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Archive: March, 2011
Brew (1900 S. 15th St.) commemorates 12 months in official beer-boutique business this coming Monday, March 21. (Remember all the insanecrazybananas shit leading up to this point? We salute you, Brew.) And they're celebrating in style with a very limited tapping of Pliny the Younger, aka THE MOST AMAZING BEER IN THE HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM OMG IT'S SO GOOD ONE SIP CAN CURE OSTEOPOROSIS AND A SINGLE DROP CAN BRING A DEAD WOODLAND CREATURE BACK TO LIFE the very highly regarded cult-following brew from Russian River. They're busting the beer out at 9 p.m. on the 21st, selling 8-ounce pours for $8 each. Obviously it's going to kick fast, but here's a little tip to make sure you get yours ...
The Curtis Center's Cooperage (137 S. Seventh St.), is rolling out a restaurant industry night on the third Monday of each month, beginning next week on March 21. (Now all we need is two more spots to take up the second-Monday and last-Monday mantles — Amis has got first-Monday duty covered — and we'll have a full-on biz-night marathon on the reg, yeah?)
Chef Ben Martin will offer free food from 7 to 8 p.m., plus drink specials until last call at 2 a.m. This Monday, he'll do gratis pork on weck — think the famous beef/caraway-seeded roll sandwiches native to Western New York, just swap the meat for roasted hog basted in Rogue's John John Dead Guy Ale. (After 8 p.m., they'll run $5 a pop.) Booze specials will include $4 drafts of the aforementioned beer (the Oregon brewery takes their flagship ale and barrel-ages it) and $4 pours of Four Roses bourbon. You do not need a bar/restaurant paystub to get into Cooperage industry night; just show up.
Got an extra $4995 lying around? (And, really, who among us doesn’t?) There’s a seat waiting for you on a six-night food-stuffed journey to Fraciacorta, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, this September.
"Our goal was to design an authentic and intimate culinary experience, with lots of laughter and memories to last a lifetime," say the trip's hosts, Osteria chef Jeff Michaud (right) and his wife, Claudia. So accommodations are at a restored agriturismo — that's a working farmhouse that doubles as a small hotel — and all meals, whether at Michelin-starred Frosio or at Claudia's mama's house, aim to connect the travelers to the people that produce them. All food, wine, hands-on cooking classes with Michaud and day trips (Venice, Verona, Parma) are included in the cost of the trip. Enviously gander at the full itinerary after the jump, and if you’ve got the green, make reservations now — there are only 10 spots available — by emailing cibus.italy@gmail.com or calling 267-693-5313. Then let us know if you need company. Meal Ticket's escort rates are very reasonable.
View galleryWe're always interested in what Christopher Kearse is messing with, his current rendition on foie gras being no exception. (See our February feature.) The chef de cuisine at Pumpkin's latest take on fatty liver is a far cry from the classic seared-off/compote/toast points setup, focusing on the flavors of pistachio, beet and anise. Kearse roasts foie, then purées it and whips it over ice (a la whipped cream) to get it to a nice and silky texture. He then uses gelatin and agar-agar on a stock of fennel and Pernod (there's some serious anise for ya), which he wraps around the pure foie mousse to create the long, thin cylinders you see above. He combines the formed-out log o' foie with candied pistachio nuts, a pistachio purée, sections of raw beet, little dots of licorice purée and the stalk, frond and bulb of a baby fennel plant. Betcha never had foie like this.
When I got the word that Stephen Starr was opening a ballroom space in Center City, the first thing that ran through my mind was how the restaurateur made his bones in concert promotion in the '70s and '80s. Now he's opening The Arts Ballroom at 1324 Locust, a stately manor with the ability to serve/seat 250 in its grand hall and 160 in its ballroom. "I love the architecture, that was the draw," says Starr, who credits Simon Powles, president of his catering arm, with discovering the property. "It really was a little bit like a secret space," adds Starr of the building, which will service downtown weddings, bar mitzvahs, Sweet 16s and all manner of parties and gatherings right off Broad. (There's already some direct competition in the area, as the Kimmel Center is reconfiguring its restaurant and event spaces in coalition with a catering division from Wolfgang Puck.)
Extremely close by, Starr and longtime culinary director Chris Painter are working on Il Pittore at the one-time Deux Cheminées location at 12th and Locust. A towering space indeed — especially in comparison to where the restaurant was supposed to land (the former Ansill at Third and Bainbridge). When I joked with Starr that the space was rather Fall of the House of Usher-esque, he laughed. "Yeah, that’s been our main goal in terms of design there, to lighten up the place," he says. "Make it unpretentious, younger and not so uptight and stuffy." To complement Painter’s delicate Italian fare, Starr has brought in Roman & Williams, the NYC interior design firm co-founded by Hollywood set designers Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, best known for Manhattan's Standard and the Ace hotels. "It's a bit of a serious-looking space that needs a brighter, hipper look," adds Starr. Il Pittore should be ready to go by August of this year.
We're obviously children of Generation Blog here at Meal Ticket, but you absolutely MUST pick up our brand-new spring food issue IN PRINT in addition to perusing it on the web — it's one beautiful book, thanks to the hard work of CP's Reseca Peskin, Allie Rossignol, Alyssa Grenning and Neal Santos, not to mention illustrator Joel Kimmel, who did both the outside and inside covers. Cop yours immediately!
Here's a rundown of what we've got for you inside.
Leave it to the always innovative James (823 S. Eighth St.) to take beer dinners to beyond the simple pouring-and-pairing formula. Ardent fans of Stillwater Artisanal Ales, Jim and Kristina Burke reliably stock the brewery’s sudsy wares behind the sleek candlelit bar. (First time I tasted Stillwater’s haunting Cellar Door was here.) Last year, James and Stillwater did a beer dinner together; this year, they’ve taken it a step further, with sous chef/home-brewer Josh Evans collaborating with Stillwater's Brian Stumke on a house beer, Saison du James, brewed with cardamom leaves, yuzu and basil blossoms. The limited-edish SdJ drops on April 27, debuting alongside olive oil-poached Scottish salmon with chickpea mousse and garam masala-spiced carrot emulsion — first in a six-courser paired with Stillwater's rarest specimens. The dinner is $85 a head, reservations a must. Check out the full menu, with pairings, after the jump.
Photo: Baltimore Business Journal
Less than a week ago, Meal Ticket shared details on The Farmers' Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.), the new Center City spot from the crew that owns East Falls' Fork & Barrel, plus Bethlehem's Tap & Table and Bookstore Speakeasy. And just like that, they're ready to go — we swung by earlier today to find staffers deep in training mode, prepping to swing their doors open tomorrow, March 17. Hell of a turnaround, especially considering the interior was still very much Joe Pesce's less than two months back.
Spring is on its way in, and as temperatures rise, foot traffic in Capogiro locations follows suit. While most visitors might be seeking out their gelato, they're also busting out a new panini menu for spring, making Capo a one-stop-shop for a light meal.
The new menu (available at Capo's 20th Street, 13th Street and UPenn locations) offers lots of options for omnivores, like a roast beef Mexican torta, a chorizo, muenster and red pepper combo on a baguette. They've kept vegetarians and comfort-seeking students in mind, too, with a customizable grilled cheese option — your choice of bread, cheese, add-ons like apple and roasted pepps and your choice of bacon and ham. (The more traditional Italian options are still available, too.) Peep the full menu after the jump.
Each month, Joe Cicala, chef at South Philly’s Le Virtu (1927 E. Passyunk Ave.) shares his kitchen one of his Italian mentors. The second in a series of these guest chef dinners goes down Wed., March 30 at 7 p.m. with Domenico Cornacchia, chef and owner of Assaggi Mozzarella Bar in Bethesda, Maryland. Cicala and Cornacchia worked together previously at D.C.'s Cafe Milano, and the pair is planning to rekindle that chemistry with seven dishes inspired by Cornacchia’s hometown of Valle Castellana, in the Teramo province of Abruzzo. The feast is so full of spring harbingers — lamb liver, fava beans — it makes us want to pull up a premature chair on Virtu’s Passyunk patio (it opens May 5). It’s $70 a head, including Teramo wines. Full menu after the jump.
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