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Archive: November, 2012
Today on Afternoon Snacks, we've got free tots, first shots fired in the seasonal panettone wars, and a sale on gift cards from some of your favorite Philly spots!
While there are lots of places you can go to donate to Toys for Tots this holiday season, Barclay Prime (237 S. 18th St.) has distinguished themselves with a “Toys for Tots for Tots” promo. Now through Wed., Dec. 14, when you drop off a new, unwrapped toy at the Starr steakhouse, they’ll give you a certificate for a free order of their extra-schmancy tater tots.
Christmas treats and gifts with purchase, after the break! »
If you have a Ron Swanson-calibre meat lover on your shopping list this holiday season you might want to check out Wyebrook Farm's Farmer's Gift Baskets. $75 gets you a basket packed with all sorts of hertiage-bred goodies from the Chester County farm including pork chops, eggs, grass-fed steaks, and farm-cured meats like bacon and pastrami. Think of it as the locavore's Omaha Steaks. The baskets are available at Green Aisle and Cook or you can head out to the farm on Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m. or weekends from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and check out Wyebrook's holiday offerings on site at their Farm Market (150 Wyebrook Rd.) Shoot Wyebrook an email for more info about the Farmer's Basket.
Queen Village favorite Kennett Restaurant (848 S. 2nd St.) is coming up on their second anniversary, and they've got a couple nights of specials planned in celebration. Pencil in some time on Tue., Dec. 4 and/or Wed., Dec. 5 to drop by and wish them a Happy Birthday.
On Tuesday night, brewer Casey Hughes from Flying Fish will be on hand with a great selection of brews. On tap, you'll find Exit 4 American tripel, Exit 8 brown ale, and seasonal Grand Cru; they'll also have Red Fish and the awesome Exit 16 double IPA in bottles. Sounds like they'll have plenty of other goodies, too—like Forest & Main Omphalos barley wine on tap (it's a sixtel, so don't sleep) and plenty of food specials and freebies in the form of bar snacks.
Wednesday is Repeal Day, so the birthday party will be extended as the restaurant welcomes back the architects of their cocktail menu (and frequent guest bartenders), Phoebe Esmon and Christian Gaal, to mix up some special cocktails featuring Hendrick's gin.
If you'd rather not wait until next week to hit Kennett, we can't blame you, and here's an especially good reason to get over there ASAP: They've got Yards Pitbull Ale on tap right now, and 20% of every pint sold goes to the PSPCA.
With the openings of Fette Sau, Bubba's Texas BBQ and Blue Belly 2012 has been a banner year for the Philadelphia barbecue scene and it's only getting better. This week Blue Belly (600 Catherine St.) is upping their 'cue offerings with a $20 prix fixe menu and extended hours. They're now open Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from noon til 9 p.m. for barbecue and sandwich eating pleasure plus a new three course Cold Weather Comfort Meal menu that's running for $20. Here's a look on what's on offer for this weekend:
Appetizers
Smoked Chicken wings, fennel slaw
Baby Spinach Salad, with falafel, cucumbers, roasted-tomato vinaigrette
Entrees
Deep-fried Smoked Pork Shanks, creamed corn, onion rings, sweet and sour bbq sauce
Grilled Strip Steak, french fries, Brussels sprouts with bacon, steak sauce
Dessert
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Banana Walnut Bread Pudding
Getting into the holiday spirit Osteria (640 North Broad St.) chef Jeff Michaud's suocera (thet'd be mother-in-law in Italiano) is coming over from Italy and cooking up a serious family-style dinner on Tuesday, December 11th. The four courser runs $175 a head and includes plenty of hearty, cold weather dishes from Mamma Pina's native Bergamot including cabbage and speck cannelloni, meaty bollito misto and Christmasy panettone with mascarpone and chocolate sauce. Get your tickets right here!
More great local gift ideas (feel free to give them to yourself!) and an NYT holiday recipe search, on today's Afternoon Snacks.
We've run a number of local edible gift ideas in City Paper of late, but honestly, there are more good choices than there are column inches. So to throw another suggestion into the mix, how about a local chocolate sampler from the PA General Store (Reading Terminal Market)? There are two mixes available at $30 for four top-quality bars—one all-dark, one a mix of of dark and milk options. Represented are longtime area favorites Asher's and Lore's, newer stars John and Kira's and Éclat, and Philly's first bean-to-bar producer, LoveBar.
Locally raised meat and a little friendly competition, after the break! »
As a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, such is the transformation Passyunk's Singing Fountain undergoes every December, into a fir-draped, blue-bulbed Gravitron Christmas Tree. Tonight at 5 p.m., the Ave throws on the lights to oohs and ahhs from the young and young at heart. Local restaurants are celebrating tonight as well, with Black & Brew pouring complimentary cocoa for kids and Stateside pouring free booze for not-kids. Paradiso, Belle Cakery, Izumi, Ms. Goody Cucpake, Birra and Le Virtu will all be serving up free food, too. That's the kind of holiday spirit we can get behind.
We love baking pies, but we know that not everyone agrees with us. And during the holiday season, packed schedules sometimes leave you without the time to handcraft that dessert you promised to bring to one gathering or another. Of course, in Philly, there are so many great bakeries making attention-grabbing holiday desserts that choosing where to order from can become its own kind of headache.
We don't really have a solution to that problem, unfortunately. We're just here to complicate the issue for you by presenting the facts. In that spirit, let's kick things off by talking about the seasonal pies on offer from the Garces clan's executive pastry chef, Jessica Mogardo.
The showiest of the bunch is the ABC pie, pictured above, where the acronym thankfully stands for apple, bacon, and caramel rather than the sense of ABC gum. But dressed-up classics like Chocolate-Pecan and Pumpkin-Gingerbread will do well for any crowd whose ideas of "tradition" don't extend to pork in their dessert—and to let our personal bias show, it's the Cherry-Cranberry-Cornmeal pie that's really caught our eye.
Any of these options can be had for $35 and a small amount of advance planning: you'll need to order by noon the day before you want to pick up the pie. (Orders can be placed either online or in-person at JG Domestic (2929 Arch St.) or Garces Trading Co. (1111 Locust St.), which also function as the pick-up locations.)
In this week's South Philly Review we get a sneak peek into Phyllis Stein-Novack's Thanksgiving traditions. This year PSN and husband Edward hosted their first Thanksgiving and as you might imagine she did all of the cooking.
But on Thanksgiving Eve PSN and Edward decided to head over to East Passyunk's Marra's (1734 E. Passyunk Ave.) for some Italian-American comfort food.Stein-Novack "instantly knew a floodgate of memories would overcome me because I associate Marra’s with years gone by." Her mother was a big fan of Marra's pizza .A window table and a carafe of Pinot Grigio later PSN and Edward were reminiscing about anchovy pies, sending back gritty mussels and enjoying a Margarita pizza. The cottony loaf of Sarcone's bread and ordinary antipasto didn't get raves but PSN ended up awarding Marra's two nostalgic tips of the toque.
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