chellie

I walked over thataway a little while ago and there's a new sign up - it looks like they are indeed coming back. Details are supposed to be forthcoming tomorrow, but looks like they'll be opening/reopening on the 18th for dinner. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/the-insider/41203887.html I hope this wasn't a marketing ploy. On 3/1 it looks like Sara implied they had shut down, as seen towards the middle of this piece: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/40494032.html Maybe it was a change of heart, but I have a funny taste in my mouth (so to speak) over the whole thing.

I'm hearing word that Andrew and Sara are going to be announcing tomorrow (Saturday) that Majolica has NOT closed, that they have redone their menu & business to be more in line with the current economic times. I'm hearing $3 tapas type apps, a cheaper prix fixe, and so on. Why didn't they contradict the closing rumors? This doesn't make a lot of sense if the re-opening is true. Good news for Phoenixville, but I'm more than a little confused!

That Italian Place closed as of last Saturday night (3/7). One of the restaurants is supposed to open today, the other next week. I've heard conflicting reports as to which is opening first. What exactly is "New Orleans" pizza, by the way? I'll see about heading down that way later today to see if anything actually opens. That's a fast turn, less than a week from Italian to Creole.

Majolica's last day is this Saturday, 2/28/09. Another one bites the dust. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/the-ins...g_Saturday.html

Awesome on the lunch news!!! Hubby has recently discovered that he loooooves Thai food so we've been frequenting Thai Place (near Giant) for the past month. I think we've achieved the status of "regular" there at this point, as the staff greets us like old friends now. Sounds like we'll have to hit 101 for lunch this week or next! Do you remember how much the burger was, percyn?

In your first post I noticed you said you were in Ohio. That's probably the best state to be in for a home-based food business! The first thing you need to do is contact officials in your city/town. Local regulations can overrule state regs so make sure your locale allows for a home-based food business. Ohio allows for cottage food industries due to the large Amish populations. In Ohio, what this means is that you can produce food in your home for sale without being licensed as long as it meets certain regulations, including: the food must not require refrigeration or it has to be properly packaged for long term storage (examples being cookies or cakes for the first, properly canned jams for the second), anything produced must be labeled with ingredients listed, and you can only sell the food within the state of Ohio. This link gives more detail. Since you're talking about doing complete soups rather than dry soup mixes or the like, you would need to get licensed. The big two rules for getting licensed in Ohio are not having carpet in the kitchen and no indoor pets, though there may be additional rules for the specific type of food you're producing. The Department of Food Safety would be able to answer the specifics

Hubby, Kiddo and I decided to have a "quick" lunch at the new PJ Ryan's in Phoenixville today (next to the Colonial at the old Hotel Washington). The inside is really nice. Someone dumped a lot of money into this place. Looks to be two large bar areas in the back section, lots of dark wood and LOTS of HD TVs on the walls. The front section is like a typical dining room space with large windows that open to allow for sorta-alfresco drinking & dining. I would've liked the sit up front but we were herded into one of the (empty) bar areas. At least the booth was big & comfy. Plenty of beers on tap including Magic Hat and Victory. I'd seen the extensive menu already (and the prices) so I was expecting some pretty good food. Not great food, mind you, but pretty good. We shared an order of "potato boats" which were just pre-packaged potato skins served with cheese and bacon. I thought at first they must've been hollowing out the taters and aging the cheese in the kitchen to order for the amount of time they took. If the place was busy I could understand the too-long wait, but we were the only people there. They were alright, but nothing special. Not worth the ~$8. Hubby got a pastrami sandwich and I got a Reuben. Much like the "potato boats," the sandwiches were merely alright. I've never quite had a Reuben like this one; it had all the necessary components but I couldn't taste a single one of them. It was oddly bland and uniform and I can't figure out why. The corned beef was bland, the sauerkraut barely had any tang, and the cheese wasn't very cheese-tasting. Hubby's pastrami fared a little better. It was peppery and somewhat flavorful, but nothing more special than you'd get from the deli counter at Giant. The fries were decent - they have those batter dipped crunchy kind. The kid loved 'em and I didn't hate them. Nothing we ate was worth the price tag at all. A $9-10 sandwich should be better than this. I suppose the sandwiches and apps are good for food to soak up the alcohol one would drink here, but I wouldn't feel confident ordering a $20 entree for dinner. I won't be back for the food. In other Phoenixville news, has anyone else heard anything about Majolica? Over the last few days I've heard from a few sources that they're either going to close up shop or close the current location and move somewhere larger. The sources are fairly knowledgeable so I'm not writing it off as nasty rumor quite yet.

I wonder if they changed something up with the ratatouille; one thing I noticed about it was the depth of flavor despite being semi-deconstructed. The plating on ours was a bit different than your photo too. We haven't had a chance to go back yet (just returned from a week in OH for my sister's wedding - I did her wedding cake so I've been consumed with that project!)...the question remains if our exceptional experience is the one-off or if percy's not-as-great experience is. We liked our meal so much I hope you just hit them on an off night, percy. My stepdaughter and I hit Spiedie Bistro (Phoenixville) for lunch today while out and about. I was talking to James there and they have indeed removed the beef option; he said they were only selling a couple sandwiches a day with the beef and wound up having to trash too much, so they're down to chicken & pork. I'd only had the beef on previous visits, so on James' recommendation I got the chicken in my "President Scroob" (meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, feta). It's aggressively marinated, as mentioned above, but I enjoyed it a whole lot. Super-picky Kiddo got the grilled cheese kids' meal which comes with milk (which she hates) and yogurt (which she hates). James gave her a cookie in place of the milk - nice touch. Amusingly, Kiddo wound up eating about a quarter of my sandwich and we shared an order of the fries they just added to the menu. They're oven baked and served seasoned, so no grease and no ketchup needed. She's looking forward to going back so she can get her own chicken Scroob. Continuing on the Phoenixville theme, Kiddo and I will be enjoying our Saturday tradition of dinner at Franco Ristorante and dessert at Brown's Cow tonight!

My sister had made apple pie and, worried there wouldn't be enough dessert, Grandma made a coffee cake and Mom a cheesecake. Of course I sacrificed the bread pudding!

With a trip back home on the horizon for my baby sister's wedding, the other day my mom reminded me of the worst meal I encountered at someone's house. Bless my mom, it was her house and her doing. My family is very Midwestern - lots of meat 'n' potatoes, lots of casserole, lots of "cream of" soups, and nothing overly seasoned or particularly exotic. Oh yes, we had the La Choy stir frys growing up, which was the height of exotic food, and I have very fond memories of helping my dear Gram grind up baloney for the "ham salad" mentioned many pages back. Come to think of it, I'd eat the hell out of some of that ham salad, but only if Gram grinds up the baloney in her old Sunbeam MixMaster. Sadly the MixMaster is long gone, but Gram is still going strong. Anyways, I wound up being the only member of my family with wanderlust, and I decided to leave the Midwest shortly after my 21st birthday to see more of the country. My random pogoing every couple years from state to state exposed me to all sorts of new and exotic cuisines. I was never picky to begin with, and I dived into all these new foods with wild abandon, trying everything edible I could get my hands on. Nearly ten years after leaving the homeland, with a much-varied palate and a love of what my family kindly refers to as "weird food," I made my yearly Thanksgiving trip back home with a guest. My now-husband and I had been dating for several months, he had proposed, and he was very eager to meet the family I spoke so fondly of. In turn, my family was looking forward to meeting him and my mom planned for weeks in advance of our visit. She did confess in those weeks leading up to the trip that she was petrified to cook for us. "For God's sake, Chellie, he's a Chef ! I don't know how to make anything fancy! What the hell am I supposed to cook for him? He'll think I'm some sort of idiot!!" I reassured her over and over that, Chef or not, Hubby's tastes are very simple. He's happy with meatloaf & mashed potatoes or a nice pasta. Her panic continued, though, and she bought up issues of Gourmet and Bon Appetit to look for "suitable" recipes to prepare for us. She pored over cookbooks and searched the internet, seeking foods that she felt a Chef would find worthy. Finally she settled on a few recipes and awaited our arrival. After a long drive lasting all day, we arrived at Mom's house shortly before dinnertime. We were famished, and we could smell tomato sauce simmering. Yum!! After unloading the car and taking a brisk walk to stretch our legs, we sat down at the table with Mom, my nephew and my niece. Nervously, Mom unveiled dinner. "It's penne with vodka sauce!" she proclaimed, half proud and half self-conscious. It looked and smelled quite good. Hubby and I loaded our plates with pasta, salad, and bread. Mom, as usual, had cooked as through 20 people were coming for dinner. It wasn't until the 2nd bite or so that we realized something was amiss. A glance at my mom's crestfallen expression told me she knew it too. The pasta tasted like we were doing shots of tomato flavored vodka - not in a good way. It was bitter and medicinal. It was painful. The sauce hadn't been simmered nearly enough to cook off the raw alcohol taste, and (as it turns out) her recipe called for an ungodly amount of vodka Obviously embarrassed, Mom started apologizing and made to clear the plates away. Hubby quickly tried to reassure her that it wasn't bad at all and that he wanted to finish his plate, but after a few more bites she made us give up. We ate our salad and bread while Mom quickly heated up the casserole she'd made ahead for the next night's dinner. The casserole was delicious and we ate heartily, though making sure to save room for dessert. Mom had made a Bundt cake, and a fancy one with almonds and cream at that! She'd tried this recipe earlier so she was ready to salvage what she thought was her damaged culinary reputation with Hubby. I thought she would cry when she turned it out of the pan to serve and found the cake stuck firmly to the not-so-nonstick surface. We helped her salvage the innards of the cake in manageable chunky slices and, some hours after our arrival, finished the meal she'd been so nervous about preparing. Her confidence was restored the next morning when Hubby had three helpings of breakfast casserole (and asked her for the recipe!) and when, come Thanksgiving Day, I burnt the bread pudding.

Update on 101 Bridge: They're only open for dinner right now but will be opening for lunch sometime in July. They also have a "bar menu" with sandwiches and burgers in the $10 range - you just have to ask for it. Apparently the pastrami sandwich is quite good, and we may just have to go back this week to test that review out. There's some additional reviews & comments are posted at the Around Phoenixville blog.

The Baxters-owned restaurant is creatively named 101 Bridge. It's in the old Superintendent's building across from Iron Hill at .... 101 Bridge St - that old eyesore that looked like it met the wrong side of a cluster bomb. (long review alert!!) My husband and I ate there on a whim tonight and found out it had just opened yesterday. The outside of the building is largely unchanged; the facade was cleaned up really well, new windows, all the busted-up parts of the roof and such have been replaced. The inside is really nice but not pretentious. We didn't opt for the full tour of the place, but it seems to have 3 or 4 small dining rooms plus a bar area on the first floor. The second floor looks unfinished right now, not sure if that'll be finished as additional seating space or what. There's a black and tan color scheme and they seem to be going for near-fine-dining. Unfortunately the lighting inside is rather dim; it wasn't an issue at the start of the meal but by the end when the sun had set it would've been impossible to read a menu. That's my only complaint about the place. They have a short menu - a single page of starters & salads and a single page of entrees. There's a good mix of selections though, something for nearly everyone. I didn't see any vegetarian entree options, so those non-meat-minded might want to call ahead and see if Chef will prepare something off menu. Fresh rolls and homemade butter are complimentary. I'm not sure if the flavors will change, but we were presented with regular butter, roasted red pepper butter, and blueberry butter. I could've eaten the blueberry butter on its own, but all three were delicious. The starters are seafood-heavy. There's a lobster bread pudding that sounds incredible, mussels, a tomato-crab bisque, and a few other seafood items. The salads are fairly standard (Ceasar and an Italian salad) save for the spinach radicchio with sundried cherries and strawberry vinaigrette. That sounded incredible too. We opted for the Ratatouille Napoleon to start as my husband is shellfish allergic. He's also somewhat picky, and wasn't too terribly excited about a mix of zucchini, yellow squash & eggplant, but I talked him into it. He's glad I did. It was absolutely amazing. The squash was rolled together to look like a big rose and it was served with a warm tomato sauce and cold, crunchy pickled onion. The eggplant was pureed and intermixed with the squash. Did I mention it was amazing? Mmmm. It was priced at $8 or 9 I believe and the portion was plenty large enough for the both of us to share. Entrees are fairly basic on the surface: a few steak options, chicken, pork, and plenty of seafood. They range in price from $20-30 per plate. The real surprises come with the sides the proteins are paired with. Hubby immediately decided on the pork tenderloin and it took me a few minutes to choose between the filet mignon and and panko crusted scallops with crab ravioli. I wound up with the filet so we could sample each other's meals. The pork is wrapped in applewood bacon and served with braised cabbage, sweet potato puree, and a roasted pepper marmalade. The filet is served with wilted spinach, onion frizzle and grilled black truffle potato gnocchi. The presentation on both dishes was beautiful, and we were both amazed at the portion size. The filet was probably 8oz, nice and thick. The pork came as three generous medallions each about 1.5" thick. Both meats were cooked perfectly. As I said, the real surprises are in the accompaniments. You can tell a lot of thought and creativity went into choosing them. The grilled truffle gnocchi was honestly about the best thing I've eaten in my life. There was just enough truffle in there for the flavor to come through but it didn't overpower everything else, and grilling them made for an amazing crunchy exterior. The marmalade with the pork was also fantastic, as was the sweet potato puree. We didn't have a complaint or critical remark about anything on either plate. Right now the dessert menu is short: cheesecake with berries as well as chocolate mousse served in a white chocolate cone. Our waitress recommended the cheesecake but I just had to try the mousse dessert and I'm glad I did! Another extremely generous portion plenty large enough for two - it's a homemade white chocolate cone served point-end up. You break through the shell to get to the mousse. It's served with caramel and chocolate sauces, an assortment of fresh fruit including some of the largest blackberries I've ever seen, and an almond flavored triangle of puff pastry. Yum. Yum. Yum. I can't confirm, but it tasted like the white chocolate was salted a little, which in my opinion makes most anything sweet all the better. It was $9 and well worth every penny. There's a full bar with quite a few beers on tap and the wine list has a lot of variety without being overwhelming. Several wines by the glass, and the bottles are in the $25-50 range. I had Bella Sera Pinot Noir (one of their house wines) with dinner and hubby had a Yuengling. The bartender on staff seems knowledgeable; hubby ordered a pomegranate martini to drink with dessert but they didn't have the pom puree for it yet. The bartender recommended a raspberry Cosmo in its place - it was strong and very tasty. Hubby said it was a good replacement for the pom martini. Service was very nice. Our waitress was knowledgeable about the entire menu and was friendly without being obnoxiously friendly, if that makes sense. She seemed happy to be working there which is a good sign in my book. The general manager was visible and made a stop at each table to check on things. We bumped into him on the way out and stopped to comment favorably ... okay, to RAVE about the food. He chatted with us for a few minutes, shook hubby's hand, thanked us for coming and said he looked forward to seeing us again. Nice guy. The Executive Chef's name is John Schaeffer/Shafer - not sure which variation of the spelling. We'd not heard of him before (hubby's a chef and knows most of the names in the area, if just by reputation), but judging by this meal he's really someone to watch out for. Our tab came to $90 for a starter, two entrees, dessert, a glass of wine, a beer, the Cosmo, and a soda. Right now they're only open for dinner but they'll be opening for lunch in July sometime. The verdict: we're already talking about going again ASAP. The only thing I can think of to improve on is the lighting inside, otherwise this was easily one of the best meals either of us have EVER had. The Black Lab has some serious, serious competition - 101 Bridge blows it out of the water by far.

I'm not positive about travertine, but I seem to recall that it's more porous than something like quarry stone. Is it glazed or sealed in any way? You definitely want to avoid anything with a coating on it, as you can't be sure if the coating is food safe or not.

I got a box of 24 unglazed, lead-free quarry stone tiles at my local Home Depot for about $7. Six of them fit the bottom of my oven perfectly, which means I got the equivalent of 4 baking stones for less than $2 each. They work just as well as the expensive stones I've used in the past, but this time I won't have to get upset if one cracks.

Butter and lingonberry preserves. The quintessential trio of bacon, lettuce and tomato. Tomato, fresh mozzarella, and a bunch of cracked pepper. Cinnamon & sugar, of course! And sometimes nothing is more perfect than toast slathered with butter, served with a steamy mug of hot tea.