Two Philly chefs on ‘Top Chef’ next season

The New York bakery will open in Mount Laurel next month, followed by a shop in Rittenhouse next year. Its franchisee owners have relocated to the area and hired a former Union League pastry chef.

Backyard Cravings, Sal Burgese’s pandemic baking hobby, has grown up. He is trading his backyard oven for a real pizza and cheesesteak shop in South Philly. Will the celebrities find it there, too?

The chefs are taking the former Barclay Pharmacy at 18th and Spruce Streets for a restaurant. They are keeping their empire within a 15-minute walk of their house.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this outpouring of love,” said Steve Zoto, who is retiring with his wife, JoAnne, after nearly 53 years running their diner on Bethlehem Pike.

An acclaimed chef faces a court date; Buena Onda starts Mexican breakfast; and if you’ve wondered why you’re not getting a spoon, we can explain.

With branches in Voorhees and Iselin, the Sagdeo family hopes to shine a brighter light on the fiery curries, tapioca dumplings, and rustic flatbreads of Central India.

The acclaimed chef has a court date Friday.

All of the spots on the Inquirer's list of essential Philly restaurants are, but these 18 stand out for another reason: Takeout and delivery that is quick, substantial, and satisfying.

Pasta Pooks in Montreal is renowned for hand-crafted noodles. Its owners are lifelong Eagles fans who crafted a cheesesteak tribute that's served scarpetta-style, to sop up pasta sauce.

“I want to have more time for myself and for the bakery,” said David Braverman, who said he is healthy at 77 and wants to keep it that way.

Charles Weiner, 79, of Penn Valley, was indicted in September for allegedly committing tax fraud related to his businesses.

The owners say lingering pandemic debt and an approaching lease decision led them to close the 12-year-old Mexican bar. Their third restaurant, Pistola’s Del Sur, remains open.

After nearly 11 years in Haddon Township, Goodbeet will close at the end of October. The health-focused restaurant will continue selling food through wholesale accounts and an online store.

A landmark Japanese restaurant is taking over the former Pod space, we step inside an ice cream shop’s R&D lab, and we get under the skin of chefs’ tattoos.

The owners of Blue Fig Garden at Cherry Hill Mall are bringing Maya Bohem, a Turkish cafe concept, to South Jersey. It will replace the Bistro, a mall fixture that closed amid legal troubles.

Alan Su has a deal at Penn to open a second location of Sagami, the acclaimed Japanese restaurant from South Jersey. The pods from Pod will remain.

The Cherry Hill deli faces a $1,000 penalty for failing to disclose that its food is not kosher. The operator calls the proposed sanctions a "schmear campaign."

Lafayette’s — selling shrimp étouffée, red beans and rice, shrimp and grits, po’boys, and chicken and waffles — replaces Vino Volo in the airport’s B/C Connector.

The James Beard-recognized Vietnamese coffee shop plans a second location, Càphê Roasters South, in Grays Ferry. The new, larger location has meaning to the partners.

The two-term GOP representative — locked in a tight race in the state’s 7th Congressional District — is behind a shameful and dishonest TV ad tying Democrat Rebecca Bennett to a convicted pedophile.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musk have pledged an estimated $300 billion to philanthropic projects, more than three times the holdings of the influential Gates Foundation.

This year, the National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend some $4.4 billion on Halloween costumes. In 2018 alone, they discarded about 11.3 million tons of textiles, said the EPA.

About 20 countries are looking to ban minors from social media. But bans have not always worked as planned. Here are some other ideas to make platforms safer for kids.

New England is talented, knows what it’s doing, and played the entire game at full strength. The Union hadn’t faced that trifecta much since Ryan Richter took the helm.

This will be the first federal election in decades without Justice Department oversight. Ryan R. Crosswell is concerned about how Trump’s loyalists may try to interfere.