Philadelphia : Trend Watch

Meals on Wheels

BuzzEditor — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:33:00 GMT

The Real Le Anh

Photo: Smiley River

The University of Pennsylvania may be renowned for its ties to Benjamin Franklin and the Ivy League, but to a foodie, its claim to fame are the food carts that dot its campus.

Ground zero is Spruce Street between 36th and 38th Streets, where fierce competition yields outstanding quality and excellent prices. Take Le Anh and its cross-street rival the Real Le Anh, which dispense similar, wide-ranging Chinese-Vietnamese menus from their stainless-steel carts. Similarly, fans of Lucky’s Mexican Spot tout the cart's sopes, while aficionados of Mexi Philly, just a few feet away, rave about its burritos.

Veg seekers step up to the green awnings of Magic Carpet (two locations: 36th and Spruce Streets and 34th and Walnut Streets) for pita sandwiches and whimsically named combo plates such as "Smurf 'n' Turf" (tofu meatballs, rice, veggies and cheese) and the "Trojan" (a spinach pie).

Where the Actors Are the Owners (Not Just the Waiters)

BuzzEditor — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:05:00 GMT

Have you been to a celebrity-owned restaurant?

Are they worth the hype? Share your thoughts on the Zagat Discussion boards!

With the writers' strike finally over and the Academy Awards just around the corner on February 24th, most of Hollywood is thinking about who will be taking home that little gold guy. But not everybody can win an Oscar, so financially prudent actors might find themselves pondering potential side businesses. And if they want a tried-and-true second gig, the food industry is very welcoming to thespians. We're talking about owning here, not waiting on tables or tending bar.

LA is arguably the capital of the celeb-backed restaurant. The scene-heavy Melrose Italian Dolce Enotca e Ristorante has backing from the likes of Ashton Kutcher; the same group also owns the newish Ketchup,which boasts Wilmer Valderrama and Tara Reid as backers. Then there's Cathy Moriarty's pizza mini-chain Mulberry St. Pizza. Over in Pasadena, Jennifer Lopez opened Madre's, a glamour Puerto Rican dining spot. And, don't forget about Eva Longoria Parker and Todd English's upcoming Beso. Even Steven Spielberg's mother has her own kosher dairy kitchen, Milky Way. Although Johnny Depp no longer owns the Viper Room, the House of Blues, with investors ranging from Dan Aykroyd to Aerosmith, is still going strong.

For Robert De Niro, winning two Oscars wasn't enough – he still wanted to become an über-restaurateur. In West Hollywood, he has Ago, a pricey Tuscan that recently opened a location in Las Vegas and is on its way to New York. He has Rubicon in San Francisco and Nobu, Nobu 57 and Tribeca Grill in New York. Paul Newman, also an Oscar winner, opened the Dressing Room, an organic New American that sits adjacent to wife Joanne Woodward’s beloved Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, CT. Oscar winner Timothy Hutton put some money into the Midtown pub P.J. Clarke's, which now has three locations. And Oscar-winning director (and actor) Quentin Tarantino was an early investor in Korean Barbecue Do Hwa in New York City.

Indeed, NYC has no shortage of celeb-backed ventures. Justin Timberlake (yes, he's an actor too) recently brought Memphis BBQ to the Upper East Side via Southern Hospitality. Chris Noth's nightspot in the Flatiron, the Cutting Room, offers a performance space for all types of acts. The first Planet Hollywood even landed in Gotham and although the chain has lost some of its swagger and some of its original backers (most notably the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger) it still has Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone to stand behind the 18 locations around the world, plus a recently opened Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

While the majority of actor-backed restaurants are in the celeb-infested environs of New York and LA, they do pop up elsewhere. In 2006, Sandra Bullock teamed with chef Brenton Childs to open Bess in Austin. Don Johnson and Cheech Marin are both backers behind San Fransisco's French-Vietnamese Ana Mandara. And in Paris, Gérard Depardieu has two restaurants: the Classic French La Fontaine Gaillon and the raw bar L'Ecaille de la Fontaine.

Wash Your Own at Beneluxx

BuzzEditor — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:39:00 GMT

The custom made glass cleaners at Beneluxx

photo: Ryan Charles

Philly has another Belgian bar, and this one has a nifty gimmick: the tables at Beneluxx each have their very own glass washers.

When you're ready for another tipple from the enormous beverage list, just flip your glass into the washer and press it down. Water squirts up, rinses the glass and then drains away. To see the washers in action, check out this video on www.philly.com.

The washers were conceived and custom built by owner Michael Naessens, who also helms Eulogy Belgian Tavern. They took a few months to design and build, and required extensive plumbing and special hand-built tables.

So why make diners do all the work? According to Naessens, Eulogy customers "kept asking if they could wash their own glasses" between tastings. The Buzz clearly needs to invite these folks to its next dinner party.

Trend Watch: Wash West Wines

BuzzEditor — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:08:00 GMT

Tria

photo: Ryan Charles

Wash West, that slice of Center City east of Broad Street that includes Philly’s so-called "gayborhood," has become quite the destination for wine fans. Once the bastion of dives and holes-in-the-wall, the gentrified neighborhood has inspired a cluster of bars with well-thought-out menus. The latest arrival is the city’s second location of Tria, whose raison d'être is the trinity of wine, beer and cheese. It joins:

Vintage Wine Bar, a dramatic, French-owned bistro known for its chalkboard menu (escargot, Brie en croûte) and wine flights.
Caribou Café, also French-owned, whose landmark art deco bar draws fans of croque monsieur and steak frites paired with French wines.
Mixto, the lively Latin with an upstairs bar serving Cuban appetizers and some seldom-seen vintages from Spain, Chile and Argentina (plus the predictable mojitos and margaritas).
Valanni, the Med small-plater, whose tight list makes room for offbeat bottles from South Africa and Slovenia.

And on tap for Labor Day is Zinc bistro a vins, a Le Marais–style French bistro from Caribou Cafe’s Olivier de Saint Martin. It will take over for La Boheme, bowing out August 18th.

Vintage Wine Bar

photo: Ryan Charles

Absinthe Wars

BuzzEditor — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:57:00 GMT

Ted Breaux serving his Lucid absinthe at Tales of the Cocktail.

photo: Carla Spartos

Seemingly everywhere you turn here at Tales of the Cocktail, someone’s pushing absinthe, the bitter, anise-flavored spirit distilled from wormwood made famous by Belle Époque artists and madmen. Within 24 hours of arriving in the Big Easy, the Buzz was invited to sample no less than three brands, including Lucid, La Fée and Marteau.

But isn't absinthe illegal in the U.S.? Apparently the law only prohibits absinthe that contains more than 10 mg per liter of thujone, the active ingredient in wormwood, and most "authentic" absinthe contains less than that amount.

And so this March, U.S. regulators approved Lucid, making it the first absinthe to be legally distributed on these shores in 95 years. It hit the shelves in New York last month, where it retails for $59.95 a bottle. It will soon be available in all 50 states, according to its creator, New Orleans–born chemist Ted Breaux.

La Fée absinthe tasting.

photo: Carla Spartos

Now others are trying to elbow their way into the market. Gwydion Stone, the pony-tailed founder of Seattle’s Wormwood Society, is hoping to release his Swiss-made absinthe, Marteau, in October. And the U.K.-based La Fée – poured at posh London hotels such as Claridge’s and Sanderson – is in New Orleans gauging the American audience.

It's enthusiastic, according to Breaux, who says the "whole country assaulted New York" in an attempt to get their hands on the initial shipments of Lucid.

Traditionally served diluted with water and tempered with sugar, absinthe is now popping up in cocktails in trendy bars. In NYC, Employees Only shakes up a Lucid mojito while Milk and Honey uses La Fée in its Sea Fizz cocktail. Breaux says he has received numerous inquiries from fine-dining restaurants too.

What about tales of green fairies and lopped-off earlobes? “Properly distilled, there is nothing harmful about absinthe,” says Breaux, who maintains that bad alcohol from unscrupulous distillers is to blame for the spirit’s 19th-century notoriety. As for Van Gogh, “He was drinking loads of other alcohol,” says a La Fée rep. “And smoking all kinds of weed.”

– Carla Spartos

Trend Watch: Haute Hellenic

BuzzEditor — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:21:00 GMT

NYC's Anthos

photo: Noah Kalina

See you later, souvlaki. These days, haute Hellenic is all the rage (sea urchin tzatziki, anyone?). Below is a sampling of eateries redefining Greek cooking in America.

Anthos, NYC
Dio Deka, Los Gatos, CA
Estia, Philadelphia
Kyma, Atlanta
Parea, NYC
Petros, Manhattan Beach, CA
Zaytinya, Washington, DC