Table Talk: Limoncello has new look and new menu
Limoncello (9 N. Walnut St., West Chester, 610-436-6230) has been around for two years, but it's now really a new restaurant.
Limoncello
(9 N. Walnut St., West Chester, 610-436-6230) has been around for two years, but it's now really a new restaurant.
Saturday marked the rustic trattoria's reopening after an expansion/renovation that tripled its seating and added a brick oven. The moderate-price Northern Italian menu has been expanded, as well. This week, depending on the LCB, should see the arrival of a liquor license. (Even with the bar, BYOB will be allowed Sundays through Wednesdays, with a $5 corkage fee.)
Limoncello is a family-run operation by matriarch Maria Mingrino, sons Paul (the chef) and Frank (front of the house) and daughter Dina (catering). Father Giuseppe Mingrino owns a construction company and handled the renovation.
It's open for lunch Mondays through Saturdays ($9.95 buffet offered weekdays), and dinner is served nightly. Most entrees are under $23.
Speaking of West Chester: Sept. 21 is the annual restaurant festival, which will put about 50 eateries out on the streets of the borough all afternoon, alongside crafts vendors. Rain date is Sept. 28.
What's new
The Pub & Kitchen
(1946 Lombard St., 215-545-0350), a gastropub, opened earlier this week at the former Chaucer's Tabard Inn at 20th and Lombard. Owners are restaurant rookie Dan Clark and front-of-the-house veteran Ed Hackett. Front doors are from an 1850s Belgian schoolhouse, and a couple of the old church pews have been kept from Chaucer's. Chef Jonathan McDonald is doing a menu ($6 for snacks, to $24 for main dishes) that changes weekly. This week's mains: fish-and-chips ($15), striped bass ($22), bangers-and-mash ($16), sauteed chicken breast ($18), and black-pepper flatiron steak ($18) - a departure from the ambitious, culinary-science experiments that Jonny Mac offered at his last stop, Snackbar. Bar and snack menus (wine bottles under $50, and glasses at $6 to $9, plus 12 beers on tap) include a cheese plate with house-made Guinness caramel, a "warm bag of peanuts," chicken-liver toasts, and malt-vinegar potato crisps. It's open daily at 4 p.m.
The second
Adobe Cafe
- a sibling to Mariano Herrerias' original in Roxborough - opened Sunday at 1919 E. Passyunk Ave. (215-551-2243) in South Philly. Same cantina atmosphere/menu/bar; for now it's open from 4 to 10 p.m. daily.
If plans held,
Minar Palace
opened yesterday at 1304 Walnut St. (215-546-9443). Two years ago, Minar was forced out of its longtime home on Sansom near 16th Street. Hours will be 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays. It's BYOB.
Alisa Cafe
- which started 24 years ago in Upper Darby and moved to Cherry Hill in 2004 - has closed. Chef/owner Tony Kanjanakorn is unsure of his next steps.
Casa Mia
(1175 W. Baltimore Pike, Media, 610-891-9090) replaces Campo Dei Fiori near Granite Run Mall. Owner Joe Moro, who previously ran La Locanda in Newtown Square, has a nice-size bar and wood-burning oven for brick oven pizza; dinner entrees are $15 to $18, pastas less. It's open for lunch Mondays through Saturdays, dinner nightly.
Briefly noted
Bordeaux
is the new name of Felix Leygerman's
Russian Tea House
at 111 Buck Rd. in Holland (215-364-2200), which expanded its menu (adding Euro-French dishes, nothing over $30) while brightening the interior. It's still BYOB.
Walter Staib of
City Tavern
will turn up Sept. 27 on CBS's
Chef on a Shoestring
. He'll make a three-course Oktoberfest meal for four for $40 or less: smoked salmon frittata, beef rouladen on macaire potato cakes and sweet-and-sour red cabbage, with vacherin glacé for dessert. All will be plated according to the German nouvelle cuisine style called
neue welle
.