Food and Drinq

Many celeb chefs spend more time preening and seeking publicity than actually cooking. Not Georges Perrier. He likes and cultivates his fame, of course, but most days you can find him in the kitchen of one of his restaurants.

How about in the dining room? In a weekly program starting this Tuesday (3/4) for every Tuesday night in March, Perrier will cook tableside at Georges in Spread Eagle Village in Wayne. His dishes Tuesday will be steak au poivre and bananas foster.

Reservations are recommended and seating is limited: 610-964-2588 or www.georgesonthemainline.com.

Adobe Cafe on the Roxborough side of Manayunk (or the Manayunk side of Roxborough, depending on your point of view) plans to open a second location on South Philly's Passyunk Avenue strip. Address is 1919 E. Passyunk Ave., which last was Elements Sports Cafe after a short turn as Eladio's. (Old-timers remember it as Gentile's Villa Di Rieti, which in its day was a semi-swank Italian nightspot.)

Mariano Herrerias, who's owned the Adobe for seven years since he bought it from Azure's Bob Bitros, says downtown's Adobe will be "the same everything" -- liquor license, easy-on-the-wallet prices and decent veg options. Certainly it will compete with Cantina Los Caballitos.

Herreria says he's working to overcome construction issues -- correcting some errors that previous owners had made in there -- and plans to open May 1.

He'll be in good company. Nick Miglino, formerly of Felicia's, is building his bar Sticks & Stones a few doors away, at 1909 E. Passyunk.

Also on the block are Le Virtu (1927 E. Passyunk) and Tre Scalini (1915 E. Passyunk).

... but ...

the winner of Food Network’s “Ultimate Recipe Showdown” Comfort Food category received $25,000 and a spot on the T.G.I. Friday’s menu nationwide.

The winning recipe was a chipotle grilled steak sandwich, with Cajun-rubbed skirt steak served on toasted ciabatta with a blend of Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses, roasted plantain slices, lettuce, tomato, onion and chipotle mayo, served with crispy onion rings.

The winner is Ivan Aviles of Holtsville, Long Island.

He's a general manager at Chili’s. As of today, anyway...

In a big spread over the weekend in London's Financial Times (which I found in hard copy but not online), Stephen Starr describes his ideal weekend: gazing at the Dutch Masters at the Art Museum, strolling through Reading Terminal Market and the farmers market at Head House Square, browsing for knickknacks through Northern Liberties, lunching with his daughters at Famous 4th Street Deli, laughing at a comedy club.

He also raves about Villa di Roma in South Philly for "basic southern Italian food. ... The really cool thing about that place is that no one knows me. They don't accept credit cards so my name never pops up and I can be anonymous."

But when Marc Vetri is Starr's dining partner -- as he was last night (3/3) at Villa di Roma -- thoughts of anonymity go out the window.

Starr's choice of dinnermates fuels speculation. Take January, when he had dinner at New York's Buddakan with Ken Friedman (of New York's Spotted Pig), Taavo Somer (Freemans) and David Chang (Momofuku). "Is there a Spotted Buddafuku in the works?" New York Mag's blog asked. (Starr is known to be opening a gastropub at 706 Chestnut St., though he's not giving up information on that.)

So what about last night's pasta fest? This morning, both Starr and Vetri laughed off speculation that it was a Big Business Dinner. Asked if there was some partnership brewing, Starr seemed vague. Vetri said they'd been talking "five or six years now, but we have nothing in the works."

For the record, they split the check.

Zot in Society HIll will open its second floor -- known as Zotikot -- with a private party Friday 3/7/08.
Doors will open to the public at 11 p.m.

While Zot means "a crazy fool," Zotikot is "a house of crazy fools, a nuthouse, an asylum."

Zotikot, which has a bathroom-themed bar back, will offer American microbrews, wine bottle service, cheese and charcuterie, and modern pub fare. Promotional info says: "With a lounge by the fireplace and a bar full of flatscreen TVs, fooseball tables, league dart boards and a jukebox, Zotikot is your new regular hang-out for all occasions."

Today (3/6) will mark the return of Jin House to Wash West, in new quarters at 1117 Locust St. (215-592-9500). It's next to More Than Just Ice Cream and the soon-to-open Union Gourmet Market.

Jin House was at 11th and Spruce until the building above it was destroyed by a huge fire in 2003.

The new place, like the old one, is built for speed, not for glamour. The new menu adds Japanese items -- rolls, sushi/sashimi and a few terikayi dishes to its phone-book-sized Chinese menu. There's a bunch of "mock" dishes for vegetarians, and ridiculously cheap $5.50 lunch specials.

A reminder that South Jersey Restaurant Week starts Sunday (3/9) and runs through March 14, with four-course $35 dinners at 70 restos on the east side of the Delaware. Details plus res info are here.

Looking ahead: South Street has announced its third annual "8 Days of Eats” promotion, in which restaurants offer $15 and $30 dining deals. Dates are April 23-30. The kickoff event will be a free menu-sampling at the Head House Shambles (Second and Lombard) from 7 to 9 p.m. April 22.

The restaurants so far:

Supper - Las Bugambilias - Irish Times - Coquette - Paddy Whack's Pub - Xochiti - Zot - Tori's - Ansill - Bistro Romano - Chick's - Blarney South - Lovash - Bridget Foy’s - Mimosa - Café Nola - Monte Carlo - Cedars - Mustard Greens - Chaleo Thai - Copabanana - North - Core de Roma - La Fourno Trattoria - O’Neal’s - Overtures - Dark Horse - Pad Thai - Django - Downey’s - Reef - Fez - Shouk - Gayle.

After nearly seven years, the Borish family has pulled its Marathon Grill out of Two Commerce Square, on Market Street between 20th and 21st.

This location was the second (after Marathon on the Square) to contain a lounge as the Borishes sought to expand their dayparts into late night. The landlord and residents of the nearby senior-heavy apartment buildings complained about the mojito nights. Most recently, the location was open only for weekday breakfast and lunch.

Marathon is looking for new locations, a rep says.

Caution: If you call the Commerce Square number, you're forwarded to the Marathon less than two blocks away at 1818 Market.

There's been a parting of the ways between 707 owner Ryan Margolis and chef Jayson Grossberg, who stepped in three months ago amid loud huzzahs.

The partnership was billed as a win-win. Margolis (left) would get a multi-belled chef at his stylish New American off Washington Square, and Grossberg (right) would get regular work.

Grossberg had been running Alphabet Soup in Audubon, Camden County, though toward the end of '07 he'd been doing mainly private parties.

Margolis says their contract expired and "we decided not to renew. We parted amicably." Grossberg did not return a message left on his cell phone.

Meanwhile, Kevin Sbraga -- last at the Grill at the Ritz-Carlton -- is consulting at 707 while Margolis interviews for his third chef in a year.

UPDATE: Grossberg said he had other projects that he was working on, including a line of food.

What's in a name? A potential legal problem for hot restaurateur Jose Garces.

Garces, boss of Amada and Tinto, went back to the drawing board on the name of his Mexican restaurant planned for The Hub near 40th and Chestnut Streets this June. "Chilango" -- he learned -- was taken. (A Chilango is someone who lives in the Mexico City area; since the restaurant's theme is Mexico City, it seemed fitting.)

The new name is Distrito Federal, as in "federal district." Mexico City is properly "Mexico D.F."

How about a second and third and maybe fourth location for Tiffin Store, the busybusybusy Indian sitdown/delivery spot on Girard Avenue near Seventh Street.

Owner Munish Narula confirms that he's looking in earnest for a spot in Mount Airy to satisfy the Northwesterners.

More immediately, though, Narula also says he and his partners are close to signing two deals, about a block apart, in Center City. One would focus on South Indian and Indochinese cuisine and would be reasonably priced, as is Tiffin. The second Center City restaurant would be an upscale lounge with East Asian cuisine.

Locations so far are under wraps, as the agreements are not signed.

Well, look what's on the front burner again.

Tuesday (3/11) marks the grand opening of Swallow at 1030 N. American St. (215-238-1399) in the Liberties Walk development in Northern Liberties. << UPDATE: Opening delayed till 3/12. >>

The sexily candlelit 38-seat Euro BYO bistro* with bold, deep-purple walls had been scheduled to open last summer, and then last fall, but various pitfalls befell husband-and-wife team Jason and Cindy Caminos.

The Caminoses, most recently in D.C., met a dozen years ago at Culinary Institute of America. This is their debut as solo operators, or as they put it, "spending their own money.".

* They're unabashed in their love for bistros, and they want this to be a place where chefs want to eat. "No fusion. Just great, seasonal ingredients, well-prepared," says Jason, the very talkative one. He has "very little patience" for molecular gastronomy and the chefs who turn their kitchens into laboratories. He'll sell bone marrow "because it's delicious and I want to drum up business for cardiologists."

Cindy is the organized one who is cooler under fire, both say.

As outsiders who are now insiders living in Northern Liberties, they've been mighty impressed at the warm welcome they've received from the neighbors, including Bar Ferdinand's Owen Kamihira. Marc Vetri, they say, sat them down in Osteria and helped them choose suppliers.

It'll be open nightly. Lunch and brunch should be on within a few weeks.

Here's the opening menu, whose mains are priced at $18 to $24, less for the burger. And what a burger... !

HORS D’OEUVRES

Mussels steamed in white wine, butter, and garlic
Goat cheese bruschetta with dressed arugula
Roasted bone marrow with parsley salade and grilled baguette
Cheese plate / trio sampling with honeycomb and fruit

ENTREES

Roasted Chicken with fingerling potatoes sautéed in duck fat and asparagus
Steak frites / dry aged served with herb butter and french fries
Asian-glazed salmon on a bed of cilantro sticky rice and sugar snap peas
Quiche du Jour with mixed green salade
Bone-in pork loin / grilled, served with sweet potatoes sautéed in duck fat and squash medley
Burger / ground with pork belly on onion brioche, with french fries

SALADES

Fennel and Mushroom / sliced fennel, mushrooms, and shaved parmesan, dressed with lemon vinaigrette
Caesar / whole romaine heart leaves with toasted baguette
Bibb Salade / bibb lettuce with fine herb dressing

DESSERTS

Crème Brulee / rich vanilla custard with a hard caramel shell
Raspberry tart / shortbread crust with raspberry preserves
Chocolate hazelnut mousse cake / dense chocolate cake with hazelnut mousse topped with dark chocolate and brandy ganache

++++

They're particularly proud of the mod restroom, a marked contrast to the dining room. The lights were stripped from an old kitchen hood.

Victor Fellus, a partner in Old City's Soho Pizza, has something far more ambitious on his plate.

It's called Garlic, and it's pegged for the ground floor of the RiverWest condos on the northwest corner of 21st and Chestnut Streets. Fellus owns a condo upstairs.

Leave it to Fellus to tell us his 50- to 60-seater will be a combo coffeeshop, salad stop and brick-oven pizzeria with a bar. Think Cosi meets Saladworks meets Bertucci's.

He'd like to open at the end of May, if his liquor-license transfer comes through.

One of Center City's future gastropubs will have a Transylvanian twist.
Laurentiu Muras, a bartender about town, is developing Mamaia -- say it "mam-AY-ah" -- at the long-underutilized (or is it closed?) Cafe Habana on 21st Street near Chestnut. Mamaia is a resort town in Muras' native Romania.
He says it's a few months out.

The sign in the papered-up windows of old Taco House/Cafe Centraal space at 1218 Pine St. advertises a sushi restaurant coming soon.

The new tenant won't be coming far.

It's Wasabi House, whose lease is coming due in current quarters down the block at 1240 Pine St.

Opening at 1218 is forecast for May-June.

Jason Caminos now says that Swallow in Northern Liberties will open Wednesday (3/12), not tonight.

No, not the Nicholas Nickolas that occupied the Rittenhouse Hotel before Smith & Wollensky.

Two guys named Nicholas are behind a new-American BYO called Nicholas. It's expected to open in mid- to late-April on Moyamensing Avenue at Emily Street (just north of Snyder Avenue) in Pennsport. The spot was Cafe Carmen, a gelato/coffee shop, before.

Nicholas Matteo and Nicholas Sweeney met on the line at Striped Bass in the mid-1990s and did their own thing until they ended up at Morimoto a few years ago. "We always talked about opening our own place," says Matteo, who lives near the restaurant. They did cooking demos last year at Burlington County Farmers Market in Moorestown

Their concept is "clean, simple, contemporary, very locally connected, moderate prices," and their menu will change weekly with the market.

They also intend to do catering under the name Nick & Nick.

Can this town take another gastropub?

We shall see.

Jim Kirk and Jake Hampson, bartenders/managers at Bishop's Collar, are converting the former Savannah at 1836 Callowhill St. into Kite & Key Tavern.

Kirk promises lots of beers and solid food on the par of South Street's Ten Stone (a Hampson employer) and Northern Liberties' N 3rd.

They hope to open at the end of May or early June.

"Kite & Key"? "We were kicking it around," Kirk says. "Since we're in Franklintown, off Ben Franklin Parkway, we thought, `Why not?' "

If you've been to Cherry Hill’s Town Place at Garden State Park lately (941 Haddonfield Rd.), you've seen the McCormick & Schmick's seafooder going in. It opens Saturday (3/15).

Cast your eyes to the other side of the building, where another restaurant is going in. This one's been kept hush-hush, but the awning went up today (3/12): William Douglas Steakhouse.

Never heard of it? It's because it's a new steakhouse concept from the operators of McCormick & Schmick's. Founders Bill McCormick and Doug Schmick named it after themselves.

Again.

Opening April 4, William Douglas will do large portions and tableside service on some dishes Entrees will run $22 to $45, positioned for a $60-to-$65 check average.

Executive chef Karen Mitchell's signature dishes will include an herb-crusted sirloin steak diavolo and a porterhouse veal chop Florentine.

Press release of the day:

On April 9, vintage wine will meet vintage vinyl when Chaddsford Winery (632 Baltimore Pike, 610-388-6221) introduces their 2006 Pinot Grigio, named for WMMR radio personality and longtime Philadelphian Pierre Robert. The bottle will bear a tie-dye label and Robert’s likeness, and will house a white wine that winemaker Eric Miller describes as “very refreshing,” with a “crisp, clean acidity; zesty, juicy fruit; and a mouth-watering, long, lively finish.”

“Rock and roll” and “wine and cheese” may seem unlikely bedfellows, but their common ground is easy to identify: peace and love, just the notion Miller hopes wine lovers will embrace with this special vintage, set to be officially released on April 19 at the winery. The pairing is even more natural given that Chaddsford celebrated their 25th anniversary last year – the very same year Robert celebrated his 25th year at WMMR. Robert himself plans to attend the vintage launch party – appropriately, a wine and cheese reception, though this one is sure to be more rock than Rachmaninoff and will even feature a performance by a New York-based classic rock cover band Relic. WMMR listeners will be invited to participate as well; the station will run a series of contests for wine lovers to win a chance to attend the reception as Robert’s special guests.

Pierreno Grigio will flow at several local watering holes throughout the spring and early summer, including wine dinners at Kildare’s King of Prussia on April 23 (826 DeKalb Pike, 610-337-4772), West Conshohocken’s Gypsy Saloon on April 29 (128 Ford Street, 610-828-8494), Snackbar on May 6 (253 S. 20th Street, 215-545-5655), Horizons on May 13 (611 S. 7th Street, 215-923-6117), The Gables in Chadds Ford (423 Baltimore Pike, 610-388-7700), The White Dog Café on June 2 (3420 Sansom Street, 215-386-9224), The Moshulu on June 12 (401 S. Columbus Boulevard, 215-923-2500), and Valanni on June 25 (1229 Spruce Street, 215-790-9494).

The dinners will include half-hour meet-and-greet sessions with Robert, and some will feature special prix-fixe vegetarian menus to celebrate Robert’s own gastronomic preferences. In addition, at each dinner, one lucky winner (chosen in a contest on WMMR) and their guest will join Robert at his table for the meal. Restaurants hosting dinners will include Pierreno Grigio on their wine lists following those dates, for patrons unable to attend the event.

Pierreno Grigio will also be available at Chaddsford Winery and its three sales locations, Peddler’s Village (Street Road and Route 202 in New Hope), Springfield Mall Wine Shop (Baltimore Pike and West Sproul Road in Springfield), and the Ardmore Farmer’s Market (Coulter Avenue and St. James Place in Ardmore), as well as through their website.

Celebrities love attaching their names to wine. Francis Ford Coppola, Lorraine Bracco and Wayne Gretzy are in the biz. As you just read here yesterday, Pierre Robert's smiling mug will be on labels from Chaddsford.

Now comes Mike Schmidt, the Phillies legend, doing a charity deal.

No. 20 and two other members of the 500-home run club -- Ernie Banks and Eddie Murray -- will have their names on wine labels, starting in about two months. (One of the driving forces behind this 500 Home Run Club promotion is Liz Banks, Ernie's wife.)

All proceeds will go to charity, and "Mike Schmidt 548 Zinfandel" will
help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Eos Estate Winery of Paso Robles, Calif., will label The 500 Club wines.

Expected retail is $17, says Charity Wines, the outfit setting this up.

Wine broker John Corcoran says he is working with the LCB to get the wine into Pennsylvania's State Stores by May 15. He says some New Jersey wine shops also will sell it.

Schmidt is expected to announce the deal officially at a May 2 news conference at Citizens Bank Park.

A sharp-eyed tipster noticed a "for lease" sign on the space that's been announced as the future home of The Waverly on 13th Street in Wash West.

Wha'?

Restaurateur Michael O’Halloran would not talk about it, only to say that the project was still on.

Building manager Pearl Properties has not returned my call for comment.

If you remember eating at the old Johnny Cross' or Savory Grill at 1002 Skippack Pike in Blue Bell, the new occupants of the building will be an eye-opener.

As of 3/14/08, it's three concepts: Korean BBQ (Gaya), Japanese dining room/sushi bar (Asuka) and a banquet hall that can seat 350. All are open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. There's a common kitchen, overseen by Mr. Choi, who immigrated to the U,S, eight months ago after cooking in Korea, Japan and Europe.

General manager Daniel Minn (in Asuka in the top photo) explained that the owner -- whom he declined to name but said he had no other restaurants -- believes that there's a huge market for Korean food in central Montgomery County. He says there's a special need for banquet space.

"A lot of immigrants came here in the 1980s and prospered," he says. Their children are now marrying.

The Gaya room, to the left as you enter, is contemporary -- cream walls, dark woods, highly polished marble floor, tables set with crossed American and South Korean flags.

Each table has a gas BBQ grill. Minn demonstrated the special ducting and ventilation system built in. Even with the meat sizzling on the grill, most of the smoke was sucked back down and vented outside. "You don't want to walk around the next day and have people sniffing around and saying, `Where were you?' "

Here's the Gaya menu. Gaya's phone number is 215-654-8300.

Asuka, the Japanese side, is similarly contemporary, with black-topped wooden tables decorated with crossed American and Japanese flags. The stone fireplaces you may remember from previous occupants are still there.

Following are photos of the sushi bar (in Asuka's dining room), and the noodle machine in the kitchen.

Mr. Choi makes dough the day before, rolls it into a tube the size of a bologna and refrigerates it. For each order, he slices off a piece and feeds it into the machine, which extrudes pasta and plops it into a tank of boiling water. After seconds, he dips out the pasta with a strainer and plummets it into a bath of icy water. It's entertaining, but alas out of sight.

Here are Asuka's lunch menu
and Asuka's dinner menu.

Asuka's number is 215-654-8900.

After 10 years, renovation was in order at Morning Glory Diner at 10th and Fitzwater, so renovate they did. Owner Sam Mickey closed the place on weekdays for three weeks. The work on the hardwood and linoleum floors proved to be more ambitious.

Hence, the reason for Morning Glory's closing over last weekend as workers finished the job.

"Come back," Mickey said to customers. "We need the money."

Devil's Den, the gastropub coming to the old Felicia's at 11th and Ellsworth Streets, is now aiming at the week of 3/23/08 for opening.

Construction is all but finished, says owner Scott Wallace, who expects the Health Department to pay a call on 3/18. He's also waiting on his liquor license.

As Alison two in Fort Washington gets closer, Alison Barshak has named Anthony Bonett as chef of Alison at Blue Bell. Barshak will oversee both kitchens.

Bonett, who worked with Barshak at the opening of Striped Bass in 1994, most recently was executive chef at Oceanaire Seafood Room. A Navy vet, Bonett counts his first stop as the Restaurant School, where he apprenticed to Jean Marie LaCroix (then at the Four Seasons Hotel). He also worked at 16th Street Bar & Grill, Tony Clark’s and Joseph’s on the Avenue before becoming executive chef for the catering facility at Penn. After returning to restaurants, he worked at Philadelphia Fish & Company, Opus 251 and Oceanaire.

Amelia Dietrich, pastry chef at Alison at Blue Bell, worked with Bonett at Opus 251. (p.s. Isn't "Dietrich" the best name for a pastry chef?)

Bonett has added such dishes as tuna meatballs with caponata and saffron aioli; grilled artichoke and asparagus salad with toasted pistachio and preserved lemon; roasted lamb with date couscous, radicchio, merquez and harissa; and duck and cabbage ravioli with pecorino dolce, figs and aged balsamic to the menu at Alison at Blue Bell.

Meanwhile, Barshak says Alison two's menu will be global with Mediterranean, Southwestern and Asian influences and an emphasis on seafood.

Photo courtesy of Courtney Grant Winston

✲ Le Creole at 775 S. Front St. in Queen Village is down after it lost its lease. The LCB tells me that the owner handed over his liquor license for safekeeping earlier this month as he searches for a new location.

✲ The Web site of 552 Restaurant (552 Washington Crossing Rd., Newtown) acknowledges its closing; this place, set on a gorgeous tract in Bucks, previously was Stonehouse Bistro and is known to locals as Lavender Hall.

Today's a big day at 10 Arts, Eric Ripert's place coming together at the Ritz-Carlton. It's the first day in the house for Jennifer Carroll, the Philly bred exec chef, and David Weiss, the general manager.

Alex Capasso of Collingswood's Blackbird Dining Establishment (619 Collings Ave.) says he’s working on West Side Gravy — a 50-seat contemporary diner — across the street at 616 Collings. It's five months out, he says.

He’s also location-hunting in Philly.

This item is not out of left field. It's out of centerfield.

Ashburn Alley, to be precise.

The Phillies will have a new pizza vendor this season at Citizens Bank Park.

Peace A Pizza is out, and Seasons Pizza is in.

Seasons is a 16-store chain based in Newark, Del., that is seeking to expand in the Philly metro. Its closest locations to Philly are North Wilmington and Stratford, Camden County.

The colorful Peace A Pizza sign supposedly will be relocated to Peace A Pizza's shop on York Road in Willow Grove.

Anna Maria Florio's culinary demo kitchen, La Cucina at the Market, grand-opens today (3/18) at 5:30 p.m. on the Arch Street side of Reading Terminal Market behind Amy’s Place and near the Pennsylvania General Store.

Light food and beverages will be available.

It's a 20-foot-by-20-foot kitchen stocked with donated equipment: AIRS Appliances kicked in Electrolux ICON Professional Series appliances. Du Pont provided a Corian countertop that was installed by Philly's Unique Designs. Continental Tile Importers did the backsplash. Ikea gave furniture and cabinets.

Open since late February, La Cucina will host cooking classes, culinary demo and exhibitions in addition to special events and private parties, as well as offer classes through Temple University Center City.

Photo: www.readingterminalmarket.org

The long-awaited expansion of Tinto opened last night (3/17/08), nearly doubling its size. The expansion has 40 seats, while the main dining room 24 seats plus 8 spots at the bar; 15 people can sit downstairs.

Why the delay?

One neighbor -- yes, one neighbor -- in a nearby high-rise had challenged Jose Garces' liquor license application on the grounds that an expansion would mean that he might hear music coming from the corner of 20th and Sansom at night.

That's life in the big city.

The short-lived Mexican Post outside of Franklin Mills mall in the far Northeast (the former Don Pablo's) can be yours for $350,000.

That will buy you the furnishings, including flat-screen TVs and presumably a few margarita mixers.

Now for the sobering part:

Rent on the property is about $18,000 a month. So at the industry rule-of-thumb that rent should be 6 percent of sales, you would have to do about $300,000 a month in sales. The restaurant seats 243 inside (plus 50 outside, but that's hard to factor so I'll exclude it). To keep to the formula, you'd have to do $41 per seat per day.

According to the most recent Restaurant Industry Operations Report, put out by the National Restaurant Association and Deloitte & Touche, median annual sales per seat in a full-service restaurant with average per-person checks of $15 to $24.99 was $9,018 -- or about $24.70 a day. The upper quartile sales-per-seat was $13,342 -- or about $36.55 a day.

The restaurant business. "Always a fiesta," indeed.

Speaking of restaurant sales, Kirsten Henri at Foobooz.com yesterday put two and two together and cleverly surmised that the Melrose Diner was four sale -- not even a year after it was sold out of the Kubach family.

So they're not just flipping pancakes, eh?

Hanh Vo, who posted the real estate listing on his website, would not address speculation that the restaurant is the Melrose.

If the place is the Melrose and it sells for anywhere close to the $4.5 million asking price, it would be a windfall for diner king Michael Petrogiannis.

Real estate records show that a partnership controlled by Petrogiannis bought the Melrose's building at 1501-11 Snyder Ave. last June for $715,000. The price of the business was not made public because it was a private transaction, but my source says the whole shebang -- lox, stock and coffee urn -- sold for far less than $3 million. D&B last year estimated annual sales at $2.4 million.

Petrogiannis is vacationing in Greece and won't be back till April, says an aide, who laughed when I ran the for-sale scenario by her. "Everything is for sale for the right price," she said.

Photo: Eric Mencher / The Philadelphia Inquirer

Inquirer readers know that the hardest rez they can make is Talula's Table in Kennett Square.

Chester County writer Franz Lidz's tale of Talula's just made Conde Nast's Portfolio.com.

Lidz tells me that the Portfolio PR department asked him to warn owner Aimee Olexy that that the story is being picked up by MSNBC, FOX Business, and other outlets. "Now I'll never get in again," he laments.

New name for Astral Plane Millenium, which replaced Astral Plane not long ago at 1708 Lombard St.

It's now CChriStevens BYOB. That's not a sticky keyboard, folks. It's intended to reflect the names of owners Christine Fischer and Clara Gomez. Fischer's catering outfit is ChriStevens.

Um. How do you pronounce it? Gomez says: "Just Chris Stevens."

All righty then. Considering that "Millennium" was misspelled first time out...

The menu has been tinkered from new American into more of a Latin-Italian mix, and they're now offering a pre-theater menu (appetizer or salad and main course) for $18 per person.