• Leah Blewett checks out J&J; Trestle Inn for PW and finds “interesting and often inspired bar food” courtesy of Chef Travis Messman. The RC Cola-braised pork sandwich with melted sharp provolone and pickled long hots she proclaims “might be the best roast pork sandwich in town,” but the bacon-wrapped bison burger was “less successful.” For a better carnivorous fix, she recommends the “perfectly roasted, subtly smoky” marrow bone. [PW]
• Adam Erace waxes burgers, while assessing former Rouge chef Matt Zagorski’s menu at Fairmount’s Hickory Lane. The burger there, he writes, is an explosion of “full-frontal umami.” The onion soup, with its “brioche-topped, gratinéed with Gruyère and provolone,” was another “favorite.” The Roquefort-creamed ribeye he described as being “a little square,” Daddy-o. [Citypaper]
• Following a succession of “scrumptious dish-after-dish” at South Philly BYOB Ulivo, Phyllis Stein-Novak has a total chef-boner for Joe Scarpone. From the housemade focaccia that kept her “happy as we decided on dinner,” to the rosemary olive oil cake that topped off the meal, the “subject of my culinary heart,” she writes, “succeeded in countless ways.” For “bursting with smoky flavor” charbroiled octopus, gnocchi that left her speechless, and a “superbly roasted” chicken, she offers three “extraordinary tips” of her toque. [South Philly Review]