Port Richmond isn't exactly a hotbed of Mexican cuisine. Then came Nemi, replacing a corner bar, and the neighborhood has responded with delight. Also this week, I visit two newcomers — a Thai BYOB in Wynnewood and a quirky ramen shop in Queen Village — and find a revamped cocktail list at a South Street bar.
Read on for critic Craig LaBan’s guide to his favorite soups of all kinds.
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Modern Mexican for Port Richmond
The local Port Richmonders and in-the-know Uber users are packing Nemi (2636 E. Ann St., 267-519-0713), a Mexican bar-restaurant that recently replaced the corner bar known as Dooey's Road at Thompson and Ann Streets.
This is no taqueria festooned with Dos Equis and Corona banners. If you're looking for casual eats, I'd suggest Loco Pez, 10 minutes away in Fishtown.
While Nemi is also not a quiet date-nighter, it’s a lively, respectable destination for those seeking more culinary ambition. From their open kitchen, chefs Jasper Alivia and Jesus Garcia (overseen by manager Alejandro Fuentes) turn out modern fare that includes a half-dozen tacos (including one filled with fried mahi-mahi whose batter is based on Negra Modelo and another, riffing on al pastor with achiote-marinated pork belly), guacamole with optional add-ons such as diced mango and pineapple, ceviches (including a flame-throwingly hot one with red snapper in an habanero sauce), and enchiladas rojas and vegetarianas.
Full cocktail menu takes advantage of a decent tequila and mezcal selection. Most margs are $10.
Hours are 4-10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 4-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; bar is open an hour later. Happy hour is 4-6 p.m. weekdays. Lunch and brunch are on the way.
This Week’s Openings
Diner at Manayunk | Manayunk
Jason Kim has flipped his Jason's CozyDay at 4371 Main St. into a breakfast-luncher.
Hajimaru | Fishtown
Feb. 1 is the soft opening of this ramen-focused BYOB at 200 E. Girard Ave., the former Shoo Fry. Menu also will include skewers, rice bowls, and Japanese drinks.
Luna Cafe | Kensington
On Feb. 1, Sarah Levine soft-opens a branch of her Old City bruncherie, which is replacing Usaquen at 1700 N. Third St. (corner of Cecil B. Moore Avenue).
Parx Beer Garden | Bensalem
The casino has opened a vast beer garden with a retractable roof and seasonal patios next to its Liberty Bell pub.
Rudee's Thai | Wynnewood
See below.
Xian Gourmet | Center City
Bright Hunan BYOB comes to 1304 Chestnut St., the former Minar Palace.
This Week’s Closings
Angelino's | Fairmount
It's said that a family rift has led to the closing of this popular corner pizzeria.
Broad Axe Tavern | Ambler
The current management has called it quits after a decade; the building's owners are searching for a new tenant.
Marigold Kitchen | West Philadelphia
The avant-garde restaurant in a corner brownstone fell victim to the financial problems that also dogged the owners of the shuttered TALK in Center City; last day is Jan. 31.
Where we’re enjoying happy hour
MilkBoy, 401 South St., 215-925-6455, 4-7 p.m. Monday-Friday
Getting a little fancy there with the drink menu, are we, MilkBoy? Last week, the South Street offshoot of the Center City bar-club rolled out a new list.
A few surprises popped up, including the Blood & Sand ($12, Johnnie Walker Red, Heering cherry liqueur, sweet vermouth, and orange) and a Negroni ($12) with barrel-aged gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth). They're $2 off at happy hour, as are all the cocktails.
You can drink much more cheaply, of course. Well drinks are knocked down to $5. The happy-hour deal also includes $2 off wines and draft beers, plus $3 baskets of fries, $4 orders of Brussels sprouts, $5 nachos, and crab cake ($4), mojo pork ($3), and fried chicken ($3) sliders.
Where we’re eating
Rudee's Thai, 333 E. Lancaster Ave., Wynnewood
Heng and Rudee Lee, who founded and later sold Heng's Thai Cuisine in Springfield, Delaware County, have attached her name to their new Thai BYOB in Wynnewood West Shopping Center.
Simply decorated (bare tables, large paintings, open floor plan), this 40-seater delivers the usual Siamese specialties, with a few surprises. To wit, the khanom buang ($17) you see before you: It's a savory riff on the familiar street-food dish that stuffs a light, crispy crepe (larger than the usual taco-size dessert foldovers) with chopped shrimp and tofu, shredded coconut, bean sprouts, and other vegetables. It's served with a pickled cucumber salad topped with chopped peanuts.
Also note the bargain $12.95 lunches (spring roll or house salad plus entrée such as pad Thai, pad see ew, or basil fried rice, served Tuesday-Friday).
Hours are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Friday (lunch), 4:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 4:30-10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, noon to 9 p.m. Sunday (dinner).
Neighborhood Ramen, 617 S. Third St. With a half-dozen ramens and a few snacks (gyoza, sesame salad, and the pickled cucumber dish called oshinko), Jesse Pryor and Lindsay Steigerwald — local chefs who started offering ramen to their friends and then to the general public on a pop-up basis — are keeping things simple at their new Queen Village storefront BYOB.
If you're looking for local chefs hanging out after their shifts, it's quite possible they'll be quaffing brought-in beers in the black-and-white-muraled dining room. It's open till midnight.
But first, let's note a few rules posted outside the front door, including "there will be loud, unedited music playing inside," "no takeout," and "no to-go containers available."
What?
The couple adamantly believe that you must slurp their ramen on the premises. Right there, as Steigerwald places it in front of you. Taking it out, they say, will subject the soup to its worst enemy: time. That is, the noodles can turn gelatinous, Pryor warns. One customer, learning of the no-to-go policy, sent her husband to fetch disposable containers. Pryor shrugged with resignation while recounting the story.
As for the ramen: slurp-worthy and sublime. The shio ($13) is a steaming bowl of assertive chicken broth (one of two chicken-based ramens) with dashi, Japanese salt, scallion, menma, and chashu pork. Also noteworthy: the tantan ($14) with its zesty chicken-pork broth and ginger pork.
Hours are 5 p.m. to midnight Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday.
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Craig LaBan answers your dining questions
Reader: It is so cold! Where can I get some soup to warm my bones?
Craig LaBan: Yes, the polar vortex has arrived and winter 2019 is settling in. But soup season is one of my favorite times of year to savor comfort in a bowl in an incredible variety of international styles and creative variations. I could eat pho and ramen every day during winter. And we’re blessed with so many choices in those genres, they’re worthy of their own fresh lists another day. So let us look beyond and consider the wide world of other Philly soup treasures simmering away.
For classic Americana flavor, I’m fond of the ham and white bean soup at the Dutch Eating Place (Reading Terminal Market). It's basically the definition of stick-to-your-ribs Amish diner cooking.
The Oyster House (1516 Sansom St.) makes one of Philly’s best creamy New England-style chowders, though I always have a hard time passing up on its traditional snapper soup and a cioppino-like fisherman’s stew that is more like a meal. Perhaps the best upscale take on clam chowder in town right now is the creamy-but-creamless rendition at The Love (130 S. 18th St.), where the broth is steeped with fresh clams, lemongrass, and potatoes and topped with Old Bay-dusted corn bread crumbles.
There’s also a chowder rich with bacon and leeks on special this week at N. 3rd (Third and Brown Streets), where chef Peter Dunmire has long been one of the city’s most underrated soup masters, with a steady rotation of favorites like goulash, split pea with bacon, and porcini mushroom bisque.
Speaking of longtime soup stars, Valérie Blum at Café Lutecia (2301 Lombard St.) is rightfully renowned for the bowls of creamy tomato bisque and African chicken peanut soup she serves at her little French café near Fitler Square.
South Philadelphia’s Italian kitchens have serious soup magic, too. The classic Abruzzo specialty, scrippelle 'mbusse, in which Pecorino-filled crepe rolls are floated in chicken broth, is one of the frequent specialties at Mr. Joe’s Café (1514 S. Eighth St.) and a menu anchor at Le Virtù (1927 E. Passyunk Ave.) The hearty pasta-fagiole tradition of bean and noodle soups are a frequent draw at Fitzwater Café (728 S. Seventh St.), the Italian lunch-brunch specialist where a white-bean version is on the soup-of-the-day rotation. Of course, South Philly also has a United Nations of other diverse soup options: the Phnom Penh rice noodle soup at I Heart Cambodia (2207 S. Seventh St.), the flavorful Indonesian soups filled with twisty, handmade noodles at Sky Café (1122 Washington Ave.), and a funky Vietnamese bún bò huế at Café Nhan (1606 W. Passyunk Ave.) that may be the city’s best.
From the neighborhood’s deep Mexican menu, there is the consommé steeped from the lambs at South Philly Barbacoa (1140 S. Ninth St.). The tangy, chile-flecked savor with rice and chickpeas is so deep, it’s one of the most soulful bowls of anything in the city. For a heartier meal, I love the Mexican pozole stews with hominy, pork and chilies at Tacos California (1030 S. Eighth St.) and Adelita (1108 S 9th St.). The tortilla soup is timeless at Blue Corn (940 S. Ninth St.).
In Northeast Philly, the toothy texture of handmade noodles are key to the Uzbek lamb soup called lagman served at Chaikhana Uzbekistan (12012 Bustleton Ave..) Slow-cooked beef is the heart of the Ukrainian borscht at Passage Restaurant (10783 Bustleton Ave.). Polish pickle soups and ruby clear beet borscht bobbing with mushroom pierogi are a draw to Dinner House (2706 E. Allegheny Ave.) in Port Richmond. Bubbling hot pots of spicy soondubu soft tofu stews are among North Philly’s Korean highlights at Jong Ka Jib (6600 N. Fifth St.) in East Oak Lane.
But is there a better soup neighborhood than Chinatown? There are too many there, in fact, to mention in one Q&A alone, but here are some favorites that go far beyond the Cantonese classics: the Taiwanese beef noodle soup at Ray’s Café & Tea House (141 N. Ninth St.) that’s even better with a pot of Taiwanese mountain tea; the Hakka-style beef noodle soup at the Hakka Beef House (927 Race St.), where the bone broth is rich with a sesame-onion paste.
On the coldest days, though, my ultimate cold weather Chinatown craving is the lamb, beef and pita soup from Xi’an Sizzling Woks (902 Arch St.), an unusual bowl thickened with ripped pita bits that is sort of like a Silk Road sibling to Italian ribbolita.
I could go on. But that’s more than two dozen stellar bowls to get you started. Clearly, the polar vortex is no match for Philly’s bottomless kettle of treasured soups.
Email Craig here.