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Chef Salad
Chef Brian Ricci (above) of Kennett (848 S. Second St.) has sent over a few teases off his spring menu — many dishes have already been introduced at the Queen Village restaurant, but everything should be available by May 1. NEED to eat that nettle/chanterelle/scamorza pie and those herb/yogurt chicken thighs!
Quietly, while all us silly food pens were busy wagging our tongues at the House of Vetri/Garces/Starr, Mike Stollenwerk began building his own empire. He's like the Tampa Bay Bucs, assembling a group no one saw coming. Little Fish. Fish. A new location for Little Fish. Fathom, which we’re reviewing next week. Slow down, dude! Yeah, right. Last week, news broke of a new project up Stolly's sleeve.
Last week, chef Moon Krapugthong (Chabaa Thai, formerly MangoMoon) dazzled at the James Beard House with an array of beautifully refined Thai plates. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 and 20, Krapugthong offer a reincarnation of the meal at her Manayunk restaurant (4371 Main St.). Fifty bucks will buy you five courses of aromatic interpretations of traditional Thai cuisine, whie $65 presents seven courses and includes complimentary wine pairing to boot. (Both price points do include tax and gratuity.)
Light savory hors d'oeuvres will include grilled Thai sausage with traditional red curry, galangal and kaffir lime; and Khao Kiep Pakk Mao, a rice-flour crepe (gluten-free!) filled with pork loin, crushed peanuts, coconut, daikon and cilantro. Beef in green curry with Thai eggplant and basil and smoked cotton fish over green mango salad highlight some of the entrée-style offerings. Finish with a Navan-spiked tea and a coconut-focused dessert. Behold the menu in full after the jump.
Those of us who lamented Cafe Estelle (444 N. Fourth St.) discontinuing dinner service, the p.m. potatoes to its brisk brunch meat, a few years back have reason to smile today. Chef/owner Marshall Green (above) is starting supper for the second time, making good on a long-ago promise. Devotees won't be able to pop in every evening, though; Green is doing dinner but once a month, promptly at 7 p.m. Tasting menu only, communal seating only. Twenty-five guests tops, so get those phones ready (215-925-5080). Consider this advance notice on the next two dates: April 25 ($70) and May 23 ($80). Check out the menus after the jump. Want. Foie/rhubarb. Duo. Now.
This summer, Nikki Hill, former sous chef at Barbuzzo, and her girlfriend, vocalist Claire Wadsworth, will launch La Copine, a roving supper club, catering service and prepared-foods line.
We here at Meal Ticket are sad to report that South Philly Tap Room chef Scott Schroeder (pictured above) has decided to abandon his post at the beer bar, as well as professional cooking altogether. Sources close to the chef tell us that his many recent brushes with notoreity — including his selection as one of the contestants of this Sunday's ?uestlove Cook-Off — have contributed to the Detroit native having a mild nervous breakdown.
When reached for comment, SPTR John Longacre expressed his disappointment with Schroeder's decision — and a shockingly small amount of concern for his well-being. "The boy went as crazy as a shithouse rat," Longacre told Meal Ticket, angrily. "But frankly, I'm tired of fucking tacos." Indeed, Longacre and the SPTR kitchen are already moving on — in a surprise move, Joe Beddia, who many know as the bespectacled daytime pizza guy at Zavino, has agreed to take the reins at the Tap Room. Beddia, known for wood-firing everything he can get his talented hands on (this includes wood, and fire), has sent Meal Ticket a draft of SPTR's new menu, which launches tonight. It's certainly a new direction for the Newbold mainstay. Check it out after the jump.
The restaurant business, she is a fickle mistress. Despite a trophy case's worth of local and national accolades, Jim and Kristina Burke's haute-seasonal temple James (824 S. Eighth St.) will close in June after a five-year run, as Michael Klein reported last week. One of my favorite restaurants in the city, if I can get personal for a minute. I can still remember the first thing I ever ate at James, a coral curl of buttery gravlax with green-apple matchsticks, a trapeze act of rich and tart, soft and crisp, and I don’t think I ever stopped loving the food there.
Jonathan Waxman, widely considered one of the most influential chefs in American cooking, will visit Marc Vetri and Jeff Michaud at Osteria (640 N. Broad St.) on Monday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. to cook a wine-paired tasting. The chef/owner of the West Village's Barbuto (you might also know him from Top Chef Masters, where fellow contestants bowed to his Obi-Wan Kenobi-like skills) is releasing his second cookbook, Italian, My Way, next Tuesday. Guests who pony up the $150 all-inclusive price will receive a signed copy (we had a chance to devour an advance and it's a definite must-add to the cookbook shelf). Tix are all-inclusive, and half of the proceeds will be donated to Osteria's upcoming Great Chefs Event, benefitting Alex's Lemonade Stand. Head here to reserve.
Photo: barbutonyc.com
"I wanna get my hands in some dirt." So says chef Lynn Rinaldi, who, with business partner/co-chef/main squeeze Corey Baver, is drawing up plans for a self-irrigating garden on the 800-square-foot roof of her restaurant, Paradiso (1627 E. Passyunk Ave.). With guidance from Ian Brendle of Green Meadow Farm, the king and queen of East Passyunk are installing raised beds on the top of the three-story former furniture factory over the next two weeks. Once the weather breaks, in will go the heirloom tomato plants, microgreens, herbs, berries, even a fig tree — a runs-a-cool-K investment that will yield "$7,000 to $8,000 in produce if we have a good season," Rinaldi estimates. "In the summer, each week we go through at least $700 in tomatoes alone." She's particularly psyched to try her (green-thumbed) hand at the rare Queen Anne raspberry, a golden variety and personal fave she hopes to use in summer tarts.
Chef Moon Krapugthong plans on closing her Bangkok street food spot MangoMoon (4161 Main St.) on April 9 to focus on her long-running Chabaa Thai (4371 Main St.) as well as a brand-new operation: Yanako, a Japanese restaurant that'll allow her to further develop her professional collaboration with Okinawan chef Harry Ige, whom she hosted for a "Chef in Residence" stint earlier this year.
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