A Full Plate Cafe

[TarteTatin]

Just came back from this gem of a place in Liberties Walk in Northern Liberties. If you know where Deuce is, it's in the same "walk", but further north. It's actually right by the stables on Bodine St.

The little cafe gives the appearance of a coffee shop. They have hand painted tables by a local artist, mismatched chairs and silverware. They serve their ice tea with mint in a quart size Ball/Mason jar. They serve veggies in a flower pot. Very cute.

The food is creative and amazing and inexpensive!

The influence is definitely Southern, with a Vegetarian bent as well. Sounds like an odd combination, but they really pull it off.

I had Fried Chicken over a thick Belgian Waffle with BBQ syrup ($9). Tasted great! Chicken breast pieces, very moist. Hubby had Crab Cakes with tangy Remoulade Sauce ($10). They came with a side of cornbread and marinated cukes...We ordered a small side of fried pickles (for anyone who has been to Creole Connection in New Orleans, you know how good these are!). These were not pickle slices, they were whole little pickles. The batter for both the fried chicken and the fried pickles was tasty. Not sure what it was, but very fresh. We also had a side of Mac and Cheese, made with whole wheat pasta, really, really good! Sides were $3 a piece or 2 for $5. I had a Mint Ice Tea, hubby did BYOB with a couple of Red Stripes. The whole thing, including tip, came to $30! Can't beat that!

The menu is full of interesting items: Slow cooked BBQ ribs, pulled pork sandwich with southern slaw, four different types of Po Boys: Catfish, Chicken, Meatball and Eggplant. They have Spinach and black bean burgers and other sandwiches served on a Challah roll...Pecan crusted Lentil loaf with mushroom gravy...Catfish fingers, polenta, salads, all sorts of veggie items....the sides included fried okra, collards, the french fries looked great at another table. They are sweet potato and white cut mixed fries...etc. etc.

The priciest entree are the crabcakes at $10. They are open Mon-Sat. lunch/dinner and Sat/Sun brunch.

"Good grits" as they say!

[MarketStEl]

Barbecue syrup! Tell me more...

[TarteTatin]

Yeah, the BBQ syrup was really intriguing! As a matter of fact, the fried chicken over a thick, tasty, Belgian Waffle, even more so...

They put the chicken over the waffle and then drizzled the BBQ syrup onto the whole thing, like a sauce. The only way to describe it is that it was a BBQ sauce that was a tiny bit more syrupy, I suppose to go with the waffle. It was delicious. Not cloying, not too sweet, just perfect.

[marinade]

Y'all got an address and some cross streets?

[Andrew Fenton]

Y'all got an address and some cross streets?

←

A widdle bit of googling reveals:

1009 N. Bodine Street, Philadelphia, PA

(via this food blog, which has another post on FPC here.)

Looks good. I could go for some good fried chicken. And waffles. Oh my, yes.

[TarteTatin]

Bodine St. runs North and South.

It's inbetween 2nd and 3rd.

Between George St. and Wildey. Half block south of the Stables.

If you go to Deuce, which is on 2nd St. at the Liberty Walk, and walk a block west in that block, its in that new shopping center area.

There's also a new Sushi restaurant there and a couple of bakeries and coffee shops. Not to mention a custom made corset shop and a natural dog and cat food store...

[Andrew Fenton]

We were meeting friends in Northern Liberties on Friday night, and decided to give A Full Plate Cafe, A Try.

The Liberties Walk area is interesting. A cute shopping & residential area air-dropped into a very different neighborhood (crumbling buildings, weeds). Ah, Northern Liberties! Ah, gentrification! Anyway, on a beautiful post-downpour Friday evening, it's a nice spot to walk around for a little bit.

As to AFPC, it's cute and friendly. I liked the ice tea, in big ol' Mason jars.

The food was sort of a mixed bag: the mac and cheese entree was sort of bland and mushy, but came with a couple of really good stewed tomatoes. A decent catfish po' boy.

There are lots of sides; we ordered some absolutely first-rate collard greens, sitting in a lovely little pool of pot likker. I could have eaten about three times as many, both because they were so tasty, and because, frankly, the portion was a little small. Sides are reasonably priced ($3 for one, $5 for two); still, collards are cheap, and they coulda thrown a few more on the plate... We also ordered the fried okra, which, oddly, was fried whole, rather than in slices. I have to say, I prefer the normal way: the coating slides off the whole pods, and it's a little overcooked.

The Southern theme doesn't extend to dessert, which that night at least, consisted of a couple of kinds of sweet pierogies or ice cream. We urged the waitress to add banana pudding to the menu, because, hey, can you even get banana pudding in Philadelphia? I don't think so, but this would be a logical place to serve it...

[TarteTatin]

Mr. Tarte Tatin is entering a BBQ rib grilling competition at Full Plate on Saturday.

Cooking starts at 9:00 a.m.

Judging is around 3:30 p.m.

All contestants have to grill the ribs right there at Full Plate. There are judges...

Just found out that the contestants aren't only neighborhood people, but Bar Ferdinand is entering as are possibly some other restaurants!

It's $10 if you want to eat the ribs made by the contestants plus a buffet of things made by Full Plate. I know their Mac n Cheese is one of the buffet items. Plus some vegetarian entrees, as one of the chefs is vegetarian.

Come, cheer Sam on!

A separate category is available to enter, and he's hoping to make a grilled Tarte Tatin in his cast iron skillet!! With local apples from our friends backyard in Newtown.

(if we can round up another charcoal grill)

[Diann]

ooh, tarte tatin from MrTarteTatin! I was already planning on going... but now I'm really excited.

[Rich Pawlak]

Doesnt that create some kind of hole in the space-time continuum?

[TarteTatin]

Rich- Are you talking about the 6 hrs. time spent VERY SLOWLY cooking ribs over a low fire?

[KatieLoeb]

Soooooo....What happened???!!!???

I await results with baited breath...

[TarteTatin]

No, Sam didn't win...But his were truly the best.

Indian spiced ribs with a fresh whole cranberry, mango chutney BBQ sauce. Yum.

Everyone complimented him.

...3rd place was Owen from Bar Ferdinand, 2nd was Tower Investments who owns most of Northern Liberties and whose property we were using. 1st place was the cafe owners friends from D.C. (alas, seems like politics??)

Sam didn't even win cooking the "anything goes" category, although he got a special mention. He did an amazing Tarte Tatin on the GRILL! Really. Made the pastry and rolled it out, right there! Grilling a Tarte Tatin! It was tasty!

Jalapeno Poppers won that category, again from Tower Investments...

The popular vote for the ribs- went to a guy from Esposito Meats, who had purchased extra ribs, while the 5 racks the rest of us were given for our entry fee- ran out in the first half hour. Yes, we could have purchased more in advance, but no-one else did except the guy from Esposito's. Hmm...I think the crowd was disappointed that the ribs ran out early, rightly so...

None of the small neighborhood guys won. Hmmmm again!

However, EVERYONE agreed that Sam's had the BEST taste.

Owen from Ferdinand complimented him on both his ribs and the dessert.

The guy who won -gave us a bottle of wine that he had won, since he thought ours were the best. A lot of the guests also complimented Sam's as the best...

I'm VERY proud of Sam, he had fun, and the ribs did, indeed, taste the best. Who needs a gift basket anyway?

[KatieLoeb]

I'd say Sam won the respect he deserved and that beats any gift basket he could have gotten instead.

Way to go, Sam!! Sorry I couldn't be there to cheer you on and try some of those delicious sounding ribs and Grilled Tarte Tatin. Yum! You rock, dude!