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Food News
Don't worry, the Churchill and Parliament burgers haven't gone anywhere, but they've got some new neighbors on chef Jonathan Adams' freshly pressed menu at Pub & Kitchen (1946 Lombard St.). From kale salad with cherries, pear and walnut vin to parchment-baked cod with soft polenta, check it out in its entirely after the jump (click to enlarge), though it's probably hard to go wrong with Adams' two new favorites, the blackened young octopus and the sautéed foie gras."The garnish on the [foie] is a lot of fun," he says. "Cakey-style housemade gingerbread, pickled red currants, raw gooseberries, white wine-poached kumquats and a white wine syrup. The flavors and colors wore well together for the cold time of year."
Homebrewer turned craft-beer professional Tim Patton, who incorporated his Saint Benjamin Brewing Company in 2010, has locked in a physical location for his nascent nanobrewery. This past Friday, he closed on an industrial-zoned property at 1710 N. Fifth Street (intersection of Cecil B. Moore) that he hopes to have up and running by this summer. (By Philly Weer Week ideally, but more likely in the July/August window.) Most recently a warehouse, the building used to be a sewing machine factory; before the 1920s, it was a carriage house for a beer company. Bringing the address back to its pre-war roots, Patton aims to start out by brewing three to three and a half barrels, or about seven kegs' worth, at a time.
Chris Molieri, whose nascent GreenStreet launched in the summer of 2011, is upping his reach considerably in the local coffee-roasting market. (Peep Brion Shreffler's September '11 piece for more on local micro-roasters.) Molieri has bought out Blue Water Coffee, which serviced spots like Ants Pants Café, Hinge Café and Ida Mae's, inheriting that roaster's bean stock, equipment and clients. With the added pull, GreenStreet is aiming to add Whole Foods Markets to the list of locals that carry his coffees, a roster that already includes Café Clave, Rocket Cat Café, Honest Tom's Taco Shop and Metropolitan Bakery. Above's a shot of Molieri checking out beans in El Salvador on a recent trip to visit farms and co-ops.
A tipster sent along this shot of a posting at Ramen Boy (204 N. Ninth St.), which just opened last Friday — looks like the brand-new shop has been forced to cut service due to a gas line issue. Owner Nelson Tam says PGW work in the neighborhood inadvertently tripped up the flow to his kitchen, but he hopes he'll get the issue resolved by this weekend. Those looking to drop in should call ahead to confirm they've reopened: 267-687-1388.
Anne Coll of Meritage (500 S. 20th St.) has taken two delicious, seemingly unrelated foods and combined them to make something beautiful — a Korean short rib corn dog. Coll braises the short rib, which has been marinated in Korean spices, rolls it into a cylinder, batters it, fries it, sets it on a potato bun and garnishes it with kimchi, Korean slaw and gochujang. Coll wanted to tap into the wiener buzz around Philadelphia while still putting her own touch on a classic. The dog, on special nightly, can be yours for $8.
Photo: twitter.com/meritagephl
Swing by Molly Malloy's in the Reading Terminal Market (12th and Arch streets) today at 4 p.m. for a taste of Engine 1892 Market Stout, a new beer from Philadelphia Brewing Co. created as a nod to the RTM's 120th year of existence. It's a friendly 6 percent ABV chocolate stout crafted with 70 percent cacao Belgian dark chocolate from RTM's Chocolate by Mueller. Molly's will pour it through the end of February, and don't be surprised if you start seeing it appear on draft towers around town, too.
Photo: facebook.com/mollymalloys
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
Takeru Kobayashi must be a great dinner date, because it seems like everyone's sitting down for a meal with him. Dan McQuade of Philly Mag's Philly Post and Enrico Campitelli Jr. of The 700 Level both had the opportunity to break bread with the world-renowned Japanese competitive eater, who's in town to compete in/probably massacre the Wing Bowl. Both documented their experience for their respective publications. Kobi, as his friends call him, dined at Osteria with McQuade and at Garces Trading Co. with Campitelli, and guess what? He's a true food nerd, just like the rest of us. From McQuade's piece:
Kobi isn’t just an eater; he’s a foodie. He takes photos of everything he eats. (He really enjoyed the octopus salad at Osteria.) He goes out to eat all the time. He clearly thinks about food a lot. He claims he can’t cook, but James says she'll see him frying things for himself on the grill. "We’re thinking about cooking classes," she says.
Over the The 700 Level, Campitelli found it difficult to get past Kobi's pre-meal "snack," but still managed to get him to comment on our requisite cheesesteak-vs.-roast pork imponderable:
Whereas my own breakfast and lunch consisted of a bowl of oatmeal and half a meatball sub, Kobi had already polished off… wait for it… 300 chicken wings, a couple of Tony Luke's Italian Roast Porks and a few Cheeesesteaks, and a whole box of cookies to wash them down. The tiny man sitting across from me cleaning his plate had already eaten 300 wings earlier in the day as part of his training for Friday's big event, the top prize of which is a $20,000 pay check.
Three hundred wings. For practice.
(He also weighed in on the age-old Philly debate: "If I want to have a heavier food, I order the cheesesteak. If I want a bit lighter food, I'd order the Roast Pork.")
Photo: the700level.com
Rex (1516 South St.), the Southern-inflected resto from Jet Wine Bar that we last mentioned in December, is plugging right along, reports Jill Weber, who's opening the spot with her husband, Evan Malone. While they just missed their target month of January for the opening, you can catch an advance bite of chef Regis Jansen's food on Feb. 3, when Rex does First Friday at Drink Philly (239 Chestnut St.). They'll pass out tasting portions of three-cheese mac (fontina, gruyere, Swiss) with roasted tomatoes and traditional jambalaya, plus pours of winter-spiced red sangria and Crane Lake Viognier from Cali, both of which "sip quite pleasantly out of plastic cups," according to the always-enthuastic Weber. The event is free and goes from 5 to 9 p.m.
In early 2011, the owners of Pub & Kitchen (1946 Lombard St.) formally announced their intention to open a small Euro-style restaurant called Bedford Café at 609 S. 20th Street (above), just one block south of P&K. The plan garnered early support via SOSNA, and this past May, the Zoning Board of Adjustment granted P&K's Dan Clark the variance required to raze the dilapidated two-story residential property, which he had under contract but did not own outright, and construct a new one-story commercial space from the ground up. Less than a month later, a group of neighbors opposing the plan filed in appellate court with the aim of overturning the ZBA's decision.
After a number of delays, oral arguments for the case were slated to begin on April 2, 2012. But that date was rendered irrelevant last week, when two members of the opposition quietly succeeded in buying 609 S. 20th Street for themselves.
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