Restaurants, as grocery stores | Let’s Eat

When supermarkets picked up more business at the start of the pandemic, enterprising restaurateurs took notice. You can now buy groceries inside former seating areas, and we’ll show you where. Also this week: A tribute to two important men in the South Philadelphia food world, a guide to buying tinned fish, and restaurant news.

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– Michael Klein

As restaurateurs shift to weather the pandemic, some have ventured into selling groceries. It’s more than a potential revenue stream; it’s a way to serve their neighbors and to put seating areas to good use. I found more than two dozen restau-markets, from the western suburbs to South Jersey.

Which commodity gets critic Craig LaBan through a storm? Tinned fish. And not cans of Bumble Bee, he writes. He shares a few great sources in Philly for delicacies such as charcoal-grilled sardine loins, butter-poached Canadian lobster, Spanish razor clams, Portuguese octopus, and Brittany sardines.

Using seitan, soy, and even enoki mushrooms, local chefs are creating serious vegan chicken sandwiches, and reporter Grace Dickinson goes deep. As in fried.

All the holidays of 2020 were reconfigured due to the pandemic, and now, it is Lunar New Year’s turn. Chef Kiki Aranita shares her recipe for traditional spring rolls, and Inquirer photojournalist Heather Khalifa produced a video to guide you.

The name Angelo Scuderi might not ring a bell. Perhaps the name Phil Mancuso does. But these two men were important links to old-time South Philly food traditions — Angelo as the overnight mixer at Sarcone’s Bakery on Ninth Street (the photo above of him catching 40 winks at 5 a.m. is all you need to know about the rigors of his labor) and Phil as the patriarch of his family’s landmark cheese shop on East Passyunk (he’s showing off his prized ricotta in the photo). They died last week on the same day, and Craig writes a wonderful tribute.

Village Whiskey, Jose Garces’ bar at 20th and Sansom Streets, is back open for indoor dining after being closed since the last shutdown — and with the reopening is an expansion. You can stretch out now while enjoying one of the city’s most honored burgers. New menu, too. Outdoor dining will launch in the spring in the form of sidewalk seating on Sansom. The now-smaller Tinto next door is a bottle shop for now, and the plan is to reopen it for dining in the spring.

The Federal Donuts location at 1632 Sansom St. will close after business on Feb. 24 as the building and parking garage above it will be razed for a new apartment tower. (Philadelphia Chutney a few doors down is already done.) FedNuts is not leaving the neighborhood. It will relocate nearby — and I’m speculating that it will be set up temporarily in the former Rooster, the subterranean space beneath the partners’ Goldie at 1526 Sansom, before settling into a new home. To soften the blow of 1632 Sansom’s closing, for its final week the menu will include Shabazi chicken, which was on the menu from the shop’s October 2012 opening till 2014.

Las Bugambilias, Carlos Molina and Michelle Zimmerman’s Mexican cantina at Second and South Streets, closed last May. It has a new home in Old City, and in March, it’s expected to open at 15 S. Third St., the former Farmacia.

Be aware that...

Empanadas are coming to Society Hill on Sunday. Jezabel Careaga of Jezabel’s Cafe will be at the Head House Shambles farmers’ market (Second Street between Pine and Lombard Streets) on Feb. 21.

P.J. Clarke’s is planning to reopen at the Curtis Building (Sixth and Walnut Streets) on March 1.

The Wayward on the ground floor of the Canopy by Hilton Philadelphia (1170 Ludlow St.) starts weekend brunch service on Feb. 20 (10 a.m.-2 p.m.). Among the dishes is a chicken waffle pot pie.

The Draught Horse, which sustained hungry and thirsty Temple students for 20 years, is in its final days. The Philadelphia Business Journal reported that the operators and Temple University could not come to terms on a new lease.

Blue Mountain Vineyards’ outlet on Seventh Street near Market has closed, and the pandemic is the stated reason. BMV still sells its wines at the Rittenhouse Square farmers’ market on Saturdays.