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Archive: July, 2011
- Despite what it sounds like, Mexican barbacoa is far from just a south-of-the-border translation of American barbecue — it's a time-honored and time-consuming process that produces some of the best meat you'll ever eat. Brion Shreffler tracks the tradition all the way from Puebla to Philly.
- Feel the need to wear a paper hat, get sloppy on aquavit and crack a bunch of chilled crayfish? Brian Wilensky runs down exactly when and where you make this happen.
- In Feeding Frenzy: Word on Raw at the Piazza, Zeppoli, Bubba's Texas BBQ and more Philly restaurant tidbits.
- In What's Cooking: Details on tonight's Bell's Brewery dinner at Pub & Kitchen, the Food Trust's next Night Market and more.
Photo: Neal Santos
"Honest" Tom McCusker, whose tortilla-wrapped mobile exploits we've followed quite closely here at Meal Ticket, says he's aiming for mid to late August for for the official opening of Honest Tom's Taco Shop, a permanent operation (261 S. 44th St.) on the same West Philly strip as Local 44 and Tampopo. "We'll start out doing just nights to keep the truck moving," says McCusker. "Once it gets a little bit colder, we'll shut the truck down and try breakfast, lunch and dinner, with the truck coming back in the spring."
In addition to his signature tacos, McCusker will be rolling up burritos and hopefully serving tamales out of the new takeout-only space, too. The building has a 600-square-foot second floor that McCusker plans on eventually taking over to accommodate eaters who BYO from Local 44's impending bottle shop. By next spring, McCusker hopes, he'll have enough juice to renovate the Honest Tom's truck to create enough room for it to offer burritos in addition to tacos.
We've fielded plenty of queries about making the simple heirloom tomato salad featured in the most recent edition of Notes from the Weekend, so here y'all go. It's so easy it's not even really a recipe, to be honest; the most effort goes into the tarragon vinaigrette, which we snagged out of food writer Jessica Strand's cute little book on salad dressings, entitled Salad Dressings. For the rest — just halve up a pint of so of heirloom cherry tomatoes, peel and chop a large cucumber into chunks and add crumbled feta, salt and pepper to taste. Dress with the tarragon vin (recipe after the jump), toss and then eat that shiz.
The Restaurant Associates group will shut down its Gardenia in the Philadelphia Art Alliance (251 S. 18th St.) after brunch this Sunday to make way for a new concept set for an autumn launch. The still-unnamed space will be overseen by RA's culinary programming director Ed Brown, who took the corporate gig after plenty of success in New York, including a Michelin star nod at his now-closed Eighty One. The day-to-day of the restaurant, which will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, will be handled on the ground by a still-not-identified Philly chef. Local restaurant designer Elizabeth Knapp, responsible for spaces like Zahav, Percy Street Barbecue and Xochitl, has been tapped to modernize the Gardenia space to bolster the relaunch.
Much as we like the whiskey at Village Whiskey (118 S. 20th St.), a nip of the brown can’t compete with a burger’s true beverage BFF: milkshakes! Taking a page from the carhops and soda fountains of yore (and maybe Tommy Up?), Jose Garces' swanky saloon is now serving shakes with their estimable burgers. The Garces camp has created three signature shakes — the Irish Car Bomb, Negra Modelo, Bailey's- and Jameson-infused devil’s food cake blended with vanilla and chocolate ice creams; Strawberry-Rum, with strawberries thrice (fresh, sauce, ice cream) and a slug of Gosling’s; and S’mores, a mix of toasted marshmallow ice cream and chocolate sauce garnished with graham cracker and a housemade marshmallow. There’s also plain chocolate and vanilla, for purists, and alcohol-free versions, for teetotalers and tots. Shakes are $6 to $9, served all day.
The Philadelphia Daily News, which just relaunched with a new look and approach earlier this week, has made the counterintuitive decision to put its two top editors in extreme physical danger. That danger will come in the former of the 5-Pound Philly Challenge at Jake's Sandwich Board (122 S. 12th St.), a feat of great gustatory valor that top editor Larry Platt and managing editor Pat McLoone will separately tackle tomorrow night at 6 p.m. "Man vs. Food is one of my favorite shows," says Platt, realistically noting that it's unlikely he or McCloone will polish off the challenge's 2-foot sandwich, four soft pretzels, 12 Tastykakes, 24 Peanut Chews and one Champ Cherry soda in the allotted 45 minutes. "Neither of us is going to be able to [complete] it," says Platt, "but we can compete with one another." The stipulations of the wager between the two editors are TBD.
What element of the behemoth spread is Platt — who describes himself as an "absolute hedonist" of an eater — most concerned about? "The fucking Peanut Chews," he says. "That just seems mean. There's no way. It just doesn't make sense."
Homey Mt. Airy Latin restaurant Avenida (7402 Germantown Ave.) is inviting all to partake in food specials for the remaining "Noches de Verano" — aka summer nights, just not this kind — of the season. From 5 to 10 p.m. every Tuesday through Thursday this summer, be prepared to carry a food baby as you shovel down $5 calamari, quesadillas and crispy tortilla chips with salsa, and don’t forget $5 margaritas, red and white sangrias and $3 beers. Avenida's back patio is a godo place to take advantage of all this dealage, as long as it's not roastin' outside. Bottoms up!
Percy Street has been the only Texas-style barbecue game in town for awhile now, so smoke fiends should be getting excited about this one: Pitmaster Bubba Kolbasowski should be opening Bubba's Texas BBQ in the former Cornerstore Market (19-21 W. Girard Ave.) by late September. The liquor-licensed space, which'll have room for about 45, will keep things pretty traditional, says Stacey Thong-Ehrenhalt, who along with her husband Stephen owns the building and is a partner in the business. They'll focus on on Texas staples like brisket, sausage and ribs, with crowd-pleasers like pulled pork and chicken thrown in for tasty measure. Above's a glimpse at the space's centralized bar via the Bubba's Twitter feed.
Zeppoli, the popular fried dough treat of Sicily, is also the name of chef Joey Baldino’s debut restaurant, a casual 35-seat BYOB opening in August in Collingswood (618 Collings Ave.). After building a career learning and cooking alongside Marc Vetri, Georges Perrier, Michael Solomonov, Jose Garces and Alice Waters and spending time in Italy perfecting his skills under the influence of renowned chef Anna Tasca Lanza, Baldino plans on presenting Italian cuisine that drawing heavily from the island of Sicily. Divided into four sections (antipasti, pasta, entrées, dessert), the menu ranges in price from $7 to $28 and will feature dishes like Sicilian fisherman stew with saffron and Moroccan couscous; gnocchi alla Argentiera, spinach and sheep’s milk ricotta gnocchi topped with Sicilian caciocavallo; and of course zeppoli for dessert. To stay up to date on the opening, follow Baldino on Twitter.
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.)
- 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
