Posts for May 4, 2012 -- Grub Street Philadelphia -- Restaurant News, Openings, Chefs

Posts for May 4, 2012

5/4/12 at 4:25 PM
Beer Me
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Goats Go For the Glory at Sly Fox on Sunday

Start your goats.Photo: SLy Fox Brewing Company

Kentucky Derby devotees will surely get their fill of bourbon and mint juleps Saturday, but what do beer drinkers get? On Sunday, they get Sly Fox’s annual Bock Fest and Goat Race at its Phoenixville location. As far as good times go, it’s a no-brainer. Sly Fox will roll out an impressive collection of bock beers, including Slacker Bock, Helles Bock, Instigator Doppelbock, and two Eisbocks. There’s also going to be keg of Maibock, but it won’t get tapped until a winning goat crosses the finish line. The winner’s owner gets first crack at it, and the naming rights for it. More than 50 goats are already entered. All remaining goats must be registered and checked in by noon on Sunday. The races start at 2 p.m.

5/4/12 at 3:45 PM
The Great Outdoors
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Table 31 Takes It Outside

By Collin Keefe

Plaza CafePhoto: Table 31

After a week of overcast conditions it looks as if the weather is finally cooperating with Chris Scarduzio and the crew at Center City’s Table 31. They launched their seasonal Plaza Cafe at the Comcast Center yesterday, but with the clouds lifted this afternoon, today seems like a better time to soak up the great outdoors there. Scarduzio’s new menu features Tuscan hummus bruschetta with olives, tomatoes, estate bottled olive oil, and rosemary flatbread; muffuletta panino with spicy cappicola ham, sweet sopressata, mortadella, young provolone, and olive bruschetta on focaccia; and a chilled shellfish salad with poached shrimp, scallops, crab, and scungili, shaved fennel, and cherry tomatoes in a lemon thyme vinaigrette. Weather permitting, the plaza is open now and serving until 11 p.m. tonight.

5/4/12 at 2:20 PM
Blehtacular
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Matt Levin Debuts His Foie Gras ‘Double Down’ at Square Peg Tonight

By Collin Keefe

Square Peg's Foie Gras Double DownPhoto: Matt Levin

With Square Peg successfully launched, it seems as if Chef Matt Levin is finally getting around to pushing the his kitchen's output into uncharted territory. Sure the breakfast poutine (served all day) and cheesesteak pot pie are total fat dude fodder, but his latest creation is more along the lines of what the eating public has collectively come to expect from the guy who gave us such mind-blowing dishes as Tasty Kake sliders and waffle-fried chicken. Tonight he will debut what he’s calling his Foie Gras Double Down. It’s partly inspired by Montreal restaurateur Martin Picard’s Sugar Shack, where he had planned to spend some time this spring before signing on to Square Peg. “With Sugar Shack’s season coming to an end,” Levin told Grub. “I wanted to do something that was a little bit different, and served as kind of like an ode to Montreal.”

5/4/12 at 1:10 PM on Grub Street Chicago
Slideshow
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Slideshow: Kahan, Vetri, Garces Rock Nellcôte For Common Threads

By Michael Gebert

Common Threads teaches low-income to make better nutritional choices. Chefs understandably love that, and even better, they are unstinting in their support for the organization— as last night's rock star chef-studded event at Nellcôte demonstrated. Hosting chef Jared Van Camp welcomed Chicago's Paul Kahan, Philadelphia's Jose Garces and Marc Vetri, New York's Bill Telepan and former Le Bernardin pastry chef Michael Laiskonis into his kitchen to cook for a black tie crowd in his glam-rock-themed Italian food palace, inspired by the villa the Rolling Stones stayed in while recording Exile on Main Street. Our man Huge Galdones was on the scene capturing it all; if you weren't there paying $1,000 a ticket to help low-income families, here's the party you missed.

5/4/12 at 12:45 PM
Video Feed
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Video Claims Benjamin Franklin Invented Philly Beer Week

By Collin Keefe

Electricity, bifocals, and daylight savings time are just a few of the things we can thank Benjamin Franklin for creating. But can we credit him with coming up with Philly Beer Week, too? it’s not such a stretch. He was known to enjoy a tankard or two in his day. A new video surfacing today claims that Franklin was indeed the founding father of the city’s ten day celebration of beer. In this re-enactment, which we assume is totally accurate, Jose Pistolas co-owner Casey Parker plays the part of the Poor Richard's scribe. Check it out below, and learn a little bit about history.

5/4/12 at 11:50 AM on Grub Street Boston
Wedding Woes
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Angelina Jolie Taps Jamie Oliver to Help Her Put on Some Pre-Wedding Pounds

By Kara Baskin

Poor Angie. She's so svelte! So fragile! So engaged to Brad Pitt! Which means that she needs to flesh up in time for her wedding, lest she flash that waify Oscars leg. Naturally, she did what every bride does when suffering from a troubling attack of thinness: She called Jamie Oliver for recipes.

5/4/12 at 11:30 AM
Foodievents
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Yea Verily: Haddonfield’s Indian King Tavern Serves Beer For the First Time in 139 Years

By Collin Keefe

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Bust out that tricorn hat and put your drinking shoes on, because on Saturday, the historic Indian King Tavern over in Haddonfield, NJ is doing something that it hasn’t done in nearly a century and a half. It’s serving beer! And it’s not just any beer; for this momentous and certainly historic affair, the tavern will be pouring Yards’ Ales of the Revolution, the brews recreated from historic recipes used by founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. What’s all the fuss? Well, Haddonfield’s been a dry town since 1873. But the tavern dates back to 1752, and kept soldiers in the Continental army and local militias properly refreshed throughout the Revolutionary War. It’s now a museum, and as a fundrasier for much needed renovations, it secured a permit to sell beer for one day. [Indian King Friends]

5/4/12 at 10:05 AM on Grub Street LA
Slideshows
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The Fifteen Most Gloriously Dramatic Fights Between Restaurant Owners and Food Critics

By Hadley Tomicki

This week, John Mariani and Joe Bastianich set off the sort of war of words that makes covering the food world's every breath ultimately worthwhile: Bastianich called the critic a "condescending prick" in his new book, Restaurant Man, and Mariani hit back in the New York Post by calling Joe "vile," insisting he lacks "balls," which Joe claims Mariani once "cut off" (at least they agree on one thing). But this dance is nothing novel, as chefs and critics have rubbed each other the wrong way plenty of times in the past in a flurry of public threats, full-page ads, identity exposures, and ousters that are almost as ugly as the chef-on-critic violence in the film Bitter Feast. Here we have a look back on fifteen of the most notable, drama-filled squabbles that have gone down between chefs and their critics in years past. Enjoy.

5/4/12 at 09:00 AM on Grub Street NY
The New York Diet
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Courtney Love Is Hooked on Chicken Potpie and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

By Alyssa Shelasky

"Fuck chocolate. Kurt hated chocolate, too — that was one of the things we had in common."Photo: Melissa Hom

"I'm not a foodie," Courtney Love tells Grub Street, "but I am a foodie." And so begins the amazing and exasperating New York Diet tell-all, as Love weaves in and out of the Fred Torres Gallery (where her racy-femme show, "And She's Not Even Pretty," is getting rave reviews), subsisting on Dean & Deluca takeout, daily cake deliveries, gallons of lemon water, and anything by Mario Batali, whom Love calls "the only friend you really need." Read on as Love takes less of a what-I-ate-this-week approach to her New York Diet and instead freely reflects on her body, refrigerator, testosterone levels, and "fuckin' Portandia-like" mixology skills.

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