Food and Drinq

Kinder Jit Singh, who has cooked at many Center City Indian restaurants (Passage to India, Taj Mahal, Minar Palace), will open his solo debut, Ashoka Palace at 38 S. 19th St., on Thursday (5/1).

Hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Phone is 215-564-6466.

Menu will run the gamut: biryani, chicken tandoori, goat, lamb and vegetables. Shrimp dishes at $10 are the priciest, and most platters, say, chicken tikka masala and chicken makhani, are $8.50.

One feature worth noting is the decor. You may recall that this place last was Bootsie's, which went through two redecorations in its short but odd existence. It started in August 2006 as a gourmet/natural hot dog/hamburger stand and by February 2007 morphed into some quirky sit-down restaurant, which soon after started offering buy-one-get-second-at-half-off specials (never a good sign), and finally closed in December amid the shouts of lawyers.

Anyway...

Ashoka Palace really has no decor. The entire front of the space has been scooped out in favor of rows of wooden tables, and the kitchen and counter (with overhead sign) are in the back. The walls are painted in an unforgettably glossy pink, which calls to mind a bottle of Pepto-Bismol or a young girl's bedroom.

Why?

Singh said he got the wrong color from the paint store. By the time he realized that the paint was going to dry this way, he explained, it was too late. He said it would do for now.

The swatch presented here is a smartphone test. Bring your device to the restaurant, call up this blog entry on the screen, and hold it next to one of the walls. If your phone is properly calibrated, the colors should match.

The Frank Furness double-wide mansion that housed one of Philly's poshest French restaurants can be yours for $16,000 a month, including liquor license and basement kitchen.

It's fully furnished.

Deux Cheminees closed in June 2007 when owner Fritz Blank retired for a new life in Thailand. Now, the building, which once housed the Princeton Club, has been sold and the new owner is looking for a tenant.

"Sign the lease today and SERVE DINNER/DRINKS TOMORROW," says the listing.

The space does not include Blank's storied upstairs apartment, home to his cats and his amazing cookbook collection, now at Penn.

The place also is immaculate. Blank, who was a microbiologist in his first life, was the biggest stickler for kitchen hygiene you could possibly imagine.

See the listing here.

According to a Liquor Control Board filing, Owen Kamihira of Bar Ferdinand is taking over Deuce, across the way at Northern Liberties' Liberties Walk.

So I called him and he spilled:

Name will be El Camino Real, a "Mexican border bar" themer, focusing on the Kings Highway -- northern Chihuahua and Texas. Real Texas BBQ, he says. Opening is expected in about six weeks. All you chefs, put down the phone. He's hired someone.

Kamihira also is planning an itzakaya across the street. He's also in lease negotiations for a "fresh local gastopub" at 44th and Spruce Streets; he's considering the name Local 44.

We go months and months with little fanfare, a gastropub here, a little coffeeshop there, and then ¡WHAM!

Openings. The floodgates!

May alone has the following restaurant debuts:

5/1: Union Gourmet Market & Cafe, the eat-in/takeout in the Western Union building at 1113 Locust St.

5/1: Ashoka Palace, the pink Indian at 38 S. 19th St.

5/3: goodburger, the Philly debut of the NYC burger joint, 1725 Chestnut St.

5/4: ¡Cuba!, the storefront BYO bistro at 8609 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill (in photo); it'll open 5/4 for lunch during Chestnut Hill's Home & Garden Festival and will pick up dinner hours, Tuesdays through Sundays, starting 5/6.

5/5: Zahav, the Israeli that just got its green light, at 237 St. James Place (next to the Ritz movies).

5/6: Maia, the Euro marketplace/bistro/bar/lounge/restaurant/haberdashery off the Blue Route in Villanova.

5/8 or so: Apothecary, the sophisticated cocktail lounge at 102 S. 13th St.

5/15: J.L. Sullivan’s Speakeasy, the sports bar in the former Zanzibar Blue space downstairs at the Bellevue.

5/18: Table 31, the Georges Perrier/Chris Scarduzio steakhouse in the Comcast Center at 17th and JFK.

5/20: 10 Arts, Eric Ripert's spot in the Ritz-Carlton

5/27: Chima, the Brazilian steakhouse in the Kennedy House at 20th and JFK.

Notice how the Comcast Center has pumped up its neighborhood's restaurant climate?

Down the road, probably June-ish, Pagano's Market will open in the Commerce Square space (Market Street between 20th and 21st Streets) that used to house a Marathon Grill. Also in that general vicinity, up for June, is King of Tandoor, an Indian BYO, at 1824 Callowhill St.; the owner is waiting for equipment but has activated a website. Also looking at early to mid-June, a few doors down at 1836 Callowhill St., is Kite & Key Tavern.

Philadelphia International Airport topped DRAFT magazine’s list for airports that serve award-winning local microbrews.

The mag's May/June issue -- not online yet -- blurbs:

1. Philadelphia International Airport: Thanks to Jet Rock, Philly features the rare jewel of a big-selection airport bar in not one, but four terminals. The rock ‘n’ roll-themed restaurants in terminals B, C, and D pull 48 taps (24 in F) with a mix of local micros and big-brewery lagers.

Recommended Pint: Victory Hop Devil

Next are Minneapolis-St. Paul, JFK, Logan, Sea-Tac, LAX, Salt Lake, Dulles, Denver (yes, #9), Portland, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, St. Louis Lambert, Cleveland, and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.

Here's a link to the other blurbs.

Keep an eye on 24th Street under the Walnut Street bridge in Center City.

Luigi Basile and Massimo Coscia, who own Radicchio in Old City, Bistro Juliana in Fishtown, and Laceno Italian Grill in Voorhees, are planning Sotto Pizzeria & Tavola Calda in a building they own at 151 S. 24th St.

Basile, who has no timetable (it still looks like the bridal salon it last was), envisions it as a BYOB pizzeria and "Italian diner," e,g. "tavola caldo."

Tonight, five months to the day that demolition of the previous restaurant commenced, Zahav will open in Society Hill.

See "The Making of Zahav" for the story.

Melograno, one of the best-received of the recent crop of mom-and-pop BYOs, has lost its lease after five years.

July 28 will be its last day at 22d and Spruce Streets, says Rosemarie Tran, who owns Melograno with her husband, Gianluca Demontis.

They're relocating to 2010 Sansom St. -- same name and concept -- and hope to be up and running in September, taking advantage of their usual August vacation.

As for the space at 22d and Spruce ... No one's talking yet, but it would seem logical that landlord Andrew Krouk will try to install chef David Katz in that space. Krouk and Katz had tried to get a liquor license into the building at 24th and Locust that houses Sandy's Luncheonette, but ran afoul of the neighbors.

... the week of May 19th, maybe? Partner Daz Singh says the work is nearly done at 1304 Walnut St., and the next step is awaiting health inspections and such.

Fans of budget Indian food mourned in July 2006 when Minar closed its spot at 1605 Sansom St., all in the name of urban renewal.

The new Chipotle store at 133 W. Lancaster Ave. in Ardmore will dispense free burritos and beverages from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday 5/8.

Native Los Angelino Chris Hora, who boasts a globetrotting culinary resume, is creating a BYO called Root at 1033 Spring Garden St., in the spot on the edge of Center City that was Palate.

Hora is intrigued by slow food and sustainable ag, and it'll be reflected in his lunch and dinner menus.

Hora did time at Coyote Crossing in Conshy and West Chester and talks of working for Wolfgang Puck in L.A. at Chinois and Spago, and consulting in assorted spots: the French Alps. (Oui.) Jackson Hole, Wyo. (Yee-hah.) Prague. (Czech.) He says Philly has been receptive to good restaurants.

He's hoping for a late-May/early-June opening.

New Wave Cafe, across from Dmitri's at Third and Catharine Streets in Queen Village, will put out a free buffet tonight (5/6) to mark its 23d anniversary.

Sometime during the night, there will be a one-hour open bar.

Apothecary Bar + Lounge will gently open to the public tomorrow (5/7). It will likely be another week or even two before the second floor and roof deck are opened but the ground floor will be open to the public.

Meanwhile, here's its menu.

Photo by Michael Bryant / Inquirer Staff Photographer

Francis Trzeciak of Birchrunville Store Cafe, the highly regarded BYOB in the woods of Chester County, has added chef's duties at another spot in the woods of Chester County: the Inn at St. Peter's Village (3471 St. Peter's Rd., 610-469-2600; use 19470 as the zip for Mapquest).

Trzeciak, with chef de cuisine George Cook, is doing a similar dinner menu of simple, modern French cuisine at the stunning restaurant overlooking French Creek; entree prices range from $21 for the semiboneless organic breast of chicken, Dijon mustard, fresh herb and hazelnut crust, up to $35 for the Black Angus strip steak, black peppercorn crust, roasted portobello. It's open Wednesdays through Saturdays, and for Sunday brunch.

Here's the dinner menu.

Photo: Trzeciak in his herb garden at Birchrunville Store Cafe, by Linda Johnson / The Philadelphia Inquirer

Food & Drinq has obtained the tenant list at the gourmet food market that will be in the concourse of the Comcast Center (17th Street between JFK and Arch). Stores will begin opening June 2.

The market's location is killer, on the approach to the SEPTA platform at Suburban Station. Merchants envision Comcast workers stopping on their way out the door. For the lunchtime crowd that might want to skip Ralph's, there will be seating, too.

It's been no secret that Di Brono Bros. and Termini Bros. are going in.

And so is Susanna Foo, whose place will be called Sanxi. She was approached recently to get the last space, and now that life has calmed down at both her Center City restaurant and Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen in Radnor, she says she feels she can do it.

Not that the size of the 150-square-foot stand is any big deal. She says she'll open Sanxi -- after the province in China where her father is from (pronounced "SAN-shee") -- in November because she has to work on recipes that are conducive to takeout, such as dumplings, salads and a few entrees.

The rest of the lineup:

Jake & Max's Deli
Bucks County Coffee Co.
Tokyo Sushi & Catering
LaScala's (the restaurant at Seventh and Chestnut, doing quick-serve pizza and pasta)
Frank's Old-Philly Style Sandwiches (run by LaScala's)
Under the C (a seafood stand from the operators of Ardmore Seafood at the Ardmore Farmers Market)
Sook Hee's Produce (also from Ardmore Seafood)
Mexican Post (an offshoot of the local mini-chain).

Table 31, the Georges Perrier/Chris Scarduzio steakhouse on the street level, is due to open for beverage service May 18. Lunch and dinner are to start June 3.

Calling your attention to the corner of 13th and Buttonwood Streets (that's a block below Spring Garden in the emerging neighborhood called Callowhill).

The building, which had been known as the Carriage House, was home in the last year and a half to two operations: Makers Local -- gone in a minute -- and Canavan's Pub -- gone in five.

Michael Pasquarello and Jeniphur Whitleigh, who own the thriving Cafe Lift down the block (and may be the cutest restaurant couple in town), have an eye to take it over and restore it to its roots. Or close, anyway. Pasquarello has been researching through city archives (try it!) and found a photo of the place from 1894, when it was a handsome bar in a hopping neighborhood.

They want to call it Prohibition, and if liquor-license issues can be resolved, they'd like to open in September. But first, they're getting married in early June.

AOL’s CityGuide has announced its nominees for City’s Best 2008, as in local dining and nightlife. Between now and July 10, people can vote for their favorite venues in categories such as Best Burgers, Best Cheap Eats, Best Romantic Restaurants, and Best Sports Bars.

A breeze through the list of nominees shows many usual suspects. And a few unusual ones.

Under Chinese restaurants, for example, Sang Dee. (Has to be Sang Kee.) Under "date spots, there's "Dimitri's." (Dmitri's, surely.) And under "romantic," so many people fondly remember Astral Plane but when voting, keep in mind it closed last year.

Effie Bouikidis-Schweich of Effie's -- the sweet, little Greek BYOB at 1127 Pine St. in Wash West -- is planning another restaurant.

It'll be right across the street: 1120 Pine. Her father, Paul Bouikidis, also owns Pine Street Pizza down the street at 12th and Pine.

Bouikidis-Schweich says she and her dad are dickering over the concept (he wants Italian, while she wants American comfort food). No name yet. Either way, they'd like to open this fall.

The Chicago Sun-Times proudly talks about an invasion of high-profile, out-of-town chefs in the Windy City, including Amada/Tinto's Jose Garces (who's actually a native Chicagoan).

Garces' Catalan tapas restaurant Mercat a la Planxa opened in March. ("Mercat" means "market" in Catalan. Not to be confused with meerkat.) Michael Fiorello, who'd been a chef at Amada, was transplanted to Chicago as chef de cuisine.

"I've been wanting to get home for 13 years," Garces says. "Chicago's come to the forefront as a very modern culinary town. Along with Grant [Achatz of Alinea] and others who work here in town, that's transformed [this] from a meat-and-potatoes town to a culinary mecca."

Garces' next project, a Mexican called Distrito, is on track for a midsummer opening at 3945 Chestnut St.

The story also mentions a new restaurant called C-House from Marcus Samelsson, who was here for a Scandinavian minute in 2004 with the now-closed Stephen Starr eatery Washington Square.

Speaking of Starr: He brought Garces to Philly to work with yet another big-name out-of-towner, Douglas Rodriguez, at Alma de Cuba. Starr also drew Morimoto to Chestnut Street and briefly a few ago had Alfred Portale in the kitchen at Striped Bass.

Starr may have given up the idea of importing star chefs. He seems to have stopped the practice when he himself began expanding to other cities. None of his next projects -- Parc (opening in June) at 18th and Locust and his two places in the new Chelsea in Atlantic City (Teplitzky's and Chelsea Prime, planned for July) -- are celeb-chef driven.

Clementine's Bistro (1617 E. Passyunk Ave.) bowed out after a year. Phone has been disconnected and equipment is for sale. Not that the Passyunk Avenue strip is fading; expect an opening within several weeks at Da Vinci, taking over the former Tre Scalini space at 11th and Tasker, and Adobe Cafe's second spot, at 1919 E. Passyunk.

Also down is Kaizan, which lasted a grand total of five months in the Academy House (1420 Locust St.). Management acknowledged mistakes since opening. Rather than continue with trying to make changes, it chose to close and reopen this fall with a new concept.

10 Arts, the splashy eatery backed by Eric Ripert, opens May 20 in the Ritz-Carlton's lobby. It's been tucked behind playwood during construction.

Tuesday, I took better overview photos from the balcony overlooking the lobby. There were shot from the Broad Street side. The large red panels at the rear light up.

The first photo covers the lounge, which is the hotel lobby. Note how the wine rack has been contoured around the circular skylight above the basement ballroom, which is directly beneath the rotunda. At left is one of several light-up archways in the dining room. At the rear, beneath the red panels, is the bar, which is topped with white granite. Color scheme throughout has lots of fuchsia and brown. The room looks dramatically sexy at night.

See menus here.

The bottom photo includes part of the 10 Arts dining room, which is on the Chestnut Street side, beside the columns and tucked behind them.

Saxbys Coffee, which started in Atlanta and relocated to Philly when developer Joe Grasso's Walnut Street Capital bought it last summer, has announced its first Center City location.

It's going into The Aria, a new condo building at 15th and Locust Streets (entrance on 15th), and opening is projected for August. There are Saxbys (grammarians, note there's no apostrophe -- or should that be Saxbyses? -- oh, forget it) open at Temple U, Abington, Lansdale, Wayne and Malvern.

Of course, there's no coffee to be had in the immediate vicinity of 15th and Locust, unless you count Cosi, Hausbrandt, Starbucks, Cafe Loftus, or Juan Valdez ...

10 Arts will be a breakfast-lunch-dinner-late-night operation, as it will serve the Ritz-Carlton.

The existing restaurant known as The Grill will close in early June, and the space will become private dining. 10 Arts (hate starting a sentence with a numeral, but...) also will have a private room.

Here are the menus for 10 Arts' breakfast, lunch, dinner, lounge, and dessert. (I'll take blame for shortcomings in formatting.)

Any comments, folks? I see a standard breakfast menu. BLT with pork belly on the lunch menu looks interesting, as do the pork pate and "pork and beans" apps; it looks like Ripert is going hog-wild here. Dinner entrees don't seem outrageously "out there." Lounge menu's soft pretzels look intriguing, though I'm sure the cheese sauce will have actual real cheese in it.

Chris Leonard of the General Lafayette Inn & Brewery in Lafayette Hill reports that a lease has finally been signed for The Tiedhouse, a gastropub inside the CityView Condominium at 2001 Hamilton St., where Goji was.

But any ties between the General Lafayette and The Tiedhouse will be only coincidental and tangential. The Liquor Control Board prohibits brewery owners like Leonard from also holding individual restaurant licenses. So while the project will reflect the style and atmosphere of the General Lafayette and will serve its beer, it will not be legally affiliated. Leonard's mother, brother and wife will be primary partners in The Tiedhouse.

Since the LCB also prohibits brewery employees from working at indivdual licensed establishments, General Lafayette chef Phil Falcone won't be The Tiedhouse's chef. The Glenside-raised, CIA-trained chef, whose resume includes the old Tony Clark's, the Bostonian, and Susanna Foo, will inspire the menu of small plates. Style will be more refined than the food served in the historical confines of the General Lafayette.

Plans are for dinner/late-night eats Mondays through Fridays, with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. Midweek lunch is not in its opening plans, but could develop should demand dictate.

The plan is to be open some time in July.

Morton’s The Steakhouse -- one of the more curiously constructed steakhouse names, on the order of "Ruth's Chris" -- is offering a Father's Day barbecue party for 10 people. Family and friends can nominate a father online at www.mortons.com/philadelphia-dad or mailed to Dad’s Day Off, Morton’s, 1411 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19102. Nominations must be received by June 10, 2008, and the father should live in the greater Philadelphia area. The winning family will be notified June 12.

While you're at the computer, enter Morton's national recipe contest, whose prize is a trip to Chicago, dinner at Morton's, and the recipe's inclusion in Morton's cookbook. Submit by June 2 at http://www.mortons.com/recipecontest.

With yesterday's news that Chicago had repealed its two-year-old ban on foie gras, I asked the aide to City Councilman Jack Kelly about plans for his pending measure in City Council.

Kelly has been lobbying for a ban for about a year, and last year told The Inquirer that he wanted to wait until January's new Council session to raise it officially.

Kelly aide John Cerrone said Kelly has the city budget on his mind right now and also wants to explore the reasons for Chicago's repeal before he brings it up.

You've heard of the restaurant that closes or burns down just before a review comes out.

Jasper in Downingtown, reviewed last Sunday by The Inquirer's Craig LaBan, is closed temporarily. Last Thursday, the day before the review was posted at Philly.com, Jasper chef-owner Nick DiFonzo was admitted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for what manager Becky Ely told LaBan today was a “minor brain aneurysm.”

Ely said he is expected to be discharged by this weekend, and that he should be OK. But the restaurant is temporarily closed, and won’t be taking reservations until June 24, when she expects to reopen at half-speed.

Todd Lean, last chef at Deuce after a solo turn at Old City's Mandoline, is now a sous chef at Pod (3636 Sansom St.).

Murray's Deli, on Montgomery Avenue in Bala for about 35 years, was sold Thursday (5/15) by the Teti family to the Wakim brothers, who own Al Dar next door, as well as Evivva in Narberth.

Joseph and George Wakim didn't return calls seeking info on their plans for the deli, which was functioning normally Friday.

Options seem to be: (1) spruce up the deli and spice up that age-old ongoing corned-beef rivalry with Hymie's across the street, or (2) close the deli, expand Al Dar and sell Murray's beer license.

Hymie's aside, Option 2 seems to make the most sense. I'll go out on a limb here to venture that there are not too many Jewish delis in the United States owned by Lebanese Americans.

The Murray's name still flies over the Murray's operation in Berwyn, run by Bob Teti and his wife, Gayle. They have a walk-in deli on one side, and a sweet little BYOB called bistro M on the other.

Bob Teti is one of five sons of Bill Teti, who took it over in 1985. Founder Murray Chudakoff had it previously nearby at 54th and City Line and before that, from 1941, on 60th Street near Locust in West Philly.

The Wakims over the years also owned Marbles (later Citron) in Bryn Mawr, now John Mims' Carmine's Creole Cafe. For nine weeks in 1995, Joseph Wakim was part-owner of an African American-themed restaurant called Heritage at Broad and Chestnut Streets, where Capital Grille is now.

Sunday's planned soft opening of Table 31, the steakhouse in the Comcast Center from chefs Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio, has been pushed to Thursday, when dinner and drinks will begin; lunch will start a week or so after. There also will be a Plaza Cafe serving lighter fare outside.

Scarduzio says he got the certificate of occupancy at close of business Friday.

Perrier and his family celebrated the CO with dinner Friday at the Water Works. They were served by the more than 10 Le Bec-Fin alumni who work there, including general manager Jeff Clauso, dining room manager John Gates and legendary maitre d' Andre Darwish. Upon seeing his old employees, Perrier said something to the effect of: "Theese looks like Le Bec-Fin 2."

Watch this space for Table 31's menus.

Tina DiFonzo, who owns Jasper in Downingtown, says the two-belled restaurant will begin reopening at half-speed on May 24. Her husband/partner, Nick, is recovering from a brain aneurysm.

Jennifer Aniston arrived in town the other day for a two-week stay surrounding the filming of "Marley & Me," the adaptation of John Grogan's bestseller about his rambunctious Lab. She plays Jenny Grogan, the author's wife, opposite Owen Wilson as the writer.

Aniston's work will take her out to the Chadds Ford area every day, where a farmhouse off Route 100 has been done up to look wintry. But while Wilson is being put up in a private home in the burbs, Aniston is five-star hoteling in Center City.

Saturday (5/17) afternoon, she and three friends (no John Mayer) went to lunch at El Vez, the Mexican destination at 13th and Sansom. Under the eye of two bodyguards, they had tuna tostados and Mexican chopped salads. Aniston had a margarita -- variety unknown -- with salt only halfway around the rim. How curious.

HughE Dillon tried to photograph her on the way out, but aforementioned bodyguards blocked most of the shot.

Photo: HughE Dillon / www.phillychitchat.com

Brunella Russo-McCall says the firm reopening of Mama Palma's at 23d and Spruce, which has been down for more than a month after a fire, will be May 27.

Photo: HughE Dillon / www.phillychitchat.com

Here are the not-quite-finalized menus for Table 31, the steakhouse from Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio in the Comcast Center. It opens Thursday (5/22) for dinner and drinks, and will roll out lunch a week or so after.

I say "not quite finalized" because the prices have not been firmed.

The restaurant says it's getting prime aged Midwestern corn-fed beef from Stockyards Packaging Co., of Chicago; Wagyu Japanese cattle from Snake River Farms in Boise, Idaho; organic steaks from Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif.; and organic lamb, veal and pork from Niman Ranch, Calif. (A refreshing change of pace from all those restaurateurs who prattle on about local sourcing.)

Dinner/dessert/bar menu is here.

Lunch menu is here.

Dominique Filoni got a big job on Rittenhouse Square, after all.

You may recall that the St. Tropez-born chef who leaped into the local food radar from his stint at Tierra (later known as Savona) in Gulph Mills and his ownership of the now-closed Bianca in Bryn Mawr, where he won a Food & Wine award for best new chef in 2004.

Filoni, now 37, stepped into Lacroix at the Rittenhouse when Jean-Marie Lacroix was toying with retirement, and for a while it seemed like a lock for him to take the job that went to Matt Levin. That didn't happen, and Filoni went to D.C.

Now, Filoni has landed the exec-chef's spot at Parc, the Stephen Starr-backed French bistro coming to Parc Rittenhouse, the condo building across the square at 18th and Locust Streets. Parc will occupy the spaces that housed Bleu and Potcheen.

Opening is up for June 28.

Photo: Philadelphia Daily News

Azure, one of the earlier entries in the Northern Liberties boom, closed after dinner Monday (5/19) -- just shy of five years. Talk on the street is that owner Bob Bitros has retired and will lease out the room to a royally well-known pub team. I'm also hearing whispers of a Mexican theme, which should be interesting given Owen Kamihira's plan to revive Deuce up the street as a Tex-Mex called El Camino Real.

This entry has been updated

Rose Parrotta, who took the Happy Rooster from a stylish old-man's bar into the 20th century when she bought it back in 2000, says she had a few years left on her lease and had to make a decision about her future. So she said she is selling the business to lawyer Larry Berk and partner Debbie Reid Jordan. The deal was first mentioned last week on Citypaper's blog by A.D. Amorosi.

Parrotta, on her way to Italy for vacation, told me she didn't think they planned any changes. "But I'm sure it will change," she said, unsure about her own plans. She said she would remain until the liquor license is transferred.

Twenty21, the polished, business-friendly new-American restaurant-lounge in Commerce Square that replaced Cutters in 2002, will close at the end of June to reconceptualize. Owner Sue Mahoney won't say what the new idea is, but hopes to reopen by Labor Day. On the other side of Commerce Square's plaza, where a Marathon Grill was, construction of the casual Pagano's Market continues. Opening seems a few weeks off.

Got a tour of Table 31, the Georges Perrier-Chris Scarduzio "steakhouse bistro" that opens softly on Thursday (5/22) with dinner. Lunch will start a week or so later.

Here's the dinner menu, revised 5/24/08.

Yessiree, this is big-ticket dining. But the prices actually may be a touch low by steakhouse standards, and they've wisely gone with assorted portion sizes. Scarduzio says he's running a 45-percent food cost on the steaks, which is about 5 percentage points above many similar operations. He's also sourcing meats from all over. (Steakhouses typically run the highest food costs in the industry, and make their profits on side dishes, drinks and desserts. Compare that to your run-of-the-mill Italian restaurant that can run quite profitably even on a 25-percent food cost.)

A bar menu (prices still unavailable Wednesday) will be priced lower, naturally.

Here are the wine-by-the-glass, signature cocktail and beer lists.

Table 31 is one of the larger newcomers in the city; it's more than 15,000 square feet over three levels, compared with Rae at 13,000 square feet. (It's smaller than Maia in Villanova, at 22,000 square feet, but that includes the marketplace and coffee bar.)

On the street level (main entrance on the 17th Street side between Arch and JFK), there's a two-story-tall bar (photos #1 and 2) next to a one-story dining room (photo #3). Note the 1970s browns and oranges.

There's a cozy lounge area (see the orange furniture grouping in photo #3) on the second floor that overlooks the bar (#4) , plus a second dining room (sexy, high-backed banquettes) and a high-tech conference room.

On the third level (not pictured) is a 250-seat banquet room that can be sectioned in two.

Table 31 has catering rights for the Comcast Center lobby, too.

I think the niftiest part of the project is outside on the JFK side of the Comcast Center: It'll be the Plaza Cafe, now shrouded behind an ugly chain-link fence. Scarduzio has installed a fully contained "outdoor" kitchen inside a glass building. By summer, there will be patio seating for lunch, dinner and drinkies beneath a trellis and beside a fountain. Among outdoor happy-hour spaces west of Broad Street, the debate of "which is best" will rage between this and the rooftop at Continental Mid-town.

Now for the photos.

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2

3

4

5

The Philly steakhouse boom has sent restaurants scurrying to source meats from more exotic locales. Table 31 in the Comcast Center has tapped Stockyards Packaging Co., of Chicago; Wagyu Japanese cattle from Snake River Farms in Boise, Idaho; organic steaks from Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif.; and organic lamb, veal and pork from Niman Ranch, Calif.

Wednesday night's episode of the reality show "Top Chef" on Bravo, set in Chicago, will feature a tour of Allen Brothers, a high-end meat packer.

Turns out that Union Trust, the steakhouse opening at the end of the summer in the old Kellmer's jewelers at 717 Chestnut St., has the exclusive Philadelphia independent contract to serve Allen Brothers beef.

Speaking of "Top Chef": Can you imagine David Ansill, chef/owner of Ansill in Queen Village, competing on the show? Of course you can. He's bright, erudite, opinionated, combative and innovative. According to whispers, Ansill was approached to send an audition tape to Bravo for the next season. Contacted earlier today, Ansill would not talk about it.

"It's one of those places at which you can get that particularly blithe combination of the elegant and the mundane: a glass of champagne and a cheeseburger.

"It's Sassafras, an intimate, dimly lit little place on Second Street with an attraction for the city's Beautiful People and an atmosphere more evocative of Paris than of Old City Philadelphia. And though most people who know it seem to think of it as primarily a bar, albeit a chic one, it has a limited but nicely handled menu as well."

The preceding is the intro of an Inquirer review of Sassafras from May 15, 1981. I'm presenting it here because Sassafras reopened two weeks ago after being shut down for about six months and because new owners Donal McCoy and Neill Laughlin deserve a lot of credit for not messing it up.

McCoy, who owns Tin Angel/Serrano up the block, and Laughlin, simply refurbished what needed to be refurbished.

The old deer head that hung over the kitchen door was tossed at some point, so they found a new old dear head and positioned it over the bar. The tin ceiling was repaired and painted a dull gold. New white flocked wallpaper and heavy antique mirrors dress up the walls. The old-fashioned tiled walls, which probably date from the 1880s or 1890s, remain, as does the charmingly cracked floor tiles. Upstairs, the spacious women's restroom has a fancy, new mural. In more recent years, the women's room contained a bathtub. It's out now being resurfaced.

Menu, tight as it was when my colleague Sue Chastain reviewed it 27 years ago, includes grilled vegetable spring roll ($6.95), shrimp cocktail ($9.95), basil hummus ($5.95) and verenike ($7.95). Verenike? As in Mongolian dumplings. McCoy and Laughlin wisely brought back Sassafras' long-ago Mongolian-born chef, known to all by one name, Batsuh. There are burgers ($9.95 for veggie, $10.95 for a sirloin, lamb burger or pork-and-ginger, $12.95 for buffalo and $13.95 for ostrich), salads, a few sandwiches (croque monsieur with tomato soup for $8.95, a steak for $10.95 and a chicken for $10.95), and seven entrees ($12.95 for Hungarian goulash to fettucine carbonara, salmon or lambchop lollipops for $14.95.)

The 1981 menu price of a spinach salad was $4. Now it's $6.95. Burgers used to be $4.25.

International beer list has six on draft including Guinness on draft, plus Arrogant Bastard, Fullers ESB, Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout, Ayinger Altbainsch Dunkel, Coopers Sparkling Ale, Pilsner Urquell and Asahi.

Red wines include MacMurray pinot, Wishing Tree shiraz, Daniel Gehrs cabernet sauvignon and Mont Gras carmenere. Whites include King Estate pinot gris, Zaca Mesa chardonnay and First Love.

Sassafras, 48 S. Second St. Same phone number, too: 215-925-2317. Kitchen is open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. (bar till 2 a.m.) nightly.

Two projects are coming down to the homestretch:

Minar Palace (1304 Walnut St.) is awaiting some finishing work and a health inspection, so they're saying it's about two weeks out.

Prive (246 Market St.), the Greek-influenced Mediterranean tapas place, is shooting for late June. Chef Peter Karapanagiotis says that much of the finishing work is done but a new freezer is on order.

... well, who knows?

The college bar on Third Street between Callowhill and Spring Garden next to McFadden's closed not too long ago, and there is conflicting word about its next incarnation.

McFadden's says nothing is afoot, but I hear that a version of Lodge Bar, now in Columbus, Ohio, and Baltimore, is planned.

The Liquor Control Board says that based on incidents at Tiki Bob's, it will object to the renewal of its license. The licensee does have the authority to operate until Oct. 31, 2008, a board spokeswoman told me.

Bridget Foy's at Second and South Streets, which recently finished a renovation, has added breakfast seven days.

In addition to the menu, there are alcohol-based eye-openers (blood orange bellinis and house blended jalapeno-cilantro vodka Bloody Marys), plus free wi-fi and morning papers. And that awesome porch to watch the South Street parade.

It opens at 8 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends.

Bridget Foy's, 200 South St., 215-922-1813, www.bridgetfoys.com

Sunday's first-ever CB Cares Celebrity Chef & Waiter Gala at Bucks County Golf Club in Jamison has a neat twist:

Chefs Walter Staib of City Tavern, Lilly Salvatore of Lilly’s on the Canal and Lilly’s Gourmet, and Max Hansen of Max Hansen Caterer will prepare a three-course, wine-paired menu and all of the ingredients, decorations and wine will be gathered within 15 miles of the country club. A dessert reception will follow.

“It is our hope for each vendor to only use a little less than a gallon of gas to contribute to the gala," says Kimberly Cambra, executive director of CB Cares, which provides programs for youth and parents in Central Bucks County.

The night won't be totally green. There's a raffle for a 2008 Porsche Boxster, which -- while more fuel-efficient than many sports cars -- is by no means a hybrid.

Gala tickets are $100 per person. Contact: 215-489-9120.