Inqlings: John Street and Sam Katz do lunch
Right in the middle of the dining room at the Palm: former Mayor John Street and Sam Katz. At the same table.
Right in the middle of the dining room at the Palm: former Mayor John Street and Sam Katz.
At the same table.
And the knives were out - but only to cut their lunches Friday.
The two-time rivals for the mayor's office are friendly nowadays, said Katz.
"Just two old warhorses who've been through a lot" is how Katz, 60, described his relationship with Street, 66.
Street said he and Katz stay in contact as "both have a fundamental interest in the city." Katz is producing a documentary film on the history of Philadelphia. Street teaches politics at Temple University.
It was a payback lunch after Street asked Katz to appear at a Temple forum on the future of the Republican Party in Philadelphia. The two have broken bread four or five times since Street left office two years ago. (Katz and another rival, electrical union boss John Dougherty, had lunch about two weeks ago.)
The "antagonism" - as Katz described the previous political dealings between him and Street - "has abated. . . . We agree to disagree."
"Our competition [for the mayor's office] was a great example of American politics," Street said. "It was a rich experience I have no interest in repeating."
Briefly noted
Know of a family-owned restaurant on the brink of closing? Marc Summers Productions and Shooters Post & Transfer are creating a reality series for a national network. Candidates must be willing to change menu, decor, and theme under the guidance of a celebrity chef. Apply by e-mail: casting.restaurants@gmail.com.
More than 10 years after his untimely death, Philly-born jazz legend Grover Washington Jr. will be in stores with Grover Live, a recording from a 1997 concert at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill, N.Y. The CD will drop May 18, but Michael Tozzi at ijazzglobal.com will have it for preorders Tuesday. Philly's Lloyd Z. Remick, Washington's lawyer for many years, cut the record deal.
The circuit
Tony Danza; Nicole Miller and her company's CEO, Bud Konheim; Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson; and Lisa Nutter are honorary chairs of Philadelphia Academies' May 1 fund-raiser at the Water Works on Kelly Drive, a $250-a-ticket event. Thompson will spin at the afterparty. Details: www.academiesinc.org.
Renee Zellweger brought beau Bradley Cooper's pooch Charlotte on Monday morning to the Happy Rooster bar-restaurant in Center City, where Cooper shot a scene for the thriller The Dark Fields with Johnny Whitworth. Tuesday's shooting is expected to take over the interiors of two apartments near Front and Market Streets in Old City.
During Fergie's Philly stop a couple of weeks ago, Center City's Carl Alan Florist got a call from the Black Eyed Peas front woman's husband, Josh Duhamel, for gerbera daisies. The florist delivered an arrangement to her suite at the Ritz-Carlton.
Bucks County-bred dining kingpin Jeffrey Chodorow (China Grill, NBC's The Restaurant reality show) and his wife, Linda, were at dinner Saturday at Butcher & Singer steak house with Greater Philadelphia Film Office head Sharon Pinkenson and her husband, Joe Weiss, when another patron came up to gush about his eateries, citing Butcher & Singer and other Stephen Starr-owned restaurants. They all had a good laugh about it.