Eats beat

* Trax Restaurant & Cafe BYOB in the old Ambler train station (27 W. Butler Ave., Ambler, 215-591-9777) is giving away a $10 gift card for another Trax meal with every lunch in May. Eat indoors or in the outside garden that also supplies herbs and vegetables for chef/owner Steven Waxman's locally sourced menu. Lunch choices include salads, soups, sandwiches and wraps using in-house smoked and roasted meats.

* Audrey Claire Taichman has reimaged her longtime Rittenhouse-area restaurant Twenty Manning as Twenty Manning Grill (261 S. 20th St., 215-731-0900), a

"neighborhood-focused place" serving a seasonal menu of new American food created with chef/partner Kiong Banh. Priced from $5 to $22, the menu includes lots of new items along with such signature dishes as Charbroiled Beef Sirloin Noodles.

* Cooperage Wine & Whiskey Bar has opened at the Curtis Center (7th and Sansom streets, 215-226-COOP), serving eclectic pub fare for lunch and dinner weekdays, and dinner Saturdays and Sundays. We love the "Hippie Chop," a granola-crusted pork chop served with Leek Bread Pudding and Whiskey-Apple Chutney. Cooperage will serve 20 wines and about 40 whiskeys, along with Philly-centric beers. There's also a small take-out store.

* Barry Gutin and Larry Cohen, owners of Max & Me Catering (520 N. Columbus Blvd., Suite 303, 215-923-6000) have brought in consultant Jean-Marie Lacroix as chef-partner and culinary director. Max & Me handles more than 1,000 events a year and is caterer for the National Constitution Center, the Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall and the Independence Visitor Center. Lacroix received stellar reviews for his work at the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia and at his eponymous restaurant Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel.

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