Is Philly the best restaurant city in America? | Let’s Eat

Philly’s pro sports teams may have been coming up short lately, but the restaurant scene is a champ. This week, we spill the secrets of underground dining, say farewell to a pioneering chef, and take you to what Craig LaBan says is one of most exciting new restaurants this year.

Dining out of doors, maybe heading to the season premiere of Center City District SIPS later today? Be mindful of the air-quality issues created by the Canadian fires. A mask may be a good idea, especially if you’re at risk.

⬇️ Read on for a quiz.

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— Mike Klein

When one city can claim three major James Beard Awards categories in the same year, that says something. Philadelphians ran the table Monday night. If the afterglow from 2017′s awards is any indication — when Stephen Starr, Mike Solomonov, and Greg Vernick won — they’re now turning cartwheels in the halls at VisitPhilly and food and travel journos are packing their bags for PHL.

To get you up to speed, our hometown winners:

🍽️Outstanding restaurant: Friday Saturday Sunday, the special-occasion gem near Rittenhouse Square. Chef Chad and Hanna Williams (above left) offer a $155-a-head, eight-course tasting menu upstairs as well as the 13-seat first-floor bar, open for walk-ins only with a la carte menu and Paul MacDonald’s sophisticated cocktails.

🍽️ Outstanding restaurateur: Ellen Yin (at left in right photo above), who has been setting the table since the 1997 opening of Fork in Old City. She now also runs a.kitchen in Rittenhouse and the soon-to-expand High Street at Ninth and Chestnut Streets. Yin is also an industry leader, cofounding the Sisterly Love Coalition to champion women in hospitality and leading relief efforts during the pandemic, as well as raising money for anti-Asian discrimination through the Wonton Project.

🍽️Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic: Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon, who has been running her own Thai restaurant kitchen now for all of four years. It was spring 2019 when she opened Kalaya as a BYOB in Bella Vista. After huge initial success, she took on new partners and installed a lush bar-restaurant in a former Fishtown warehouse. (Yes, it’s booked, but they take walk-ins, and there’s also weekend lunch.) Take a deep dive into Kalaya with Inquirer critic Craig LaBan, who visited Thailand with Nok last year.

🍽️More finalists: The Beard panel could pick only one Mid-Atlantic winner, which excluded finalist Dionicio Jiménez, who turns heads under the El in Kensington at Cantina La Martina (and is also the subject of a recent LaBan culinary excursion to Mexico), and six-time finalist Jesse Ito, who oversees Philly’s ne plus ultra of omakase experiences at Royal Sushi & Izakaya. Amanda Shulman of the shabby-chic Her Place Supper Club did not win the emerging-chef category, though she has “emerged” in the truest sense. She and fiancé Alex Kemp recently opened the hot My Loup, near Rittenhouse.

Philly had yet another Beard winner this year: Toby Maloney, bartender in residence at Hop Sing Laundromat in Chinatown, won in the media awards for his cocktail book. It’s his second Beard.

Here is my recap from the Beard’s red carpet in Chicago.

Informal supper clubs operating out of chefs’ apartments are some of the most imaginative places to eat in Philly right now, writes colleague Zoe Greenberg. They cultivate a kind of priceless exclusivity. If you don’t know the cool kids, you’d never know to go. 🔑

A generation ago, we drank in bars and we ate in restaurants. The twain met in gastropubs, and chef Ben McNamara was its earliest star in Philly at such spots as New Wave Cafe, St. Stephen’s Green, and Black Sheep Pub. He died at age 59, and I share his obit.

Chef Phila Lorn taps his Cambodian heritage for the menu at the bustling chicken-themed, BYOB noodle house that he and his wife, Rachel, opened recently in Kalaya’s former South Philly spot. Craig writes: “But most of the food here is also a thrill to eat, full of vivid, soulful flavors that add up to one of the most exciting openings in 2023.” 🔑

A Very Asian Guide to Vietnamese Food was created out of necessity. Author Cat Nguyen, daughter of Vietnamese refugees, a mother of two, and a lawyer and founding member of VietLead, couldn’t find an English-language book about Vietnamese culinary culture aimed at a young audience. Working with Gloo Books, publisher of A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food, Nguyen wrote one herself. Not only does Nguyen explain the whys and wherefores of Viet ingredients and cooking, she included QR codes to allow readers to get accurate pronunciations. The launch of the book, illustrated by Kim Thai Nguyen, will be 1-3 p.m. Sunday at the FDR Community Clubhouse, 1954 Pattison Ave., not far from the park’s Southeast Asian Market.

Free cake! Cake & Joe’s snazzy new location at 2012 Frankford Ave. will open at 9 a.m. Thursday. Sarah Qi and Trista Tang, who opened 2½ years ago in South Philly, will give out 50 cakes to the first 50 customers in line beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday and Friday — a choice between matcha mousse and chocolate mousse cakes. They’ll be BOGO for the rest of the day.

Almost free burger! Hard Rock Cafe Philadelphia at 12th and Market Streets will sell its signature country burger for 71 cents for 71 minutes, from 11:30 a.m.-12:41 p.m. next Wednesday. See, June 14 marks the opening date in 1971 of the original Hard Rock. Know where that is? Read on.

Wednesday is Day One at Post Haste, the chill cocktail bar from Fred Beebe (Momofuku Ssam in Manhattan, Sunday in Brooklyn) and Gabe Guerrero (Dandelion and El Vez) at 2519 Frankford Ave. in Kensington. Sustainability is the key, as everything, from the bar fixings, wines, beers, and spirits, to chef de cuisine Elise Black’s food, is sourced from the Eastern United States and 95% of furniture and design details were repurposed or recycled. Black, a vet of the Ellen Yin-Nicholas Elmi-Marc Vetri orbits, is going with lots of vegetarian (and vegan-izable) dishes, such as vignole and heirloom polenta with asparagus, snap peas, English peas, and caramelized green garlic. Of particular note is the cabbage cutlet (shown above), pan-fried and served with honey dijonnaise. The menu is here.

From left in the photo below, that’s sous chef Brandon Mack-Livingston with Black, and owners Fred Beebe (rear) and Gabe Guerrero.

Post Haste, 2519 Frankford Ave. Hours: 5 p.m.-midnight Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday; 5 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

A few tickets remain for Saturday afternoon’s Great Chefs Event at the Navy Yard headquarters of Urban Outfitters. This is the annual fundraiser for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation: Marc Vetri and Jeff Benjamin round up 30 or so chefs from around the country to cook and serve.

The restaurant community is coming to the aid of the 50 employees of Tequilas restaurant that have been idled since a fire in February. While David Suro and family work through the reopening, fundraisers abound. One, at the nearby Mission Taqueria, is called the Tatemado Project, after the technique of cooking food by burying it in burning coals. Mission’s new executive chef, Alejandro Martín Sánchez is using this technique to create four dishes; 25% of proceeds are being donated to the fund.

South Street landmark Copabanana has filed again for bankruptcy protection, as owners say they’re having trouble making the $36,000 monthly rent. What year did it open?

A) 1973

B) 1978

C) 1982

D) 1985

Find out if you know the answer.

(Hard Rock’s first location was in London. Fun fact: Philly’s opened on Jan. 16, 1998.)

What happened to Tamarind, the Thai restaurant at 117 South St. for many years? — @david.m.ashbridge

I’ve been unable to track down operators Akasak Kaewvichien and Napaporn Kosumwatcharaporn, but it’s clear that the restaurant has been vacated, the phone is disconnected, and emails are being unanswered. There’d been a Thai restaurant at that site since 1978, when Bangkok House opened.

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