herbacidal

I can say with near certainity that Katie was at least 80% responsible for at least 50% of the specialty cocktails. :-)

There's a good vegetarian place that has been expanding people's perceptions of vegetarian cuisine there called Horizons. I've been wanting to try it for a little while, but I'm never out there. Dinner menu on website linked below. http://www.horizonscafe.com/dinner.asp

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Craig LaBan follows the migrating ducks to Sang Kee Asian Bistro in Wynnewood. Rick Nichols irons out the differences between a Bistro, a Bouchon and the French Laundry with Thomas Keller and Jeffrey Cerciello at the Four Seasons. Michael Klein is living the Pura Vida and more in Table Talk. The Daily News Sono Motoyama gets sticker-shock at Estia. City Paper: Alex Richmond cures his hangover with a nice bowl of menudo. Peter Burwasser offers up some wine pairings for the holidays. Danny Adler gets fancy schmancy with upscale junk food. Drew Lazor notes recent openings and closings in Feeding Frenzy. Pat Hogan surveys upcoming events in What’s Cooking. The Philadelphia Weekly Lauren McCutcheon grades eating at local Culinary Schools, and also shares her Top 5 of the Moment which might just contain the only recorded use of the term “fart juice” in a food story. Kirstin Henry makes fun of us here on eGullet in the course of describing the trials and tribulations of opening a restaurant in Philly, including the saga of Paul Lazrow and Sushi Nation as described in this eGullet thread. Kirsten also ventures out to Adamstown, to Stoudts Brewery. Steven Wells pines for British Puddings. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Alice T Carter checks is turning Japanese at Chaya. Chris Pastrick and Rochelle Hentges referee a Ravioli Smackdown. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Nancy Anderson collects some Nibbles about the local food scene. The Morning Call (Allentown) Susan Gottschall dares to be different at Magnolia Vineyard. Sylvia Lawler finds home-style Mexican at La Lupita.

The same thing that makes Philly cheesesteaks special, the roll, is from the water. Same for dough from Old Forge pizza, or as was told to me by a Wilkes-Barre native and recent transplant to the area.

Daniel, Shola of Studiokitchen requested I post this on his behalf. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Daniel Evolution of Studiokitchen. Philadelphia is a small town, and while we have a vibrant restaurant scene, tastes are very conservative. Studiokitchen was never planned and happened as a collateral result of a desire to branch into high end micro-catering. After working for the 3 main restauranteurs, the only thing left in town was to "open your own place" or move to NYC. I wasnt quite ready to open a place as I had not gotten comfortable with a cooking style or flavor direction. From an economic standpoint, I decided to start catering wine dinners in clients homes. Initially, while I had the talent to pull off pretty good meals, there was a huge problem of tapping into the circle of wealth and refinement, people who could afford and desire such services. We are talking having a 5 to 8 course wine matched tasting menu at your home for about $150 to $200 per person. I had some business cards made and then donated some dinners to charitable causes. Those dinners generated more interest in my services but people still had no faith. The underlying question always was "can we have some samples before we decide?" It was at that point that I decided I needed an Atelier in the Euro sense. Without any pretense, I needed a space similar to a photographers studio where i could approach the organization and detail required for what would essentially be a restaurant quality meal in a clients home. It was at that point I found a space, built it out, bought the required equipment and took on the business name "Studiokitchen" Initially, i would only do sample dinners at about 1/3 the acual cost of a catering job for prospective clients. It completely opened up the potential for new clients and from then on, it was constant catering work. I then moved on to doing wine matching dinners with Moore Brothers, Bordeaux Society, food and wine Society, Chaine De Rotisseurs and eventually e gullet. Ultimately for me SK is about generating PR for my primary business which is the catering. SK provides great buzz not for my ego but to maintain a steady stream of catering work. I have long been fascinated with the power of the internet and very few people in the food world actually get it. The James Beard house should create an award for the most brilliant media move and hand it to Grant Achatz for the whole Alinea Project. I think the most untouched aspect of Alinea is that brilliant PR move. It would be great if they had a WD-50 esque website but I think Chef g keeps evolving at Mach 2.2 and that site would need to be updated very quickly. For me, Its basically a loss leader for larger goals, I know its hard for people to believe that a $100 dinner for 8 or 10 people isnt about profit. Dinners happen once maybe twice a week depending on my mood and catering commitments. However... By the time you set up accounts and buy stuff from D'artagnan, a variety of meat farms in pennsylvania, Blue Moon acres, Farmer Jones, Browne Trading,true world foods, Nishimoto, Korin, replace chipped Bernadaud China and Spiegelau Glasses , pay dishwashers to clean up the darn place, invest in circulating baths, thermonixes, a paco jet and anti griddle, as an economic model, it isnt worth the effort involved and I havent gotten into the detail of cooking. I really only do it at this point because more important than cooking is the continuity of cooking. Catering on the other hand, especially in Manhattan is like printing money. I wonder if anyone saw the wednesday times article 2 weeks ago.... Boulud charges $2k.....I love it. So Mr Daniel, to finish off......it depends on what your goals are financial or otherwise. I hope that gives you clarity about what i do. Good luck in your adventure. Studiokitchen +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I agree. Chinese love showing off.

Yes, I'm listening. How much is the five-course prix fixe? ← Sixty. Which sounds high. Until you think "Five entrees for twelve bucks apiece"... Not sure they'd let you get away with it, but the menu does say *any* five menu items. ← I think that's pretty good either way. Even if you only went with the middle 3 as entrees, that's still a decent deal. Remember way back when, when Studiokitchen was only $50 for 4 courses?

Yes, I'm listening. How much is the five-course rprix fixe?

That's good, I just wanted to be clear. Hmm, Eggnog with your favorite gelato floating.

Back when I was about seventeen or eighteen, we still owned a restaurant in Philly's Chinatown. One of the owners who was also a chef had a birthday party. By this point, I thought I knew a decent bit about Chinese food, having eaten in Hong Kong a few times and been to tons of Chinese banquets and eaten in Philly Chinatown and at home many times. I was wrong. I had so much more to learn. I was blown away by the food. It was somewhere around $100 a person if we had to pay for it. That's probably undercutting it though, but it's a nice round number. Unfortunately, I don't remember very much about the dishes. The first dish was a five pound lobster, cracked open and put back together, stuffed with its meat and honeydew melon in a sweet mayonnaise. That's the only dish I remember with any detail.

Are you saying you want it, they have it, or something entirely unrelated?

There's a new taqueria at 13th and Ellsworth. I would've checked it out, but I had some Crown Fried Chicken I had just bought.

That might work. I have no idea what Chilewich placemats look like though, but assuming Felonius is correct, it might be a good solution. That's exactly the right method to take. Use DWR as your top line model, and go as far south pricewise as possible. But in the other direction, I also like the idea of basically, getting sawhorses and wooden boards for table legs and tops, covering with white tablecloths and nice placemats. You can't rent. The costs will kill you. If you're thinking about those types of chairs and tables, I was suggesting getting caterer friends to get the names of the tables and chairs they use, and then finding local distributors and seeing if you can buy some direct from them. It'll take some legwork and you'll probably have to pick them up, but as far as this route, there you go. And this would be for white (or black) wood padded folding wooden chairs or the like and 8 X 3 foot rectangular folding tables and the like.

This should have been posted Sunday/Monday, so articles included are those leading up to November 28, 2005. City Paper (Philadelphia) Maxine Keyser pops into Majolica. Elisa Ludwig checks out some great dosas at Uduppi Dosa House. The Philadelphia Weekly Lauren McCutcheon wanders through the Black Door. Kristin Henry checks out Lacroix’s breakfast buffet. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Karin Welzel stops by Farmington’s Aqueous. Healthy holiday cooking is the focus right now at California’s Center in the Woods. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Marlene Parrish gives the step by step on how to make your own gingerbread carousel.

Studiokitchen is BYOB. Neighbors don't complain because there isn't loud noise playing (usually Miles Davis/Coltrane/soft jazz), no more than 10 guests at a time, and (to the best of my knowledge) currently only 2-3 times a week (formerly, it would have been at most 5 times a week I imagine, and that would be pushing it. More likely then 2-4 times a week.) Interesting idea as far as placemat+tablecloth+table combination as described. Definitely price everything out and figure out what works best for your situation. As far as the menu, you could have a set menu per night. No choices, but people know ahead of time. Just a thought. Since I'm assuming you're doing this as a sideline, start off with once a week or less just to see how you like it.

What was there before Rocco's?

As far as tabletop, I think you're best off going w/o tablecloths and using either a table surface that is easily cleanable or placemats. Design Within Reach does have nice chairs, but I don't think they're within reach, price-wise. The idea of the large communal table is nice, but I suspect unworkable in the space. I do like the idea of a table and legs that are easily assembled and disassembled, and then hung on walls/wherever else. If you have artist/artisan friends, they may be able to put something together for you. If you aren't so blessed, I'd go with IKEA for the table, and Target/IKEA for the chairs. Pottery Barn seems expensive for your budget, at this point in time. (Studiokitchen by this time is fairly established, so he was able to buy 8-10 very nice leather chairs that are lower than most dining room chairs and have a table custom built to their height and width.) Renting chairs isn't a good idea. I neglected to mention that what I'd suggest as far as rental companies go is getting your caterer friends to check the names on the chairs they rent for parties, and source out where you can buy them from. Alternatively, you can call Party Rental and ask.

I like Chickie's at 10th and Federal and Shank and Evelyn's on 10th somewhere between Carpenter and Fitzwater, but that's for sausage sandwiches. You're thinking more of butchers and raw product? In general, I think people like DÁngelo Brothers in the Italian Market and Harry Ochs in the Reading Terminal.

Studiokitchen is definitely a place you'll want to pop in on at least once. Hopefully, you won't just be blown away by the experience and will notice the details around you. As far as furniture, I'd have to go with a Target + IKEA + rental supply place combination. Check with the caterers you may know to find who the rental companies are. The only one in Philly that I have a good expectation of working in NYC as well is Party Rental, out of Teterboro, NJ, among other places. And even if you did, it'd be quite a challenge converting a 20 person dining room to anything close to a standard "common space" arrangement in NYC square footage, when you want to. FYI, the apartment where Studiokitchen is hosted isn't lived in, it's used soley for the dinners.

My lord, that's a great list of places. It works out to about 80 pages of writing. It may be slightly out of date now in 2005, but even so, at least half to 3/4 of it is probably still accurate. For my next DC trip, I would probably print up the first 7 pages and carry them along.

It's just that it's not as sexy a story as it was previously, I would imagine. But it has spread to different fields, like the aforementioned home-winemaking, and there's new homebrew/craftbrew sodas now too.

Oh yes definitely deep fry them if you can before stir frying them. The crunch is so much better.

Tuesday November 22,2005 The Philadelphia Inquirer Craig LaBan pulls a chair up to The Chef’s Table in New Castle, DE before giving a good review to his own Thanksgiving barbequed turkey. Rick Nichols gets pinched making pierogis at the Ukranian-American Citizens League of Philadelphia and also overcomes his childhood distaste for liver at Jake’s in Manayunk. Michael Klein gives details about the new restaurant Gayle, Restaurant Taquet, The Sidecar Bar & Grille, and more, in Table Talk. The Daily News Sono Motoyama (and beau Stephane)see what’s shakin’ at Salt and Pepper. April Lisante gets a little confused about what kind of food is really served at Amada, while telling us about Thanksgiving dinner at Jose Garces’ Glen Mills home. City Paper (Philadelphia) Carolyn Wyman talks turkey with Roger Bassett. Pat Hogan notes recent openings and closings in Feeding Frenzyand upcoming events in What’s Cooking. The Philadelphia Weekly Lauren McCutcheon sees the plate as half-empty at Albertino Ristorante Italiano. Kristin Henry gets bubbly about the new craftbrew sodas at DiBruno’s. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Karin Weizel staves-off hunger at The Mighty Oak Barrel. Jolie Williamson gets some Italian comfort food at Johnny Carino’s. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Gretchen McKay rhapsodizes over B&B Breakfasts. Bruce May offers some Thanksgiving wine pairings to pair with the bird and the mash. The Morning Call (Allentown) Susan Gottschall gives Vintage a swirl.

An excellent excuse to pick up a six of Red Stripe to go with your jerk chicken! (Our out-of-town visitors might find acutally buying the Red Stripe frustrating, though, thanks to this state's peculiar system for selling beer. You'd end up either paying more than you ought to for a six-pack at a take-out food store--try the Foodery at 10th and Pine if you actually decide to try this--or having to buy a case from a beer distributor.) ← I would disagree about the Red Stripe, but that's just personal preference, and it does fit the meal. The upside of having to buy the sixpack at the Foodery of course, is that you can mix a six, choosing six different beers from their broad selection if you like. Yes, you're right. I forgot about Nan. My mistake.

You can get BYOBs in most of those cuisines. For Mexican there's Mexican style at Lolita (13th and Sansom) and new Mexican at Las Cazuelas (4th and Girard). The latter is farther from the Center City, but definitely a short drive. Modern Italian I'd go with Radicchio (4th and Wood) or Melograno (22nd and Spruce). Fish I'd go with Little Fish (6th and Catherine, get a reservation, or take a chance and just walk in, since there's more than a few decent backup choices within short walking distance). Spanish, I could swear there was a Spanish BYOB around, but I could just be thinking of Mandoline's predecessor Saboor. Carribean, I'm pretty sure Jamaican Jerk Hut (South btwn Broad and 15th) is BYOB, but some people think of it differently than the more haute cuisine type BYOBs around. Asian, thank the great one there's no Asian fusion BYOBs. I got a feeling it wouldn't go well. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The below named are not BYOBs, the above named are. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So for Spanish food, Amada (2nd and Chestnut) would probably be the overwhelming recommendation. There's a thread giving much love to Amada somewhere around here. Asian overall, it is probably true that Burmese is not strong outside Philly, or at least I haven't heard about it elsewhere yet, so Rangoon wouldn't be a bad recommendation. I also understand that Vietnamese isn't strong in NYC, so Xe Lua (9th and Race) in Chinatown and Nam Phuong (11th and Washington) in South Philly are my recommendations there, in part because they also have pretty good Chinese food too. I hope Nam Phuong is the one I was in that time. :-) Overall, I wouldn't recommend Old City for hotels, just because the bar scene on the weekends overwhelms everything, but that's just my thing. As far as living quarters, I'd go with Center City, west of Broad. Latham, Warwick, Park Hyatt Bellevue, Sofitel, Club Quarters, Rittenhouse B&B.