Craig LaBan picks the best Eagles-themed food and drinks | Let’s Eat
Cracking the code on the egg shortage, celebrating the revival of the Melrose Diner, prepping for the arrival of Mama-San in Wayne.

This just in: There’s some kind of football game Sunday. We asked Craig LaBan to try out the Eagles-themed food, and he’s a bit green right now.
Also in this edition:
Eggs-istential crisis: How restaurants and consumers are coping with rising prices and short supplies.
Order up: The Melrose Diner, bulldozed in late 2023, is indeed coming back.
Hot water: Glu Hospitality, which operates numerous popular restaurants, is facing scrutiny.
Scoops: Read on to check out Mama-San, the new Japanese fast-casual spot, and catch up quickly with a noted sushi chef’s new project.
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There’s been an all-out blitz of Eagles-themed foods and drinks as restaurants, beverage-makers, bakeries, and the like get into the Super Bowl Big Game spirit. Critic Craig LaBan tackled everything from green-tinted pupusas to players’ likenesses pasted onto cookies. Besides the Philly Dilly collab between the Fishtown Pickle Project and Miller’s Twist in the Reading Terminal Market shown above, here is what he says is a score.
Also on the Eagles beat:
🙋 If you’re headed to the Super Bowl in person, Margaret Eby and Kiki Aranita offer a dining guide to the most-Philly restaurants in New Orleans. Let’s say you enjoy Picnic in Kensington. Well, you’ll love Bacchanal, in Bywater.
🗾 If you find yourself in Tokyo on Super Bowl Monday (because of the time difference), Jenn Ladd will fill you in on the watch party at Nihonbashi Philly, Tokyo’s Philadelphia-themed bar. Under the owner’s rules, it’s open to Birds fans only.
🥐 Loretta’s, a new bakery in Society Hill, bakes cherry pop tarts and cinnamon brioche for the Eagles before each home game.
🍪 The Havertown Acme was selling a Taylor Swift/Chiefs cookie cake. Then a supermarket worker stepped in.
🍻 Here are some great spots to watch the game.
🏈 Commercial tie-ins have gone from bad to wurst:
Chuck E. Cheese says that if the Eagles win Sunday, Kansas City’s two locations will become Chuck Eagles Cheese for a week. If the Chiefs win, Philly’s two locations will be branded Chuck E. Chiefs for a week.
Dietz & Watson will hand out Bird Dogs (topped with roasted long hots, provolone, and crunchy fried onions, served on a green Amoroso’s bun) at pep rallies. Catch one today outside of the Comcast Center (1701 JFK Blvd.) from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and in front of the Acme Market at 1901 Johnston St. from 3:30-4:30 p.m., and outside of Betsy Ross House (239 Arch St.) from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday.
As egg prices have doubled or tripled, local breakfast slingers are scrambling to manage menu prices. Erin McCarthy has cracked the code of how some consumers are coping: Interest is rising in backyard chicken coops.
Glu Hospitality, which operates such restaurants as Figo, Izakaya Fishtown, Sushi by Bou, and Chika, is facing questions about its liquor-licensing practices as well as complaints by employees over their pay. Read on for an Inquirer investigation.
Philly’s iconic Melrose Diner, bulldozed in 2023, will come back, with apartments above it. Next, the owner plans to raze the nearby Broad Street Diner and is proposing erecting a Hyatt Studios extended-stay hotel there. Jake Blumgart serves us dish with a side of nostalgia.
All this talk about food has us hungry for culture. Arden Theatre’s Holy Grail of Memphis is a bluesy new play about race and music, and critic Frank Schierloh finds it “impactful and intriguing."
If you’re headed to the Arden in Old City and want to go for dinner while parking once, there are the venerable Fork, Panorama, and Cuba Libre; the charming BYOBs Olea and Tomo Sushi (newly expanded); and just up the street, the stylish Tuna Bar.
Scoops
Andy Bernard, sushi chef behind the acclaimed Kaiseki (which closed last fall, as he needed a break), has resurfaced. He’s now behind the counter at Ogawa Sushi & Kappo in Old City, working with chef Carlos Wills Wednesday-Sunday.
Cheessteaks — that’s right; an “e” is missing — will be a cheesesteak shop from Camden-born friends and Cooper Sharp fanciers Antonio Delgado (who owns four barber shops) and James Haines (a real estate investor who bought his first property at age 19), replacing Taylor Wings at 177 S. Center St. in Merchantville. Target: March 1. They’ll use custom semolina rolls from an undisclosed local bakery, and also offer high-protein wraps. Wings and fries will round out the menu. They misspell the name for attention, as you may surmise. “It’s simple and gets straight to the point,” Delgado said.
Federal Donuts & Chicken’s first South Jersey location, in Marlton Square shopping center, is now scheduled to open in mid- to late-March, a company rep told me.
Rhythm & Spirits, the long-delayed Italian restaurant specializing in cocktails and chocolate, is looking at a March/April debut in the Suburban Station building at 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. R&S’s original version in Atlantic City is now a seasonal operation.
Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall in Atlantic City’s Orange Loop, next door to Rhythm & Spirits, returns Thursday after a six-week closing. Owners have broken through the wall shared with Cuzzie’s Pizzeria and expanded the bar.
Restaurant report
Mama-San. The Somboonsong family has been a part of the western suburbs' restaurant scene since 1991, when Win and Sutida Somboonsong opened Thai Pepper in Ardmore, followed by such destinations as Mikado, Teikoku, Azie, and the Blue Elephant. More recently, they turned over the empire to their daughter, Pearl, and oldest son, Paul. Soon, the siblings will open a grand French-Vietnamese restaurant, Maison Lotus, in Margaret Kuo’s former building in downtown Wayne.
But this week, switching up the Win Signature Restaurants’ approach to luxury dining, they’ve opened their first fast-casual restaurant.
Mama-San, with an approachable, mainly Japanese small-plate menu, has taken over the former Buena Onda in the strip mall across from Radnor High School in Wayne, next to a Federal Donuts & Chicken and Honeygrow.
Lunch features a collection of maki rolls, poke, bowls, and a few starters — note the chili-garlic noodle bowl and umami fries, shown above — which then segues into more of an izakaya situation over dinner. The liquor license, from their recently shuttered Azie in Villanova, is expected to be active soon; there will be Asian beer and a few cocktails.
Grab-and-go sakes (and food) will be available from a case.
Mama-San, 226 N. Radnor-Chester Rd., Wayne. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
Briefly noted
Perhaps you’ll want to celebrate a Super Bowl win with a cigar. Earl Hopkins offers a round-up of eight cigar lounges.
Chef Kurt Evans of Black Dragon Takeout will visit High Street on Sunday for a dim sum brunch from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Book on OpenTable.
Red, White & Brew in Audubon, N.J., has announced that Feb. 16 will be its finale after nearly nine years.
John Henry’s Pub in Ardmore has posted that last call after 39 years will be Feb. 28. Owners Jim and Kathy Kearney are retiring.
Liberty Kitchen’s grand opening at Market at the Fareway (8221 Germantown Ave.) is Friday.
Northern Liberties Restaurant Week continues through Saturday.
❓Pop quiz
We published a winner of a chicken soup recipe recently. What’s the ingredient that gives it extra oomph?
A) gremolata
B) Sriracha
C) schmaltz
D) fish sauce
Find out if you know the answer.
Ask Mike anything
What’s happening at Mei Mei in Old City? — Stuart G.
Owner Jay Ho told me that the sprinkler system in an apartment upstairs froze and burst last weekend, flooding the five-year-old pan-Asian bar-restaurant. Ho generously gave away all the prepped food to the public, as he said the restaurant would be closed for some time. He plans to redesign during the downtime.
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