🍕 Philly’s best pizzas | Let’s Eat

Fresh from the oven: Our picks for Philly’s best pizza. Also this week, we go clubbing — golf-clubbing — with a look at adult-oriented indoor mini-golf, meet the owner of Amy’s Pastelillos, tell you about a winery and tasting room that’s about to open in South Jersey, and say farewell to a Main Line dining veteran.

— Mike Klein

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We’ve been eating a lot of pizza, and so it’s pie time to update our list of favorites. Among the newcomers is Johnny’s Pizza Bryn Mawr, a Main Line hole-in-the-wall where John Biscegelie (below) works around a glitchy oven to create doughy magic, and his cheesesteaks aren’t bad, either. Whether you prefer your crusts thin or thick, we have you covered.

You can work on your short game and eat well at Philly’s two indoor mini-golf courses.

⛳ Puttshack, a national chain, opened last month at Liberty Place with a well-stocked bar including smoking cocktails and a bar menu that includes the Lebanese hummus shown below with herbs, pomegranate seeds, and piri-piri.

⛳ In Francisville, there’s the home-grown Libertee Grounds, a smaller-scale, lower-key golf spot that opened in 2021 at 16th and Girard with a top-flight craft-beer list and a bar menu that is not at all par for the course: tandoori chicken quesadillas, a double smash burger with Korean “secret sauce,” and a spicy chicken sandwich featuring Sichuan chili oil and ginger sesame slaw.

Libertee Grounds recently added a second nine-hole course.

Erin McCarthy takes a deep-dive (to mix sports metaphors) into these mini-golf courses, which are aimed at adults but allow the 21-and-unders at certain times. Though the bars are cool and all, she points out that for the growing number of young adults who are drinking less, it’s also a social activity that doesn’t need to revolve around alcohol.

Amaryllis “Amy” Rivera-Nassar is known as the pastelillo lady for her crispy Puerto Rican-style turnovers with flavors like guava barbecue and spicy ground pork chile. This week, she opens Amy’s Pastelillos Puerto Rican Kitchen in Fishtown, and told contributor Stephanie Avilés that she began making them as a way to work through her grief after losing her mother.

Critic Craig LaBan brings out what he calls “winky quotes” for his review of Center City’s Bar Lesieur in Center City. He likes the “sexy lounge vibe,” but thinks the kitchen “lacked the discipline, depth, or finesse of genuine ‘French cuisine.’”

If food has you thinking about seeing a show, check out our latest “Two Critics, One Review” feature. With support from Visit Philadelphia, “Two Critics, One Review” is The Inquirer’s way of giving you two takes on the same show, so you can make the best decision about whether you want to go. This time, The Inquirer’s Dan DeLuca and Henry Savage caught Groucho: A Life in Review at the Walnut Street Theatre, the very house where the Marx Brothers got their start a century ago. Sit in the front row, and you may be heckled.

Dinner recommendations around the Walnut: Quaint dining at the Morris (225 S. Eighth St.), for American fare, drinks at Talula’s Garden (210 W. Washington Square), or the Thai menu at Grandma’s Philly (1304 Walnut St.), where in the true Groucho spirit you should order the duck. Tasty? You bet your life.

Big winery doings in the burbs

Margaret Kuo’s flagship Wayne location will mark its last call on March 17 after 22 years, as owners Margaret and Warren Kuo are downsizing. Margaret Kuo — born in Manchuria, raised in Taiwan, and educated at the University of Connecticut — traded a career as a chemist for the dining world after her husband was asked to help run a relative’s restaurant near Philadelphia. Their first restaurant, Margaret Kuo’s Peking, gave many Delaware Countians their first taste of Mandarin and Sichuan cuisine when it opened in the old Granite Run Mall in 1974, treating them to the sound of a gong to herald the arrival of Peking duck to the table. That restaurant closed in 2015 to make way for mall’s demo and redevelopment, and came back as Margaret Kuo’s Kitchen in the Granite Run Promenade in Media. It’s not quite a retirement. The Kuos are keeping that location open.

Restaurateurs Joe Monnich and Justin Weathers, whose holdings include Stove & Tap in Lansdale and West Chester, DePaul’s Table in Wayne, Revival Pizza in Chester Springs, and Joey Chops in Malvern, are opening the Havertown location of Al Pastor, the Mexican restaurant they launched in Chester Springs in 2017. Day One will be Thursday. Havertown, with 80 seats beneath sombrero light fixtures and ceramic traditional pendants, will be a cantina geared to adults and families, said Monnich, while Chester Springs’ setup imbues it with “more of like a pool-party vibe.” The warm-weather patio will nearly double seating. Menu highlights: crispy cauliflower tacos, pork belly al pastor tacos among a dozen varieties, chicken enchiladas, and grilled beef fajitas.

Al Pastor, 13 W. Benedict Ave., Havertown. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Happy hour (4-6 p.m. weekdays) starts Monday.

Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom St.) is donating 10% of sales every Sunday for the rest of the year to World Central Kitchen and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

Sweet Amalia Market & Kitchen, the Newfield, N.J., roadside stand known for its oysters, will reopen for the season on March 14. It will offer takeout, but chef Melissa McGrath says management is hoping to resume indoor seating later in the season.

Thirty-one breweries, including Cartesian, Human Robot, and Attic, are banding together for March Mildness, tapping kegs of mild brews all month long, writes Jenn Ladd. Says Gerard Olson of Forest & Main: “It’s the kind of beer that lends itself to drinking without thinking about it.”

Adiós to chef Frankie Ramirez, who opened Fishtown’s LMNO as executive chef three years ago. The Mexico City-born Ramirez, whose first Philly job (in 2004) was dishwasher at the old Washington Square, also counts Vetri, Parc, and Tredici on his resume. He’s playing his next big move close to the vest, saying only that he’ll help friends open their restaurants but I suspect he’s not going too far.

Cookie time: New York’s Levain Bakery got a thumbs-up from the Center City Residents’ Association’s zoning committee for its first shop in Philly, at 1518 Walnut St., according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. Next stop is the city’s zoning board on April 10. Also crumbing soon will be the first Philly location of Taylor Chip Cookies, a Lancaster County mom-and-pop from Intercourse, Pa. Its storefront at 1807 Chestnut St. could open this summer.

Dizengoff offers full service at tables. An item last week said it was still using QR codes for ordering.

Philadelphia chef Reuben Asaram is partnering with a fast-food giant on a dish. Which chain and what is it?

A) McDonald’s Big Mac

B) Burger King’s Whopper

C) Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap Supreme

D) Wendy’s Frosty

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s happening with Sto’s Bar in Old City? — Delany D.

Common Pleas Court records show that the building owner of 236 Market St. sought to evict the bar, filing a judgment seeking $331,000 against Sto’s owner Michael Stosic. Stosic’s appeal was denied on Feb. 29. That said, perhaps Sto’s will turn up across town. State records show that a corporation called StoTime Inc., whose address is the same as Sto’s, applied for a liquor license at 11 S. 21st St., the former Rogues Gallery. Stosic did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Readers of our Morning Newsletter should note the new conductor, Julie Zeglen, who joins us from Technical.ly, where she was managing editor. As she’s a local, I asked for her favorite restaurants:

Care to share three of your own favorites in Philly or the nearby area, and why you like ’em?

📮 E-mail your questions or comments to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

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