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Openings
Crepe Town, which has been hustling its fast-casual pancakes in the Bellevue since the fall, is working on a second location. Taking over a defunct Quizno's at 15th and Spring Garden, right off CCP's campus, owners Mike and Julie Bartfeld will have a wealth a space to work with in contrast with their tight food-court digs. In addition to the existing menu, this Crepe Town will offer what they're teasing as "exciting Philadelphia-originated and well-known menu options." Please involve scrapple. They should be open sometime in the spring.
View galleryWalking the no-man's-block that is the east side of 20th street between Walnut and Locust, we noticed that Yamaki Sushi was no more. The shop is under new ownership since its previous owner, Patrick Yuen, has retired. He's sold it to John Zheng, a longtime neighbor who's converted it into Machi Sushi ("city sushi"). It's not just Yamaki with a new sign — the interior has been redone, the menu has been revamped and there's a brand-new staff, including chef Eric Xue.
The menu features standard sushi bar fare, including a three-roll special, but they've added their own ornate specialty rolls as well as much-sought-after tuna dumplings (stuffed with avocado and crab meat). Zheng says popular rolls so far include the Halloween Roll (spicy scallop, avocado, tempura flakes, tuna, salmon, red and black tobiko, chili sauce, eel sauce) and the Sexy City Roll (spicy salmon, crab meat, tempura flakes and avocado wrapped in rice paper and topped with black tobiko and eel sauce).
For thrifty sushi-ites, Machi is offering 15 percent off orders through March 31. They're open Monday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m. Full menu after the jump (click to enlarge).
Rex 1516 (1516 South St.) hosted a media preview last night, but seems to have a few more knots to massage out before opening to the public. Though originally slated to debut tonight, March 1, it's now looking like they're aiming to open this weekend. No official timetable yet but we'll keep you posted. For what it's worth, we really didn't mean to post two Pavlovian burger pics in a row on Meal Ticket, it just worked out that way — this is Rex chef Regis Jansen's hamburguesa, a filet tip/brisket/pork belly blend with gorgonzola and onion marmalade.
UPDATE [05mar12]: Rex will open tomorrow, March 6, at 5 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Rex 1516
Robert Amar, whose last post saw him running front-of-house at Fare in Fairmount, has pulled a professional 180 with the opening of Underdogs (132 S. 17th St.), a subterranean paean to locally sourced forcemeats in what was the Moroccan restaurant Argan.
Though it's easy to contrast the organic- and calorie-conscious cooking of Fare with a concept as comfily meaty as Underdogs, Amar's approach to this concept reminds us that not all wiener setups are nitrate death bombs. The hefty 100 percent beef Dietz & Watson dogs he's using as a base frank run 170 calories a pop, the Cacia's rolls he's using to stage his "haute" dogs and sausages are fresh-baked and preservative-free, and all his toppings and fry-dip sauces are made in-house. He's working with Philly sausage landmarks like Fiorella's, Czerw's and Martin's to provide links for options like the "9th Street" (Fiorella's hot Italian, sautéed peppers and onions), the "Warsaw Packed" (Czerw's kielbasa, sautéed onions, spicy mustard) and the "Brats" (Martin's pork sausage, kraut, horseradish mustard). Combos, which include a dog, house-cut fries with dipping sauce and a drink, top out at $8.25. Full menu after the jump (click to enlarge).
Underdogs is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. right now, with plans to introduce late-night service (to 4 a.m.!) on Friday and Saturday in a few weeks.
When Jeanne Chang settled into her West Philly domicile last March, Unitea was on the brink of closing, the physical location of Honest Tom's was nonexistent and the Lil' Pop Shop existed only in her mind. One year later, she's attending zoning board hearings, jumping through the last bureaucratic hoops before she can open her gourmet popsicle shop at 265 S. 44th Street, the former address of Unitea, sometime in April. (It's a busy West Philly block, already featuring Tampopo, Local 44 and L44's forthcoming bottle shop.)
Originally from California, Chang lived for a few years in Durham, North Carolina before moving to Philly. It was in here she bumped into Locopops, a popular shop for popsicle-loving locavores. Inspired by the concept, Chang is working on flavors that reflect local, seasonal ingredients whenever possible, and the varieties will be as distinct as Philadelphians are from Carolinians. She is definitely “interested in hearing what flavors folks want to eat," and for now has a few ideas of her own for the opening menu:
Can Graduate Hospital, a 'hood that already boasts a solid roster of downmarket bars and pubs with good beer and stuff to eat (Sidecar, Grace Tavern, Resurrection Ale House, Doobies), sustain a new entry to the rotation? Partners Nancy Law and Troy Barton are banking on a "yes" with the opening of SoWe (a realtor-style abbreviation of "Southwest Center City"), which they're bringing to the former Divan Turkish Kitchen at 22nd and Carpenter by April.
They're currently overhauling the interior of the space (the bricks are still owned by Divan's Ilker Ugur) to install reclaimed wood flooring, a weathered-oak bar and new lighting; room for 50 heads overall. Self-IDing as a bistro, they'll serve a straight-up menu (burgers, mussels, roast chicken) seven days a week, with Saturday and Sunday brunch. Booze-wise, they want to do craft beer and wine, plus "creative" cocktails. Law, a South Jersey native, teamed with Florida-bred Barton in 2003 to found Essential Media Partners, a firm that creates marketing strategies for hospitality clients.
The toweringly masculine Reserve (123 Chestnut St.), a top-tier steakhouse, had its grand opening on Saturday night. It's an interesting idea, opening this caliber of meatery in this part of town. First, there’s the pesky job market and that (thankfully waning) recession of ours. Reserve is taking advantage of the upturn, cooking prime cuts from Lancaster and Montgomery County purveyors without taking too much advantage of your wallet ($24 to $34). Secondly, there's the fact that Reserve is in Old City, which has long had a bad reputation as Philly's ruckus-raising trouble spot. But I love Old City. I lived there when it was just me, two coke dealers, four FBI agents, the Khyber Pass before beer was crafty and Rick D's at Upstairs at Nick's before 32 Degrees. It was great then — and it is great now.
Last night marked the official relaunch of Chick's Café & Wine Bar (614 S. Seventh St.) as Chick's Social. Chef/owner Jim Piano wanted to get away from the joint's reputation as a glass-of-wine-and-go stop, so he's upped his kitchen's game considerably to coincide with a light-and-bright makeover of the bar and dining room. "I really wanted to focus on the food," says Piano, who's now overseeing a taut selection of cicchetti (marrow bone topped with celery/fennelradish salad), antipasti (Brussels flatread with bacon, mustard seed and fontina), panini (the wild boar burger remains), housemade pasta (shortrib rigatoni) and large plates (salmon with horseradish, beets and farro). Piano's wife, Kristen, who's the pastry chef at Capital Grille, is looking over Social's desserts, favorites like lemon-curd bombolini and mascarpone cheesecake scrawled on a roll of butcher's paper studded to the wall.
In lieu of a chef's tasting option, Piano's offering timpano, an over-the-top specialty familiar to anyone who's seen the Stanley Tucci flick Big Night. It's basically an enormous baked dough mold with multiple layers — ziti and bechamel, sausage and red sauce, broccoli rabe, sharp provolone — that's sliced like a deep-dish pizza to feed big groups. For $32 a head, Chick's Social will bake one up for a table of six to eight, bookended by antipasti and dessert. (Piano used to work for chef Gianni Scappin, who actually served as the culinary consultant for Big Night.)
Chick's gorgeous original bar, which has outlasted multiple owners since the era when the reputedly mobbed-up Cicalese clan ran the place (liquor license No. 376!), remains intact, save for some new Edison bulbs. The by-the-glass vino options, which once sat at around 40, are down to a more digestible 16, but the bottle list has been bumped up. Full food/drink menus after the jump (click to enlarge).
Melissa Torre of Cookie Confidential (517 S. Fifth St.), the evil baking genius behind Philly's meatiest sweets selection, will soon add a food truck to her arsenal. By mid-March, she'll relaunch the existing Sugar Rush truck (pictured), which vends from 12th and Norris on Temple's campus. After giving the truck a dramatic aesthetic makeover, she'll institute a selection similar to what she does at her store — a rotating lineup of cookies (basics like snickerdoodles, wacky signatures like cheesesteak), "Undercover" cupcakes in jar and pop form, One Village coffee, craft sodas, local/organic milk, etc. Once the truck is approved for a utility pole, they'll be able to scoop Franklin Fountain ice cream and Capogiro gelato, too.
Twisting tongues for a couple months now is Wise Fries Burgers & Pies, a little luncheonette in the old Adriana’s on the corner of Second and Watkins. As you might imagine, the specialties are burgers, pizza and fries. They're cooking up a dozen varieties of the latter — sweet potato and poutine-like disco; "king," topped with parmesan, chives and truffle oil; and "carnival" (pictured), little fingers of funnel cake with vivid raspberry sauce and a flavor reminiscent of French toast sticks. Sick! That's not all this takeout shop does, though; the menu is huge, and we also dig the arancino (crisp outside, molten and mozz-y inside) and "The Don," a bufala-and-prosciutto grilled cheese on thick planks of buttery Texas toast. Get some.
Photo: Adam Erace
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