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Food News
This was the crazy scene yesterday afternoon at the corner of 22nd and Christian — a fire originating somewhere in the second-floor kitchen of The Sidecar forced the bar staff and guests to evacuate onto the street to make way for Philly firefighters, who swarmed the building and climbed the roof to inspect the output of the hood system. Owner Adam Ritter reports that the scene was much more dramatic than the fire itself — "a small fire, with lots of cleanup." Crap timing on a busy weekend with beautiful weather and plenty of residual Craft Beer Express business, to say nothing of the brand-spanking newness of the second floor and kitchen. Good news, though: No one was injured, and The Sidecar will reopen for business tonight with a limited food menu.
Thanks to Steve Stiefel for the photos.
Back in 2007, the griddle wizards at John's Roast Pork (14 E. Snyder Ave.), usually cooking on weekday mornings and early afternoons only, dabbled in Saturday hours. It didn't last for long, but it looks like they're giving it another shot in 2012: Beginning on Saturday, April 7, the much-admired sandwich mecca will add a regular weekend shift running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Do you hear that? It's the sound of Ikea despisers across Philadelphia solidifying plans to schlep their significant others down Columbus Boulevard to buy cornflower-blue picture frames, the promise of a beautiful cheesesteak hoagie their grease-soaked carrot on a stick. (h/t @Feliciafied)
Photo: lucindalunacy on Flickr
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
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.
"Hopefully people don't steal stuff and the animals don't eat it." That's Scott Schroeder, ladies and gentlemen, on the garden he and John Longacre have planned for the backyard of American Sardine Bar and 18th and Federal (check my CP review next week). The pic above is pre-Sardine, and a few raised beds have already been installed. "We put the beds in when we first opened in the winter, and they got ignored immediately," laughs Schroeder, whose green thumb itching to get growing this season. "I've been talking to my farmers about what I can grow here, and grow well." The plan for now includes tomatoes, chilies, lettuce, herbs and strawberries vining along the fence that's going up soon, all to be used at ASB and South Philly Tap Room (1509 Miffin St.). Once everything is copacetic with the city's outdoor seat enforcers, there'll be tables in the yard, as well; Schroeder's hoping for a beer garden vibe. We'll bring the ping-pong paddles.
Is Manayunk, the city's former "it" strip for Philly dining, finally poised for the food comeback we've all been blabbing about for years? Han Chiang's recent opening of a Han Dynasty location on Main Street was a hell of a coup, as were the debuts of Clark Gilbert's Gemelli on Main and Arthur Cavaliere's Ridge Avenue pizzeria In Riva. Belvedere Restaurant Group is expanding both Agiato and Main Street Market, and they'll soon open Dos Vatos Tacos. And now comes word that Jake's and Cooper's, veteran Bruce Cooper's duo'd concepts at 4365 Main, is set for a major facelift.
If you didn't know the end of Le Bec-Fin was near, you've not been paying attention to the signs. Despite the rebranding of its basement space as Tryst and the threats of closure from Georges Perrier that resulted in a temporary reprieve, those in the real estate business (let alone the food biz) will tell you: Georges wanted out. He told me as much last week — how he waited for someone as formidable as Nicolas Fanucci (the former LBF GM last of French Laundry) to want in, that he was tired of long days and short marriages. A recent negative critique from the Inquirer's Craig LaBan had nothing to do with the sale. Perrier simply had enough.
To paraphrase Noah Cross in Chinatown, Perrier built this town. OK, not all of it, but he was the architect of Philly's restaurant renaissance, the guy who put us on the map when New York Times scribe Craig Claiborne claimed LBF as the East Coast's best. That was Georges. About 15 years ago, I dined on his Grande Degustation menu and it was magnifique. No matter what you thought had become of LBF — its loss of Mobil stars when it went a la carte, its questioned culinary reputation — Perrier's castle surely wasn't going to shutter with a whimper. It would end with a bang, and I wanted to be there. So I gathered my wife, and, along with 130 other diners, we sold out the last night featuring Nicholas Elmi's cooking and Perrier's reign on Walnut. (Elmi has moved on quickly to Rittenhouse Tavern, opening in April in the nearby Art Alliance.)
As if losing Le Bec-Fin this weekend wasn't enough (check back soon for more), there's been another sad passing in the local food community.
Once upon a time, Meritage (500 S. 20th St.), currently owned by Michele DiPietro and Irene Landy, was devoted to French cuisine with Middle Eastern and North American influences. They made a pressed duck dish daring enough to rival Paris' La Tour D'Argent. Their wine list was impeccable. Blame James Colabelli (pictured, right) for such dedication to detail.
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