Local Bites

• The Third Annual Eight Days of Eats event kicks off tonight at Headhouse Square Market from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Restaurants participating in the South Street Headhouse Area festival and sponsors will be offering food and refreshments. Donations go to the Historic Trust Conservancy.

• Tinto and Rae were just named to Condé Nast Traveler’s 12th Annual Hot List. From the Condé Nast Traveler’s website: “Our team of roving epicures visited 32 countries—from Chile to the Czech Republic, Thailand to Tunisia—to track down the world's most exciting new restaurants. Hundreds of meals later, 105 made the cut.” Tinto’s Jose Garces is celebrating by introducing Sunday Brunch starting this Sunday (10:00am-3:00pm). A la carte items range from $8 to $14 and include Revuelto de Hongos (shirred eggs with porcini and royal trumpet mushrooms, parmesan espuma and truffle butter) and cocktails such as the Pamplona (celery vodka, spiced tomato, citrus and beef consommé).

• On Thursday, May 1, Chef Felix S. Maietta and Theresa Fera-Maietta (The Down Town Club) will open the much anticipated Union Gourmet Market & Cafe at 1113 Locust Street on the ground floor of the Western Union Telegraph Building. Union Gourmet aims to be a quality alternative to take-out, offering fresh-made soups, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, house-baked pastries and breads, an antipasto bar and entrees.

• There’s still time to get tickets for the Seventh Annual Philadelphia Wine Festival being held at the PA Convention Center on Saturday, May 10. Tickets are $125 for the Grand Tasting/General Admission (6:30pm-9:00pm), and $225 for the VIP Tasting/Early Entry (5:30pm-9:00pm). Tickets can be purchased online.

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Plate Profile – Tinto’s Sopa de Castaño

It’s time for another Plate Profile—a feature designed to highlight a dish being served in a Philadelphia restaurant that you need to try.

The chill of winter begs for hearty bowl of soup. And restaurants all over Philadelphia have been doing their part this season to create interesting versions of our favorite comfort classics such as butternut squash and carrot soups.

But the one soup that should not be missed this winter is Tinto’s Sopa de Castaño, a truffled chestnut soup ($12). What makes this soup so special is that it delivers intricate structure without tasting busy or out of balance.

The sweet, velvety soup is poured around a pillow of savory duck and mushroom hash that’s crowned with a fried quail egg. The hash’s chewy royal trumpet mushrooms parallel a delicate whisper of truffle oil to provide deep layers of woodsy and earthy goodness. Flecks of pistachio add texture while simultaneously echoing the soup’s nutty core. So intense, sinfully rich and satisfying on a primal level—one bowl of this soup will make even the most faithful man or woman feel like they just cheated on their spouse.

The wine you’ll want to pair with this decadent delight is the Domaine Brana Irouléguy Ohitza ($13/glass), a blend of Tannat, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Smokey with dark fruit flavors and notably round for the typically angular varietals at play, this medium-bodied wine has the weight to stand up to this powerful soup. At the same time, its woody tannins not only cut through the soup’s richness but also seemlessly blend with its earthy texture. The Ohitza also boasts a remarkable current of acidity that elevates the soup’s flavor.

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John Mariani Profiles Philadelphia's Restaurants

It’s exciting when the Philadelphia restaurant scene receives national attention. National food and wine writers dine all over the globe, and so it’s always interesting to see how the depth and breadth of their palates inform their opinions of our little corner of the culinary world.

John Mariani is the latest to weigh-in on Philadelphia’s restaurant scene. He is one of the most seasoned and highly respected food and wine writers around. He is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion, Bloomberg News & Radio, and Restaurant Hospitality. He has also authored The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, The Dictionary of American Food & Drink, and with his wife Galina, the award-winning new The Dictionary of Italian Food and DrinkItalian-American Cookbook.

Mariani also publishes a free weekly newsletter on his site, JohnMariani.com (free registration required for archives). In the September 23 issue, Mariani profiles Philadelphia restaurants and reviews some of his current favorites: Rae, 707, Tinto and Susanna Foo in Radnor.

Like other outsiders, one of the things Mariani bemoans generally about Philadelphia is the high mark-ups on wine. However, despite the constraints under which our restaurants must operate, Mariani is impressed with what he sees. He calls Ryan Davis’ wine list at Rae “first-rate,” he recognizes Tinto’s 100+ bottle wine list and says that 707’s wine list “carries some of the best bargains for good regional bottling you’ll find in Philadelphia.”

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Philadelphia Magazine's Best of Philly 2007 - Food & Drink

It’s that time of year again, folks. The time when Philadelphia Magazine dishes on the things it loves the most about Philly. "Essential" and "authoritative," Phily Mag’s “Best Of ” issue is a Philadelphia institution. Editor Larry Platt says it best: "We don’t just try to reflect your world and tell you what you like; instead, we try to influence your world, by spending all year combing the region in order to tell you what you should like.” This year, Philly Mag returns to some of the more basic categories and gives you something extra—a handy little “black book” that you can tear out and take with you anywhere you go, making the 2007 Best Of issue a must read.

Without further ado, here are a few highlights from Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philly 2007, Food & Drink:



Best New Restaurant, City: Osteria. Given the number of high caliber restaurants that opened this year, this choice could not have been easy for the folks at Philadelphia Magazine. Indeed, April White confesses there was “heated debate” over this category. But I could not agree more with this choice—Osteria captures the authenticity of the Italian dining experience by delivering high quality Italian food in a casual yet polished atmosphere. From the “fine handmade” pastas to the “ethereal” Polenta Budino, there is much to love about Osteria. Check out my Osteria review here.



Best Chef: Jonathan McDonald. Philly Mag likes Snackbar's Johnny Mac for the same reason I do: He’s the MacGyver of the kitchen when it comes to successfully combining seemingly incompatible ingredients. The guy is fearless. Give McDonald any three random ingredients and you can guarantee he’ll rescue your palate from boredom. You can find my Snackbar review here.



Best Entrée: The Roast Chicken at James. I know what you’re thinking. Chicken? Believe me, I, too, would be scratching my head had I not eaten Chef Burke’s Cornish game hen myself and written about it here. Burke’s secret is to select high quality meats and to cook them slow and low to concentrate the flavors.

Best Indian: Tiffin Store. I’ve taken great pleasure in introducing my friends to Tiffin Store. The downside to having done that, of course, is that it now takes me longer to get my delivery because the place is busier than ever. Quality Indian food at reasonable prices, you say? You better believe it.


Best Food Trend: The Sequel. This year, Philly took a page from Hollywood’s playbook and adapted it to the restaurant scene. Daniel Stern’s “Empire Strikes Back” with Rae. Marc Vetri, Philly’s “Godfather” of Italian cuisine, “pulls [us] back in” with Osteria. And thanks to Tinto, Jose Garces now has “Two Towers” on the Philly tapas scene. Next year’s Best Food Trend? I’m thinking it could be The Trilogy. After a diversion to Chicago to open Mercat later this year (which will feature Barcelonan-style tapas and charcuterie), Garces will come back to Philly to open Chilango, a Mexico City-inspired taqueria that (I kid you not) will pay tribute to Mexican professional wrestlers. Though it sounds more like “Nacho Libre,” if the success of Amada and Tinto are any indication, Chilango will herald the “Return of the King.” Either way, I’m getting my ticket in advance.

Want to know who won the Best Cheesesteak, City category? How about Best New BYOB? Best Pizza? Pick up your own copy of the Best of Philly 2007 edition of Philadelphia Magazine. It hits newsstands on Monday.

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Bathrooms, Basque and Bistros

If I told you that my posting has been sparse lately because I’ve been hanging out in women’s restrooms across Center City, would that sound weird? Well, weird or not, it’s partially true.

I wrote a Top 5 for the City Paper, which appears in this week’s issue—Top 5 Brilliant Bathrooms. There will be disagreement over the selections, no doubt. But each entry is principled. Plus, I put a lot of work into the project, and I somehow managed to do so without getting arrested.

I also worked with City Paper to come up with a semi-regular feature called Pocket Sommelier. The one thing you give up at a BYOB is the wine service. So we thought it would be cool to take some of the guesswork out of your BYOB experience by pairing a wine with a dish or two from an area BYOB. The first installment of Pocket Sommelier features two dishes from Bisto 7 and the Franciscan Chardonnay Napa Valley 2005 (PLCB No. 16506, $11.99), which is a Chairman’s Selection. For example, this Chardonnay works well with that gnocchi dish because the Royal Trumpet mushrooms are rich and delicate. Earthier mushrooms, though, may not work as well.

I also signed on to do the Wine Chow column over at ClassicWines.com. In this week’s column I talk about how the small plates phenomenon has changed how we drink wine. To illustrate this point, I discuss Tinto’s Basque cuisine and its regionally-focused wine list.

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