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Archive: May, 2011
Every second Saturday of the month, Nodding Head (1516 Sansom St.) hosts a special tasting highlighting one-offs, rarities and other interesting specimens from the brewpub's on-premises tanks. This coming Saturday, May 14, the hop-obsessed should swing by between 3 and 6 p.m. to take advantage of NH's hoptastic draft lineup. Check out what brewers Gordon Grubb and Mike Fava have in the works after the jump. (Free admission; pay as you go for beers.) Meet you there for few rounds of Goldihops.
Chick-fil-A has been lambasted for, among other things, its right-wing position against same-sex marriage, donations to anti-abortion groups and — worst of all — consistently denying the good people of earth Polynesian Sauce on the Sabbath. But no matter how you feel about the chicken chain personally, there’s no denying it knows its way around a nugget. The staff at our local outpost (2204 S. Columbus Blvd.) is alarmingly friendly and efficient, and the nutritional numbers support the fantasy in our heads that Chick-fil-A is the “healthy” alternative in the icky, nebulous realm of fast food.
To simplify the process of local food discovery, the Great Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation has reached into the interactive/edible web realm with its own unique presence within the grub-sharing world of Foodspotting, the mobile platform that encourages users to upload snapped photos of their eats to share with other members.
Foodspotting, which also recently partnered with Visit Bucks County, has launched a Philly-based initiative enabling users to search through a dozen custom food guides, like Philly Homegrown (centered on locally sourced ingredients), Philly Te Ama (which focuses on Latin-influenced spots), and Burger Bonanza, where you'll find photos and info on the most coveted burgers in the city. The launch will jump off with Visit Philly's With Love Foodspotting contest, which requires members to "spot" (aka order, photograph and eat) each dish detailed in the "Famous Philly Flavors" guide. Eleven winners will be randomly selected, with one grand prize of a night in a Philly luxury hotels, a $100 gift card from Garces Restaurant Group and two gift certificates for the Flavors of Philly Food Tour. Ten runners-up will receive one gift certificate for the tour. All winners will be selected on May 25. Peep all contest rules and details here.
Photo: uwishunu.com
Got some cheesy tricks up your sleeve? The Food Experiments, an ongoing series of cookoffs that "celebrate the home chef," is visiting Philly next month for a fromage-centric cooking competition. Organizers Nick Suarez and Theo Peck hail from Brooklyn and have grown their brand into a national tour attracting competitive amateur cooks.
An old hometown friend of mine has made it to just outside Center City Philadelphia — talkin' 'bout Little Caesar's. With existing locations down on Island Avenue, up on Ogontz and Hunting Park avenues and on Levick Street, the Detroit-native pizzeria and international franchise has a new location on Girard, a few blocks east of Broad (1100 W. Girard Ave.). Caesar's pies may not be high-brow, but in the most dire of times, their $5, 14-inch "Hot-N-Ready" can't be beat. Also available: deep-dish and personal pie options and "crazy bread" with "crazy sauce" (translation: breadsticks and marinara). Peetza peetza!
Cheers to Grub Street and The AV Club for shouting out our tasting event, discussion panel and Meal Ticket magazine launch party, going down tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at Trust (249 Arch St.). The price of your ticket — available here, and at the door tonight too — gets you tastes from more than 20 food/drink exhibitors (check out the list here), plus the chance to check out a restaurant business panel co-moderated by Peter Van Allen of Philadelphia Business Journal (our media partner for the event) and myself. Providing insights on the business side of the food industry will be Michael Schulson (Sampan, Izakaya), Moon Krapugthong (Chabaa Thai, Yanako), Mitch Prensky (Supper, Global Dish Caterers) and Dana Herbert (Desserts by Dana).
The evening serves as a kickoff for the full-color Meal Ticket magazine (sneak peek of the cover above) that's coming out in all copies of City Paper tomorrow, May 12, and in all copies of Philadelphia Business Journal next Friday, May 20. Get your tix and we'll see you there!
Gil Ortale, who’s been hawking his maddeningly delicious Market Day Canelé at the Headhouse farmers market (Second and Lombard) for a few years now, has added tarts to his repertoire for the 2011 season. "It was at a customer’s suggestion I started baking these savory tarts," Ortale says. "Over the winter, I practiced. I made a lot of tarts — and a lot of mistakes."
All the accidents must be out of Ortale's system, because the tart we snagged on Sunday ($15 and 8 inches across) was pretty perfect, a flaky study in pastry executed with PA-grown Daisy Flour and a fat blend of local butter and Sonny D'Angelo lard. Set like gems into golden Taproot Farm egg custard, the fillings change every week but are always "classic combinations made with local stuff," like Linden Dale chevre, Livengood's asparagus and D’Angelo's boar bacon. (A fleeting combo we wish we could have tried: guanciale, spring garlic and fiddleheads.) "The idea is to tie it into what’s available at the market," says Ortale.
So what can you expect from Market Day this week? Ortale isn’t exactly sure yet, but teases with two words we always like to hear: "Tasso ham." Eat this immediately!
Photo: Adam Erace
Partners Eyal Aranya and Yoni Nadav debuted Burger.Org, their all-organic burger joint (326 South St., 267-639-3425), this past Saturday. (Meal Ticket first mentioned the project back in February, when it was known as O Burger — a trademark issue led to the partners switching up the name.)
Burger.Org looks to satisfy more than just the beef eaters — Aranya and Nadav's menu, which tops out at $9.99, offers free-range turkey, free-range chicken, fish and fully veggie options. Specialties include "El Mariachi" (any burger topped with pico, guac, raw onion, tomato, lettuce and chipotle), a vegetarian "breakfast" choice (topped with egg, cheese and spinach) and the option to miniaturize any three of the aforementioned patties. Fries (plain, spicy, truffled or sweet potato), salads, smoothies (fat-free organic yogurt), organic ice cream shakes and a selection of organic sodas round out the eats.
They're going for the late-night South Street, post-TLA show crowd with the hours: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday to Saturday. Peek below the jump for some shots of the super-vibrant interior from Adrian Pelliccia.
For the past four years, Shannon Dougherty and Liz Petersen of Liberties Walk's A Full Plate (1040 N. American St.) have thrown their wildly popular rib cookoff in September — but now the duo is entering the Crock Pot fray with the first-ever A Full Plate Chili Cook-Off, scheduled for Saturday, June 11 at the beautiful Liberty Lands Park (926 N. American St.).
Petersen says AFP employees and customers alike have discussed the idea of a chili cook-off for some time, but they finally decided to pull the trigger for 2011 — the competition, with both pro and amateur brackets, will precede the Northern Liberties Music Festival. (The rib-off, of course, is still a go.) Admission ($12 for adults, $6 for kids) will allow attendees to sample chilis in three categories: Classic Red, White and Vegan. Teams must pay $25 to compete, and there will be first- and second-place prizes in each category, in addition to a "People's Choice" award. They're still rounding up the judging panel, but as of right now it features folks like Anna Goldfarb of Shmitten Kitten, Taylor from Mac & Cheese, the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association prez Matt Ruben and yours truly.
To enter, you'll need to fill out the entry form after the jump (click to enlarge). For additional info, call 215-627-4068 or email info@afullplate.net. Deadline for registration is Friday, June 3, at 4 p.m.
A few weeks back we told you about supper club concept La Copine from former Barbuzzo sous chef Nikki Hill and girlfriend Claire Wadsworth. That’s still happening, Hill reports, with June dates being set for al fresco dinners at Garden Variety (Second and Poplar), the outdoor event space formerly part of the defunct Arbol Cafe. Meanwhile, the girls have already launched a mobile arm of the L.C. brand, La Copine Brunch Cart.
“We had our soft opening of the cart last Sunday,” Hill says. “It was a perfect day to get our bearings and help us make some small changes before the real public opening this coming weekend.” The La Copine Brunch Cart will be parked at Garden Variety alongside the Dapper Dog dudes every Saturday and Sunday from (approximately) 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the summer. Peep the menu after the jump (click to enlarge); suffice to say, we’re already dreaming about the homemade hash brown with spicy ketchup and the prosciutto/fig flatbread streaked with lavender honey gastrique.
"It is a great opportunity for La Copine to demonstrate what we are about," says Hill. "Cooking outdoors is totally exciting, something completely different than what I’m used to in a restaurant kitchen."
Photo: Courtesy of La Copine
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