Get ready for July 4th | Let’s Eat

This week, Michael Klein is taking a much needed vacation, so, the rest of the food team is here for you to get ready for a long holiday weekend, filled with neighborhood fireworks and social distancing. Craig LaBan is already down the Shore, and has updates on the outdoor dining scene.

(Some of us will be in our backyards watching Hamilton.) It’s going to be hot, and we’ve got recipes for easy-to-make popsicles, along with some refreshing frozen cocktails and mocktails.

Speaking of cool, we’ll introduce you to Micah Harrigan, South Philly’s newest lemonade entrepreneur, and we’ll show you how caterers are managing weddings buffets.

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Have a happy Fourth of July. Wear a mask.

– Jamila Robinson, Food Editor

Technically, we aren’t supposed to call them “popsicles.” That’s a registered trademark. But ice pops, creamy pops made with milk or yogurt, and other fruity desserts-on-a-stick are having a moment. You’re probably seeing them pop up on your Instagram feed, in bright colors, made with orange and mango and filled with pieces of fruit.

I reached out to dessert blogger Vallery Lomas, who gave us a recipe for making Blueberry-Coconut Greek Yogurt Pops. I added in a few variations to make them into mocha, mango and cream, or whatever you can imagine with fruit in your kitchen.

Speaking of cold treats, frozen cocktails are among the easiest spirited drinks you can whip up. All you need are five basic components: fruit, citrus, sweetener, ice, and alcohol. A high-quality blender is an added plus, and you can skip the booze if you’re in the market for a mocktail.

Of course, there are some tricks to making a better frozen drink. Staff writer Grace Dickinson checked in with Ram Krishnan, owner and manager of cocktail bar Writer’s Block Rehab for some advice, along with a recipe for a pineapple ginger slushie. Experiment with the spirit of your choice or make it booze-free. Then check out the recipes for two other summer classics: Frosé, and a spritz made with one of the season’s sweetest treats.

In his summer between fourth and fifth grades, Micah Harrigan has entered the business world with a lemonade stand. Working around the weather, he runs Micah’s Mixx, selling a half-dozen flavors of lemonade and iced tea from a folding table at 23rd and Sigel Streets in South Philadelphia.

This isn’t your average sidewalk lemonade stand. With a half-dozen flavors, a growing Instagram following, and his own LLC, this 10-year-old is not playing. He expects his next street date to be Thursday, July 2. He sets up about 2:30 p.m. and lately has sold out in an hour.

Restaurants are reopening at the Jersey Shore, but the area has become a center stage for the current battles over wearing masks in public. Food critic Craig LaBan shares his early experiences from the outdoor dining scene, and, in particular, Ventnor, which has become a hot spot of mask resistors. “But several individual restaurants I visited in a number of Shore towns took their task seriously and were impressively able to enforce the safety guidelines themselves,” LaBan writes.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something … safe. Wedding season has resumed after three months, with some couples sliding their dates into the summer and fall while many others shift to 2021. Michael Klein talked to some of the people behind the scenes — caterers, photographers, and other vendors — who are creating safety plans. Some of the guidelines include strict seating assignments, food stations with translucent partitions, and more line dancing. Cha Cha Slide? Six feet apart, now y’all.