Craig LaBan’s 12 essential Chinatown restaurants | Let’s Eat
Also: The wonders of spring produce, a sky-high happy-hour idea, and plenty of restaurant news.
Lots to share this week: Craig LaBan’s heartfelt look at Chinatown 2021, the wonders of spring produce, a sky-high happy-hour idea, and plenty of restaurant news.
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Chinatown favorites that capture the neighborhood’s spirit
Critic Craig LaBan takes joy in his culinary explorations of Philadelphia’s Chinatown. As he describes 12 essential restaurants in a gorgeously illustrated article with photos by Tim Tai, he observes that the Chinatown story right now feels different — and concerning. Its restaurants have weathered a brutal year of pandemic, singed by anti-Asian hate and violence. Craig notes that this moment is also about resilience and innovation as restaurateurs helped one another, redefined their businesses, and even opened new ones.
Spring is sprung. Act now.
We’re savoring and sharing our first tastes of spring, beneath this stylish illustration by staff artist Cynthia Greer:
Foraged gems like ramps, morels, and fiddlehead ferns will work their way onto menus over the next few weeks. If you’re lucky, writes staff writer Jenn Ladd, you can snag some for your own kitchen at the farmers market or in a nearby forest.
Contributor Tiffani Rozier offers three recipes that celebrate this spring transition. Groove on a salad based on collards and an entree of roasted spring onions and morels with seared skirt steak, and wrap with a dessert of mango granita with sweetened condensed milk and coconut. (Mangos were priced as low as a buck apiece at several supermarkets this week.) And we have a spring soup for you, too.
Hit the refresh button on your cookbook collection. Tiffani has put together a collection of new releases, including Rice, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Michael W. Twitty’s James Beard Award-winning book, The Cooking Gene.
A grocer supports local food businesses
Jeff Brown, who owns a dozen supermarkets across the region, is offering retail space, kiosks, and other selling space to small businesses in the region, many owned by people of color. It’s something that large grocery chains rarely do.
To have and to hold — a cheesesteak!
It’s not every day that a bride and groom in full wedding attire show up outside John’s Roast Pork, the South Philly sandwich mecca. But Jennifer Tran and Eric “Griff” Griffin wanted photos before their ceremony last week, much to the delight of onlookers and owner John Bucci. That’s one way to cut the line.
First look at Lola’s Garden
One of the splashiest openings of spring 2021 is Lola’s Garden, a mammoth indoor-outdoor bar-restaurant at Suburban Square in Ardmore. (Maybe literally. The weather forecast for the first day of service, Thursday, April 15, calls for dumping rain. Alas.) Lola’s, named after the Kinks’ hit, is the first suburban project for Avram Hornik, who owns such city destinations as Morgan’s Pier, Juno, Craft Hall, and Harper’s Garden. He’s also brought in as chef Andrew Wood, who closed his acclaimed downtown BYOB, Russet, in mid-2019.
Happy-hour tip from up high
Time to get dressed after a year of sweats and T-shirts. Inside dining does not get more elegant than the lounge on the 59th floor of the Comcast Technology Center, home of JG SkyHigh, the atmospheric aerie above the Four Seasons Hotel’s Jean-Georges. SkyHigh recently started what it calls Glamour Hour (4-6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday) with two specials: a sparkling-wine flight ($48), which brings you pours of Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Jean-Georges Brut Champagne, Lucien Albrecht Brut, and Patrick Bottex Bugey-Cerdon) and the signature crispy sea trout sushi, or a ginger margarita paired with pretzel-crusted calamari ($39). Note that the main room, Jean-Georges, has not reopened but Vernick Fish, on street level on Arch Street near 19th, is very much back in business.
Restaurant report
Kennett Square is seeing the first few days of Letty’s Tavern, a transformation of the Kennett Square Inn into a hipper bar-restaurant with a from-scratch, something-for-everyone menu and a bottle shop downstairs. Open daily, lunch and dinner. It’s the second project by 4AM Hospitality, which owns Saucey’s, a pizzeria in West Chester. Stay tuned for more.
Charisse McGill, who set out to be the Auntie Anne’s of French toast with her Lokal Foods, has landed a year-round home for her French toast bites and other snacks. She’s at Cherry Street Pier, as she resumes her location at Spruce Street Harbor Park next month.
Federal Donuts is coming to the Parkway this summer with its largest location, set up behind the forthcoming Victory Brewing Co. brewpub.
Sally, the pizzeria/wine shop at Fitler Square, opens for outside dining on Friday, April 16. Streetery/sidewalk setup with about 40 seats, no reservations, 5-10 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Its natural wine store reopens, too.
SoBol Rittenhouse, the açaí bowl shop across from Liberty Place at 46 S. 17th St., will mark its third anniversary on Thursday, April 15 by giving away 50 free small Sunshine Bowls — granola, mango and pineapple puree blended with coconut milk and bananas, with pineapple, strawberry, coconut, and a drizzle of honey.
Caribbean Restaurant Week runs April 17-24 with 17 restaurants offering specials. The week is a precursor to Dine Latino by the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber, the week of May 5.
Kismet Bagels will show up midday April 17-18 at Kalaya Thai Market (922 S. Ninth St.) with two Thai-inspired bagels (curry and butterfly pea flour blueberry) and assorted schmears. How about crab Rangoon on a bagel? Details are on Kalaya’s website and preordering is encouraged.
Local dessert heroes Lil Pop Shop and Weckerly’s Ice Cream are partnering, which means Weckerly’s will sell wares at Lil Pop Shop’s original space at 265 S. 44th St. in West Philadelphia, while Weckerly’s shop at 9 W. Girard Ave. in Fishtown will sell Lil Pop Shop’s small-batch fruit and cream-based pops. This mashup led to the Popalong Bar, a vanilla ice cream bar dipped in dark chocolate and crispy rice that will debut at Lil Pop Shop beginning on Friday, April 16 and will be available through the weekend.
On April 22, Robert and Raquel DeAbreu will mark the 20th anniversary of their bruncherie Sabrina’s by offering six dishes at their 2001 prices. The day’s proceeds will be donated to Project HOME. Among dishes: marinated grilled vegetable sandwich for $6.95, spinach salad for $7.95, and banana-stuffed French toast for $6.25. The specials will be available at the four open Sabrina’s; the Italian Market original is temporarily closed because of COVID-19.
Speaking of bruncheries: This week’s comeback-from-COVID news includes Rittenhouse Square’s Day by Day, where owner Robin Barg credits PPP money for her second chance. On April 22, Memphis Taproom in Kensington will reopen after a long shutdown coinciding with its 13th anniversary. The draft system has been rebuilt to include a Black Forest lager tower.