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The Good Word
The Good Word is a weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
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In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with Michael Savett, founder of the blog Gluten Free Philly, A partner in a Philadelphia law firm who resides in Cherry Hill, Savett founded GFP in March 2009. Updated about thrice weekly, the blog explores and chronicles gluten-free dining options in the greater Philadelphia area.
What is your personal connection to celiac disease and what motivated you to start the site?
My older son, now 8, was diagnosed with celiac disease at age 3, so our family is well-versed on the gluten-free diet. I started Gluten Free Philly because I wanted to establish a resource not only for residents of the Philadelphia area, but also for visitors and tourists. My wife and I like to travel with our kids, and I have frequently found myself going to enormous lengths to track down "safe" restaurants in cities we would be visiting. I maintain links to gluten free-friendly restaurants, markets and the like in the tri-state area on my site so that people can find places near where they live, work or visit that can accommodate them.
How prepared and willing have you found Philadelphia-areas restaurants to be in accommodating gluten-free restrictions? Are more restaurants are becoming sensitive to celiacs as awareness of the disease grows?
The biggest hurdle for restaurants willing to accommodate gluten-free diets is in educating the kitchen and service staff. For people with celiac disease, it's not acceptable to eat a burger or chicken breast taken off of a wheat bun or gluten-free pasta boiled in water used for wheat pasta because of the cross-contamination. Some restaurants, like Lolita in Philadelphia and Pasta Pomodoro in Voorhees, N.J., get it. Restaurants who make it known that they have separate prep areas and different pots and utensils are going to do better because of the confidence that gluten-free diners [will have]. Iron Hill Restaurant, which has locations in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, recently introduced a two-page gluten-free menu with about 40 items, including chicken wings. I see more chain restaurants adding gluten-free items all the time, so I think the independents will follow suit. I'd like to see some place in Center City serve gluten-free pizza � that's the Holy Grail for me.
You're a lawyer by trade but you also write about food, just like other attorney/dining scribes like Jeffrey Steingarten or our own David Snyder. Is this coincidental, or is there more common ground between legal work and food writing than meets the eye?
I think it's a coincidence. While it helps as a lawyer to be a creative thinker, in my view the profession doesn't really allow for creative writing. Writing about food allows me to get away from jargon, so I can be more creative when working on my blog postings.
While your 8-year-old son is gluten-intolerant, you, your wife and your other son are not. Does this pose a challenge when cooking at home? Do you prepare dishes for everyone that are across-the-board gluten-free, or do you cook separately to accommodate everyone?
Sometimes our meals at home are completely gluten-free, and other times not. We have a double oven at home, with one used just for cooking gluten-free food, along with a separate toaster, pizza cutter and cookware, so we're able to prepare my older son's meals separately without a hassle if need be. I know some families who have completely gone gluten-free even when not all members need to be, but it can get really expensive really quick. A store-bought loaf of gluten-free bread costs around $5-$6 and gluten-free bagels run about $1 each. A large bag of gluten-free pretzels is $8. We are extremely careful about cross-contamination in our house, so we've chosen to not to go that route.
Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by mealticket: It's Friday, which means it's time for THE GOOD WORD. This week we're talking to Michael Savett from @GFPhilly: http://is.gd/4P1H4...
The Good Word is a weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with Phyllis Stein-Novack, longtime restaurant critic for the South Philly Review. Phyllis has been grading area restaurants on her signature "tips of the toque" scale since the mid-'90s.
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How did you get your start in food writing?
My life in food began with my grandmother, who was born in Vienna and was a modern accomplished cook and baker. She would have been the first on her block to own a Cuisinart. I think Austrian and Hungarian Jews are the best cooks. When I was in graduate school, I shared two floors of a Victorian house near Penn with three other women. I made them an offer they couldn't refuse: "I'll cook, you clean up."
A love of cooking led me to the Daily News. In 1982, I called the food editor with a story idea. It was about a Mother's Day breakfast in bed that children could cook with adult supervision. I wrote many food stories for the paper, often including my own recipes. I've been the restaurant critic and food columnist for the South Philly Review for 14 years. I am the author of The Best of the Book and the Cook cookbook and am now adding spit and polish to a proposal for a cookbook. I don't want to give myself any "kine-ahoras" and will tell all about it when it's a firm go.
Your husband Edward and your cousin Carl are featured frequently in your reviews. What makes them the ideal dining companions for restaurant meals?
Neither are picky eaters. Edward has a very dry wit and likes to kibitz with the wait staff. I enjoy Carl's ideas and conversation immensely. My readers feel like they know them. I've also included my sister Sandy, who is a picky eater, my computer techie Kevin, who runs marathons, and my friend Richard, a young talented painter and photographer. My mother, who passed away in July at age 94, often went to restaurants with Edward and me.
Are there certain ingredients you find chefs overusing these days? From your reviews, it appears you're not so keen on brioche.
I do not necessarilly think chefs misuse ingredients, although no one should serve a big, juicy burger on a sweet brioche roll. Most fine chefs respect fresh ingredients. I like my beef rare, lamb medium rare and cooked vegetables with a bit of crunch. Ingredients come in waves. Remember when crab cakes were on everyone's menu? I don't want to see crab cakes anymore because they are rarely well-prepared. Right now, halibut, pork belly, line-caught striped bass, sweetbreads and microgreens are popping up on restaurant menus.
It's no secret that your favorite drink is a gin martini. What makes a great martini? And who does it best?
According to my sister, I developed a taste for gin and vermouth when I was about 2 or 3 years old, when my chubby little hand would pluck the olives from my father's martini. I prefer Bombay Sapphire and Bluecoat, which is made here. The formula for a fine martini is simple: The glass should be chilled. Gin and a touch of vermouth go into a stainless steel cocktail shaker filled with ice. The cocktail is then vigorously stirred, not shaken. It is strained into the cold glass and topped with two olives. There is nothing worse than warm gin. I strongly believe $14 or $15 for a martini is ridiculous. One of the best barkeeps around was Murray the bartender when he worked at the original Ritz-Carlton, now the Westin. I recently enjoyed a perfect martini at XIX. Edward makes a good one, and I do too.
Describe your ideal meal. Do you think you would find it in a restaurant, or would it be something you'd make at home?
Describing an ideal meal is difficult. I am reminded of the words of M.F.K. Fisher, who wrote: "There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly." Conversation is important. A meal is not just about the food. I adore caviar, lobster, foie gras ... but I also adore a good roast chicken or capon, especially when I am preparing one at home. The aroma is heavenly. In a way, I think an ideal meal is one I cook myself. Although we have a dining room table, I prefer eating in our kitchen. It is warm and cozy. People can let their guard down and laugh out loud, which would be rude to do so in a restaurant. I have savored many memorable meals in restaurants throughout the country and abroad, but inviting friends and family to our home, especially during autumn and winter, when my creative juices are flowing and I work with rich, lusty, gutsy ingredients and serve family-style.
What, in your opinion, is missing from Philadelphia's dining scene?
I wish we had a Hungarian restaurant. Cousin Carl's sister's mother-in-law is an amazing Hungarian Jewish cook. I've been to Hungarian restaurants in New York and lament the fact we have none.
More importantly, what is missing in many is what bugs me about dining in restaurants. Service-oriented issues and food issues, as well. "Hello, I'm so and so and I'll be your server ... what kind of water do you want?" The spiel about water drives me nuts. A "hello" or "good evening, would you like a drink?" begins a good meal. I really admire professional staff. Those men and women who know how to orchestrate a meal, serve and clear with ease and watch the tables make for a memorable meal. Overly chatty wait staff, those who are constantly asking "is everything all right?" especially when I have food in my mouth and cannot answer, interrupts conversation.
What is also missing in many places is adequate lighting. The Italians say, "first you eat with your eyes." I want to see the chef's creations on the plate without the aid of a flashlight, which I have used in the past, espcially in order to read the menu. What is often missing is soft background music. Loud screaming on the sound system coupled with loud noise in a room makes it difficult to speak with dining companions.
As for missing food issues ... some are elementary. A hot soup should be hot with steam rising from the bowl. Hot food should be served hot, not lukewarm or cool. A friend of mine who is a chef told me he would send back to the kitchen a dish which was not hot enough or prepared the way he ordered it.
I feel compelled to defend brioche. It is a French sweet yeast egg bread which is the second cousin to challah, the ancient Hebrew egg yeast bread. It makes delicious French toast, summer pudding with ripe juicy berries or simply toasted, slathered with sweet butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon. The brioche bun should never serve as the "house" to a big juicy rare burger. It is too sweet. It is too much bread for a burger. Too thick. Even Daniel Boulud, who loves burgers, said to Top Chef that this roll is "too much bread to me." I agree. I love a burger on an untoasted bun. Preferably with sesame seeds.
I agree on the hot soup thing. I get soup that is just a notch about lukewarm surprisingly often, though I don't usually send it back. Places that NEVER do this: the Asian spots in Chinatown, Washington Ave, and S. 7th St. Aww yea.
So glad I have the right taste in gin martinis! Bluecoat, & when not available, Sapphire. So eloquent throughout.
I'm so excited, I never really thought this would happen! First of all, I would like to thank God, who makes all good things happen. Second, I would like to thank my parents for teaching me how to read. Third, Meal Ticket for making this Q & A possible. Finally, I would like to thank Phyllis Stein-Novack for being, well, her brioche-hating self. Best Good Word EVER-good luck topping this one! Sincerely, Poncho
What Philly and most cities need is a Ukrainian resturant! Close to Hungarian but different. You can find perogi and cabbage rolls in the Reading Terminal Market along with sweet breads, beet salads, and other Eastern European foods. Delisious! Try vodka frozen in freezer with lemon peel straight up if you like your gin cold!
The Good Word, our weekly Q&A feature, is taking a quick break this week. We'll be back next Friday all fresh and rested. In the meantime, why not check out our past installments? And don't forget: If you have nominations for people you'd like to see featured in The Good Word, please e-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
- Vol. 1: Arthur Etchells of Foobooz
- Vol. 2: Burger Baroness and Jaimeshake of Fries With That Shake
- Vol. 3: Pete Proko of Philadelphia Style
- Vol. 4: Shao Zhi Zhong of FriedWontons4U
- Vol. 5: Food writer Adam Erace
- Vol. 6: Holly Moore of HollyEats.com
- Vol. 7: Nick Normile of Foodie at Fifteen
- Vol. 8: Joy Manning of Philadelphia Magazine
- Vol. 9: Trey Popp of City Paper
- Vol. 10: Amy Strauss of Apples and Cheese, Please
- Vol. 11: Hawk Krall and Kris Chau of Drawing For Food
- Vol. 12: Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer
- Vol. 13: Collin Flatt of Phoodie
- Vol. 14: Kirsten Henri of Grub Street Philadelphia
- Vol. 15: Kelly White of Living on the Vedge
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The Good Word is a weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with Kelly White of Living on the Vedge. The nine-year vegetarian began her writing career as a City Paper intern in 2005 and contributed to Philebrity from 2006 to 2008. She started LOTV, which touches on all aspects of the local and national vegetarian scenes, in 2007.
You travel quite a bit � so where does Philly rank among other cities in terms of being veg-friendly? What do we do better than other places? In what ways are we behind?
Philly vegans used to eat the same five places. There were no tablecloths or flatware. I would say it's a lot better now, but we still only have one fully vegan upscale dining experience. [Horizons]. That needs to change. The ethnic food scene here is remarkable and you can find a lot of stimulating flavors in any given neighborhood, where menus are generous with vegetables and grains because those were the cheap, native ingredients. Brunch is one of the easiest meals for vegetarians and is also one of the best meals to have in Philadelphia.
The major difference now is that Jose Garces is doing a black bean burger [at Village Whiskey] and chefs are starting to respect that a plate of vegetables can be more than that. I ask for chef's plates a lot if I don't see anything I want. Another huge deal here? Ray's Seitan of Philadelphia has made it the most seitan-saturated city that I know of. Can you think of any place where "wheat meat" is more common? Do you know why? Most seitan is junk. It's not cost-effective to make from scratch in bulk. Ray's is extraordinary.
The Northwest has the edge on everything else. New York has the best vegan chefs and tofu cream cheese bagels, but at the end of the day, it's New York. Vienna has the most impressive outdoor market, Naschmarkt.
Are people still scared of tofu these days? Any tofu-based dishes in these parts that you'd recommend to the uninitiated?
Tofu fear is down, my friend. I served Vietnamese tofu bruschetta from the Horizons cookbook at a party and everyone from the 4-year-old to the 90-year-old devoured it. Maybe it's the middle-aged folks that don't get it.
The pan-seared tofu at Horizons has a high success rate with omnivores. Everyone loves a banh mi with tofu. Tofu scramble is also a really great starter dish and is familiar to people (Honey's, any brunch place or pub).
You're a cocktail head. If you could drink one drink for the rest of your life, what would it be? It could be a tipple in general, or a specific drink from a specific bar.
Now the real questions come out. Caipirinhas! From Alma de Cuba, which has a talented bar staff and that fantastic plantains entr�e. I enjoy the Franklin, but I always get something different there. I wish I went to Southwark more.� The shot I like to fall into bed with on my lips is Don Julio 1942. My regular drink is usually Jack and Diet. I abide by some cocktail law: I only finish drinks if they're worth it. The company and the bartender matter a lot more than the actual spirit. No blue drinks.
Of all the more popular higher-end restaurants in Philly, which have you found to be surprisingly veg-friendly?
Osteria will do so much Beyond the pizza and pasta, they will do veggie antipasti plates according to the number at your table, and everything is always top-notch. Zahav and Buddakan are a lot of fun.
Are there any meat or seafood items that evoke visceral longing within you? Or are they universally off-putting no matter what?
I have no idea what meat tastes like anymore. I think it's hard to crave something if your memory can't aid you. Pepperoni pizza, perhaps. Nobody forgets that. I had a limited culinary experience as a child.
I'm not put off by it at all and get all wide-eyed watching Top Chef like the rest of you. The craft turns me on. However, the meat part of my brain shut off� a long time ago. I never even consider it. I do eat what I want.
The Good Word is a weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
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In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with Kirsten Henri, editor of Grub Street Philadelphia. Kirsten, who reviewed restaurants for the Philadelphia Weekly from 2005 to 2007, worked with Foobooz editor (and fellow Good Word-ian) Arthur Etchells for about a year and a half before signing on for the national expansion of New York's Grub Street blog this past July. Kirsten's notoriously camera-shy, so the picture she submitted is her grandmother brandishing a plate of cookies.
If it wasn't writing about food, what would it be?
Hmmm. If I wasn't writing about food, I'd probably still be serving it. HA! Do you mean "still writing, but not writing about food in particular?" In that case, I'd say I really like interviewing people, especially surly ones, so I think writing profiles of public figures would be fun. Observational essays might be in my future? Love notes to Rick Nichols for writing such beautiful articles?
If you mean "not writing as a job anymore," I have no idea. Judging from my employment history, I clearly seem to be incapable of any other work. If I were a few years younger and less terrified of $150,000 worth of debt, I would probably go to law school. I love to debate � some might say argue � the merits of just about anything, so I think that would be a more lucrative use of those skills. Plus, lawyers all become food writers anyway (see: Jeffrey Steingarten, David Snyder, the guy who writes the Gluten-Free Philly blog). See, if you're a lawyer first, you can a) afford to eat out with the frequency necessary to develop your palate and b) save up the money to sustain yourself when you realize that writers are paid crap. Also, I think getting paid $400 an hour gives you an inflated sense of self-esteem, which is a handy skill to have in general and one which most writers lack.
My dream job is kind of doing what I used to do at Foobooz with Restaurant Yenta, which is essentially picking out plum locations and matching them up with the right concept and/or restaurateur. I don't know if this job exists � I don't want to be a commercial realtor because I don't really traffic in numbers � but I think it would be really fun and it may be one of the few things I have a knack for. I'm a big believer in the transformative power restaurants/bars have on a neighborhood, in both a positive or negative sense.
You've reviewed and reported on plenty of amazing food. But is there a dish you make at home that could never be replicated at a restaurant the way you do it?
Me? No. I'm happy to be outcooked by any chef. But my Grandmom Fiorella? Absolutely. I grew up with her � in her house � and she pretty much cooked for me since I was a baby. She's territorial around her stove � I kind of have to force her to show me how she cooks things because she's not all that interested in teaching me how to do it. It would rob her of the pleasure of cooking for me if I knew her methods. I know that sounds insane, but it's totally true and who am I to rob a 5-foot-tall 83-year-old lady of her pleasures?
So, to answer the question, her food is impossible to replicate in a restaurant, and it's kind of impossible for me to replicate, either. One specific dish is what we call potato pizza � it's sort of like this focaccia situation, but it is flaky and has potato and onion involved and it will make you cry it's so good. Also, she makes these little stews in winter � like with chunks of potato and zucchini and maybe some egg beaten in there � in this shitty banged-up pot that I think she got at the dollar store or John Wanamaker's or something. They have some sort of magic mojo in them that can elevate your spirits and cure a cold and fortify you to do battle with whatever.
We're not related to the Italian Market sausage Fiorella's, but we come from the same tiny town in Puglia where there are like three surnames to go around. I will say that Fiorella's sausage also has that magic mojo, so I have a theory it has something to do with the specific town. I can't tell you the name because after I become a lawyer I'm going to back there and buy up all the real estate and turn it into an agriturismo hotel and charge people thousands of dollars to visit and harvest my olives for me. I'll be able to do that because I will have such high self-esteem then.
What's the best cocktail you've had lately?
Being indecisive and not able to follow directions well, I'll pick three. Colin from The Franklin made me something off the menu and I can't remember what is in it right now, but it's very, very delicious. I wasn't drunk, mind you, I was just not working so I didn't feel obligated to write anything down. I also had a Modern at Village Whiskey that I enjoyed a lot. And George Costa from Southwark makes me this Americano on the rocks with Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, which is pretty much the perfect drink for all occasions as far as I'm concerned.
Without naming the place, tell us about the single worst dining experience you've ever had at a restaurant.
I can't really say I've had one single "worst" experience � I guess I've been lucky or good at reading the warning signs and getting out before things head south. For example, I went to one place where we didn't stay to have a dining experience because when we got to the door, the waiter who greeted us was covered head-to-toe in what were either angry hives or furious blisters. He looked like Robert the Bruce's father in Braveheart � the one who hides up in that tower because he has syphilis or leprosy or something. Whatever it was, someone should have taken him off the floor even if he wasn't contagious, because half of dining out is visual. I still get grossed out thinking about that when I pass by the place.
LOL at the photo... first read this in gReader on iPhone, so mostly just saw the title & the photo. Literally sat there for a while thinking, "gee, I really thought she was younger..." But it's Kirsten's Grandmom Fiorella, instead! Nice interview.
I love that Kirsten never poses for photos. I think I have one, but it's of her back, she turned around, but Arthur looks good. It was the first time I met them both. It's probably why I can never remember who she is 'cause I don't know what she looks like.
The Good Word is a weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with Collin Flatt, editor/contributor at Phoodie. In addition to instructing at the Wine School of Philadelphia, Collin consults on restaurant beer and wine lists and represents private clients in the wine auction market.
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What are some of the most underrated restaurants in Philly right now?
I'm going with Rangoon as my underrated haunt. The only Burmese place in town, and it's been around quite a long time. They bring the heat and have really supple and textured plates no one else can match. And I'm not just saying that because it's the next entry in the Search For Umami. It's been a favorite of mine for years with some one-of-a-kind vittles.
Instead of another underrated restaurant, I'm gonna give you an underrated plate. The Royal Tavern is always pimped for its bad ass burger. But what you don't hear enough about is the chicken sandwich. Topped with prosciutto, pear, arugula, blue cheese and honey, it's a flavorful beast and beautifully layered, texture-wise. The snap of the pear against the blue cheese is really kind of precious. I'll order that before the burger any day of the week.
You're a fan of, let's say, "unconventional" eats � organs, odd cuts, stuff like that. What do you think are some good "starter" dishes for the more meat-and-potatoes diners out there?
When taking someone's "offal virginity," try sweetbreads. I know it sounds like it should be further down the continuum of freaky foods, but when done right, they're special. And last year's menu at Cochon had sweetbreads that were basically General Tso's chicken livers. And I mean that as a compliment. They were tasty in a junk-food-accessible way. Anyone would've eaten those. Just don't tell them what it is.
There's at least one commercial winery in every state in America. As a wine guy, which states have produced some unexpectedly good stuff?
Long Island is often talked of locally as a nice wine trip, but the truth is they make some serious Cabernet Franc on the North Fork. It's the real deal, as is their Merlot. Specifically, I would hit up the Old Field Winery, where the unoaked Chard and their Blanc de Blanc sparkler is really something special.
Washington State makes amazing Cab Sauv and Merlot. Look for bottles under $10 from the Columbia Valley. It's gonna blow up in a few years, so buy it up now.
Gun to your head � you HAVE to start working in a restaurant tomorrow, but you get to choose your position. What's your pick and why?
Bread guy. Zahav is my favorite restaurant and the bread makes it for me. Parc is overrated, but I'll go there every damn day for that country bread. It's the best baked anything in the city. Bread guy can't lose. No one's meal is ever ruined by the bread, but some people will leave a restaurant talking about the starchy sex that preempts every dinner.
Ah, good to see our Collin in something other than the police blotter. Dude, you really have to stop braising people's pets. That is clearly the thigh of a Saint Bernard you are chomping on. FYI to Valetta/Adelizzi: Collin is not an idiot, he knows what sweetbreads are. In your rush to make a snide comment, you totally missed the point that he was making an analogy. Also, my comment about him eating dog is a joke, although a sick one admittedly.
Yes I would agree with Collin that Cochon's Crispy Chicken Livers with balsamic reduction and spiced walnuts are like a foodie version of General Tso's Chicken and are super tasty and certainly a great way to indtroduce your friends to the more to meat than just breast and tenderloin cuts, but keep in mind they are not sweetbreads. Sweetbreads are not chicken livers, but are the thymus gland and/or the pancreas of a calf or sometimes lamb....definitely different than chicken livers!
The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We're going to start by highlighting the city's many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we're chatting with a guy who needs little introduction: It's Craig LaBan, who's been the restaurant critic for the Inquirer since 1998. We had a quite a few things we wanted to ask Craig, so we super-sized this week's Good Word to seven questions.
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We all know you love Philly � but what was your honest reaction when you heard Frank Bruni would be leaving his critic's post at the New York Times? Any fleeting moments where you pictured yourself trading in bells for stars, a la Ryan Howard pondering how he'd look like in pinstripes?
What hungry food writer hasn�t fantasized � at least for a moment � about feasting across the five boroughs on a New York Times expense account? I've lived in New York and it's among my favorite places in the world. It certainly is one of the most exciting, diverse eating cities anywhere. But filling the critic's spot at the Times is definitely one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for jobs, with 10 times the pressure and scrutiny of any other restaurant critic position in this country � and a ramped-up eating schedule to go with it. I think it would be an awesome challenge, but there�s a reason few people have lasted in that seat longer than five years. Gourmet burnout. I like seeing my family too much to imagine how that scenario would work in real life. It makes me appreciate how liveable our city is. Good thing NYC is just a couple hours away � that way I get to taste the Apple whenever I want, and come home to Philly, where I belong.
Is there one particular review (or several) in your memory that earned notable blowback from your readers? Why do you think that was, and how did you deal with the response?
Blowback is part of the job description when you get to spout your own opinions in the Sunday paper ever week, and I typically just let people vent. I get my say. But there have definitely been some standout protests, and some were no surprise, like the old-school venom that flowed (by certified letter to my publisher and editor) demanding penance after my No Bell review of Old Original Bookbinder's [in 1999]. But some were definitely unexpected, like the readers who were offended that I�d complain about river rats running around my balcony table at the Water Works (�What, you got a problem with wildlife? What�s next with you: squirrels and birds?�)� The flap that most surprised me, though, followed my four-bell review of Django. I have no regrets there � in its heyday, Django was the height of our BYOB movement and one of the best eating experiences in the city bar none. But so many people just couldn�t wrap their minds around an elite ranking for a place that didn�t sell wine. I never had a real sense of some people�s resistance to BYO�s until then.
Have you noticed your children developing any food critic-y traits?
I have two kids, and they�ve both been going to restaurants since they were in car seats under the table. So they�ve been exposed to some culinary wonders most kids haven�t, and they can slurp soup dumplings like Chinatown experts and find their way around a whole fish. But they�ve each developed very individual approaches to food � which is always a nice reminder to me how children�s tastes are still so pure. Arthur, my 7-year-old, is the more traditional kid eater of the two. He likes to call himself the �Chicken Finger Critic� in the family � and he isn�t afraid to throw around the bells. My 10-year-old daughter, Alice, meanwhile, is the more adventurous eater � she�s a pickle fanatic, has been known to strip a rack of lamb down to bare bones, and will polish off a bowl of sawagani (tiny deep-fried Japanese creek crabs) like they were popcorn. She�s also become very interested in cooking � she�s now my best sous-chef for holiday meals � it�s something we share together, and that makes me happy.
What are some of the most egregious mistakes you see new restaurants making when you visit for the first time?
I really appreciate a pioneer, a place that dares to bring ambition to a neighborhood that�s yet to have a star dining room. But as a restaurateur, you also have to be savvy about what an area will support both in style and price. You don�t want to turn off the locals before you�ve even opened your doors by outpricing your clientele. It�s just basic market research. Very few unknown chefs can transform a Nowheresville location into a destination based on talent alone. It�s just not sustainable � especially in this economy. So I worry about some new places that have debuted with entr�e prices in the high $20s (in West Philly, Wash West, and NoLibs), and I haven�t even eaten at these places yet! Aside from that, the biggest mistakes in most restaurants � not just new ones - are usually service related. And it starts the moment a potential customer calls to make that reservation. Restaurateurs have no idea how much business they lose with just one rude reservationist answering the phones.
Do you follow any particular protocol if you suspect you've been outed during a review meal? Or do you just go with it?
Just go with it. I�ve been dealing with this almost since the beginning of my career in New Orleans. There are so many pictures of me out there (almost from the first months I got here), that it�s kind of been my default assumption that at least half the restaurants know I�m there at least during one of my visits. As always, my visits are unannounced, and I avoid engaging in a personal way with the restaurant staff. But absolute anonymity is in reality impossible to maintain. It always was. But it�s especially impossible now in the internet age (and not just for me, restaurateurs say, but for critics at the alt-weeklies, and even bloggers who�ve just gotten a reputation for being cranks on Yelp.) This just obliges you to be a better reporter and better eater: pay close attention to the food, which can�t be faked; engage the servers in ways to learn how good they really are; be aware of the service given to those around you; and take very good notes. Experience is also really helpful. Egregiously fawning service is just too obvious to miss. And after eating 400 to 500 restaurant meals a year in Philly for the past decade, I think I�ve developed a pretty accurate and consistent sense of where a restaurant sits: it�s pretty much impossible to transform a mediocre place into a great one in a flash just because a critic�s walked in.
Do you think promotions like Restaurant Week, where turning tables is often job one, help or hurt a restaurant's reputation with new diners? While the price is right, some feel that cranked-out prix-fixe food is not a true representation of a kitchen's ability.
Restaurant Week is a blessing and a curse. It gets people to visit places they might never have tried. But at the same time, I think diners often go with unrealistic expectations into situations � with mass-produced menus built for a quick turn - where few restaurants are prepared to do their best. That�s a shame. But it might be changing for the better. The restaurants that take it seriously as a loss leader can really win some new customers, and I�m seeing more effort towards that � places that are giving some real values with more than three courses, and menus that offer more wider, interesting selections than simply the cheap ends of their menus (chicken, salmon � ). The recession, I think, has taught everyone that there isn�t an opportunity to waste.
At the end of every year you do your "Year in Bells," where some restaurants have an opportunity to improve on low ratings. What factors influence which places are worthy of revisits? For example, is a restaurant with one bell more likely to get a revisit if you see potential, as opposed to a two-bell place that's hoping for three?
These reviews have a lasting effect, so I do my best to get them right � and that includes some end-of-year adjustments to reflect changes and improvement. There are always occasions where I sense a restaurant just didn�t perform up to its capabilities during the initial review, or they were still working things out. If it really has a decent chance of bumping up to the next level (or if I�ve heard a place is slipping, and might need to step down), my year-end revisits are the moment to give another chance before the Year in Bells is sealed. Beyond that, full re-reviews are rare. Of course, I only have the time and budget for about five of these each year, so not everyone gets a second chance this time around.
Another fabulous installment of the good word! Will we be reading about Phyllis Stein-Novack next week?
Wow - a good read. Thanks Meal Ticket, thanks Mr. LaBan.
Nice job Drew. Craig is a discerning guy. I was surprised Craig felt that yelp, a soapbox that panders to the common idiot, draws concern from restauranteurs. http://phillymarketcafe.blogspot.com/2009/02/yelp-philly.html
Thanks for reading!
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| drawingforfood.blogspot.com |
The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with Hawk Krall and Kris Chau of Drawing For Food.� These two professional illustrators take a pen in one hand and a fork in the other, cataloging eats both fast (Moe's Hot Dogs) and fancy (lunch at Del Posto).
No matter how hungry you are, what is one restaurant dish you always have trouble finishing?
Kris Chau:
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Hawk Krall: I can eat two cheesesteaks in one sitting.� I've eaten 10 hot dogs in a day in 3 different states. But� can never finish a bowl of Pho.
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What's the most beautiful thing you've ever eaten?
Kris Chau:
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Hawk Krall: Really hard question. I've had painstakingly laid out restaurant dishes that look like miniature modern sculpture. Mind-numbingly authentic, beautiful meals at a 100-year -ld bouchon in Lyon, or a boarding house in Savannah. And some incredible-looking hoagies.
In the end I went with something that I actually made (not my recipe) and ate while working as a line cook.�� Nothing wild, just a perfect combination of comfort food and fine dining ... not too gimmicky, and most importantly it was freakin' delicious. One of a few dishes, that every time I made it, reminded me why I wanted to cook. And damn it looked good going out of the kitchen. Who knows if it ever made it to the table without falling over.
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What's your favorite Philly breakfast/brunch item? (it can be a specific restaurant dish, or just a regional specialty!)
Kris Chau:
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Hawk Krall: Creamed chipped beef on toast all the way. Getting harder and harder to find here, especially made well. I like the gravy on the thick side ... a lot of times it's sort of runny, gluey and gray. Best I've had is outside of the city in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Someone needs to get on a mildly fancied-up brunch version ... with good white gravy and some 2-inch-thick country bread.
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What do you look like after you've eaten way, way too much?
Kris Chau:
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Hawk Krall:
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this is the best! i love the drawing of too much food!
I'm so glad you chose Drawing for food - I adore their pictures!
Best Good Word yet!!!!
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The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with Amy Strauss of Apples and Cheese, Please, who describes herself as a "Philadelphia suburb-based food fiend who lives to chomp up and down the East Coast." The craft brew fanatic and accomplished baker/home cook has also contributed to CP's food section � in fact, the name of her blog originates with this 2007 Top 5 piece.
You grew up Mennonite � strong cooking traditions there. What's your first food memory?
If ever there was a baker's hall of fame, my grandmother, Naomi Strauss, would be the star. As a Mennonite and a Pennsylvania Dutchwoman (same as myself), she crafted killer traditional sweet treats that were mixed, mashed and pinched to perfection, and I am forever grateful to her for passing on to me all that she could. With a childhood flooded with rounds of funny, shoo-fly and apeas cakes, mountains of fluffy Dutch doughnuts and delectable sweet buns and rolls, I never questioned whether I should skip a night's dessert.
Although it's still surprising that I possess a petite frame, a typical Sunday afternoon scene from my youth went like this. Multiple folding tables packed, corner-to-corner, with a smorgasbord of covered dishes with lines of Mennonites, including myself, surrounding the perimeter, piling our plates with a ton of ever-changing tastes: simple sausage sandwiches, spicy chilis, ham and sweet potato casseroles, cold salads, homemade breads � and, of course, calorie-killing desserts.
Going off the name of your blog � you believe that "two separate tastes can together define why life's worth living." What are two disparate ingredients that you've combined in your cooking with good results?
I gush over the idea of combining two tasty things that wouldn't normally be considered able to accent one another. Honestly, one curious baking adventure proved one thing true � everything's better with a bit of bacon. I concocted a maple butter vanilla muffin blended with a tad of bacon fat and meaty crumbles, and smothered it with a maple-sugar buttercream and candied strips. The mini-cakes screamed for attention from breakfast hounds, but also helped me realize that experimentation is one of the better things to come to my baking/cooking.
More recently, I've been mixing and matching frozen yogurt homemade recipes, because really, anything that milk can be soaked into can easily be made into a creamy iced treat. As a fan of WD-50 and Wylie Dufresne's everything bagel ice cream, I believe there's an endless world of ice cream concoctions. Currently, I'm trying to perfect sweet corn cream ice with agave nectar, and quite possibly, I am thinking of soaking a Pennsylvania Dutch Fastnacht in milk for a truly traditional treat.
You were vegetarian for eight years before hopping back on the meat train last year. What precipitated this change? Ever feel guilty about it?
At age 15, I exchanged steak knives for salad forks, and with that, I delved deep into animal rights, activism and an awareness of the food I was eating. It wasn't that of a hard thing to do, because honestly, I wasn't raised on the best meats (sorry mom and dad, but well-done burgers and steaks don't satisfy), and becoming actually interested in what I was then eating made me generally more interested in food, its sourcing and its ability to be amazing while still being healthy.
Over time, however, I became the ultimate poster child for what not to do as a vegetarian. I ate embarrassingly poorly. Eventually I began to incorporate poultry and seafood into my more-recent diet, until I embraced carnivorism wholly. That probably sounds awful to serious vegetarians, but each individual independently decides what's best to stuff their jaws with, and now, a balance between the two diets works wonders for me, as I am at my healthiest.
Any recent restaurant visits that you entered with low or no expectations, only to be blown away by the quality of the food/experience?
A highly received restaurant out here in the suburbs is The Epicurean in Phoenixville. In repeated conversations, people would tell me about its spiffy fusion/Americana repertoire. But I don't trust everyone else's taste buds and if you say something is "to die for," you may make me curious, but you won't convince me you are right. Obviously, I eventually dined there, and let's just say their tasteless tapas menu, sketched out by the restaurant's entire staff, should just be glanced over, and not grubbed on if you want to experience the true flavors the eatery is capable of producing. But when revisiting on an unenthusiastic return trip, their certified and exceptionally juicy Angus beef patty, layered with homemade guacamole, roasted red peppers and crumbled goat cheese, is by far one of the better burgers I've chowed down upon on since going for a pro-beef lifestyle.
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The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We�re going to start by highlighting the city�s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we�re chatting with our very own Trey Popp, who's been reviewing restaurants for City Paper for close to three years. Readers who are fans of his entertaining, often-travelogue-like prose might wonder where his style and expertise stems from. Take it away, Trey.
So what makes you qualified to tell us what and where to eat?
Aside from my six-million-dollar bionic tongue? I'd love to have an answer as short and easy as that. But I�m not sure it would qualify me to tell anyone else what to eat or drink. I guess what I try to do is convey why I like or dislike the things I taste � how harmonies and contrasts of flavor and texture add up to something that's greater or lesser than the sum of the parts. As far as what qualifies me to sit in judgment, I think I�m lucky in that I have a broader experience as an eater than most people I know.
The way I first tried to break into restaurant reviewing was as someone who could bring a little more knowledge to bear on so-called "ethnic foods." I spent most of my mid-20s traveling around the world. I spent a year tracing a route Mark Twain described in his 1897 book Following the Equator. I spent another trying to go from one end of the Indian Ocean to the other with a no-airplanes-allowed rule. I only made it to the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, where I got typhoid fever from what I believe was a mango-ice drink from a street stall in Lahore. I spent some months in the former Yugoslavia. Anyway, it adds up to a lot of eating in a lot of places. And in a lot of people's homes. One of the best things about traveling without much money is that you discover again and again that your brother really is your keeper. So I ate dried fish and chilies for breakfast with people who put a roof over my head in southeast Sulawesi. I've had heirloom rice that's kept for special occasions by farmers in Bangladesh. I snuck into Bhutan with villagers who killed a chicken for me after the eight-hour hike through that began in an Indian tiger preserve. But it went from homes and truckstops to the kinds of places where bankers have lunch in Bangkok, or where the well-heeled go for dinner in Istanbul. I also have parents who love to eat and have taken their kids everywhere from Gary Danko and the French Laundry to some of the culinary temples of France and Spain.
But it's not like the mere act of chomping a bull-testicle sandwich in Morocco, or saying you ate downstairs at Chez Panisse, makes you a worthwhile critic. Television has a way of reducing dining and cooking to a series of dares or testosterone-fueled chef duels, which is something I hate. It reduces one of the most intimate and sensual manifestations of human culture into a mere fetish. I love the way careful cooking can forge a profound connection between the person making food and the person eating it. When that happens when I'm in a restaurant, I try hard to reflect it in my column.
Your review of Tommy Up's P.Y.T., which came out yesterday, has stirred up controversy among some local food bloggers who felt you were being critical of them.�Can you clarify your position?
Judging from Wednesday night's post on Phoodie, and a few other murmurs people have passed along to me, my main impression is that Tommy Up is an unparalleled master of promotional jujitsu. I think Kirsten Henri, at Grub Street, wrote what will probably be the sanest and most astute commentary that anyone's going to offer on this teapot tempest. My review simply pointed out that one of the many ways Up pumped up buzz for P.Y.T. was to invite food bloggers for free meals. And some of them took him up on it. It's a great way for Up to whip up publicity and good will, but if bloggers who took advantage of his generosity think they're not influenced by it, they're kidding themselves.
I don�t know Collin Flatt over at Phoodie, but I was surprised that he didn't even acknowledge, much less address, the fact that Up had invited bloggers for freebies, preferring instead to launch straw-man and ad hominem arguments. It sounds like he didn't personally partake of the comped burgers, which is all to the good, but he might have at least tackled the issue head-on, as Kirsten Henri did. Instead he punted, and opted to defend his purity and integrity � which I had never challenged in first place.
If Collin had engaged the issue, he might have found some cogent things to say. For instance, I do pay checks at the end of my meals, and I haven't used my name for any reservation in the last three years, and I don�t attract attention by pulling out a camera to snap photos � but City Paper does reimburse me for (at least most of) my expenses. One might argue that since my meals are subsidized � even if not by the restaurants I�m evaluating � my perceptions are skewed in favor of pricey items whose full cost burden I don't have to bear. As it happens, I tend to get more complaints from people who accuse me of stressing value-for-money overmuch, but I think that argument has some merit. And there are probably others. The fact is that every system has its drawbacks and vulnerabilities. And I think that Philly's more thoughtful bloggers can recognize their own.
Since you grew up in South Carolina, we're curious where you've found some of the most accurate representations of Southern cooking in Philadelphia.
I was sad to see that Erin O'Shea had been lured away from Marigold Kitchen. I really liked her contemporary Southern menu there, and I thought she executed it superbly. But Southern cooking is a two-headed beast. There's the veggies that are cooked to death, which I've never liked. There are soul food restaurants around town where you can get oversweet yams and such. But then there's the recent renaissance happening in places like Charleston, where some high-end chefs have their own farms and are resurrecting stuff like heirloom pole beans and pickled ramps. That's a little more in line with what O'Shea was doing.
Nobody does South Carolina barbecue up here that I know of � it's mustard-based � but Bebe's collards are pretty damn great.
You and your wife have a young son. What restaurants have you found to be especially child-friendly? Also, any general tips for those who love to eat out, but have kids?
First, a piece of advice to anyone who's about to have a baby: Take that newborn out to eat with you as often as you can, because you've got about four months before her lungs are big enough and her bedtime firm enough to make family meals out a total disaster.� If you're as blessed as we were in the first four months, your tiny baby will sleep through dinner and not even know the difference.� This will change radically when she develops her own ideas about when and what she wants to eat.
Our son was barely a week old the first time we took him to Sidecar for a sidewalk meal, and that was our go-to place the first few months. Sidecar's always done a great job with food and beer, and sidewalk tables are key if you want to protect little ears from noisy interiors. I actually testified at City Council in favor of the city granting a permit for Sidecar's sidewalk tables, on the grounds that they�re not just good for neighborhoods, they�re family-friendly. But these days he's too active to and prone to jump into traffic, and we almost always get a babysitter when we�re going out to eat now.
That said, there are a few places that have been more than gracious toddler hosts. Hinge Caf�, out in Port Richmond, was great. They even had toys. Earth Bread + Brewery is a great place to take active kids � but probably best for kids who can navigate steps. The roof terrace at Continental Mid-town was an easy place to have a beer with a baby who could stand but not yet walk. Smokin' Betty's needs to work on some things, but it is pretty kid-friendly.
Probably the best thing a toddler's parent can do is to cook a wide variety of things at home, hoping that by the time she's got some table manners down, she'll be able to make it through a nice meal and appreciate some parts of it. Just be ready for a bumpy ride. I will never forget the first thing � beyond single-ingredient pur�es � I cooked for my son. It was a mild lentil curry, and I doubt I've ever felt better than when he lapped it up like it was chocolate sauce. But a more recent memory is of him nonchalantly spitting out bites of lentil burgers that I'd not only slaved over, but made in bulk for freezing.
So I guess if Tommy Up or anyone else thinks I've been too critical of them, they can take satisfaction knowing that what goes around comes around.
I'm glad this interview came out right after the PYT review. No, I did not partake in the blogger lunch and I have had inconsistent food @ PYT. I did feel as though my, and our integrity was lumped into the category of 'people who keep a food diary and get free food because of it'. Philebrity might be well read and popular, but trust me, we're broke. (HI JOEY!!! Crabs on me this weekend) Phoodie is run on the hard work of some talented interns, our tireless and fearless leader and a few of us 'writers' who have other jobs. I never gave a good review to someone who didn't earn it, and have slammed friends and giveouts. If it sucks, it sucks. And truly, its all subjective, and none of us ever agree. (except on Bibou, which is the s*hit) We have advertising that keeps the doors open and the servers runnin'. Were lucky to have that and grateful. But it has never skewed our view as a team. Payola, or sustenance-ola, can be tempting, and is often flattering to the gratis writer. It is a legitimate problem, I agree with Trey. But someone much smarter than me once said, 'when you score a touchdown, act like you've been there before'. We've had bones tossed our way before, I don't mind paying for mine. But I know the folks who said Tommy's burger was great truly believed that. And I just found it irksome that they would tell falsehoods in exchange for burgers, that if they were lying about the quality, sucked anyway. P.S. Bebe's is also amazing.
Way to backpedal. Obviously you have realized what an overreaction your rant was.
[...] But even when P.Y.T does get press in the city�s alt weeklies, he tries to make the most of it. After receiving a negative review by the Citypaper�s Tray Popp, P.Y.T. said it would offer a discount to anyone who brought the review in leading Popp to crown Updegrove the �unparalleled master of promotional jujitsu.� [...]
[...] a great guy and we couldn’t be more proud of his accomplishment. For more from him, check out the September ‘09 Good Word Q&A with our critic. Praise for City Paper food critic Trey [...]
[...] Trey Popp, who’s been our restaurant critic here at City Paper since 2006, is moving on to Philadelphia magazine � but not before we got him to highlight his five most memorable CP food review experiences during his tenure here. We’ll miss you, Trey! Take it away. [...]
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