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Openings
Right on sked, Benny Lai soft-opened Grill Fish Café (814 S. 47th St.), a cozy seafood-focused offshoot of his massive West Philly restaurant Vietnam Café (816 S. 47th St.) over the weekend. Lai took a trip down the Vietnamese coast to research the menu for the 20-ish seater late last year; the result is a tight menu that restaurant-izes Viet seafood staples at good prices. The kitchen, for example, uses sake in lieu of down-home chicken broth for their steamed clams and mussels; they take a Mediterranean step, too, by using olive oil in some dishes, which Lai observes has only come into favor in native kitchens in the last decade or so.
Nightly specials will expand as the kitchen gets more comfortable; for now, look for a regularly changing grilled whole fish option (branzino, bass, pompano, etc.). Opening menu and opening wine/beer/cocktail list after the jump (click to enlarge).
Brian Sirhal and Tim Spinner's La Calaca Feliz (2321 Fairmount Ave.), as we noted last week, is on pace to open any day now — the Cantina Feliz owners are confident they'll get the doors open at their liquor-licensed modern Mexicano by this Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 4 p.m. Swung by earlier today to find the restaurant looking ready to go. The former Illuminare has been given a bright Spanish-speaking makeover; punched-tin light fixtures dangle around the 10-stool bar up front, which leads back past the wood oven-equipped open kitchen to a main dining room with room for around 60 at tables and in booths. The entire space is dressed up beautifully with mural work by artist Alison Dilworth, who is also responsible for the lighthearted Dia de los Muertos pieces at Sirhal and Spinner's year-old Fort Washington restaurant. There's an enclosed courtyard off the western wall of the dining room; by spring, this will be enclosed to create a "Mexican beer garden"-style outdoor seating area.
Chef Lucio Palazzo, late of Xochitl, is running the kitchen at La Calaca, which will serve dinner seven nights a week. They'll take advantage of the aforementioned beast of an oven, formerly used for pizza, for dishes like nachos, rellenos and tlayudas, or masa-flour Mexican pizzas (campechano or wild mushroom style). Other highlights include both crab and chorizo fundidos, vegetarian pozole, Veracruz-style swordfish skewers, Baja fish tacos and chicken enchiladas smothered in mole poblano. Peep the opening menu, plus the margarita, cocktail, beer, wine and tequila lists, after the jump (click to enlarge).
And yes, that is a painting of The Most Interesting Man in the World. He's hanging in the bathroom.
East Girard Gastropub, aka The E.G.G. (200 E. Girard Ave.), is hosting a grand opening party tonight. Chef/owner Rob Holloway will pass around free hors d'oeuvres between the hours of 6 and 9; from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., he'll host a late-night happy hour, with discounted draft beer and $5 select pub-fare items. Peep our December 19 post for more info and the menu.
Evan Inatome tells Meal Ticket he plans to move his Elixr Coffee, which has been open at 207 S. 15th Street for about a year, to a vacant storefront at Walnut and Sydenham — a part of the old Susanna Foo space left unoccupied by Chipotle. He's got a good reason, too: The building he's in is coming down. Metro Commercial Real Estate's Steven Gartner, who's overseeing the multi-level, glass-facaded building proposed for the intersection (here are two mockups of the plans), is not sharing much in terms of project details or timeline yet, but Inatome says he hopes to be out of his current café and brewing in his new one by Memorial Day. "It's at least 50 percent bigger," says Inatome of Elixr's soon-to-be new home, which will have much less direct foot traffic, allowing for a chill al fresco area. In terms of coffee, he plans on getting "even nerdier" with the extra room, bringing in a wider diversity of tools and equipment.
The Headhouse Shambles have been home to the crown jewel of the The Food Trust's urban farmers market thrust for years now, so we're excited to learn that marketeers will soon get a chance to pull double duty at Second and Lombard. Tomorrow, Bobby Logue and Tom Henneman of Bodhi Coffee (410 S. Second St.) are meeting with the South Street Headhouse District to hammer out details of a new Friday-night market they plan to launch this spring. In contrast to Sunday morning's farmer- and restaurant-heavy lineup, this new weekly fixture will showcase the wares of local manufacturers.
Cantina Feliz duo Tim Spinner and Brian Sirhal are looking at mid-week next week for the debut of La Calaca Feliz (2321 Fairmount Ave.), the Fairmount Mexican restaurant we first noted in October. (It's also one of the five new anticipated projects we named in our year-end restaurant recap.) Garces alum Spinner's menu, featuring dishes like tlayudas (Mexican-style pizzas), alambres (skewers; look for an octopus rendition with poblanos, pearl onions and lemon vin) and tableside guac, will be executed by Lucio Palazzo, last chef de cuisine at Xochitl. The food'll be complemented by Sirhal's beverage program, featuring more than 50 types of tequila and craft beer, wine and cocktail lists. The space (formerly Illuminare) will feature the badass Dia de los Muertos imagery of Philly painter Alison Dilworth, who hooked up the partners' year-old Ft. Washington restaurant with its elaborate murals. Room for 60 in the dining room, 12 at the bar and 30 in a unique soon-to-be-completed greenhouse room.
Photo: Jason Varney
Mike Stollenwerk's Fish, which half-debuted over New Year's, officially reopened in its 2.0 digs at the corner of 13th and Locust last night. Located in the ground floor of The Independent (1234 Locust St.), the restaurant is far larger, brighter and spit-shined than its original home at 1708 Lombard, which'll become Brick American Eatery in the near future. There's now a full-on illuminated bar running parallel to a dividing drink rail/banquette, a small plush lounge area for cocktailers and an entirely separate elevated raw bar station for oysters and other shellfish. Coming by the spring: lunch, brunch, room service for Independent guests and outdoor seating in a dedicated courtyard.
Peep after the jump for Stollenwerk's opening dinner menu, split into raw starters, snacks, and first and second course columns that actually feature a little bit of meat (looking forward to devouring crudo off those pink Himalayan salt blocks). We've got pastry chef Monica Glass' opening dessert menu, too. (Click both to enlarge.)
Zento (138 Chestnut St.), open since 2006, is relocating — management dropped Meal Ticket a line yesterday confirming that the slight eastward shift of the restaurant's signage means the currently-BYO sushi joint is indeed taking over the neighboring Grey Social at 132 Chestnut. The two-floor, 1500-square-foot space will comprise a main dining room with tables and a 10-foot-long sushi bar (same menu as before, with expanded options), plus a top level making best use of Grey's existing liquor license — it'll feature a premium sake bar overlooking the downstairs through sliding windows. The move should be completed by February.
Walking aound this weekend and discovered that Gaja Gaja (627 South St.) has paper in its windows. Phone seems to be disconnected, too. The combo Japanese/Korean spot had a pretty decent run, replacing a Wasabi House location way back in 2007. This eastern stretch of South, meanwhile, is rife with activity — Old City's European Republic is working on its second location at 602 South; signage is up at the suburban-based New York Bagel Cafe & Deli, which is opening a branch at 514 South, next to Manny Brown's; and Jersey Shore transplant Paul's Idaho Potatoes is moving in a block down at 429 South.
Cheers to the Meal Ticket tipster who passed along this snap of activity in the former Snow White Diner at 19th and Chestnut — looks like Eyal Aranya and Yoni Nadav, who opened Burger.Org at 326 South Street this past spring, are moving into Center City with their organic, glatt kosher fast-casual concept. No word on timeline just yet but we'll keep you posted. This news also means the official end of the Snow White brand in Philadelphia — the long-running Old City location (200 Market St.) was converted into Revolution House, which opened in June. Pour one out!
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