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Openings
What began with $500 and a juicer has turned into a storefront in Midtown Village. Jennifer Richmond and Joel Odhner quietly opened Jar Bar (113 S. 12th St.) early this week without so much as a street sign out front to let people know. (Meal Ticket first mentioned it in June.)
Richmond and Odhner are the creators of Catalyst Cleanse, a line of fresh-squeezed rejuvenating juices distributed locally via designated pickup locations. Today, their beverages are shipped to customers all over the United States. "Folks [are] ordering from California," says Jar Bar staffer/right-hand man Calvin. "You're telling me with all those eggheads in California, you can't find some good juices out there? Nope. People are paying $180 just to ship [Catalyst Cleanse] juices that already cost $180. People tell us we've got the best juice in the U.S."
Looks like our hunch from August was right on: A new Chipotle — yes, just three blocks down from the cornerstone shop in the old Susanna Foo (1512 Walnut St.) — has taken over the sweet 12th-and-Walnut space previously held by Potbelly. It opened up quietly last week. Same menu and same hours (11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily) as other local Chipotle locations.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Paul Davis and Steve Renzi snuck out their Kung Fu Hoagies cart, which we first mentioned back in November, out for a quick run the other day, practice for their official rollout at Clark Park this coming Saturday, March 10, at 10 a.m. The partners plan on vending their vegetarian fare — they're not a strictly vegan operation, though everything on their opening menu does happen to be vegan — from Clark Park on the weekends (Sunday, March 11 too) and from 34th and Chestnut on weekdays. If you miss that paint job, inspired (like the name) by Davis' practice of martial arts, you need way better glasses.
This summer we mentioned that the restaurant space at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (251 S. 18th St.), which has long seemed like an ideal venue for a next-level restaurant concept, was under the control of Michelin-starred chef Ed Brown, food/beverage honcho of Restaurant Associates. Signage recently went up revealing the name of the slated-for-spring project — Rittenhouse Tavern — and now the heads of both front and back of house are locked in. Nicholas Elmi, chef de cuisine of Le Bec-Fin up until this weekend, will run day-to-day at the Tavern, working with Brown to develop and execute a modern American menu. They've also tapped Dan Elliott, a veteran of Oyster House, Rouge, Alma de Cuba and Lacroix who last opened Fairmount's Hickory Lane, as GM.
Crepe Town, which has been hustling its fast-casual pancakes in the Bellevue since the fall, is working on a second location. Taking over a defunct Quizno's at 15th and Spring Garden, right off CCP's campus, owners Mike and Julie Bartfeld will have a wealth a space to work with in contrast with their tight food-court digs. In addition to the existing menu, this Crepe Town will offer what they're teasing as "exciting Philadelphia-originated and well-known menu options." Please involve scrapple. They should be open sometime in the spring.
View galleryWalking the no-man's-block that is the east side of 20th street between Walnut and Locust, we noticed that Yamaki Sushi was no more. The shop is under new ownership since its previous owner, Patrick Yuen, has retired. He's sold it to John Zheng, a longtime neighbor who's converted it into Machi Sushi ("city sushi"). It's not just Yamaki with a new sign — the interior has been redone, the menu has been revamped and there's a brand-new staff, including chef Eric Xue.
The menu features standard sushi bar fare, including a three-roll special, but they've added their own ornate specialty rolls as well as much-sought-after tuna dumplings (stuffed with avocado and crab meat). Zheng says popular rolls so far include the Halloween Roll (spicy scallop, avocado, tempura flakes, tuna, salmon, red and black tobiko, chili sauce, eel sauce) and the Sexy City Roll (spicy salmon, crab meat, tempura flakes and avocado wrapped in rice paper and topped with black tobiko and eel sauce).
For thrifty sushi-ites, Machi is offering 15 percent off orders through March 31. They're open Monday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m. Full menu after the jump (click to enlarge).
Rex 1516 (1516 South St.) hosted a media preview last night, but seems to have a few more knots to massage out before opening to the public. Though originally slated to debut tonight, March 1, it's now looking like they're aiming to open this weekend. No official timetable yet but we'll keep you posted. For what it's worth, we really didn't mean to post two Pavlovian burger pics in a row on Meal Ticket, it just worked out that way — this is Rex chef Regis Jansen's hamburguesa, a filet tip/brisket/pork belly blend with gorgonzola and onion marmalade.
UPDATE [05mar12]: Rex will open tomorrow, March 6, at 5 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Rex 1516
Robert Amar, whose last post saw him running front-of-house at Fare in Fairmount, has pulled a professional 180 with the opening of Underdogs (132 S. 17th St.), a subterranean paean to locally sourced forcemeats in what was the Moroccan restaurant Argan.
Though it's easy to contrast the organic- and calorie-conscious cooking of Fare with a concept as comfily meaty as Underdogs, Amar's approach to this concept reminds us that not all wiener setups are nitrate death bombs. The hefty 100 percent beef Dietz & Watson dogs he's using as a base frank run 170 calories a pop, the Cacia's rolls he's using to stage his "haute" dogs and sausages are fresh-baked and preservative-free, and all his toppings and fry-dip sauces are made in-house. He's working with Philly sausage landmarks like Fiorella's, Czerw's and Martin's to provide links for options like the "9th Street" (Fiorella's hot Italian, sautéed peppers and onions), the "Warsaw Packed" (Czerw's kielbasa, sautéed onions, spicy mustard) and the "Brats" (Martin's pork sausage, kraut, horseradish mustard). Combos, which include a dog, house-cut fries with dipping sauce and a drink, top out at $8.25. Full menu after the jump (click to enlarge).
Underdogs is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. right now, with plans to introduce late-night service (to 4 a.m.!) on Friday and Saturday in a few weeks.
When Jeanne Chang settled into her West Philly domicile last March, Unitea was on the brink of closing, the physical location of Honest Tom's was nonexistent and the Lil' Pop Shop existed only in her mind. One year later, she's attending zoning board hearings, jumping through the last bureaucratic hoops before she can open her gourmet popsicle shop at 265 S. 44th Street, the former address of Unitea, sometime in April. (It's a busy West Philly block, already featuring Tampopo, Local 44 and L44's forthcoming bottle shop.)
Originally from California, Chang lived for a few years in Durham, North Carolina before moving to Philly. It was in here she bumped into Locopops, a popular shop for popsicle-loving locavores. Inspired by the concept, Chang is working on flavors that reflect local, seasonal ingredients whenever possible, and the varieties will be as distinct as Philadelphians are from Carolinians. She is definitely “interested in hearing what flavors folks want to eat," and for now has a few ideas of her own for the opening menu:
Can Graduate Hospital, a 'hood that already boasts a solid roster of downmarket bars and pubs with good beer and stuff to eat (Sidecar, Grace Tavern, Resurrection Ale House, Doobies), sustain a new entry to the rotation? Partners Nancy Law and Troy Barton are banking on a "yes" with the opening of SoWe (a realtor-style abbreviation of "Southwest Center City"), which they're bringing to the former Divan Turkish Kitchen at 22nd and Carpenter by April.
They're currently overhauling the interior of the space (the bricks are still owned by Divan's Ilker Ugur) to install reclaimed wood flooring, a weathered-oak bar and new lighting; room for 50 heads overall. Self-IDing as a bistro, they'll serve a straight-up menu (burgers, mussels, roast chicken) seven days a week, with Saturday and Sunday brunch. Booze-wise, they want to do craft beer and wine, plus "creative" cocktails. Law, a South Jersey native, teamed with Florida-bred Barton in 2003 to found Essential Media Partners, a firm that creates marketing strategies for hospitality clients.
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