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Archive: March, 2012
Today was the last day for Strange Brew Coffee (1321 S. Second St.), the Counter Culture-brewing café in the Pennsport 'hood. Bobby Dombrowski opened the shop in May of 2011. He says he'll continue to run his Facebook page and retail coffee beans by the pound.
Photo: Drew Lazor
View galleryWhat began with $500 and a juicer has turned into a storefront in Midtown Village. Jennifer Richmond and Joel Odhner quietly opened Jar Bar (113 S. 12th St.) early this week without so much as a street sign out front to let people know. (Meal Ticket first mentioned it in June.)
Richmond and Odhner are the creators of Catalyst Cleanse, a line of fresh-squeezed rejuvenating juices distributed locally via designated pickup locations. Today, their beverages are shipped to customers all over the United States. "Folks [are] ordering from California," says Jar Bar staffer/right-hand man Calvin. "You're telling me with all those eggheads in California, you can't find some good juices out there? Nope. People are paying $180 just to ship [Catalyst Cleanse] juices that already cost $180. People tell us we've got the best juice in the U.S."
Rich Landau hasn't eaten meat in something like 20 years, but that doesn't mean he doesn't think about it. Daily. "If I were to eat meat tomorrow, it would be one of those giant corned beef specials from Famous," says the Vedge chef, indicating the preferred height of his sandwich (tall) with his hands. He's got the next best vegan thing going, though, with his spice-cured carrots, a setup Landau describes as "a warming cold dish." That warmth arrives in the form of strong seasoning — slender Lancaster baby carrots are roasted on low heat in an elaborate spice blend (mustard, fennel and celery seeds, clove, cumin, paprika, etc.), cooled, then quick-smoked over mesquite and applewood chips. Emboldened with a pastrami-like personality, the righteous root veg stands in for salt-cured flesh. The accompanying buzz-up of white beans, mustard and sauerkraut comes off like a tangy Eastern-Euro hummus; stack it all up on slices of house-baked rye and you've got a smart-as-hell vegan dish that eats like Landau's Jewish-deli pipe dream. "This hits home for me," says Landau. Us too. Eat this immediately.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Dapper Dog duo Seth Russell and Harry Stormes are back in action tonight after a several-month cold-weather hiatus. They'll be slanging their wieners starting at 9 p.m. from the corner of Second and Poplar. "[We're] sticking to our classics but dressing them up a bit, and keeping some delicious weekly specials," says Russell. These guys have been cranking it out since 2010, before Hot Diggity!, Underdogs and many mobile competitors dropped anchor in Philly.
Photo: Drew Lazor
As you may have noticed, I really like the El Bar (1356 N. Front St.). Part of the draw of the Fishtown watering hole is how cheap it is, thrifty pricing that extends to what they call the Kensington Happy Meal. For a measly $5, you get two hot dogs, a PBR tall boy, a bag of chips and a prize. The idea originates with one of the bartenders, whom everyone refers to as Fish. "A lot of construction workers come in here for lunch and happy hour. They're always ordering hot dogs and beer, so [Fish] figured, 'Why not put it all together and make it a special?'" says Christi Finley, who's worked at El Bar for more than three years. The bar has been offering this special (not to be confused with the Citywide) for a few months and plans to keep it going until interest dies down. The deal stops at 7 p.m., so if you're planning to make a night of it, get there early.
Photo: Alexandra Weiss
Amis (412 S. 13th St.) had to push its first-Monday Industry Night back a week for March, giving the Belgian-beer mafiosi who staff Monk's, Fergie's and Belgian Café ample time to navigate their cellars and blow dust off the good stuff. We hear Monk's capo Tom Peters will be showing up this Monday, March 12 with a cache of large-format bottles of who-knows-what, complementing Dock Street drafts, Sly Fox cans, Italian large-formats via Alla Spina and the "Red Velvet," a beer cocktail combining Monk's Sour Ale, San Pellegrino Chinotto and creme de violette.
WHERE YOU AT? I stopped at Stateside (1536 E. Passyunk Ave.) during that unseasonably warm spell a couple weeks ago. The bartenders had flung the windows wide open and the steady din of cars stopping, starting and rumbling around the Passyunk Fountain provided some good ol' South Philly background noise as a friend and I chatted over half-price drafts.
Here's some sudden unexpected news for the Philly cocktail set — Phoebe Esmon, who's been responsible for overseeing the cocktail side of the beverage program at The Farmers' Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.) since the joint opened a year ago, is gone. And her fiancé and partner Christian Gaal is gone, too. "The couple has a desire to work jointly, in full collaboration, on a beverage program," reads a statement Esmon blasted out, "a desire that their present position did not fulfill." This means that Sixth-and-Spring Garden tiki bar project we wrote about in December will no longer have their stamp on it. Is it off the table altogether? Have a request in to F-Cab for more info on who's in charge moving forward and will update when we hear.
UPDATE [10:15 p.m.]: "We have been looking around the country for a new leader of our cocktail program and will announce our plans soon," says F-Cab partner Matt Scheller via email. "Any future plans that we have are not affected by their departure."
Hot with the health-conscious for more than a few years, kombucha is a fermented tea produced using a SCOBY, or symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (the floaty thing pictured above). While many make it at home or buy it by the bottle at specialty stores, Earth Bread + Brewery (7136 Germantown Ave.) has decided to brew its own.
There is shameful, preservative-laden real estate in my heart reserved for both Doritos and Taco Bell, which is why my ears perked up at the gross/intoxicating news TB now offers a taco shell literally made out of Doritos. A most evil union. Only time and childish overconsumption of whiskey will tell if I'll end up getting popped in the mouth by of these sodium-haymaker beasts — "completely surprising, yet somehow inevitable" is the Bell's official condescending-as-fuck tagline — but I'm curious which Meal Ticket readers have crushed one already. Need thoughts. I know you kids are out there, mulling over your entry in our High Times cookbook contest (deadline's 5 p.m.!), so speak up in the comments.
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