My favorite martinis | Let’s Eat

If you love martinis and oysters, you’ll toast this edition of “Let’s Eat.” And if you’ve been awaiting the opening of dancerobot, the latest izakaya from the Royal Izakaya crew, read on for intel. It opens next week.

But first: Get your tickets to The Inquirer’s Food Fest now. The all-day event at the Fillmore on Nov. 15 will gather dozens of top Philly chefs for exclusive collabs, off-menu dishes, special bites, and my onstage chat with restaurateur Stephen Starr. (Come out with your own questions.)

Also in this edition:

— Mike Klein

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Martinis can be salty, funky, citrusy, a little weird, or strictly by the book. Kiki Aranita has one rule: It must always be bracingly cold. Read on for her favorites.

Some of Philadelphia’s most exciting dishes right now aren’t cooked at all. They come from raw bars, which are seemingly everywhere. Read on as Kiki dispenses pearls about this trend.

Dancerobot, the eagerly awaited Rittenhouse Japanese bar-restaurant from Royal Izakaya chefs Jesse Ito and Justin Bacharach, has set its opening for Tuesday, Sept. 30, with the Resy link due to go live at noon this Friday. Don’t panic: Some seats, the entire 20-seat bar, and the drink rail are set aside for walk-ins. At the start, dancerobot, with low-lit, Victorian-ish airs, will offer dinner only Tuesday through Saturday from 4 p.m.; a late-night konbini menu and weekend brunch are forthcoming. While you await my article, peruse the dinner menu.

Eataly opens in King of Prussia next week.

Kitchen & Kocktails by Kevin Kelley, the Dallas-based successor to Del Frisco’s Grill at 225 S. Broad St., debuts Oct. 18.

Mama Chang, chef Peter Chang’s second Philly-area restaurant (after Peter Chang in King of Prussia), will open Oct. 10 at 118 Bethlehem Pike in Colmar with a free, two-hour community party benefiting Manna on Main Street. Lion dancing and ribbon-cutting start at 4 p.m.

Side Eye, a neighborhood-friendly, Euro-inspired bar at 623 S. Sixth St., is targeting late 2025, now that owner Hank Allingham has finally gone to settlement on the shuttered Bistrot La Minette.

🍁 Stay tuned for my fall restaurant preview next week.

Last week’s news that the TikTok-famous PopUp Bagels chain is heading to the area has triggered intense online debate. Beatrice Forman wonders if we are ready to “Grip, Rip, and Dip.”

Chef Cary Neff has not one but two of the quirkiest cooking-supply shops in town, and they’re several blocks apart. If you’re a kitchen geek, they are worth a field trip.

Longtime bar manager Chivonn Anderson struggled to find a spot to watch the Women’s World Cup, so she took matters into her own hands. Marsha’s is now open on South Street.

James Beard-nominated chef Dionicio Jiménez and his wife, Mariangeli Alicia Saez, are planning another suburban offshoot of their Kensington flagship, Cantina La Martina. They’re about two weeks from opening Cantina on the Go at 576 Township Line Rd. in Cheltenham, replacing Rosario’s Pizzeria. It will offer mostly takeout/delivery/catering, though there is one four-top inside for dine-in. The couple has a Cantina on the Go inside Human Robot brewery in Jenkintown, as well as La Baja, a BYOB in Ambler.

Turning Point, the brunch chain, has applied for city permits for a location at One uCity Square (225 N. 38th St.).

Poe’s Sandwich Joint. N.A. Poe — the nom de plume of now-retired marijuana-legalization activist Richard Tamaccio Jr. — has built a tidy second career by creating kitchens in bars. He’s behind the tasty sandwiches at the Human Robot locations in Brewerytown (Poe’s Side Piece) and Kensington (Poe’s Sandwich Joint).

His latest kitchen collab is Poison Heart, the low-lit cocktail bar at 931 Spring Garden St., near Union Transfer. You can get oysters, just as before. But in a cool “high-low” pairing with one of Poison Heart’s cocktails, you can get one of Poe’s sandwiches on a Sarcone’s roll.

There are six sandwiches plus a double smash burger on the menu, notably the Seoulgirl ($17, shown above), a fried chicken sandwich with kimchi slaw, sriracha mayo, chili crisp, cilantro, and honey; a Poe Boi ($18), with fried shrimp, tomato, shredduce, and cherry pepper slaw; and the vegan option: Jeggy Boy ($16), tofu, cucumber, pickles, carrots, long hots, cilantro, and vegan sriracha mayo.

Poe’s Sandwich Joint at Poison Heart, 931 Spring Garden St. Kitchen hours: 6 p.m.-midnight Tuesday to Saturday. Sunday brunch (1-9 p.m.) starts Oct. 12.

Banh Mi & Bottles, which brought Vietnamese street food, beer, cocktails, and a low-lit vibe to South Street in 2016, has closed, said co-owner Olivia Phung, who called the decision “bittersweet.” She said the family of her husband, Tuan, will redevelop the building (712-714 South) as something other than a restaurant.

Char & Stave will mark National Coffee Day (Monday, Sept. 29) with free coffee all day (12-ounce drip and 1-ounce tastings of coffee liqueur) at its locations in Ardmore (21 Rittenhouse Place) and Chestnut Hill (8441 Germantown Ave.).

Crate & Press Juice Bar in Glenside’s Keswick Village will give away “Red October” cold-pressed juice (beet, apple, strawberry, and watermelon) to the first 100 customers on Tuesday — the first day of Major League Baseball playoffs — and after each Phillies series win.

Dine Latino Restaurant Week from the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will run from Oct. 12-18 with a complimentary appetizer or dessert with the purchase of two dinner entrées or a special menu. Details are here.

This impressive sandwich is the Partenza: hot coppa, nduja spread, long hots, fresh mozzarella, and hot honey on crunchy schiacciata. It’s one of the new sandwiches at the venerable L. Mancuso & Son deli, which just reopened after a long shutdown.

Why will Hill Creek Farms, a popular pick-your-own destination in South Jersey, close after this season?

A) retirement

B) rising insurance premiums

C) a housing development is on the way

D) an Amazon fulfillment center is planned

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s happening with Next of Kin’s new bar at the former Tria location at 12th and Spruce? — Francis W.

Kyle Darrow, who owns Next of Kin in Fishtown with John Grubb, says they’re deep into construction and permitting, and expect to open Static! — the shout is part of the name — “sometime this fall.” They and their staff just got back from a trip to Paris, where they did a pop-up at Mesures, a Japanese-French cocktail and vinyl bar.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

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