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Wedge + Fig (150 N. Third St.), which we told you about almost exactly one month back, soft-opened this morning just off the corner of of Third and Race. A takeover/makeover of Old City Cheese Shop, W+F is owned by husband and wife Kirk Nelson and Lisa Ruff, amd former Flying Monkey bakestress Rebecca Torpie is running the kitchen and curating the cheese case. They'll be at full strength come June 4 (First Friday), offering cheese boards designed to be paired with BYO wines and beers plus weekend brunch, but for now they're running primarily as a queso shop/food boutique and light-fare lunch stop (see sandwiches and salads after the jump; click to enlarge). The adorable back yard area remains; Nelson says he's working on a custom canvas cover system for the space (he and Ruff used to live on a boat!) that'll allow people to chill out there even on soggy days like this. Come the 4th, Wedge + Fig wil be open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
Photos: Drew Lazor
The kegs have yet to be tapped and not a single sausage has hit the grill at Stephen Starr's Fishtown beer garden, but Frankford Hall (1210 Frankford Ave.) looks to be on serious pace to hit its May 17 debut date. Right up the street from Johnny Brenda's, the Stokes Architecture-designed space is large, industrial and mostly open-air, with communal tables along Frankford leading back into the gravel-scattered outdoor biergarten area that accommodates 240. Done up with trees, string lights and walk-up beer and food counters (brats, weisswurst and käsekrainer from Buxco's Illg's Meats are the centerpiece), this area will play host to jovial drinkers (nine beers on tap, mostly German), live music and Phillies games projected onto the yard's southern wall. Frankford Hall will operate from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and from noon till 2 a.m. on weekends.
To simplify the process of local food discovery, the Great Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation has reached into the interactive/edible web realm with its own unique presence within the grub-sharing world of Foodspotting, the mobile platform that encourages users to upload snapped photos of their eats to share with other members.
Foodspotting, which also recently partnered with Visit Bucks County, has launched a Philly-based initiative enabling users to search through a dozen custom food guides, like Philly Homegrown (centered on locally sourced ingredients), Philly Te Ama (which focuses on Latin-influenced spots), and Burger Bonanza, where you'll find photos and info on the most coveted burgers in the city. The launch will jump off with Visit Philly's With Love Foodspotting contest, which requires members to "spot" (aka order, photograph and eat) each dish detailed in the "Famous Philly Flavors" guide. Eleven winners will be randomly selected, with one grand prize of a night in a Philly luxury hotels, a $100 gift card from Garces Restaurant Group and two gift certificates for the Flavors of Philly Food Tour. Ten runners-up will receive one gift certificate for the tour. All winners will be selected on May 25. Peep all contest rules and details here.
Photo: uwishunu.com
Tim McGinnis, chef at Jesse Spalletta's South Philly prepared-food destination Plenty (1710 E. Passyunk Ave., 267-909-8033), recently launched Artisanal by Plenty, a new line of retail sandwiches he's hoping to market to local cafés, markets and groceries. The first coffee shop to hop on the tasty between-bread wagon is Shot Tower Coffee (542 Christian St.), who's been selling a selection of McGinnis' eats for $8 a pop to complement their Stumptown. (McGinnis says he's open to distributing anywhere in the city, so look him up.) The current lineup of sandwiches, all of which come on Artisan Boulanger rolls, is as follows:
- Ham and Cheese: cured/smoked Country Time Farm pork shoulder, gruyere, house honey mustard ...
- Grilled Veggie: portobello, zucchini, red pepper, red onion, housemade hummus
- Free Bird Chicken Salad: brined/five-hour rotisserie chicken, cranberry, celery, onion, whole grain mustard
- Turkey: brined turkey breast, gruyere, chive remoulade
Photos: Drew Lazor
Larry Rosenblum and Mark Cosgrove's Spread Bagelry (262 S. 20th St.), which Meal Ticket first noted last summer, officially opened for business in Rittenhouse yesterday. They're doing up bagels in the Montreal style, boiling them in honeyed water and baking them up in a custom-built wood-burning oven. (Varieties include the traditional sesame, plus poppy, everything, whole wheat, whole wheat everything and plain.) True to its name, Spread is also offering up a variety of bagel add-ons, from freshmade sweet jams and butters to veggie, roasted garlic and smoked salmon cream cheeses. Sandwich options include "The Canadian" (with housemade "smoked meat," Montreal's signature contribution to the brined deli meat pantheon), the "Spread Special" (housemade whitefish salad, cream cheese, onion, tomato) and breakfast options like the a frittata scramble (cheddar, roasted tomato, Lancaster smoked turkey bacon). Spread is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; on Saturday and Sunday, they do all-day brunch with table service from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (BYO vodka to take advantage of their Bloody Mary mix.)
In an Easter weekend miracle (it officially opened on Friday), the former Ro-Zu has been reincarnated as Big Eyes Sushi (700 Bainbridge St.). The bones remain intact for the most part, but the priorities seem a tad different. The space has come back to life as an airy, relaxed sushi spot with an emphasis on affordable Japanese delicacies. Dinner specials consisting of a maki roll, miso soup and house salad ranging in price from $3 to $6, and rice bowl entrees top out at $8. Prices for a la carte sashimi (2 pieces per order) hover around the $2 mark, and specialty rolls generally run from $5 to $8. Highlights include the "Yo Sexy!" (California roll with panko and "yam yam sauce," aka kani salad) and the "Sun of the Beach" (shrimp tempura, eel, cucumber, salmon, avocado, spicy mayo, eel sauce, green onion). Prices top out at $18 for a sampler platter.
Photos: Adrian Pelliccia
Hey nice! The outdoor deck at Biba (3131 Walnut St.) that Meal Ticket told you about in March is all ready to go. The outdoor area, made of pretty Mayan teak, can seat up to one dozen attractively windblown guests.
Photo: Courtesy of Biba
Here's a little photo tease of Pure Fare (119 S. 21st St.), the health-conscious café opening this coming Monday in the former 21st Street Gourmet. (We first reported on it in December.) Brother/sister owners Kunal and Kriti Sehgal have lightened up/modernized the space considerably. One side of the restaurant, which features a communal table as well as rail seating along the windows, will be dedicated to brewing Blue Bottle coffee via pourover bar and espresso machine. (They're the first Philly venue to brew Blue Bottle on-site; CP food critic Adam Erace's store, Green Aisle Grocery, carries whole beans from the San Fran-based roaster.) On the opposite end is a counter, leading into chef Sarah Ginn's kitchen, where customers can order from Pure Fare's under-$10 selection of breakfast, lunch and snack items, all carefully broken down in terms of caloric count as well as fat, protein, carb, sodium and fiber content.
The "My Fare" database platform, which we touched on in December, is Pure Fare's free, opt-in system that will cull and analyze the nutritional value of what you eat, both at Pure Fare and outside the café. The service is designed to provide personalized dietary recommendations based on this info — all you need to do is activate a card (above, first pic) and have it scanned each time you make a Pure Fare purchase.
We still have a ways to go before Jeb Woody and Ellen Mogell open their second Honey's Sit 'N Eat location at 21st and South — Woody tells Meal Ticket that Grasso Holdings is currently in the thick of structural renovations to the building, and once they're done, they'll deliver a "vanilla box" that the Honey's crew will design and decorate from the ground up. Woody gives a realistic estimate of fall 2011 for the opening of Honey's numero dos, but in the meantime, follow the jump for a sneak peek at what the restaurant will end up looking like. (Click to enlarge.) Woody points out that the feel will definitely be "less refined" than it appears in these mockups, reflecting "the rustic nature and character of the first Honey's."
OCF Realty, which is based at 21st and South, opened the first of its two planned Southwest Center City coffeehouses over the weekend. Baristas here are brewing Counter Culture coffee (the bean of choice for shops like Ultimo Coffee, Spruce Street Espresso and Lovers & Madmen), and they're carrying Four Worlds Bakery breads and Sweet Life sweets. There's plenty of outdoor seating, which was packed during the pretty afternoon this past Saturday. Hours of operation: Mon.-Fri., 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Owners Ori Feibush and Michael Nechemia say OCF's second café, at the corner of 20th and Federal, is about two months out.
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