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Archive: December, 2011
Rob LaScala of Seventh and Chestnut's LaScala's opened twin restaurants Rocchino's and Azione in Old City shortly after Thanksgiving. The adjacent and connected spaces tout distinct approaches — Azione (241 Chestnut St.) does family-style Italian-American dining at big tables (gone are most of the neon-glowy club touches of Dolce), while Rocchino's (239 Chestnut St.; formerly Paradigm) deals in coal-oven pizzas, small-plate antipasti and hearty pasta plates. (The exposed brick, bar setup, granite pizza enclave and oven on this side are all brand-new.) Chef Joe Nocella is running both operations here; he's also in charge of the kitchen at LaScala's. Busy dude. Both menus are after the jump (click to enlarge). Food pictured above, in order:
- Gorgonzola Dolce pizza: arugula, prosciutto, orange blossom honey
- Pappardelle with bolognese
- Spaghetti with San Marzano tomato sauce, olive oil, ricotta salata
- Roasted beets with goat cheese, arugula pesto, toasted pistachios and saba
Both concepts have bars, offering 30 wines by the glass (lots of Euro inclusion); Rocchino's takes the Italiano thing a step further, pouring beers from the boot (Del Borgo, Del Ducato, Moretti, Peroni) on draft. Both restaurants are open for lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Happy hour runs weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m., featuring $3 Peroni and Moretti, $4 house wines, $5 cocktails and $6 Margherita pizzas.
The latest word is "late spring" from Aaron Ultimo for he and wife Elizabeth's sequel to Ultimo Coffee (1900 S. 15th St.) at 2149 Catharine Street. (We first talked about it in May.) The space, just north of Graduate Hospital fave the The Sidecar (2201 Christian St.), will feature 1,000 square feet for a café on the ground floor, outfitted with seating for 40-plus and extra space for Ultimo to experiment. "We want to try to incorporate a few new brewing methods," he says. "We'll still have pourover, but possibly also siphon brewing and Eva Solo," a Danish company that uses carafes you strain rather than press to produce "chewier" brews. Food will the same ready-made goodies the Newbold cafe carries: Plenty sandwiches, Coco Love cookies, Betty's Tasty Buttons cupcakes, etc.
- Plenty of us watched him win Top Chef on TV — but how would Kevin Sbraga fare opening his very own restaurant? Adam Erace leaves Sbraga confident that it's on its way to becoming one of the best restaurants in Philly.
- Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby of Vedge earned honors in the Food category of our 2011 Big Vision Issue. Meet the rest of the winners here.
- In Feeding Frenzy: West Philly's new Guacamole Mex-Grill, Chestnut Hill's new Heirloom, 86'd Marathon Grills and more opening tidbits.
- In What's Cooking: Drink to T-Rex at The Franklin on Sunday, an Even Jewisher Christmas celebration at Zahav, a real-deal seven fishes at Amis and more.
- Go see The Really Cooks, Philly's only food rock band, perform at The HeadHouse (122 Lombard St.) tonight.
Photo: Neal Santos
The sober reality of the bar and restaurant industry is that most people who work in it do not have access to healthcare benefits — which makes taking measures against any type of serious injury or illness a stiff challenge. This is where the quick thinking and generosity of in-the-business peers comes in. Phoebe Esmon, head bartender at the Farmers' Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.) and president of the Philly chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild, has organized a benefit for her barback Jim Edwards, a Philly restaurant veteran who was recently diagnosed with cancer. This Sunday, Dec. 18, from 7 to 11 p.m., visit Khyber Pass Pub (56 S. Second St.) and take advantage of liquor, cocktail and beer specials — DonQ Rum, St. Germain, Philly Distilling and F-Cab itself are confirmed participants so far — raising money to help defray Edwards' medical bills. Cheers to a speedy recovery.
Longtime pals Lee Styer, Jessie Prawlucki and Tory Keomanivong of Fond (1617 E. Passyunk Ave.) and Jon Cichon and Adam Lazarick of Lacroix (Rittenhouse Hotel, 210 W. Rittenhouse Square) will team up on Jan. 23 for a truffle dinner at the South Philly BYOB. We've already got our calendars marked. The $125 dinner will comprise five courses (plus a coconut sorbet intermezzo) and feature the king of the mushroom realm as an accent for squab, sweetbreads, gnocchi and kampachi. Check out the full menu after the jump, and call Fond for reservations.
Jake's Wayback Burgers, which opened its first city-limits restaurant in the N'East (9173 Roosevelt Blvd.) in November after launching several successful spots in the Philly 'burbs, is hosting a grand opening event for the location this Saturday, Dec. 17, starting at 10 a.m. They're giving away a bunch of pricey prizes (iPads, TVs, cameras, etc.) via a raffle, in addition to Jake's gift cards and the right to burgers, shakes and hot dogs for a full year. There will be free grub at the event too, of course. Connecticut-based Jake's, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, has 10 Pennsylvania outposts.
View galleryMichael Dolich's Four Worlds Bakery and the Whispering Leaves tea shop have a new neighbor — Guacamole Mex-Grill, which the de Luna clan opened yesterday at 4612 Woodland Avenue in West/Southwest-ish Philly. The restaurant, which we first told you about in May 2011, is a small family operation — brother Rodolfo de Luna is in charge of the kitchen, cranking out recognizable northern and central Mexican specialties like chile rellenos, carne asada, tamales and empanadas. (The de Lunas are originally from Houston by way of Mexico; they gradually trickled over to the East Coast after brother Rafael began studying for an advanced degree at Temple.) Guacamole is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Notes from the Weekend is a Monday late Tuesday feature (sorry!) 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.)
The Farmers' Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.), purveyor of all things excellent to drink, is hosting the Italian Beer & Food Experience this Wednesday. For $90, you’ll get nine rare Italian beers (many on draft) from the likes of Del Borgo, Del Ducato and Almond '22, a microbrewery making chestnut-honey barleywine and pink-peppercorn IPA in the mountains of Abruzzo. Matthias Neidhart, who pioneered bringing Boot-bred beers to the States via his B. United International importers, will be on hand at the dinner to discuss the beers, as well as the brewing revolution in Italy. Meanwhile, chef de cuisine/paesan’ Steve Forte will be cooking housemade cotechino, gnocchi with lamb ragu, a take on vitello tonnato and more Italian plates to pair with the brews. Full food/drink details after the jump; call F-Cab at 215-923-1113 for reservations.
Back in February of this year, we mentioned that Spruce Street Espresso (1101 Spruce St.) would be opening a second coffee shop at 1201 Spruce, just one block away from their Counter Culture-brewing neighborhood hub. That new space will open to the public on Wednesday, Dec. 28, but it'll be more than just SSE Numero Dos.
"The idea has evolved — the project started as a café, but it's now transitioned into a restaurant," says Spruce Street's Faith Ortiz. That restaurant, called Odd Fellows Café after the historic property in which it resides, will open early (7 a.m.) for morning coffee service, but come Jan. 5, it'll also offer contemporary Latin food for lunch and dinner courtesy of Jorge Reyes, an El Vez alum who currently cooks at Collingswood's Casona.
Ortiz adds that Spruce Street will shut down temporarily on Dec. 27, right before Odd Fellows' debut, for two to three months of renovations, including the installation of new windows and a redesign of the interior.
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