Capaneus

There was some question about whether snackbar was open for breakfast yet. Turns out they are, though for the moment it's a well-kept secret. Got there about 12:30pm, and I was the only customer in the place at the time. A couple wandered in a little later, but they were frieds of the owner's. They serve coffee and pastries. I wondered whether there were plans to expand the offerings, but at the moment there are not. They are good offerings: La Colombe coffee, and pastries sourced from the same place LaC. gets them, I believe. Even the pricing is the same - which is a good thing. Very pretty place to sit and read the paper, as it happens, with the big windows in full sunlight. Lunch will be the same menu as dinner, and will start in about two weeks, as will Sunday brunch.

Fuzelo. Very nice wine. A bit more acidity than the Gazela, which I've also enjoyed in the past, but a wonderful quaffer as well. And of course, with case discount, a hard bargain to beat.

I have no quarrel with anyone, least of all Mr Squires. But I also have read the Pennsylvania section of his board, and if that is what strikes you as informed discussion, well, our definitions differ. True enough, they know some about wine. But their understanding of the realities of Pennsylvania politics, of legal matters generally, and of the PLCB are... limited, let's say. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I did not appreciate having myself quoted out of context in the WH Cab thread. As to the substance of the particular issue at hand, I entirely agree the marketing of the Whitehall is unfortunate and unpleasant, and arguably illegal - as is obvious from a fuller quote of my post. For that matter, so is much of the advertising I find at other, non-PLCB retail outlets, and through much of the wine world. None of whom come in for anything like the same scrutiny. And finally, regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the PLCB: it affects my life mostly positively, in that I am in a position to circumvent the negatives by means easily available to any Philadelphian. As for people in the Commonwealth hinterlands... well, they would be better served to skip the rants and instead try to convince their neighbors - who, in much of the State, feel the PLCB's mission is to prevent the sale of alcohol.

Karen -- they do have a liquor license -- last weekend on my way to the farmer's market in Rittenhouse Square I made a point of figuring out where snackbar is actually located (I always walk right by, distracted by the giant cheetah at Asta de Blue), and I saw the orange liquor license sign in the window. ← That would be a leopard, I believe. snackbar will have a liquor license. Last I heard, they planned on being open breakfast through late night. Not sure if they'll change menu through the day or whether they'll have one broad menu for the whole day. Met the chef, ambling along with Jonathan. Seems a nice guy, and I recall being impressed with his background and ideas - though I cannot recall what they were. Should at least be an interesting place, and actually not something we already have in the neighborhood.

Moderately interesting. Mr. Squires is in most ways a really nice person. But he, and his board in general, have what strikes me as an unreasoning hatred of the PLCB, in all things, and without shade or qualification. Giving him credit, one might assume he intended this as fair criticsm - which it is, as it happens. I just doubt it was intended that way, given the history.

He was - LaBan mentioned him as "having added an extra layer of polish" by joining them. I guess they should hope they don't get revisited anytime soon. Any idea where he's working these days?

Well, LaBan's rating may have something to do with the sous-chef, or chef de cuisine, or whatever Bryan Sikora's title at Savona Bistro is these days. Speaking of which, none of the dishes you mention - except maybe the quail - sound much like his kind of thing. Did you notice anything on the menu, or in the execution, that suggested his influence?

That's one part of the program that's always been problematic for me: even items where the Suggested Retail has a basis in fact, that number is often vastly different from actual prevailing market price. Generally, I deal with it by ignoring that and checking actual online prices. Which is not a help in this case, of course. I wonder why they don't just quote the wineries' release price where available - and skip that altogether in these proprietary offerings.

Today's NYT speaks highly of Stonehaven Riesling. While it isn't currently available in stores, the quoted price for SLO is $10.29 - lower than $13 apparently charged to our Empire State neighbors, courtesy of the Free Market. I might try me some of this here wine. Anyone have any recent PLCB Riesling experiences worth checking out? I find myself in that mood again.

Allowing Jeff, Marc's partner/manager, to help you with your selections will often work wonders: he's steered me to a number of bottles closer to $50 that were very good. Though it is true that $50 is very close to that list's rock bottom: none of the cheaper bottles, of which there were a couple, were wines I would consider ordering.

Agreed, I've been there only 3 times but each time was really quite good. I always liked the idea of a visible kitchen too. Parking is indeed dicey. I've been lucky in that I got parking spots right on Spruce nearby. I really would love to be in Carman's truck however ← Whereas I can roll out of bed, scratch a couple of unseemly spots, and amble there in a leisurely six minutes. Heh. I'm curious about that papardelle: the truffled version is perhaps my favorite pasta dish in the city, but I've never encountered the pancetta of which you speak. Special? The other dish of theirs I love is the chicken liver bruschetta. Which your livers did not resemble. C'mon, Philadining (may I call you Phil?)! We want details. And we also require further details of your friend's mixology. I once knew someone fond of that sort of recombination...

Sorry if this is a topic better left for dead but I just nearly choked on my evening tipple reading the wine ads in the NYTimes food section (yes, I know, it is very sad). To wit: '05 Chateau Petrus - $2999/btl No case price given. Can anyone come close to this on a release price?

There's really good wine being made in the Douro, but it tends not to be cheap - and it isn't on this list. On the plus side, I doubt any of these will be outright bad. Some of them may be a bit rough-and-ready for the modern palate, a bit tannic, but you see less and less of that coming from Portugal. One option, if you don't get better advice here, is to just put yourself in the staff's hands, but with a strategy. Portugal has a number of native varietals: you could throw around some of the grapes and ask to taste good examples of Touriga Nacional (our noblest grape), and (if they have them - they're usually belended, but some single-varietal bottlings float around, mostly from the Douro) Tinta Cao, Tinta Roriz, Periquita (I see one of these, from the Sado) or Baga. On the White side, the prices may be lower, but the markup is higher, since Portuguese whites tend to be very inexpensive: Gazela vinho verde, which I enjoy as a Summer quaffer (as I do most of them - they're easy to like) can be had around here for $3.50/btl, with case discount. On the other hand, they're fun, and low in alcohol. Portuguese alvarinhos tend to be less complex than their Eastern counterparts from Galicia, but again, they're fun and easy-drinking wines. Enjoy. At a minimum, it'll be a learning experience. Pedro

I dunno: most of what I've read seems to say Pennsylvania waterways are cleaner today than they were back then: tighter regulations and less heavy industry.

Gilmore's is pretty famous in the Burbs and on many of the "Best of..." lists. I used to frequent it quite a bit and have had some really good meals there and some OK meals. If your friends like Gilmore's they will love Birchrunville Store Cafe in Chester Springs but the reservations will be just as hard if not harder to get and Majolica in Phoenixville. Some other places with easier reservations (but perhaps not the same level of cusine) would be Duling Kurtz in Exton (not a BYO) and Avalon in West Chester. ← Thanks, I've just forwarded this to them. We are planning to meet them out there in the next few weeks or so. I have been wanting to try Majolica so I'm leaning toward that. ← If you can get a reservation, you owe it to yourself to try Birchrunville. Majolica is a very good restaurant, by all accounts - I haven't gotten there yet (Percy!). But the tasting menu at Birchrunville Store Cafe is one of the greatest meals I've had in years - and you know some of the competition.

newsgal, no one said welcome yet? well, let me be the first! i think i had a bottle of that 98 nardi brunello that they were selling... or was it another one? anyway, as my mother in law said, it could use ten more years in the bottle. woo--closed, tannic, everything that a young brunello is. the half-bottle that was left was much more drinkable after sitting around my house for two days. ← Welcome, newsgal. I second James' caution on the Nardi Brunello: a great year, a very good producer, it should be a remarkable wine - in ten years' time, minimum. I suspect the same was true of the Barolo. One of the things about the Chairman's program that I like is that the stuff he gets is often overlooked gems. In Barolo and Brunello, that often means Old School vintners, because Parker and his ilk always underrate these wines. So we tend to get some of the (to my mind) better stuff, not the International Style parkerized junk. The downside of that is that, at the upper end, these are usually wines built for the long haul, and will take a long time to mature. You can compensate a bit, air them out, maybe decant them, but if the wine is in a dumb phase there's often no way to coax it to life.

I am, in general terms, opposed to corporal punishment. but I'd be glad to make an exception for Mr. Amorosi and whichever editorial luminary allows him to pollute the food section of the City Paper.

In this week's Sunday Inky (tomorrow's, that is), LaBan mentions a '96 Mondavi Cab I'm definitely interested in. I found it on the "Forthcoming" list, but not on the "Current", nor did a product code search yield any results. Did LaBan jump the gun, or is this one of those cases where the stores are awash in an item that hasn't made it to the website yet? Anyone trip on it during a recent visit? They do seem to already have the '99 Reserve, at $24.99 versus $17.99 for the (presumptive) '96 regular bottling.

Well, the locations will reopen. As Juan Valdez Coffe locations. Which I honestly thought was a very bad joke when I first read it. Can't stand the man or his donkey. And NaFairge: I haven't been to Chestnut Hill, but a) a fairly discriminating friend really likes it, and b) at one point I read a profile of one of their coffee slingers, a Left Coast transplant who had won something like Seattle's Best Barista at some point. It left me with the impression that, at a minimum, they took their coffee seriously.

True; I checked and Dahlak was charging $20, which I think is still more than a typical meal costs there. Good to know about Rx's midweek prix fixe. And good to know that, unlike some other restaurants, they're able to maintain their standards even when they're mobbed during high-volume times like Restaurant Week. ← I rarely spend more than $30 for two at Dahlak. Are you sure it wasn't $20 for two people? A number of the UC prices were per couple, at the lower end. And I'll second the approval of Rx's prix fixe: a largely unheralded bargain, to my mind.

As far as I know, they have to offer a (minimally) three course meal for $30. Beyond that, I've seen very wide variations.

As far as Restaurant Week, I've just about given up on it: there's mad BloodLust DeathMatches for the "best" places, too often what you get is not representative of the regular menu - or the chef's skill - and the staff is surly, from management on down, because of the smaller tabs. Having said that, I have found that if you go a little deeper into the lineup, to places that do need the exposure, you often get much better results: they'll give you a five (rather than three) course menu, special touches, eagerness to please, whatever. Ava last year was a case in point for me. And at the top, as others have pointed out, there are exceptions as well. A little research goes a long way. I'll recommend Alma de Cuba, for one, though by the third mojito $30 will be a remote memory; which is also a problem with some of the other high-end tables: their menus may be discounted, but their winelists and bars are certainly not.. Andrew, $25/3 courses is Rx's Tuesday-Thursday everyday prix-fixe. Sort of bears out the OP's point. On the other hand, the UC promotion was multi-tiered. I don't think Dahlak was charging $25 per person.

"Jeff" is Jeff Benjamin, who manages the restaurant and the wine list (I seem to recall he's also co-owner, but don't quote me on that). He's always steered me to good wine in my price range. There are few bargains on the list, as such, but they carry a few good reds under $50, or did last I looked (a while back now).

Second Bitar's for many tasty, unusual treats, plus great Eastern Mediterranean groceries. On falafels, my runaway favorite is the food cart on the NE corner of 20th and Market.

In any category? Szechuan Tasty House delivers. I'd say the food is better; but while it's cheap, I don't know off-hand if it's cheaper. ← Bzzzzt, Fentoni! Bzzzzt! I could quibble on "better", but why bother when a) they don't deliver to 18th and Pine and b) they are considerably higher than the $5/dish price point of Minar Palace? Let's say twice the price. Only jet-setting academics would equate the two. Really, aside from pizza (and there's precious little good pizza being delivered hereabouts, so even then), Minar Palace is very hard to beat on QPR.