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Archive: November, 2011
Last week, chef Jim Davidson added a whole lotta meatiness to the menu at Frankford Hall (1210 Frankford Ave.), with seven new burgers and a bunch of app options. Indulge in beef, turkey or lamb patties ranging from $7 to $12, as well as lighter options like the Atlantic "Lachs," a seared salmon burger with tartar sauce, arugula, pickled red onions and avocado. For small bites, go for escarole soup (Davidson's mom's recipe), chicken liver mousse or beet and goat cheese salad. To celebrate the new plates, the beer garden is also offering a half-liter draft for $3 when you order a burger or sausage dish through next Tuesday, Nov. 15. Peruse the complete menu after the jump (click to enlarge).
Notes from the Weekend is a Monday Tuesday (this week) feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. Consider this a place for good deals, great dishes, wicked cocktails, recipe triumphs (and tragedies), bizarro conversations and more. We're eager to share our notes, but especially excited to read yours.We encourage you to leave notes from YOUR weekend in the comments. Have at it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)
Philly native Arthur Cavaliere, who last cooked here as chef de cuisine of Parc (227 S. 18th St.), is taking over the vacated Franco's Trattoria space at 4116 Ridge Avenue for In Riva, an Italian restaurant in partnership with developer Mark Sherman, responsible for the Sherman Mills artists' community, among other East Falls-area holdings. Sherman, a longtime friend of Cavaliere's family, tapped the well-traveled chef (starting with Derek Davis in Manayunk, he's also worked with Jose Garces and Michel Richard) while he was on a consulting gig in Michigan; In Riva, in reference to the restaurant's location along the Schuylkill, will have a Southern Italian focus, with plenty of the menu done in a wood-burning oven. Opening's set for December.
UPDATE [14nov11]: Check out food and interior photos of Ela.
The openings are coming fast and/or furious this week — received word that Ela, Jason Cichonski and Chip Roman's collabo in the old Ansill (627 S. Third St.), is up for a Friday, Nov. 11 opening after some fam/friends runs this week. "Artful New American" is the tagline the chefs — they're partners, but this is more Cichonski's vision, while Blackfish and Mica are Roman's — are using to describe the food and drink. Below peep some previews of the menu, which will range in price from $8 to $23. If you ever tried Cichonski's cooking at Lacroix you know these are more indicative of the flavors in play than cut-and-dried dish breakdowns — the "horseradish" highlighted in the hamachi dish, for example, will be served as a Italian-style shaved-ice granita. More soon.
- Hamachi with green apple, horseradish and truffles
- Baby Beets with brie, quince and cardamom
- Sweet Potato Soup with porcini and coffee caramel
- Popcorn Pana Cotta with paddlefish caviar, asparagus and shrimp
- Foie Gras with parsley root, ginger bread and huckleberry;
- Diver Scallops served with root vegetables, blood oranges and black sesame
- Duck Magret with pretzel spaetzle, Brussels sprouts and smoked butternut squash puree
- Gnocchi with maitake mushrooms, cauliflower and Japanese pumpkin
- Black Cod served with red cabbage, sunchokes and whole grain mustard
- Pork Belly with broccoli rabe, pears and served with a sour dough risotto
Tiny Dynamite, which put on the A Play, a Pie and a Pint theater/pizza/beer series in October, enjoyed sellout crowds for each of its four productions at Society Hill Playhouse, so organizer Emma Gibson (above) is serving a second helping at Fergie's Pub (1214 Sansom St.). Laugh your ass off during Steve Lyons' one-hour comedy, Peaches en Regalia, while sipping beers and grubbing on traditional English meat or veg pies (in lieu of pizza this time). The first performance will be this Wednesday, Nov. 9, with additional shows on Nov. 13 and 17. Tickets are $15.
Gordon Dinerman's opening weekend at Birra (1700 E. Passyunk Ave.) was a success, so much so that he's rolling straight into Monday Night Football. His brand-new P'unk Ave. craft beer bar and pizzeria, which will typically be closed on Mondays, will open its doors at 5 p.m. tonights to welcome Eagles fans eager to see the Birds beat up on the Chicago Bears at the Linc (game time's 8:30). No specific food or drink specials for the matchup, but know that Birra's got four flat-screens, one of which is visible from every seat in the joint. Peep full food and drink menus here.
Photo: Courtesy of Birra
Demure Food Network host Ted Allen is a bit of an easy target for food TV haters, but this Onion News Network segment shows that the Chopped host has a good sense of humor about himself. Watch as Allen prepares "a stupid-ass trendy piece of fish, coated in some kind of nut you've never heard of, served alongside a purée of baby something or other" out of his latest cookbook, Pretentious Foodie Bullshit.
Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby's all-vegan Vedge (1221 Locust St.), which seems to have garnered the anticipation of more non-vegans than any meatless debut this city has seen (maybe their own Horizons?), has set the opening wheels in motion. This week and next will be dedicated to inspections, tweaking, test runs, private parties and the like (they finally got the opportunity to cook in their new kitchen over the weekend), all in support of a public opening on Monday, Nov. 21. Their phone lines are live as of today, too (215-320-7500). For more on the restaurant, see our Sept. 7 background bit and our Oct. 4 menu post.
Joseph Scarpone is taking the early part of this week to do some dry runs at his 50-seat BYO Ulivo ahead of a public opening this Thursday, Nov. 10. (We mentioned the former Sovalo chef's new project in late October.) The restaurant, which will specialize in refined Italian at 'hood-friendly prices (looking forward to the handmade pastas), is on the corner of East Passyunk and Catharine, right near Cochon in what was Trattoria Alla Costiera. Stay tuned for the full menu.
Monday, October 31
We gave away tix to Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert's Merriam Theater appearance.
Here's how to get down at Cochon for cheap Tuesday through Thursday.
A rare taste of Uyghurian cuisine comes to Philly.
Tuesday, November 1
The owners of Spread Bagelry are opening a bakery across the street.
Rival Bros Coffee Truck rolls into its role at LOVE Park.
Jake's brings back its Turducken sandwich.
Percy Street Barbecue's Comcast Center sandwich shop is ready to go.
Wednesday, November 2
Hot Diggity! is opening up a studio space for wienerrific local artist Hawk Krall.
Julia Koprak's photo recap of chef Massimo Bruno's dinner at Cook.
Thursday, November 3
Birra del Borgo's Genziana is a beer you should drink immediately.
Make halal cart-style chicken and rice via this Serious Eats recipe.
Friday, November 4
Fond's Jessie Prawlucki is getting close with her Belle Cakery.
Birra opens along East Passyunk.
The Craft Beer Express is fast app roaching; here's your itinerary.
Adam Erace gets all Don McLean on us with his own apple pie recipe.
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