT! — take reservations. That's why it's quietly monumental that the Old City BYOB has decided to begin accepting credit cards, starting on July 6. "However, cash is still king!" Ferrie intones.
The couple is also participating in a bit of friendly customer-sharing for the rest of the summer. Michael O'Halloran's Bistro 7 (7 N. Third St.) will be closing for vacation all this month, and the chef/owner has posted a sign directing diners to the nearby Chloe. When Ferrie and Grimes close up shop to take a break in the month of August, they'll post a sign sending eaters O'Halloran's way. "Isn't it nice how we do that for each other?" says Ferrie. "However, come September, the gloves are off. Just kidding."
Check out our November 2010 feature for more on Chloe.
Photo: Neal Santos
Davinder Singh of Minar Palace (1304 Walnut St.) tells Meal Ticket he's instituting a sweep of changes to liven up the Center City Indian eatery. For starters, they're rolling out a brand-new menu that'll go live right after the July 4 holiday (we'll post it here when it's complete). They're also getting into the lunch hustle with a full buffet, and into the web-ordering game by signing up with GrubHub. All-day table service means no more plastic and paper utensils and plates, either. (He's upfront about the fact that all these updates have resulted in slight price increases.) Inside the kitchen, Singh says they're installing a real-deal tandoori oven that'll allow them to roast all their meats as well as bake naan to order.
Photo: Shirley Nicole Fonner
Love avocado and love chocolate, but never thought they'd play nice together outside a gelato cup — until we got our hands on the chocolate avocado cookies at Pure Fare (119 S. 21st St.). "I love manipulating fresh ingredients so that they still come out tasting like dessert," says Pure Fare chef Sarah Ginn, who takes fresh avocado purée and mixes it with garbanzo bean flour, chocolate chips and Succanat (an unadulterated cane sugar product) as a sweetener. The resultant cookie, which is both vegan and gluten-free, has a cakey, brownie-like texture, with a hint of avocado creaminess that does well taking on butter's responsibilities; you'll be a fan if you're into the off-sweet taste of proper dark chocolate. It's not the only treat of this type Ginn produces, either — she's also doing chocolate cookies using bananas as a base ingredient.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Marshall Green of Cafe Estelle (444 N. Fourth St.) is the latest chef to flex his green thumb on restaurant property. (Remember when Lynn Rinaldi and Corey Baver of Paradiso and Izumi hooked their roof up a month ago?) Green is an especially auspicious position, since his pops, David, owns Primex Garden Center in Glenside; father and son installed a 25-foot-long, 5-foot-wide raised bed along the kitchen side of Estelle's building. Soil goes in "Monday or Tuesday,” with planting to follow. Green is hoping it's not too late to get some fruit off pepper and tomato starters, and wants to trellis the concrete wall for peas and beans. "I've got a fig tree in my yard at home, too," he says. "That’s definitely coming over."
Photo: Drew Lazor
Back in March we told you about Brian "Brain" Dwyer, pizza-culture firebrand behind Fishtown's upcoming Pizza Brain, and his success getting the Guinness Book of World Records interested in evaluating his gigantic cache of pizza-themed memorabilia. Looks like a surveyor from Guinness will be coming to Philadelphia (on Dwyer's dime) on Sunday, July 31 to check out the entire collection, which'll be placed on display at Craft Hustle Art Gallery (2005 Frankford Ave.; formerly Germ Books) from 1 to 4 p.m. Guinness is expected to announce Dwyer's status as an official record holder shortly after the official evaluation, barring some collector in Mogadishu or somewhere swooping in with more 'za stuff than our guy (unlikely). As for Pizza Brain itself, that's still in the works, with no official opening date set just yet.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Just came across this Facebook update from Tyson Bees, chef Tyson Wong Ophaso's popular West Philly-based food truck.
Hi Everyone, its been a pleasure serving all of you. It breaks our hearts to tell everyone that the Tyson Bees crew will no longer be operating the truck. Currently, the company is going through a transition. We are working on future plans and hope to see you soon. Thank you for all your support. We love you all and will keep you posted.
Pretty shocked to hear this news, considering Ophaso's big Philly following and positive press (here's Adam Erace's very complimentary March review) — the pic above is from the truck's participation in the Food Trust Night Market just a few days ago. Though perhaps this means the TB team is focusing the whole of its efforts on the Thai BYOB it's been working on for months now. We've got calls in to Ophaso and his people and will be sure to keep everyone updated.
UPDATE [12:05 p.m.]: Just got off the phone with Ophaso, who tells Meal Ticket that he and partner Cliff Asavadejpakdee are out of the truck due to a disagreement between them and the three partners with whom they launched the operation. "It's been a lot of back and forth, like a ping-pong table," says Ophaso of negotations between the two sides over the running of the truck and launching a proposed Thai restaurant at Sixth and Catharine.
Moving forward, the truck at 33rd and Spruce will continue operating, but without Ophaso and Asavadejpakdee inside; it's still unclear as of now whether or not they'll change the name from Tyson Bees, and Ophaso is not sure whether they'll change the menu. Meanwhile, Ophaso and Asavadejpakdee are hunting for a new opportunity — either a mobile operation or a brick-and-mortar storefront — to continue cooking in Philly. "Our efforts, talents and commitment are devoted to the consumer," Ophaso says of his local fanbase. "We have a lot of friends and support here, [so] we hope to get a [new] location in Philly. This is such a good town with the food truck scene right now."
Photo: Clare Foran
The Far From Home Café truck, which recently took up permanent weekly residence at LOVE Park, is celebrating one of its most popular menu items on June 15 with a day they've dubbed Empanada-Palooza. Not the easiest name to roll off the tongue, but the concept is comparatively simple: From 11 to 3 next Wednesday, FFH's Larry Comroe and Wade Smith will temporarily suspend its burger-centric menu and offer more than 10 varieties of empanada, including the "Havana Chorizo," "Bombay Curry," "Argentin-ish" and a Hawaiian variety stuffed with Spam (woo!). At long last, our deepest desires in the dual realms of processed meat and crispy flaky pastry crust have been realized.
In print this week, seaside scribe Jen Miller shared some of her can’t-miss eats by the beach. Through the summer, we’ll be running monthly installments of more shore recos from a kid who's been spending summers there since he could crawl: our very own Adam Erace.
The between-bread selections at Jake's Sandwich Board (122 S. 12th St.) can come with several sides: mini latkes, fries (free on Wednesdays!), crunchy onions. The new Ghost Pepper steak sandwich comes with its own obligatory side: a waiver. Heat seekers that wanders into the 12th Street sandwicherie and order this volatile new concoction (an upgrade of the still-existing Fire Steak) must sign a disclaimer and be over 18 years old. The set up of thin-sliced rib eye, onions, mushrooms, provolone and a deep-fried long hot would be spicy enough right there on its Carangi roll, but the Jake's crew really sets the sandwich ablaze with a fiery 20-drop anointing of hot sauce made with pure capsicum extract and the mysterious Indian ghost pepper, said to be 125 times hotter than the jalapeno. Get the milk ready.
Photo: Courtesy of Jake's
Capogiro's gelato-izing dukes and duchesses have come up with a number of beer-based treats for Philly Beer Week, which officially kicks off on Friday, June 3. (It's here already?!) After the jump, have a peek at which boozy gelati will soon find their way into the cold cases at any of Capogiro's four locations (Capo's tasting notes included). Oh, and we'll have plenty of written-while-sober Beer Week coverage coming up, so keep an eye open for that.
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