Philly’s Polish power | Let’s Eat

Settle in because I have a lot to cover this week. Philly dining upstart Little Walter’s has made the national and local spotlights, and that’s a good reason to discuss the Polish food scene. Also: Our town has a new omakase option from a seasoned sushi chef, and it’s tucked into a secret room behind a bookcase. The couple behind Fond is bringing the French-ish gem back. Read on for news that will make you happy (a truly cool new tasting room) and sad (two deaths in our Philly restaurant family).

I’m also keeping an eye on the Fishtown Overnight Market, which was designed to collect six trucks in a lot next to the Fillmore for late-night food, starting Thursday. I’ve heard that a potential snag has crept in; monitor my Instagram story for live updates.

— Mike Klein

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Little Walter’s, chef Michael Brenfleck’s new Polish themed bar-restaurant in East Kensington, is having a moment all right. Just as our critic Craig LaBan was adding his final kreskas and kropkas to his rave review, the New York Times weighed in, including it in its national 50 favorite restaurants list. The NYT found “robust and deftly executed Polish cuisine,” while Craig loved the “heartfelt and hands-on update to the Polish traditions of his family’s ancestors,” and added context to Little Walter’s place in the food cosmos.

As you might imagine, Little Walter’s Resy book blew up. Next week’s $100-a-head National Pierogi Day dinner? Quick sellout.

Let us also direct you to other Polish pleasures in nearby Port Richmond. There are the staples Czerw’s and Swiacki Meats for kielbasa and savory stuff, Polka Deli for meats and pantry items, and pound cake at Stock’s Bakery. On the restaurant front, Craig enjoys Ela Balka’s Dinner House Polish Cuisine, a no-frills touchstone for homespun comforts on Allegheny Avenue. I stopped by the new “pierogi and pils” collaboration between Carbon Copy, the West Philly-based brewery and winery, and Mom-Mom’s Kitchen, the food cart-turned-brick-and-mortar shop, in the former Lunar Inn on Richmond Street. There’s a lovely, moody vibe at the bar and in the church pew seating. Order food at a podium toward the rear, and select your beer and wine from the bar. Yes, though you order and pay separately, the experience is seamless. Shown below is Mom-Mom’s Pop-Pop’s Plate: six potato pierogi with a side of caramelized onions, a gloriously grilled Czerw’s kielbasa, a single golabki, sauerkraut, beets, pickles, mustard, and two slices of buttered bread. Carbon Copy’s pils, Coy, was a good match.

Farther afield: The Pierogie Kitchen, a restaurant and market in Roxborough, offers 30-plus pierogi, plus cooked foods and “stackers,” a pierogi on a roll; D&D Delicious Deli in Hatfield, Montgomery County, which has a full line of imports; and Pat’s Polish Deli in Feasterville-Trevose, an eat-in restaurant with a market and a diner menu.

Sushi restaurants in the area, once few and far between, are ubiquitous. The exclusive omakase experience has followed in the years since. You sit at a counter and put yourself in the chef’s hands. This week, the region gets at least its 13th omakase, by my count.

Kevin Yanaga, the alum of Morimoto, Zama, Double Knot, and Pod, performs three nights a week for eight people (two seatings) in a narrow room behind a bookshelf just off the bar at his newish Yanaga Kappo Izakaya in Northern Liberties. His intricate “637 Philly Sushi Club” feasts include luxe flourishes (salmon smoked tableside, chawanmushi with ikura, A5 Japanese Wagyu), and clock in at $180pp plus 20% service charge. A five-course sake pairing ($65) and seven-course “kuro obi” pairing ($80) are available, as is sake by the bottle. Tip: Be sure you’re heading to the right place. Yanaga Kappo Izakaya is at Third Street and Fairmount Avenue, where the Abbaye was, and is not affiliated with Yanaga’s last stop, the izakaya and adjacent omakase room known as “by Yanaga” in Fishtown. (They now operate as Izakaya Fisjhown and Sushi by Bou.)

Keep reading to catch up on all 13 omakase offerings.

Chefs Lee Styer and Jessie Prawlucki Styer are reviving Fond, their stylish East Passyunk restaurant, in Wallingford, near their house in Delaware County. They’ve taken over La Cannelle Cafe, and they’ll stay open during what is supposed to be a two- or three-week transition.

Many distillers are too small to get on the sales lists of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. As such, you can’t get these boutique products through Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores, even via special order. But longtime distiller Andrew Auwerda (at center in the photo above) figured a way around that two years ago: His in-state limited distillery license allows him to bottle and sell spirits directly to the public, restaurants, and bars via his company, BOTLD. Small-batch makers send him spirits in totes and barrels, and he bottles and labels it. Auwerda launched a BOTLD website and opened retail stores, first in Rittenhouse and later in King of Prussia, to retail these specialty items, which are priced competitively.

For example: Apologue saffron-spiced liqueur is unavailable in Pennsylvania. But the Chicago distillery sends it in bulk to BOTLD, and Auwerda and crew bottles, labels, and sells it.

BOTLD is about to take the next step. On Friday, BOTLD’s new bottle shop will open at 117 S. 13th St. in Washington Square West, next to Van Leeuwen’s Ice Cream and across from Barbuzzo, El Vez, Pearl & Mary, and Prunella. It will have a nine-seat bar designed by Boxwood Architects, while additional lounge and banquette seating will bring the guest count to 35.

Manager Roland Coggin (at right in the photo above) likened it to a showroom: All 150 bottles on the shelf can be made into a cocktail. Coggin created the small cocktail list and set it up, with drinks featuring spirits by such distillers as St. George, Avallen, and Kyrö. Drink prices are $10 to $17. Mixed nuts, popcorn, olives, pretzels, and jerky are the food offerings. This is clearly a spot for a pre-dinner drink or nightcap.

General manager Leighton Phillips (at left) mixed the off-menu Clover Club you see, shaking cranberry thyme syrup, lemon, and egg white with Rieger’s gin, a brand out of Kansas City, Mo., a classic London dry.

BOTLD, 117 S. 13th St. Hours (starting Oct. 4): 1-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday.

Hiroyuki “Zama” Tanaka, 53, owner of the popular Zama on 19th Street near Rittenhouse Square, died of cancer Monday. The self-taught sushi chef picked up his nickname while a cook at Camp Zama, a U.S. Army base in Kanagawa, Japan. He came to Philly out of kōkō to study at Temple University but found himself working at Genji and then in the Starr orbit at Pod and Morimoto before the 2009 debut of Zama. Ten years ago, he opened coZara in University City; it closed in 2019. (Shown above is Zama in coZara’s window.)

Vonda Bucci, 91, who with her son, John Jr., ran John’s Roast Pork in South Philadelphia since the 1960s, died Tuesday. The shop is due to reopen Oct. 8. Vonda Bucci (shown below in 2008) was the brains of the operation, John Jr. said on so many occasions. Check out this backstory from our archives.

The Chart House, the syndicated seafood restaurant that’s anchored the southern end of Penn’s Landing since 1986, will close Nov. 30. Chief operating officer Shah Ghani cited “major construction in the area that has cut off visibility and access for our customers to the restaurant.” Extending gratitude to customers, he said the company was working to relocate its 36 employees to nearby locations.

The Concourse at the Comcast Center is pumping up the tenant roster. Jamaican Jerk Hut is planning to open Oct. 15. JJH enjoyed a long run on South Street and had a prime role in the Philly-shot Cameron Diaz movie In Her Shoes before it resurfaced several years ago as Ocho Rios Parilla on East Passyunk Avenue. Ocho Rios, incidentally, just closed. Also on board downstairs will be Middle Eastern fast-casual Pita Chip (mid-November) and Kenny’s Wok, an Asian spot from Kenny Poon, a partner in Miss Saigon and Ding Feng Tang (early 2025).

The Ground Rittenhouse. The leaves may be changing, but it’s always green inside the Ground Rittenhouse, a lovely cafe near the square that showcases and sells plants and gifts, and deals in creative fare inspired by co-owner Michelle Miller’s mother’s Korean background and co-owner Molly Kiriacoulacos’ Louisiana roots.

Above is the Oh Mommy, which features Korean-style gyeranjjim, the egg souffle, on a house croissant. The sweet side of the menu features a croffle (a croissant-waffle hybrid) and house-made pastries. There’s plenty more, as I’ll explain, including bone broth. Because what’s a cafe in 2024 without bone broth?

The Ground Rittenhouse, 120 S. 18th St. Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

Vita, the Italian restaurant tucked behind a refrigerator door in a Rittenhouse gelateria, serves more intrigue than flavor, Craig LaBan says in his latest review.

Sterling Pig Public House’s last call in West Chester after five years will be Sunday. The Media location remains.

Paola Velez, the pastry chef and author of the new Bodega Bakes cookbook, will be joined in conversation with Ashley Huston of DreamWorld Bakes at the Barnes & Noble at 1708 Chestnut St. at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. It’s free but you need to register.

Row 7 Seed Co. is visiting Middle Child Clubhouse (1232 N. Front St.) through Sunday to talk up Badger Flame beets, including them on a hoagie and in a beet spritz. On Saturday, the Row 7 veggie truck (planted with a live vegetable garden in the truck bed) will be parked outside the restaurant from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. with beet samples.

Lloyd, the Fishtown whiskey specialist, is taking advantage of the new state law granting additional happy hours. It’s tacking on an hour a day — till 11 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and till midnight weekends — with bar and food specials, in addition to the 4-6 p.m. happy hours. “We always fancy ourselves as a cool bar,” said owner Scott Coudriet, who is trying to restore Lloyd as a late-night industry hangout. Menu is online.

Twisted Tail in Society Hill’s new late-night weekend happy hour runs at the upstairs bar from 10 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays, with such discounts as buck-a-shuck oysters and $5 crawfish mac plus half-price beer on draft.

More Halloween bars have come online: Bake’n Bacon (1148 S. 11th St.) is turning its new second-floor lounge, which boasts 25-foot ceilings, into a Halloween experience called Boojie Boo. It’s stocked with oversize creatures, skulls, spider webs, and more. Show up in costume this month and receive a $10 gift certificate to be used during a future visit. Uptown Beer Garden’s Halloween pop-up (theme: “Uptown’s Freak Show”) is open through Oct. 31 at 1500 JFK Blvd. I covered a few others last month in this newsletter.

Wawa was named the top convenience store chain in the country, according to a poll. Stephanie Farr, our Shorti bureau chief, explains why fans of rival Sheetz are wrong wrong wrong.

There’s a new mural atop Casa Mexico/South Philly Barbacoa restaurant in South Philadelphia to honor whom?

A) Frankie Avalon

B) Frank Rizzo

C) the founders of Connie’s Ric Rac

D) Jerry Blavat

Find out if you know the answer.

Do you know what’s going on with Borda’s (fka Francoluigi’s) at 13th and Tasker? They shut down during the pandemic and then started doing renovations, only briefly opening for takeout slices before suddenly shutting down again. It’s been like four years now and I miss that place. What’s going on? — Ben N.

Franco Borda has been promising a return of the Highnote Caffe for about two years now, and he insists it’s “a few months away.” He says it will include “small eats, drinks, and a lot of talent” from local musicians — opera, jazz, classic rock — and that he’ll involve son Anthony, daughter Maria, and his son-in-law Kevin McCall. Franco, by the way, is a true South Philly Renaissance man (opera singer, artist, cook, real estate investor, yadda yadda), as you’ll see in this 2015 profile by Diane Mastrull.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

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