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Archive: March, 2012
Rachel Klein, vegan chef/professional sweetheart, will be moving the headquarters of her catering business Miss Rachel's Pantry into the recently vacated Cafe Giordino (1732-34 W. Passyunk Ave.) next month. "We'll run the catering out of the space, as well as have a little dining room for private parties and tasting dinners," she says.
Knot Just Furniture, a salvage carpentry division of North Philly's Atlas Wood Products (the builder is the husband of one of Klein's clients), is currently in the process of constructing a farmhouse table from reclaimed wood, the stage for said parties and dinners. It'll seat 12 to 16 for the multi-course vegan meals Klein says she'll run a few times a month on a reservation-only basis. Meanwhile, painting and other light renovations are on deck. "There's granite everywhere," she says of the former gelateria's Roman Forum-fabulous digs. "We're gonna have to work around that."
Keep tabs on the progress on Klein's blog. She'll be posting photos of the transformation.
- Ever wish you could drink your cheesesteak instead of chewing it? Me neither. Apparently, Kirk LaVecchia has — the South Jersey brewer has a cheesesteak-flavored beer in the works. So far, the ingredient list includes boiled meat and old hops. Sounds interesting.
- Moving on to a more sophisticated Garden State inebreant, WHYY and the Wine School of Philadelphia teamed up to host a tasting comparing wines of France to wines of New Jersey. It seems the growing conditions in NJ are similar to those in Bordeaux. They blind-sipped six different wines, three from each region, and then rated. Check out the link to see which region took the cake.
- Let's transition from refined to uncouth. A billboard recently appeared in Chicago claiming "Hot Dogs Cause Butt Cancer" via the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council is boiling mad at the "outrageous [and] inflammatory" claim. Reps of each group were last seen throwing case studies at each other's heads.
Tomorrow, March 20, is the first day of spring, so that means it's also free Rita's Water Ice day! For the 20th year in a row, Rita's is spending the day giving away one free regular water ice to every customer across the country. In honor of this momentous anniversary, Rita's will debut its first national television commercial. Produced Philly's Shooters Inc. and Trenton's EFK Group, the spots features the whole Cool Treats gang, whose members include The Great Blendini, Buster Custard, Jil-lati and Mista Misto. We don't know about you guys, but we sure can't wait to sit down in front of the TV in the rec room with a cherry cup and tune in.
View galleryThe Local 44-associated bottle shop we first mentioned nearly a year ago is ready for action — Brendan Hartranft and Leigh Maida will open the doors to the long-in-the-works addition, just a few feet east of the Spruce Street side of L44 (4333 Spruce St.), today at 3 p.m. To incentivize: One free cask pour of Yards ESA per visitor.
"People think of Local 44 when they think of beer in this neighborhood," says Maida, so opening a retail space was a logical move for them. Their cold case features upward of 500 mix-a-six choices, and beer geeks will flip over the library-style large-format selection, situated up a short set of stairs in the back. (We spy Jolly Pumpkin La Roja, Dogfish Head Noble Rot, Kriek de Ranke, Lost Abbey Serpent Stout and Aventinus among the options.) There are a few bar seats up near the register for drinkers to crack open their purchases, or have a few glasses off the Local 44 beer engine, which has been routed this-a-way to provide shoppers a fresh-poured respite.
The bottle shop will be open Sunday to Thursday from noon to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to midnight. The phone number, awesomely, is 215-222-CANS.
Monday, March 12
Nom Nom Ramen is opening very soon in Center City.
John's Roast Pork is adding Saturday hours again.
Pics of the crazy March 11 fire at The Sidecar. Good to know they're back open.
South Philly's Café con Chocolate has closed (we're hearing temporarily?).
Check out menus for Square Peg, Matt Levin's new restaurant with the owners of Cuba Libre.
Great photo recap of Fair Food's Brewer's Plate.
Tuesday, March 13
Jeff Froehler is the new chef at Barclay Prime.
Wednesday, March 14
The Kitchen Nightmares episode featuring West Philly's Zocalo airs soon.
Talula's Garden launches brunch.
Thursday, March 15
Eat like a line cook late-night at Jamonera.
The crew at Stateside is making Negronis from scratch. So cool.
Peter McAndrews has opened his new Roman trattoria Popolino in NoLibs.
Friday, March 16
More Negroni news! They're on tap at Alla Spina.
Adam Erace provides the full 35-ingredient recipe for the le virtu soup he wrote about in print.
Thank you for all the great feedback I've received so far on this week's piece on ramen on Philadelphia. It was certainly one of the most fun food articles I've written in a long time. I did so many interviews and so much research and ate so much soup that a bunch of fascinating/funny tidbits, thoughts and quotes ended up not making it into the piece. Here are some in no particular order.
In this week’s City Paper, Francis Cratil Cretarola, co-owner of S.P. cucina Le Virtù (1927 E. Passyunk Ave.), gave us the skinny on the spoonable Abruzzese ritual from which his restaurant takes its name. Made in the eastern-central Italian region every May 1 from a few early spring vegetables and a lot of dried goods left over from winter, the le virtù recipe that chef Joe Cicala prepares on Passyunk was way too long for the paper. We published an abridged version, but thanks to the magic of the internet, we can also provide the full formula in all its 35-ingredient splendor. Intrepid enough to try it at home? As they say in South Philly, God bless.
North Broad's Alla Spina (1410 Mt. Vernon St.) already has a serious craft-draft situation on its hands, but beverage manager Steve Wildy is furthering the draft-pulled Italiano effect by throwing Negronis — the sneaky-strong straight-booze cocktail loved by many, including former Inky scribe Rick Nichols — on tap. They're mixing up 15-liter batches of Bluecoat, Campari and Cinzano sweet vermouth, plus a bit of bitters, and pulling glasses on the rocks for $11.
It's been a Negroni-centric week here on Meal Ticket — you see Adam Erace's piece on the made-from-scratch version at South Philly's Stateside?
Photo: Courtesy of Alla Spina
On Monday we got the drop on putting up menus for Square Peg — chef Matt Levin's high-end comfort food salon with Barry Gutin and Larry Cohen (Cuba Libre, 32 Degrees) at the one-time home of Marathon Grill at 10th and Walnut. The menus read like a delight, with all-day breakfasts, meatball sandwiches and meatloaf with smashed potatoes (both with Levin's own beef mix) and a daily plate selection including items Levin brought from Adsum, such as homemade pierogies fried chicken.
Now, we snagged Levin, who'll launch Square Peg with a series of soft-open dinners on March 21 (soft-opening lunch starts in April), for a Q&A. He's been busy this week playing with his brand-new fryer, taste-testing spiked-up milkshakes and getting his feet wrapped. You'll find out below what that means after the jump.
Last night marked the debut of Popolino (501 Fairmount Ave.), the new BYO from most-Italian-Irishman-we-know Peter McAndrews. Translating to "commoner" in the Roman dialect, Popolino is a trattoria focused on both recognizable dishes from The City of Seven Hills and age-of-empires preparations reinterpreted. "It felt like Rome," McAndrews says of the former Lafayette Bistro's existing interior columns and touches. (Gesturing toward a mythological relief on the wall: "Look at that, freakin' Zeus!") It's the unrecognizable-to-most ancient era of Roman cooking that excites McAndrews the most. "You would be surprised how much food you can actually do when you're doing Roman," he says.
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