Food & Drinq is now darq. Restaurant news has migrated to The Insider, an online news site that will combine the stuff from INQlings (my "other" column) with the Food & Drinq/Table Talk copy as well as my video reporting that appears on Philly.com.
One-stop shopping. No waiting.
... for sure ... without a doubt ... bet your bottom rupee.. Wednesday, Sept 10. That's according to an email blast Saturday night from manager Daz Singh. Minar was forced from its longtime home on Sansom Street near 16th two years ago. .
The new location:
1304 Walnut St
215.546.9443
The email adds that hours will be Monday - Friday: 11:30 am to 9:00 pm
Saturdays : 11:30 am to 7:00 pm
Sundays closed
Visa/MasterCard will be accepted with a $15 mininum, and there will be delivery with a $15 minimum
It's BYO.
Alisa Cafe in Cherry Hill has called it a career. The BYOB started 24 years ago in Upper Darby and moved to Cherry Hill in 2004. Chef/owner Tony Kanjanakorn is unsure of his next steps.
Big round of restaurant opening and reconceptualizations, amid what many feel is the worst economic climate for dining in decades.
El Azteca II at 714 Chestnut St. is looking to reopen the week of Sept. 7 after a redo. The cantina, which had its share of infamy last year thanks to tequila-toting college kids, is applying to the state to transfer its liquor license into the space from its second location in Northeast Philadelphia. Owner Agustin Mata says he wants to close the Northeast branch, which is on Grant Avenue. El Azteca is on the same block as Jones, Las Vegas Lounge, Aqua, Morimoto, the forthcoming Chifa from Jose Garces, and the forthcoming Union Trust steakhouse. There was a recent tempest in a teapot over Union Trust's liquor application (one opponent, who it turns up ended up filing too late); an LCB spokeswoman tells me that the board has not heard from any opponents about El Azteca's posting. So far, that is. The application was received in Harrisburg on Aug. 8.
Also on the cantina side: Adobe Cafe's South Philly branch is to open Sunday, Sept. 7 at 1919 E. Passyunk Ave.
Melograno, which had to vacate its space at 22d and Spruce to make way for Mémé, is targeting Sept. 16 for its new spot at 2010 Sansom St.
Minar Palace at 1304 Walnut St. is just awaiting a health inspection, which was supposed to happen Sept. 3, but didn't.
Alison Barshak had promised us that we'd be able to wear white shoes to the opening of Alison two in Fort Washington. Still no opening date, alas.
Caffe Casta Diva at 227 S. 20th St. is looking at Sept. 13 for a reopening after a dramatic renovation that's updated the early 20th century opera house imagery and doubled the seating.
Paxia, which rolled out in July at Eighth and Christian Streets in Bella Vista, is finally getting around to its grand opening. Brothers-in-law/owners Ismael Torres and Dionicio Jimenez (he's chef at Xochitl) and manager Kimberly Funderburk are making an evening of it on Monday, Sept. 15 from 6 p.m. They're doing a $25 three-course fixed-price dinner, accompanied by strolling mariachi. It's BYO, and they have house-made margarita mixes. Reservations at 215-413-0171.
Jose Garces -- fresh from opening Distrito and victory over Bobby Flay in "Iron Chef America" -- has another restaurant coming up. And it's not Chifa, his Peruvian-Chinese melange that he has up for 707 Chestnut St. next year.
Cast your eyes to the northwest corner of 20th and Sansom Streets, next door to the expansion of Tinto. It's the former Crimson Moon coffeehouse.
Garces tells me that he'll take it over next year for what he calls a very casual concept, to be determined.
You may have heard rumors last year that Garces wanted to do a casual Latin spot at what was Mandoline, the tiny corner spot next to Amada at Chestnut and Strawberry Streets in Old City. That plan fell through. The space is now Meju, a Korean BYO.
American? ... Italian? ... American? ... American? ... Italian?
Here comes another restaurant change in the Jenkintown train station.
After three years, Jonathan's American Grille went el foldo over the weekend. Owners are retooling it into Pomodoro.
The space came into prominence as a restaurant in 1986 as Greenwood Grille. When that went cold three years later, it became Stazi Milano. Despite the bizarre interior, it rolled though the 1990s. By 2003, it was back to American under the name Station Grill. That lasted two years.
So now the owners are trying Italian. No matter that midpriced Italian food is everywhere in Eastern Montco, including the months-old Primo Bacio in the Towers at Wyncote down the road. And no matter that "Pomodoro" is one of the most hackneyed Italian restaurant names in existence.
Leigh Maida and Brendan Hartranft report that they have signed a lease for the spot at 44th and Spruce formerly known as Kelliann's. They say they will open a "neighborhood beer bar and kitchen" called Local 44.
They say Local 44 will be a "completely independent operation from Memphis Taproom, with very little overlap in concept, outside of the neighborhood beer bar that we'd most like to hang out at vibe."
Local 44 will focus on craft beer from around the world, with a nod to locals as well. We will have an extensive and exciting draught beer list. "Our kitchen plans are small scale, in the neighborhood 'pub grub' vein," Leigh says.
There is a spaceholder Web site up: www.local44beerbar.com
You may remember how Owen Kamihira of Bar Ferdinand and soon-to-be El Camino Real previously had announced plans to open his own gastropub called Local 44 at the very same location. Kamihira never signed the lease. These projects are separate. Leigh describes the same-name situation as an unfortunate coincidence -- "one it seems both parties came to independently."
(I am out of the country, so when I hear back from Kamihira, I will post.)
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe (Aug. 29-Sept. 13) announced today that it will offer a Festival Bar, a "stylized urban beer garden" in Northern Liberties for post-show mingling; opens at 10 p.m. nightly for ages 21 and up. Fergus Carey will do the refreshments and the Turkish restaurant Konak will do the eats. Visual media installations will be designed and programmed by artist Lars Jan, and DJs will spin. For the truly bored, there will be arcade games like pinball and Wii Boxing. It's free to get in.
Festival Bar
626 N. Fifth St. (southwest corner of Fifth St and Fairmount Ave)
More info here on its blog.
And here's the menu.
Highlight is the "Blue Demon Express":
First choice:
Sopa Azteca or Chilango chop salad
Second choice:
Milanesa torta or huarache de hongos
Plus a nonalcoholic beverage $12.50
Copyright © 2006-2007 Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. All Rights Reserved.
Contributor Maureen Fitzgerald has been with The Inquirer since 1986, but didn't begin her foray into food until 2001, when she began reviewing restaurants in South Jersey. She became editor of the Food section in 2005 and is equally happy slicing and dicing words or food.
Contributor Michael Klein has covered the comings and goings of the restaurant scene since 1993 in his Thursday Food column, "Table Talk." Since 2000, he's also chronicled local people, places and things (in easy-to-digest portions) through his other features column, "INQlings." He is allergic to most nuts. Not peanuts, which are legumes anyway.
Contributor Craig LaBan, whose column can be found in the Sunday Image section, has been The Inquirer's restaurant critic since 1998. He eats roughly 500 restaurant meals a year, exploring the full range of the region's culinary bounty. That said, he is currently in cheeseburger detox.
Contributor Rick Nichols is a self-styled "food anthropologist," prowling café kitchens, farm markets and cheeseries for clues to what makes us tick. His columns appear in Thursday's Food section and Sunday's Image section. His finding so far? To borrow a page from his Mennonite forebears: "Kissin' don't last; cookin' do."