Restaurant workers on the pandemic roller coaster | Let’s Eat

What’s next for restaurant workers, now that the city has ended its mask mandate? We let them share their thoughts. Read on for word of a critically praised restaurant on the Main Line, news about Ukrainian fund-raisers, and a spirited debate about a popular Center City happy-hour activity.

❓ Let’s start with a quiz.

Several years ago, critic Craig LaBan featured a Pennsylvania cheese-maker that captured first place in the World Championship Cheese Contest last week for its mixed-milk cheese, Bamboozle. What’s its name?

A. How Now

B. Chic Sheep

C. Goat Rodeo

D. No Whey

❗ Click here for the answer.

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– Mike Klein

With the end of Philadelphia’s mask mandate last week, service-industry workers have one less thing on their plate: enforcing a controversial rule. But as colleague Jenn Ladd notes, some wonder if this is another short-lived change that will set them up to face disgruntled customers down the road. But there’s optimism, too. Perhaps we’re headed to a “new normal” again that looks, well, like the “old normal.”

Love it, hate it. Center City District Sips, the Wednesday night, warm-weather promo among downtown bars and restaurants featuring discounted drinks and food, draws strong opinions. On one side are those who think it’s a great unifier and will help save bars and restaurants, while others say it turns Center City into one giant frat basement. (My own, unscientific Instagram poll ran 2-1 against the merits of Sips.) Our op-ed page solicited pro/con arguments by Raheem Manning, cochair of the Philadelphia Arts and Culture Task Force, and Johnny Goodtimes, a longtime quizzo host. Sips, which had been idled in 2020 and 2021, returns June 1 — but without one of the more popular venues. The Marathon Grill at 19th and Market closed during the pandemic. Which raises the question: Where’s the party now? A good place to start is this updated guide to the best Philly has to offer.

When you sell liquor in Pennsylvania, you have only one true customer: the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Jenn tells the story of Margaret Bayuk of Beaver Falls, who owns Ustianochka Vodka, distilled and bottled in Russia and exclusively sold in Pennsylvania. Wouldn’t you know it that “U” is one of two brands that Pennsylvania has blacklisted over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Bayuk is sitting on 30,000 bottles of vodka, and she has reached out to Gov. Tom Wolf for an exemption to the ban.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia food community has stepped in with help for Ukraine. Among the efforts:

Abby Dahan of The Bake School rounded up about a dozen fellow pastry chefs and bakers for a bake sale last weekend that, at last count, had raised $8,040 for World Central Kitchen, Jose Andres’ humanitarian non-governmental organization. (On a side note: Mike Strauss of Mike’s BBQ flew to Poland this week to help feed refugees.)

Weavers Way Co-op is selling Ukrainian dishes at its three locations, with 100% of soup sale proceeds going to WCK. So far, $1,400 has been raised. Executive chef Bonnie Shuman makes Ukrainian soup (aka green borscht) for all locations, and you can score varenyky (aka pierogi) at the Ambler location. Weavers Way also has raised $22,000 at its registers so far for Project HOPE’s Ukraine campaign.

Down on suburban restaurants? Not Craig, as he reviews Lark, the Main Line newcomer run by chef Nicholas Elmi and Fia Berisha. “As I took a bracing sip of my Boulevardier ... and savored the earthy delicacy of a mushroom ravioli glossed with molten foie gras, I gazed out from its seventh-floor dining room onto the Manayunk hills twinkling just across the Schuylkill, and had to admit: this lofty new addition to Bala Cynwyd is something special.”

Identical twins. Identical career paths. Identical dreams. And now Maya and Kala Johnstone have gone into the restaurant business together after retiring from the School District of Philadelphia. FoodChasers’ Kitchen in Elkins Park is a true family affair.

The BYOB Mabu Kitchen, now in its second week in Washington Square West, might be only 25 seats, but it’s two restaurants in one. By day (weekend brunch), it’s a bright, elegant salon with cream-colored walls decorated with antique mirrors. By night (dinner), it’s a snug, low-lit destination. Chef-owner Ayad “A.J.” Sinawi (he’s a British Columbia-born New York City transplant) and partner Grace Cavallo (magazine editor and photographer) were going to open a restaurant in Mabou on Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island when the pandemic intervened. During a visit to Philly, they were charmed (and intrigued by the lower cost of living) and found the onetime Farm & Fisherman and Aroma space on Pine Street, across from Effie’s.

Sinawi, a fine-arts grad who started cooking a dozen years ago after working on the creative and production sides of magazines, set up the menu with a sort of French spin on Southern cuisine. That’s confit fried chicken on a scallion waffle with honey-chili drizzle and topped with herb salad on the dinner menu, while the brunch waffle is topped with fried chicken and an eggs Benedict situation.

Mabu Kitchen, 1120 Pine St. Dinner hours: 5-9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 5-10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4-10 p.m. Saturday; brunch hours: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. BYOB.

Briefly noted

East Passyunk Avenue Restaurant Week wraps Friday, March 11.

Dine Latino Restaurant Week, from the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, has about 20 restaurants onboard for specials March 14-18. Patrons get a complimentary appetizer or dessert with the purchase of two dinner entrees.

Philly Beer Week should be added to your calendar: June 3-12.

Twenty-five woman-owned businesses will gather from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, March 13 in the courtyard at The Logan hotel on Logan Square for a Sister Sunday market.

Catch this one now: Jeff Newman, a restaurant lifer whose most recent gig was hosting fund-raisers for the People’s Kitchen as NewmanTheFoodMan, is running a taco pop-up inside the temporarly shuttered Sarvida in Fishtown through the end of the month. He calls it Hi-Lo Taco Co. — a play off his work in both fine-dining and everyday restaurants — with Nilaa Coffee. It’s a warm-up for a planned series of branded brick-and-mortar shops that will provide meaningful careers.

Hi-Lo is open only two days a week: Friday night for dinner tacos on handmade flour tortillas, such as burnt ends, poblanos, white cheddar queso; pulled chicken, guajillo barbecue sauce, jalapeño lime slaw, crispy shallots; and mushroom asada, greens, creamy jalapeño salsa, as well as Sunday morning for breakfast tacos. Nilaa runs a coffee counter Friday mornings.

Hi-Lo Taco Co. pop-up at Sarvida, 300 E. Girard Ave., operates from 5-8 p.m. Friday (dinner) and 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday (breakfast). Also, Nilaa runs a cafe from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday. Through March.

First, some background: The suburban restaurant Los Sarapes traces its beginnings to a pizzeria that Mexican immigrants Carlos and Olga Marin opened in Chalfont in 1992. They added a few Mexican dishes, and based on demand, flipped the menu away from pizza. Son Luis opened El Sarape in Blue Bell in 2000, and moved it in 2017 into more spacious quarters nearby. In 2005, son Mauricio and his wife, Amy, and daughter Karina’s husband, Alfonso, opened a Los Sarapes in Horsham.

Update: During the pandemic, Los Sarapes’ Horsham location moved across Horsham Road into a much bigger freestanding building (the erstwhile Prospectville Publik House), picking up a liquor license, roomy bar just off the dining room (with occasional live music), and deck in season. Lively but not overbearing dining room. A cast-iron crock of queso fundido (above) or a stone molcajete-full of guacamole from the guac cart are the way to start, and the something-for-every-budget menu hits the basics while extending its ambitions to filet mignon, bone-in pork chops, and seafood. There’s Sunday brunch, too, with Mexican spins on eggs benedict and French toast.

Los Sarapes, 1101 Horsham Rd., Ambler. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday (till 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday).

Jezabel Careaga of Jezabel’s in West Philly is the guest-chef-in-residence (through Sunday, March 13) at Volvér at the Kimmel Center, and @etfillman has warm, cozy thoughts about the locro, a hominy stew from Careaga’s native Argentina. (Careaga says it will appear on Jezabel’s own menu. Date is TBA.) On a sweet note: This blood orange Pop Tart-like pastry from Delilah Pergola at Fork in Old City was the perfect finale to @sparkling_sus_’s recent dinner.

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