Philly’s best croissants | Let’s Eat

When someone demands the best croissant, we try to find it. Also this week, a review of the new countryside restaurant from Vedge, a chat with a bartender whose math skills play into his success, a look at two new brunch spots, and a recap of some odd restaurant news (as in, what happened to that $25 million sports bar?).

Tip: Get yourself to the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival, opening today and running through Aug. 13 at Franklin Square Park — not only for the light show but for the food from vendors including Sang Kee, one of the oldest restaurants in Chinatown.

⬇️ Read on for a quiz.

— Mike Klein

Everybody seems to know that Philly — the most French of U.S. cities, ne c’est pas — turns out some mighty fine pastries. This came to light yet again when two Rhode Island officials planned a now-infamous visit to a developer. One texted instructions to have “the best croissant in Philadelphia ready for me upon arrival.”

Talk about flaky requests!

What is “the best”? We’ve come up with a roundup of fine croissants. And by the way, effective this week, you can get outstanding house-made pastries (as well as chocolates and gelato) at Café Vine, the student-run coffee shop at the Philadelphia Performing Arts: A String Theory Charter School (1600 Vine St.). It’s now open to the public for takeout, via a window in the cafe’s vestibule on the 16th Street side, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. weekdays. Pastry chef Sofiane Bellal, who made his mark at Bloomsday near Head House Square, has joined the faculty as an instructor. Some of his wares are shown above.

Here’s the guide.

Bankroll, the splashy sports bar at the former Boyd Theater with a supposed $25 million budget, hit pause on its day-to-day operation through the summer, opting to open only for private events. Most of the staff of 50 to 60 people were furloughed. Management says it will return in time for the NFL season — an ambitious goal given the time and effort required to recruit and train a new staff.

Post Haste, a cocktail bar that opened June 2 in Kensington, lost chef Elise Black last weekend, who resigned. Talk about posthaste. Owners Fred Bebee and Gabe Guerrero say they’ll be “refreshing culinary offerings with a new chef in the weeks to come.”

Stephen Starr told The Inquirer that he will take two of the three floors of the old Barnes & Noble location at 1805 Walnut St., across from Rittenhouse Square, for a new restaurant. The concept and timeline are still very much up in the air.

Ground Provisions, Vedge’s Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby’s latest plant-based venture, is a restaurant/market out in the countryside near West Chester. “We didn’t want to reinvent the carrot here,” Landau told critic Craig LaBan, “we just wanted to open up a little store and cook from the farm.” Craig’s assessment: The $75 tasting is “a fair bargain for the quality of the food’ and the experience is “a comfortable balance between the feel of a special night out and relaxed country charm.”

Bartender Paul MacDonald is one of the big draws of the James Beard Award-winning restaurant Friday Saturday Sunday near Rittenhouse Square. As colleague Mike Newall notes, few other bartenders craft their cocktails to the logic of a 13th-century mathematical formula known as the Fibonacci sequence. It all adds up. The result: Drinks that underpromise and overdeliver.

Wednesday is opening day for Gaucho’s Prime, a Brazilian steakhouse filling the former Ruth’s Chris at Gulph Road and Mall Boulevard in King of Prussia. You might be saying, “Doesn’t KoP already have Fogo de Chão, whose features include a salad bar and rodizio-style skewered meats proffered tableside?” Yes. But owners Anderson Winck and Ana Lima, both Fogo alums, say theirs is more authentically southern Brazilian, with 18 different cuts as well as extra side dishes. The two-sided chip, by the way, is the patron’s signal to the gaucho to bring over more meats. Open for lunch and dinner daily.

Free bagels! This, above, is an Oreo bagel. Baked with sandwich cookies in the batter and topped with crushed cookies, it’s one of the new bagels in the line at Bagels & Co., the upstart cafechain. (This one has Cookie Monster cream cheese.) New Bagels & Co. locations are opening Thursday at 1526 Sansom St. in Center City and Friday at 1363 N. 31st St. in Brewerytown. Each location will give away free bagels and cream cheese to the first 100 people between 8:15 and 10:15 a.m.

Hot chicken? Marilyn Johnson at Philly Grub spotted an influx of new hot-chicken eateries. She cites an Instagram post for Screamin’ Rooster, which will give away sandwiches this weekend.

What is it with South Philly and its brunch spots? Lots of first-time restaurateurs open them because South Philly is densely populated, menus are typically manageable from a preparation standpoint, and it’s mostly daytime work, better for work-life balance. Here are two newcomers — Eleven Eleven in Queen Village (owned by Rainford Miles and Banesha Whitney, above) and El Fuego (owned by Ricardo Sandoval, below) — dishing omelets, waffles, and burgers. P.S. Note the time that the clocks are set to, and make a wish.

Planning to get engaged on Thursday, which is National Onion Ring Day? Couples that tag their “yes” photo with @BurgerFi and use the #LoveOnionRings hashtag in the same Instagram and Facebook post could ring free onion rings for a year from the BurgerFi chain. (The prize is gift card valued at one order of regular onion rings per day for 365 days. Winner will be announced Friday.)

Baby’s Kusina, a Filipino restaurant and market preparing to open in Brewerytown, will go to the Jersey Shore for a one-nighter at Turtle Gut in Wildwood Crest at 6 p.m. Saturday. It’s billed as a four-course, seafood-forward and Filipino-inspired dinner for $108 a person, including tax and tip.

Wawa plans to close the location on Second Street near South Street next month. Excluding this location, how many Wawa stores have closed in Center City since 2020?

A) 3

B) 4

C) 5

D) 7

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s happening in Chinatown these days? — @kellypio2

There’s a Chinese restaurant with a dim sum menu — working name is GuGu — coming to the former Rangoon at 112 N. Ninth St. (One of the owners happens to be opening a Tous Les Jours bakery cafe on June 30 at Yorktown Plaza in Elkins Park.) Also, Kenny Poon and David Taing (Yamitsuki, Chinatown Square) are working on Chinatown Chess Club, a nightspot on the second story of 1023 Arch St., above their Ebisu retail shop. They are also working on a Vietnamese restaurant called Miss Saigon at 1316 Walnut St., previously Toasted Walnut.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com.

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