Food and Drinq

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.