Archive for the 'From the Magazine' Category
Posted by Victor Fiorillo on April 8th, 2013
Because I was tired of hearing overeducated food types in Philadelphia talk a ton of smack about Stephen Starr’s always-packed Mexican joint El Vez, I decided to put the restaurant to the test with a demanding Saturday-night birthday party 10-top, including some fussy suburban eaters and one each of the picky-eater and vegetarian species. We ordered beers. We ordered margaritas. We ordered a wide range of food. And we dropped $40-plus in the photo booth, where, yes, my shirt came off. (Pictures available upon request.) Not a bad plate or drink was served. The server didn’t stumble once. And we made it out the door for under $40 per person. You can hate all you want, haters, but the fact is, El Vez may be the most fun restaurant in town.
El Vez
121 South 13th Street
215-928-9800
First appeared in the April 2013 edition of Philadelphia magazine
Related: From the Magazine, Reviews, El-Vez, Mexican, Midtown-Village, Reviewed, Starr Restaurants, Stephen Starr
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Posted by Foobooz on April 4th, 2013
Michael and Jeniphur Pasquarello already ran two outposts in Poplar—Cafe Lift and Prohibition Taproom. But when crowds at Prohibition became so thick that they were turning people away, it occurred to Michael that the vacant space on the corner of 13th and Spring Garden might be the perfect place to send them—with growlers in hand, of course. Here’s how the menu at his new Bufad Pizza came together.
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Related: From the Magazine, Annotated Menus, Bufad, Italian, Jeniphur Pasquarello, Michael Pasquarello, Pizza, Poplar
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Posted by Jason Sheehan on April 3rd, 2013
High-profile chefs often leave the places they made famous. But few have caused the kind of earthquake George Sabatino did when he announced he was leaving Philly’s best restaurant.
“When I opened this place, I was literally just trying to not run out of food.”
That’s George Sabatino, the now-former chef at Stateside on East Passyunk Avenue. He’s musing about his early days there as a young first-time exec—terrified and excited, exhausted, so busy he didn’t have time to blink. When owners Stephen Slaughter and William Bonforte brought him aboard, he’d never been in charge before. He wanted to make a restaurant that his chef friends would like. He wanted to focus on small plates, charcuterie and American whiskies. Most of all, he didn’t want to embarrass himself.
“Stateside was like this huge lucky break,” he says now. “I never knew it could get so big. I’m really surprised by it all, dude. I’m just a cook, you know?”
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Related: From the Magazine, 50 Best Restaurants, Gastronaut, George Sabatino, Stateside
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Posted by Foobooz on April 1st, 2013
Trey Popp gives us two reviews in one as he visits the “weirdos” behind Pizza Brain and Little Baby’s Ice Cream.
I’ve got a severe hype allergy. But Brian Dwyer and Joseph Hunter’s partly Kickstarter-funded brainchild—which shares space, and a cockeyed ethos, with Little Baby’s Ice Cream—had me on an EpiPen high by the time I was chasing a rosemary-scented mushroom/fontina/goat cheese pizza with dense scoops of chipotle chocolate and Earl Grey sriracha ice cream.
How did it happen? Well for one thing, nothing neutralizes a rambunctious preschooler like knickknack-crammed plexiglass display boxes. For another, this is inventive and frequently terrific pizza.
Two-and-a-half Stars – Good to Excellent
The Infamous Pizza Brain [Philadelphia magazine]
Pizza Brain [Official Site]
Little Baby’s Ice Cream [Official Site]
Related: From the Magazine, Reviews, Fishtown, Ice-Cream, Little Baby's Ice Cream, Pizza, Pizza Brain, Reviewed
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Posted by Foobooz on April 1st, 2013
Trey Popp reviews Fork, the 15-year old dining institution in Old City that, thanks to New York import, Eli Kulp, is suddenly as fresh as anywhere in the city.
Kulp can cook, no doubt. Barely a week into his tenure, he put out a split-personality guinea hen that would go down as the best entrée I’d eaten in a year. The thighs were done up as fried nuggets with hot sauce; the breasts had a mysterious depth—and crackling skin—born of dry aging, complemented by a nose-tingling mustard oil, crème fraîche, and sweet pear and apple marbles that riveted me to the last bite.
Kulp does even better by duck. He hangs the carcasses in cold air for a week, spends another week Peking-ifying them—ballooning the skins with an air compressor, dipping them in a boiling vinegar solution, powdering them with baking soda, glazing them with maltose—and then veers sharply away from China, cooking the breasts medium rare rather than to death.
Three Stars – Excellent
Restaurant Review: Fork [Philadelphia Magazine]
Fork [Official Site]
Related: From the Magazine, Reviews, Ellen Yin, Fork, Old-City, Reviewed, Trey Popp
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Posted by Foobooz on March 13th, 2013
Philadelphia pizza has come a long way in a short time. Vote for the 2013 Best of Philly winner in pizza.
The Great Best of Philly Poll [Philadelphia Magazine]
Related: Food Nerd News, From the Magazine, Best of Philly, Nomad Pizza, Osteria, Pizza, Pizza Brain, Pizzeria Stella, Tacconellis
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Posted by Arthur Etchells on March 13th, 2013
The latest town to be graced by a custom-made wood-fired pizza oven, fed by oak and birch, is Riverton, NJ, where three owners (two of whom are Stephen Starr vets) have opened District 611, a Neapolitan-style pizzeria and New American BYOB. The pizzas emerge from the 900-degree oven after just a minute of baking, loaded liberally with pepperoni and mozzarella (made fresh at the restaurant). Dollops of ricotta add to the visual appeal, and a peek at the bottom of the pie reveals promising spotting. The dough has that crisp-but-chewy texture you look for in good Neapolitan. The pie, however, sags a bit in the middle—the sole demerit given to an otherwise solid effort. Besides pizzas, the restaurant has a whole second kitchen that offers plates like steak and crabcakes. The banh mi spring rolls are a winner, filled with shredded Berkshire pork and pickled veggies and served with a cilantro sauce. It’s a dish that seems lifted right from the Starr cookbook, sure, but it works. If only ours hadn’t arrived at the exact same moment as the pizzas. For a BYOB, the drink menu is creative, with eight varieties of New Hope fountain sodas available, as well as La Colombe’s Pure Black and Philadelphia classic Black Cherry Wishniak.
District 611
710 Broad Street, Riverton, NJ
856-829-1552
Related: From the Magazine, Reviews, District 611, La-Colombe, Pizza, Reviewed, Sodas, South-Jersey
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Posted by Arthur Etchells on March 12th, 2013
Once upon a time, great restaurants provided great service. But over the years, jackets have been lost, shirttails have come untucked, staffers have become less formal, and nostalgists have mourned the demise of high-end dining. The jacket-recommended Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons is a throwback.
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Related: Food, From the Magazine, Reviews, Center-City-West, Fountain, Four Seasons, Logan Circle, Philadelphia-Museum-of-Art, Reviewed
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Posted by Victor Fiorillo on March 11th, 2013
I heard complaints from three separate regulars of Rembrandt’s, that this longtime neighborhood tavern had become too “precious” since bringing in a fancy chef from Buddakan, and was screwing things up by changing old menu favorites. “Bring back my turkey burger!” insisted one. On my visit, things started off rough with imperfectly shucked warm oysters and an unpalatable pickle plate, but steadily improved with the beet salad, bacon-wrapped dates and better-than-most crispy roast chicken. I can understand where my Fairmount friends are coming from, but if I lived nearby, I’d be back once a week for that bird alone.
Rembrandt’s
741 North 23rd Street
215-763-2228.
Related: Food, From the Magazine, Reviews, Fairmount, Rembrandts, Reviewed
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Posted by Foobooz on March 11th, 2013
Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby’s Vedge is that most unlikely of operations: a dedicated vegan farm-to-table restaurant that, in just over a year, has become a destination for both vegetable enthusiasts and their more omnivorous friends. Here, we take a look at one of Vedge’s “Dirt Lists” and ask Kate Jacoby how it came to be.
Vedge: The Annotated Menu »
Related: From the Magazine, Annotated Menus, Kate Jacoby, Rich Landau, Vedge, Vegan, Vegetarian
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