They started serving again on Wednesday after being shut down over the weekend by L&I as a nuisance bar.
The Barbecue Challenge is open to the public from 4 to 7 p.m. before the Philadelphia Phillies take on the Florida Marlins. The event features live music, performances by the Give & Take Jugglers, a classic car display, children’s entertainment and guest judging and appearances by Phillies alumni.You don't need tickets to the Phillies game that night to attend the BBQ Challenge. Which is good, because tickets to that game are basically already sold out.
All proceeds from the Barbecue Challenge benefit the Youth Golf & Academics Program, an organization founded by Maddox in 2000 that is dedicated to the enrichment and support of children grades Kindergarten through 8 in troubled city neighborhoods.
Yowsers.
Seriously good pizza is coming to Rittenhouse Square.
Earlier, we surmised that the insane burger deal at Butcher & Singer that Stephen Starr just introduced was on account of the lunch service at Butcher & Singer needing a pick-me-up. As well as possibly a retort of sorts to all the Tommy Up smack-talking.
Believe it or not, $5.95 will get you a 10 oz. burger with fries for lunch at Butcher and Singer! @StarrRestaurantNow, remember, this burger normally retails at $16. And it's worth every cent at that price. To put it into perspective, the cheeseburger at Parc is $15, and the Butcher & Singer burger is easily twice as good as the Parc burger.
@chef215 all you have to do is show up at Butcher and Singer and order it Monday through Friday from 11:30AM – 2:30PM! @StarrRestaurant
First to go was Bar Noir, which closed last year. It was sold and Franklin Mortgage and Investment Co. has opened in its place.
PYT VS Stephen StarrImpressive, right?
"War is a continuation of politics by other means"
- Carl von Clausewitz
It's hard to say where the war started. If I had to guess, it would be when Stephen Starr smugly proclaimed, "I can't get really good pizza here in Philadelphia". But to lay that bit of blasephmy [sic] down as the sole cause would be too simple. I think it all started with the pajamas on servers and the conveyor belts for food.
I remember in high school, there was this wrestler who widely thought to be unbeatable. He was a brute. We all heard the stories of how his parents had flown him to Russia to train with the greatest combatants in the world and that he had won 1000 matches before he was 13. He was an unstoppable force and had dominated the state for years. Until he was stopped and pinned to the mat... by a previously unknown 17 year old child. The child had not believed the stories of this prodigy and he trained for a full year, alone, carrying monster truck tires up and down the stadium stairs with only one simple goal in his mind: I will win.
So Stephen Starr, we say to you, and to your legion of SRO minions all wearing identical black suits and black t-shirts that have been washed one too many times: we are your 17 year old unknown. We make a better burger than you and we will prove it.
Going after your latest venture, Nerdburger- sorry, SQUAREburger- makes the most sense. We are both new and are both focused on the burger. But it has been brought to our attention that the burger there is hardly worthy of a challenge. So we extend with confidence the challenge to any burger in any of your many, many venues. Burger VS Burger. Two burgers enter, one burger leaves. You get the picture.
Ignore this challenge if you will...like you have been ducking me all week ( See Foobooz or Grub Street ), but you can't duck the truth. I stand here, a simple man, without a conveyor belt or an army of giant buddhas, waiting to beat your burger into the ground. Pun intended.
Tommy Up
PYT
What started this all BTW, was Starr claiming "you can't get good pizza" in Philly. My people at Tacconelli are too nice to speak up. @tommyupHowever, for the record, the quote that didn't make the original article was what Starr said immediately after that where he qualified his comment saying, "Tacconelli's in Port Richmond is excellent but in Center City there's really not a great place to get pizza."
Take a look at what diners are eating at the sidewalk café tables—any time of day—and you'll notice a phenomenon unexpected in a city that lends its name to another meat sandwich: People in startlingly high numbers downing the Rouge Burger. This 12-ounce hunk of well-seasoned beef comes with nutty Gruyère, caramelized onions, and a haystack of pommes frites. And the dish trumps any of the very fine burgers served at Philly's many gastropubs.Not sure why they didn't go with a Philadelphia critic, but the assessment is fair.
Rouge, indeed, is relatively glamorous. Overlooking Rittenhouse Square and, inside, posh, with cushy banquettes and booths and a central bar populated by beautiful people, it's a bona-fide Parisian café whose signature dish has become that perfectly proportioned combo of juicy beef, cheese, and bun. The cheesesteak, at least at this address, is all but forgotten. — Andrea Clurfeld, Asbury Park Press restaurant critic
For something like "Fish Restaurant, Inc."
The cups (at right) are made from corn, environmentally sustainable, and 100% compostable.The Fabri-Kal Greenware line is made from NatureWorks biopolymer, a polylactic acid (PLA) resin derived entirely from plants instead of oil. All Greenware products are created from domestically grown renewable resources and are manufactured in the U.S.A.The Phillies were supposed to sell ALL their draft beer in these cups at Citizens Bank Park. However, that still has not happened.
Greenware products break down into carbon and water, like other matter derived from plants, in properly managed composting facilities with mature compost, constant temperature control and specific relative humidity for good biological growth. Correctly done at 150F and 90% humidity, products will completely compost in approximately 50 days.
Join us for a Crab Feast!YES. PLEASE.
Starting Tuesday, July 28th and every Tuesday in August
$19
- 3 Jumbo Hardshells
- Cabbage Slaw
- Corn of the Cob
Oyster House. 1516 Sansom Street - 215.567.7683
Despite boasting a good location and above-average outdoor seating (not to mention the potential for spillover diners from the always crowded Pub & Kitchen across the street), the outdoor seating at Meritage is not usually as full as you might expect it to be.Q. Can you tell us a little bit about the renovation planned for later this summer?Appear to be emulating positive aspects (longer bar, open windows) of Pub & Kitchen — smart.
A. Well, we’ll be closed for two weeks in August to expand the bar — now it’s only 10 seats — repaint, open up the windows, install butcher block tables, and just generally make it a more friendly, less fine dining place.
MEDIA — When the stars come out on Wednesday nights in this Delaware County town, so do the diners, but so do those who just enjoy strolling down State Street in what has become the second “Dining Under the Stars” this summer.We would be inclined to agree.
[...]
She said the approach was to give Media a relaxed, European feel with the street closed down.
“People come out just to walk down the middle of the street,” she said. “It gives people a different sense of freedom about the town. This kind of stops the clock. People love it.”
From not worrying about finding a parking space to allowing kids to draw chalk figures on the street, the night has its own flair.
“It’s become more like a family night,” said Zubair Khan, executive director of the Media Business Authority, adding that a table of eight can easily afford a dinner at Dining Under the Stars.
[...]
Khan said hundreds packed State Street this past Wednesday.
“(Wednesday) night, it was like the boardwalk,” he said. “There were so many people.”
In addition, he said visitors are drawn to the outdoor seating. “People will wait 45 minutes to sit at a table outside,” he said.
Anthony Bellapigna of Fellini’s Café Trattoria is a Media restaurateur who’s ready to please the crowd.
He said he’s ready to hoist 80 granite tables to make customers have the ultimate outdoor dining experience.
“Last year, at one point, we put all of our tables out front,” he said. “There’s nothing like dining outside when the weather’s right.”
After a weekend of social media outreach, this came in over the wire on Monday from PYT, early reviews of which have been largely positive.Due to having our butts absolutely kicked (and us loving every minute of it), PYT is closed until the weekend. We need to restock and train on our new computer system. Unbelievable weekend.Regardless, a burger and a booze-filled milkshake is a combo meal we'd gladly wait for.
As opposed to simply throwing it into a pot of boiling water while still alive. That much, we've learned from this article and instructional video.
Is the timing of this news a coincidence? Maybe. But probably not.The Delaware River Port Authority has taken the first step toward reopening a Patco station at Franklin Square at 6th and Race.No. Shit.
The Delaware River Port Authority commissioners have approved spending up to a $500,000 to hire a professional design consultant to begin the work needed to reopen the Franklin Square Patco station located at 6th and Race.
DRPA CEO and Patco president John Matheussen says a lot of work is needed to be done to the station which closed in 1979, including electricity, lighting, security, collection and handicapped accessibility.
"We'll be taking a careful look at all the work that needs to be done to make the station ready for the public, and hopefully, we'll have that done and have the station open and running maybe within the next two years."
A survey of Patco ridership indicated that most riders think reopening Franklin Square Station is a good idea.
The movie starring Jack Nicholson and Paul Rudd that’s currently shooting in Philadelphia set up shop yesterday and today near Rittenhouse Square.
Meat Blend: Sirloin, chuck eye roll, chuck12 ounces? Chuck blend?? House-made potato roll??? Bacon???? Foie gras?????
Meat Source: Sustainable beef from Wolfe's Neck at Pineland Farms in Maine
Patty Weight: 12 ounces
Cooking Method: Charbroiler
Roll: Guinness potato roll, baked in-house
Toppings: Rogue Creamery smoked blue cheese; sautéed foie gras; applewood-smoked bacon and maple bourbon glazed cipollini
Price: TBD
Grub Street New York ranks the top five toughest reservations in America.3. Talula's Table, Kennett Square, PennsylvaniaAbout that bit of encouragement: On their website, Talula's Table has posted that they currently have cancellations for July 25, August 9, September 5, and September 16.
Something of a cult hero on the reservation-hunter circuit, Talula's serves one single table of eight to twelve diners a night and releases said table 365 days out, every day at 7 a.m. They give the whole table to the first person to nab it, and that one individual is responsible for filling the rest of the table’s seats. Capitalistic instinct would suggest that some of these seats might pop up on eBay or elsewhere, but they don't.
One bit of encouragement: While the restaurant doesn't maintain a public waiting list (there are rumors of such a list existing for VIPs), they do sometimes (and at random hours) post cancellations on their website.
Greensgrow Farm announces its first FARM DINNER!Cool idea. Keep 'em coming.
Chef Corbin Evans has returned to Philadelphia and agreed to man the grill (oven/prep table/garde manger [sic]) and prepare a five course feast in homage to our region's best and freshest food.
Thursday July 30 at 6:30 PM at Greensgrow, the farm table will be set amidst the greenery and under the stars (and maybe the Local police helicopter-it is Kensington after all) for Chef Evan's fantastic treatment. In the mode of Jim Denevan's Outstanding in The Field dinners (http://www.outstandinginthefield.com), our guests will sample a seasonal heirloom salad, house smoked fish appetizer, fresh fruit and local cheese, main course and fresh roasted coffee and dessert.
All diners will be asked to change their seats halfway through the meal to meet the other guests. BYOB to allow you to pair your favorite libations with the Chef's creations.
This $45 dinner will benefit Greensgrow's Kensington Community Kitchen, creating new food opportunities in our neighborhoods. RSVP to Erik@greensgrow.org.
First come, first serve. This is a very limited seating. The final menu will be available for preview next week.
Curious why Philadelphia Menupages Blog went dark last month? Apparently, to prepare for the imminent switchover to Grub Street Philadelphia.Grub Street, nymag.com’s popular food blog, is going national.Related:
Starting Sunday, the expanded Grub Street will cover food culture and news in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago, in addition to its original New York-centric blog. Visitors can access the blogs through the new grubstreet.com URL, as well as via links on nymag.com and the menu listings Web site MenuPages.com.
The flashiest restaurateurs want in on pizza; so do some of the most classically trained, critically acclaimed chefs.Bruni also weighs in on why upscale pizza places are so popular right now. And for that he turns to a familiar source.
Stephen Starr, the owner of Buddakan and an owner of Morimoto, two of the grandest and gaudiest Asian restaurants in downtown Manhattan, has lately spent much of his time in New York eating his way through the city’s older and newer pizza parlors, on a gut-busting mission to figure out what works best and how to replicate it in Philadelphia, his base.
Over recent weeks I visited those restaurants and others that belong to this current chapter in pizza worship. [...] I paid special attention to places less than a year old. There are scads of them.Stephen Starr dropping know how. No big deal.
Why?
“The economy the way it is, pizza’s perfect,” said Mr. Starr, who noted that pizza is relatively gentle on the budgets of consumers and providers.
“I have training at high altitude, with all these big restaurants,” he said, “and this seems a lot easier — less money, less pressure. You’re concentrating on one thing rather than sous-chefs and pastry chefs.”
Anything but typical.
Michael Klein brings word that construction on Stephen Starr's tiny Franklin Square Burger Shack (right) is slightly behind schedule.
In making the rounds this summer, perhaps you've noticed a few more Dark 'n' Stormy cocktails on drink menus around the city. We certainly have.“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare famously asked. In the case of the Dark ‘n’ Stormy, a Bermudan cocktail that’s been making a quiet resurgence in New York City bars and restaurants in the last couple of years, it’s two ounces of Gosling’s Black Seal rum and a fizzy hit of ginger beer.So that's something.
And, by law, nothing but.
That’s according to two trademark certificates on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which — in an exceptionally rare instance in the cocktail world — dictate the precise ingredients and amounts required to call a Dark ‘n’ Stormy, well, a Dark ‘n’ Stormy.
“We defend that trademark vigorously, which is a very time-consuming and expensive thing,” said E. Malcolm Gosling Jr., whose family has owned Gosling’s since its founding in Bermuda in 1806. “That’s a valuable asset that we need to protect.”
But a trademark-protected drink — especially one as storied and neo-classically cool as a Dark ‘n’ Stormy — seems anathema to the current bartending practice of putting creative individual spins on time-tested drinks. Drinks like this one undergo something like a wiki process: a tweak here, a substitution there, and the drink is reimagined.
Guests at last week's Chef's Dinner to benefit the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society are still talking about chef Georges Perrier's profanity-laden rant directed toward Philadelphia magazine president David Lipson.Perrier is known to be super intense at times.
Perrier, at the Hyatt Regency Penn's Landing event cooking on behalf of Le Bec-Fin, approached Lipson to complain over Le Bec-Fin's ranking (46) in Philly mag's recent list of Top 50 restaurants. Observers said they feared Perrier would have a heart attack as he cursed and screamed at Lipson, who calmly heard the fiery Frenchman out.
When we reached Lipson several days later he defended Perrier, saying "Georges is very passionate. He's done a lot for Philadelphia, he put us on the culinary map. It was just Georges being Georges," said Lipson, who went to Le Bec-Fin for lunch with father Herb, Philly mag chairman, the next day where he and Perrier resolved their differences.
46. Le Bec-FinHa. Merde.
Center City | French | Entrées: More than $30
Last Year’s Ranking: 26
As identity crises go, the one suffered by our beloved Le Bec has had foodies wringing linen napkins for years, because we so desperately want the place to succeed. Although it’s slipping, we’re not giving up: Georges Perrier’s signature dishes are still executed with such care and precision (and we like that we can now get them à la carte). If he could just resurrect his roast pigeon, nurture other once-sublime classics (galette de crabe, escargots, Dover sole), and quell his proclivity for muttering “Merde” while stomping past tables—all the while preserving that ever-glorious, worth-the-trip-alone dessert cart—we’d fall in love all over again. Order: Champagne and anything from the dessert cart. 1523 Walnut Street, 215-567-1000.
The MeatHappy grilling.
Lose your fear of fat; a 70-to-30 ratio of meat to fat is best. Pat LaFrieda, a wholesale meat vendor to top burger restaurants in New York City, recommends grinding the meat yourself with a food processor or a mixer's grinding attachment. He prefers chuck and brisket, abd said to put them in the freezer first and chill them down to 30 degrees. Choose select, choice or prime grade meats.
The Salt
Salt is crucial. Whether you're using kosher, table or sea salt, you should be liberal with it. Beef can take more salt than you think. Most chefs recommend seasoning the burger just before cooking it.
[...]
THE RIGHT CHOICE OF MEAT
But before you get to cook the burger, you have to choose the right meat.
In “Burger Bar” (Wiley, 2009), Hubert Keller writes that what you do not want is preshaped burgers or meat that is stuffed and compacted into plastic packaging. Once beef is compressed, a light texture cannot be regained.
Douglas Keane, the executive chef and an owner of Cyrus and the Healdsburg Bar & Grill in Healdsburg, Calif., advises people to lose their fear of fat. He started with 80 percent lean beef, then moved to a 70-to-30 ratio.
“The day I did it,” he said, “the servers started coming in and asking, ‘What did you do to the burger? The guests are going crazy.’ "
Mark Bucher, the executive chef at the Burger Joint in Washington, said that to make a great burger at home, have your butcher grind a piece of brisket. “It’s got a 25- to 30-percent fat-to-meat ratio,” he said. “It’s gorgeous. It’s my favorite.”
UPDATE: Foobooz received confirmation from Leigh Maida. Yello'Bar will close and re-open as Resurrection Ale House in September. 
From today's New York Times Food Section:"BEER" and "cocktails" are usually separated by a comma. But now bartenders are experimenting with crossover drinks that marry beers with spirits, mixers, even wines, going far beyond the shot-and-a-pint boilermaker.How entrepreneurial.
In New York, at PDT and Mayahuel, they’re mixing hot sauce, mezcal and beer to create smoky riffs on the michelada, a classic Mexican cerveza preparada, or prepared beer.
Bartenders at the Alembic in San Francisco top coffee liqueur and fizzy Italian red wine with porter foam to make a Vice Grip.
The beergarita — a margarita amplified by Flemish sour ale and framboise — is popular at the Small Bar on Division Street in Chicago. “Beer cocktails are an alternative to a pint,” said Ty Fujimura, co-owner with Phil McFarland.
In May, on the Session, a monthly virtual workshop on beer, nearly 40 bloggers contributed recipes for craft-beer-based drinks with names like Freak-out in a Moonshine Day Dream.
"If I'm going to have an amazing craft beer, why not also have it in an excellent beer cocktail?" asked the host of the May Session, Joe Ruvel of beeratjoes.com. “Other countries, like France and Belgium, have been doing this for a long time, and doing it pretty well.”
Indeed, the inspiration for the beer drinks that Terry Berch McNally serves at the London Grill in Philadelphia was Rudi Ghequire, brewer of Rodenbach beer in Belgium, who "suggested we add things like grenadine and cassis to his beer," she said. "You sell more beer this way, and you make more money."
Lauren McCutcheon delivers an epic profile on Jose Garces in the July issue of Philadelphia Magazine (4,000+ words).The same sort of thing happens when Garces attends a tasting for Village Whiskey. Dave Conn, chef de cuisine at the new restaurant, has been working all day in Tinto's kitchen to present his boss with a trio of smothered and covered burgers (tip: do not miss these burgers), a dish of decadently crispy duck-fat-fries, and a neat pair of cheese and charcuterie plates. Garces quietly samples each item with Tinto GM Robert Scully (Melissa's husband) — a bite here, a bite there. It takes him 10, maybe 15 minutes to assess the entire menu.Sounds good. Let's get that effer open already.
When Conn emerges for the critique, Garces, who hasn't written down a word, offers feedback that's relaxed yet unambiguous. The burgers, obviously, rock, but the cheddar sauce for the fries needs rethinking. Garces offers up an alternative recipe — which, shockingly, includes Cheez Whiz. But it's what he doesn’t do that's interesting. He doesn’t preach. He doesn't insist Conn follow his orders. He just listens, and encourages. He's the boss. But he's not bossy.
Welcome to the Beards. They're not called the "Oscars of food" for nothing.Hmmm, indeed.
Philadelphia's culinary stars are here, too: Stephen Starr, Jeff Benjamin, Michael Solomonov — hoping to win "Outstanding Restaurateur," "Outstanding Service" and "Rising Star Chef of the Year," respectively. Only one local nominee is absent. And in a Murphy's Law sort of way, He Who Is Not Here is the only Philadelphian who'll receive a coveted brass medallion imprinted with Beard's bald head. He's nominated for "Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic" in a five-person field stretching from D.C. to Hoboken, but prolific chef-restaurateur Jose Garces is nowhere to be found.
[...]
To these musings and more, Garces's publicist, Clare Pelino, says, somewhat mysteriously, "Jose is away on important business that we can't disclose at this time." Hmmm …
Posts
All Comments
