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What began with $500 and a juicer has turned into a storefront in Midtown Village. Jennifer Richmond and Joel Odhner quietly opened Jar Bar (113 S. 12th St.) early this week without so much as a street sign out front to let people know. (Meal Ticket first mentioned it in June.)
Richmond and Odhner are the creators of Catalyst Cleanse, a line of fresh-squeezed rejuvenating juices distributed locally via designated pickup locations. Today, their beverages are shipped to customers all over the United States. "Folks [are] ordering from California," says Jar Bar staffer/right-hand man Calvin. "You're telling me with all those eggheads in California, you can't find some good juices out there? Nope. People are paying $180 just to ship [Catalyst Cleanse] juices that already cost $180. People tell us we've got the best juice in the U.S."
View galleryRobert 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.
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).
European Republic, which opened its Old City location (213 Chestnut St.) in '09, debuted a second Philly restaurant at 602 South Street two weeks ago. While Ali Noor owns both businesses, his partner/cousin Naqib (pictured) is overseeing this new spot. They're offering the same wrap- and frite-heavy transcontinental menu that originates at Noor's Long Island location (look out for canned pear nectar, too), though they might slightly pare down their housemade dipping sauce selection on South. (The jalapeño was the favorite of the three sauces we tried; there are many vegan-friendly options among the lineup, too, including BBQ, balsamic and mango chutney.) There are a couple dozen seats in the space. The hours here are the same as Old City: daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 pm.
It's hard for a restaurant to open quietly in Philly these days, especially when that spot specializes in something as universally lusted-after as Japanese noodle soup. Such is the case with the "soft-open" Ramen Boy (204 N. Ninth St.), filling brothy bowls for capacity houses since Friday night in C-Town.
"Ramen is so common and so popular in Japan," says owner Nelson Tam, who also has Yakitori Boy two blocks away. His popular karaoke joint does offer the stuff, but he "wanted to do a place and stand out only for ramen." He's got that here, with native-son chef Yuichi "Ben" Watanabe and his bandanna-rocking crew serving four varieties of soup — a traditional pork broth with chargrilled meat and naruto (pictured); a soy-and-miso with chicken; an spicy oxtail-based broth with sliced ribeye; and a vegan bowl featuring soy milk-based broth and a rotating lineup of 11 different vegetables. They're also doing gyoza (pork, chicken, shrimp and a cheesesteak-like beef/cheddar) fried on the flat-top, rice platters and a couple of sides. Full menu after the jump (click to enlarge).
Don't be discouraged if every seat's occupied when you swing by — people seem to come and go pretty quickly here, and your sidewalk-to-soup time can be considerably slashed if you grab a stool at the kitchen bar. Ramen Boy is open Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
We were on City Food Tours' website yesterday getting info on their upcoming Valentine's Day aphrodisiac dinner event and couldn't help notice that the dude tenderly hand-feeding a lady in an accompanying photo looked familiar as hell. If you ever hit up Frequent Meal Ticket Haunt Oyster House (1516 Sansom St.), you know that that's definitely the Center City seafood shop's ever-gracious owner, Sam Mink. Moonlighting as a stock photo model and not telling us, dude?! Turns out he's buddies with the City Food Tours owners and helped them out with a photo shoot about five years ago. Strong work, Mr. Mink. Fully expecting this shot to make its way into a thematic pic roundup formatted similarly to Women Laughing Alone with Salad.
Photo: zerve.com/phillyfoods/phlval
A week ago we made note of Mike Naessens' Bierstube Tsingtau getting super-close at 206 Market; at the time, the Eulogy owner was shooting for Feb. 3, aka First Friday, to debut his German beer hall, which'll also boast a Sino-themed bottom floor in the near-ish future. (Just call her Bierstube for now.) Naessens actually ended up swinging the doors open a couple days early to get his staff's feet wet — dropped in last night for a few beers and a few photos. The bones of the space, last Old City Asian Bistro, are pretty much the same, but the room's been sharply dressed for Oktoberfest. While Deutsch is done right on the draft system (your Jevers, your Weihenstephaners, etc.), Naessens plans on serving plenty of interesting Euro choices beyond Germany — we peeped the LoverBeer Madamin, a friendly Italian sour, and the Brit-brewed Meantime IPA. Chef Richard DiPietro's quite-Teutonic menu is live, too, though we went gringo and copped a plate of his honey hot wings. It's worth mentioning that we spotted nary a dirndl in the house. Sorry, gents.
Naessens is focusing primarily on this new project and Eulogy for the time being; his nearby Beneluxx Tasting Room (33 S. Third St.) is no longer operating on an everyday basis, but he continues to rent out the space on Friday and Saturday nights for wine/beer tastings and events.
It's been a slowandsteady go, but Tom Grim and Stalin Bedon are just about there with Nomad Pizza (611 S. Seventh St.), the Philly sister shop to their Jersey-based mobile oven and pizzeria operations. They're locked into next Friday, Feb. 10 to start blistering their much-admired pies off South.
The mobile redo of Brahim Ighladen's Marrakesh Express, which closed in West Philly in May 2011, is up and running. Can't miss his bright yellow truck, which slings at the corner of 40th and Locust Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; he's been selling out of homemade falafel sandwiches, plus chicken, beef/lamb and cheesesteak shawarma since rolling out last week. Last night we peeped his fish shawarma, boldly marinated tilapia in a pita griddled crisp on all sides like a burrito, plus a side of "Moroccan fries," mini potato wedges dusted with a North African spice blend and served with an aioli for dipping. Ighladen's been pouring cups of sweet Moroccan tea for chilly customers waiting in line, too. His menu is small for now, but expect the Casablancan to start playing with more ambitious specials — tagine, his well-regarded couscous, etc. — as he falls into a groove.
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