|
|
|
Archive: December, 2011
- It's a cute space with a cute name that has a cute story behind it, but Adam Erace feels there's room for improvement at Isabel, the Mexicali BYOB in Fairmount from the owners of Trio.
- In Feeding Frenzy: New opening Kris, word on up-and-comers Brick and In Riva and details on two more fast-approaching projects.
- In What's Cooking: Sixpoint at Garces Trading Co., a new org for food truck owners, Festivus for the rest of us at Square 1682 and more.
Partners Omer Taffet and Eugene Torsonov will open Toté (toe-tay), a gluten-free baking operation, this Friday at 9 a.m. Located in the middle of the Italian Market at Ninth and League (1024 S. Ninth St.), Toté will do a handful of sweets (cookies, muffins, etc.), but the real focus will be on hearty breads (multigrain, baguette, sandwich rolls) and savory pastries made with alternatives to wheat flour (sorghum, amaranth, teff, garbanzo, etc.). Torsonov himself has celiac disease, but Taffet points out that they're not catering exclusively to those whose bodies cannot process gluten. "It's not just a 'gluten-free' place," says Taffet, a cook who's worked at Susanna Foo, Davio's and Kanella. "It's all about alternative, wholesome grains. You don't have to be celiac to enjoy this." They'll offer coffee eventually, too; for now they'll operate from 9 to 5 every day but Monday.
Back on Nov. 28 we shared that Lemon Hill would be the name of the Fairmount restaurant spearheaded by Mitch Prensky of Supper and Mike Welsh of The Franklin. Today we've got a couple preliminary peeks at items off the opening cocktail list and menu. As we understand it, a good bit of Prensky's food (a little more neighborhoody/informal than the approach at Supper, but still creatively taut) will be designed around Lemon Hill's brick oven, a focal point of the kitchen. Food and cocktail details after the jump (Clover Clubs and patty melts!); we'll check back with more info soon.
UPDATE [12dec11]: Added Lemon Hill's logo courtesy of its Facebook page. Aside from snagging the opening date (Dec. 26), we chatted with Prensky for a sec to get some more info on the food approach. "I've been saying it's Supper's hipper little cousin," says the chef of the menu, a place for him to host ideas that wouldn't necessarily fit the aesthetic or price point of his South Street restaurant. The aforementioned brick oven will indeed play a big role — Prensky is exploring its application to dishes beyond pizzas and flatbreads, using it in preparing fish, meat and pasta, too.
'Tis the season of red, green and subdued blue. Brothers Eric and Ryan Berley of Franklin Fountain (116 Market St.) have breathed life back into Shane's Candies (110 Market St., 215-922-1048) in Old City. The formerly forest-green landmark, which the Shane family opened in 1911, saw its grand re-debut, as Shane Confectionery, on Monday.
Mayor Michael Nutter spoke at the ceremony, identifying the Berleys' nearby ice cream parlor as his personal dessert haven. Then, after a vintage baseball cheer ("Hip, hip, huzzah!"), Nutter and the brothers officially untied the ribbon. They didn't cut it — after all, you don't cut the ribbon off a box of chocolates.
This morning, Dan Gross’ gossip on the bitchiness between two famous Philly families, the Spains and the Borishes, culminated in the fact that the 10th-and-Walnut Street address that holds Marathon Grill now, as part of a settlement, belongs to the Spains. And Bernie Spain's wish was to let Barry Gutin and Larry Cohen of Cuba Libre (10 S. Second St.) and their company, Guest Counts, run the new restaurant. "We knew what was going on and have been involved in the new concept in recent months," says Gutin, who refused to get into the minutiae of what went down between the Borish and Spain camps. “It's not our fray to be in the middle of."
The growth of Philly's food-truck culture in the past calendar year is birthing collaboration — Andrew Gerson of the soon-to-launch Strada Pasta is working with other local street-food-entrepreneurs to found the Philly Food Truck Association, which will host its very first meeting next Monday, Dec. 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the Free Library (1901 Vine St.).
Caffé Storico, the new NYC venture from Stephen Starr and Jim Burke that we reported on in July, will open its doors in the New York Historical Society this Saturday, Dec. 10. The Venetian-inspired ciccheti, or small-plate, menu will feature several items straight from Philly's James, which Burke and wife Kristina closed in May — think signatures like pappardelle with duck ragu, chocolate and orange and risotto alla Kristina. Other dishes will include a dry-aged T-bone with patata al forno and broccolini; roasted sea bass with cannelloni beans and herb salad; and various Italian desserts. Cicchetti will run between $6 to $20, with larger plates in the $16-to-$42 range. They'll do lunch and dinner seven days a week.
Last time we mentioned Benny Lai's Grill Fish Café (814 S. 47th St.), the Vietnam owner was working with a feng shui master (aka his uncle) to determine the best possible time to open his small, liquor-licensed Southeast Asian seafood restaurant in West Philly (814 S. 47th St.). Looks like unc's hit on it — Lai will open the 30-seater, which is actually connected to his enormous Vietnam Café (816 S. 47th St.), on Jan. 14, a Saturday. Dinner only when it launches. Not much on the menu just yet but we'll surely update with info.
UPDATE [2:30 p.m.]: A couple quickies off the proposed opening menu — apps will include fried shrimp rolls, grilled squid and shrimp and steamed clams; entrée section will see dishes like clam noodles, tilapia, fluke, mixed seafood and a grilled whole fish (like the bronzino above) at market price.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Notes from the Weekend is a Monday 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.)
If you have ever read any of my cooking-related articles you know that, despite my general enthusiasm, I am very good at fouling everything up immensely, whether it is half-raw pizza dough or an entire crappy meal sullying the legacy of Auguste Escoffier. That's why I am happy to share this moron-proof chicken thigh "recipe" with you. I make this on the reg and recently typed the process out for a friend, so I figured I would share here, too. All you need is some pollo, a couple pantry ingredients, an oven and a pan that can go into it. Here's to a gloriously non-fucked-up dinner.
Photos: Drew Lazor
- barstool scientist
- Booze
- Brew Revue
- Chef Salad
- Closings
- Coffee
- Contests
- Dealage
- Dirty Dishes
- Don't Front
- Eat This Immediately
- Field Trip
- Food and Art
- Food and Holidays
- Food and Movies
- Food and Music
- Food and Politics
- Food and Sports
- Food and Web
- Food Blogs
- Food Books
- Food Events
- Food News
- Food TV
- Gifted
- Happy Hour Hopper
- How-To
- In Print
- Interview
- Meal Ticket
- Menu Time
- Not So Quickfire
- Notes from the Weekend
- On Wheels
- Openings
- Patio Drinking
- Philly Beer Week 2010
- Photos
- Private Chef POV
- Product Placement
- Recipes
- Snack Time
- Stiff Drank
- SUPPER
- Tea
- Testing
- Ticket Stubs
- Top Chef
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Video
- Weekly Candy
- Weird Regional Foods
- We're Here to Help
- Where'd We Eat?
- Drew Lazor's Ill-Advised Rant Factory
- Pregame
- Ill-Advised Ranting
- The Week Without Meat
- Philly Beer Week 2009
- Real Big
- Where'd I Eat Last Night?
- Top Chef Masters
- The Good Word
- Next Iron Chef
- Arterial Terrorism
- Food and Radio
