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Food News
It might not look or feel like it today, but spring is upon us, and tomorrow, March 3, marks the annual opening of the nursery at Greensgrow Farm (2501 E. Cumberland St.). Yeah, urban rooftop and patio gardeners, it's time to start planning and plotting what to grow for the 2012 season already. (I’m not going overboard this year, though I tell myself that every year.) Greengrow will have seeds, soil, cold-crop vegetable starters and other grower's essentials on sale this weekend, and for dirt geeks, they’re even offering a workshop on amending your soil (Register here; it’s $20, but you get it back in a Greensgrow gift certificate.) Another cool service: window box planting. Just bring in your window boxes, and Greensgrow will plant, care for and nurture them until Mother’s Day.
Photo: Michael T. Regan
Michael "Challaman" Dolich's Four Worlds Bakery in West Philly (4634 Woodland Ave.) has added a new leavened craveable to its lineup of bagels, croissant, challah and loaves: pizza. Dolich is baking off thin-crust 14- or 16-inch pies using sourdough with no added sugars or oils; his straight-up sauce contains no sweeteners, either. His all-veg topping lineup includes simple adornments like fresh basil, garlic, mushrooms and green peppers. Full menu and prices after the jump (click to enlarge).
This Saturday, March 3, Lemon Hill (747 N. 25th St.) will open its doors for brunch. Chef Mitch Prensky and bar manager Al Sotack have developed a bunch of new stuff to eat and drink at their suddenly hangover-friendly Fairmount hang. Key items on the food side include granola pie (yogurt mousse with fresh berries and a granola crust), "Dark and Stormy" French toast (soaked in brown sugar and dark rum, with lime curd, ginger rum cream and ginger snaps) and Mike's Irish breakfast (three eggs, house-cured Irish bacon, boudin blanc, boudin noir, roasted tomato, grilled mushrooms). Sotack's cocktail list, meanwhile, features wakeup drinks like the "Gentile e Onesta," Aperol, Clement Creole Shrubb liqueur, cane syrup, muddled grapefruit and Champagne. Lemon Hill's serving brunch from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m Saturdays and Sundays.
Photo: Courtesy of Lemon Hill
Monday's post on the serious movie screenings at Nomad Pizza (611 S. Seventh St.) — Amelie tonight — got us thinking about a query more than a few people have tossed our way since the Jerseyites opened in Philly three weeks ago: Why aren't their pies cut into slices? Order a pizza here and you'll get your baby on a plate, blistered, steaming, telling you all the wood-fired things you want to hear. But, 10 out of 10 times, it will arrive as one big bubbling round, with nary a convenient cross-cut to be found. Some people seem to be kinda peeved by this, but get used to it — Nomad ain't changing for nobody.
It seemed pretty simple for Bridget and Albert Coccia back in January. The couple, married 21 years, worked together at Albert's family's Frankie's Seafood Italiano and had just opened their own breakfast/lunch nook, The Cup and Saucer (743 S. Eighth St.). The banner was raised, the menu finished. Then, one morning, about two weeks ago, a sign appeared on the door of C&S that informed customers they were closed for a "death in the family." Seemed a shame that they had to deal with such tragedy after so soon after launching a new business.
We didn't know just how deep the tragedy ran until the owners, who have since reopened their café, sent out a note detailing the loss: It was Albert's 24-year-old niece, Tiffany Gillespie, who was killed in the basement of a home on Mildred Street. Gillespie, a mother of two, allegedly told Aaron Fitzpatrick, 19, that she was pregnant with his child, and he allegedly shot her out of anger. She was pronounced dead on the scene. Fitzpatrick was arrested, charged with murder, murdering an unborn child and weapons violations.
The note in full:
About three weeks back we received an mysterious package at Meal Ticket HQ containing a T-shirt emblazoned with cryptic Toynbee tile-inspired phraseology about ... gelatin. We were a bit flummoxed at first but then realized there really could be only one origin for such an on-message piece of apparel. Yes, this is the handiwork of Mo Sheehan and Cory Kete, the twosome behind the amazing My Jello Americans Jell-O Shot blog. CP profiled them in 2010.
Mike Stollenwerk has quietly augmented the happy-hour at Fish (1234 Locust St.) we told you about early this month. The weeknight dealage, which originally range from 5 to 6 p.m. only, now extends to 7 p.m., and includes the offer of 99-cent oysters for the duration. Buck-a-shuck rules now also apply to Fish's late-night happy hours, which go down from 11 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. Three-dollar crafft beers, $5 wines and a $6 cocktail of the day still apply.
Photo: Courtesy of Fish
Last night, the second installment of Ben Puchowitz and Shawn Darragh's Roundeye Noodle Bar pop-up went down at Puchowitz's Matyson (37 S. 19th St.). The partners, who first rolled out the conceptual "hip noodle spot run by two guys from the suburbs" on Jan. 29, are getting close to signing an investor, with an eventual plan to land a permanent space in Center City. But don't be surprised if the Roundeye name is scrapped before that time.
The reason? Local Asian advocates are publicly speaking out about the moniker's racial — and by some accounts racist — implications.
Last night marked the official relaunch of Chick's Café & Wine Bar (614 S. Seventh St.) as Chick's Social. Chef/owner Jim Piano wanted to get away from the joint's reputation as a glass-of-wine-and-go stop, so he's upped his kitchen's game considerably to coincide with a light-and-bright makeover of the bar and dining room. "I really wanted to focus on the food," says Piano, who's now overseeing a taut selection of cicchetti (marrow bone topped with celery/fennelradish salad), antipasti (Brussels flatread with bacon, mustard seed and fontina), panini (the wild boar burger remains), housemade pasta (shortrib rigatoni) and large plates (salmon with horseradish, beets and farro). Piano's wife, Kristen, who's the pastry chef at Capital Grille, is looking over Social's desserts, favorites like lemon-curd bombolini and mascarpone cheesecake scrawled on a roll of butcher's paper studded to the wall.
In lieu of a chef's tasting option, Piano's offering timpano, an over-the-top specialty familiar to anyone who's seen the Stanley Tucci flick Big Night. It's basically an enormous baked dough mold with multiple layers — ziti and bechamel, sausage and red sauce, broccoli rabe, sharp provolone — that's sliced like a deep-dish pizza to feed big groups. For $32 a head, Chick's Social will bake one up for a table of six to eight, bookended by antipasti and dessert. (Piano used to work for chef Gianni Scappin, who actually served as the culinary consultant for Big Night.)
Chick's gorgeous original bar, which has outlasted multiple owners since the era when the reputedly mobbed-up Cicalese clan ran the place (liquor license No. 376!), remains intact, save for some new Edison bulbs. The by-the-glass vino options, which once sat at around 40, are down to a more digestible 16, but the bottle list has been bumped up. Full food/drink menus after the jump (click to enlarge).
State stores will soon stock a rye-based counterpart to Philly Distilling's XXX Shine — Bristol-based Mountain Laurel Spirits has released Dad's Hat Pennsylvania White Rye. Currently an SLO item in the PLCB system, the unaged, 100-proof white whiskey is the first foray into the market for partners John Cooper and Herman Mihalick, longtime friends who met as UPenn undergrads and founded the distillery in 2009.
Working off a 500-gallon still, they're using raw grain sourced from Bucks and Lancaster counties as a nod to Pennsylvania's distinction as the birthplace of rye whiskey. Though they're also aging their distillate in quarter casks for seven to eight months for a pending brown-booze release, the white is available right now. Flavor-wise, Dad's Hat is a bit more measured of a spirit than its spicier counterparts. "We're not trying to 'out-rye' other people," says Cooper, likening distiller oneupsmanship to craft beer producers piling on hops to top the competition. "What we're looking for is up-front spice with a full and round mouthfeel. It's a very smooth whiskey."
Dad's Hat White will eventually make its way into a limited number of state stores, and the distillers are aiming to have their 90-proof aged rye on shelves in time for Father's Day.
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