The viral ‘crookie’ dessert has landed in Philly | Let’s Eat

Because cookies and croissants aren’t enough separately anymore, creative local bakers are mashing them together. Also this week, we find new nightlife in Fishtown, terrific pizza in Haddonfield, and — this one’s as goudas gold — a 24/7 cheese vending machine.

❓ I want to hear your thoughts about the Let’s Eat newsletter. Take our survey and get a chance to win a $75 Visa gift card, a free 28-day trial to Inquirer.com, and lunch with me. Yes, I’m buying. (If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll get three entries in the drawing instead of the trial.)

Take our brief, anonymous survey to help me make Let’s Eat better for you.

— Mike Klein

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

The latest Tiktok-fueled dessert craze is the crookie, a croissant stuffed with cookie dough, invented by a French pastry chef and spreading around the world. Local snack shops are getting into the act.

😋 You want a brownie now, don’t you? Here are some of our favorites.

Fishtown’s restaurants and bars are clustered mostly north of Girard Avenue, but the stretch around Delaware Avenue has some solid nightlife.

Fabrika. Performance art meets cabaret meets supper club at this popular date-night and bachelor-party destination in a grand former factory building next to Barcade. More is more: a showroom’s worth of crystal chandeliers, a photo-worthy bathtub set up outside the restroom, and plenty of dark corners for privacy. (It’s 21-plus.) The circular, hydraulic stage has its ups and downs. Thursday is burlesque night, while Friday and Saturday play host to a two-hour variety show with tumbling, dancers, and the like roaming the crowd while an aerialist performs feats from the 40-foot ceiling. At intermission, patrons get up to dance to the DJ. Sunday brunch (noon) is a drag show and a home of Sapphira Cristál.

The initial Eastern European menu has morphed into a collection of international small and large plates under Korean-born, Russian-raised chef Vlad Lee. Pay attention to the sushi salmon tacos ($21) in a tempura shell topped with spicy mayo, marinated rice, and cucumbers and garnished with fried enoki mushrooms; fried shrimp ($18) with mango in wasabi mayo; and branzino ($27) with arancini, grilled asparagus, and a creamy, clam-based sauce. There’s a full bar — three of them, in fact.

The name means factory. But do you say it “fab-REEKA” or “FAB-ricka”? Co-owner Lasha Kikvidze chuckled at the question. “It’s really ‘FAB-ricka,’” he said. “But so many people were saying it ‘fab-REEKA,’ we just go with that, too.”

Fabrika, 1108 Frankford Ave. Cover charges and per-person minimums vary; check website.

Mamajuana Cafe. Just down the block is the new Mamajuana Cafe, a bar-restaurant with big energy, splashy lighting, and a fusion menu that spans the Caribbean, South America, and Asia (there are sushi rolls) and island-style cocktails. Read on to see what they’ve done to the space that once housed a restaurant that carried a theme of post-apocalypse America.

Mamajuana Cafe, 1000 Frankford Ave. Hours: 4 to 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, and noon to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Happy hour is 4 to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday.

🍕 Every nightlife district needs a killer pizzeria. In that area, our go-to is Vince’s Pizzeria.

Philly now has a 24/7 cheese vending machine. Jenn Ladd visited the new bright-red dispensary outside of Perrystead Dairy in Kensington, which offers award-winning cheeses, meats, crackers, jams, chutneys, and even cheese boards. How grate is this?

Defined Hospitality, behind such hot restaurants as Kalaya, Suraya, Pizzeria Beddia, and Condesa, bought a ramshackle building in Kensington in late 2021. Now, the partners are a couple of months from opening it as Picnic, a wine shop and restaurant that will serve wood-fired food and oysters as it brings the outdoors inside.

King of Prussia Mall is getting new restaurants. First up, this summer, will be Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, the locally owned soup-dumpling specialist. Next year will see the debut of Lazy Dog, a syndicated sports bar, along with the region’s first Eataly. I noticed a liquor application last week and learned that the Tommy Bahama store will move within the mall and add a Marlin Bar. Coconut shrimp will be involved.

South Philly’s Royal Tavern reopens for brunch this weekend (10 a.m.-3 p.m.), and chef Nic Macri’s menu includes lots of vegan items, plus stuff like the signature burger, a bologna egg and cheese sandwich, and a smoked-fish plate with house-smoked trout, jammy egg, horseradish cream cheese, capers, red onion, watercress, and toasted rye bread.

Kevin Addis of the recently shuttered Entree BYOB on South Street has resurfaced in the Poconos as the new owner of Pappy’s Schoolhouse Tavern in Lehighton, Carbon County. He’s renamed it Pocono Tavern and hopes to open soon. Entrée (1608 South St.) is now an Italian BYOB called La Sera Italiana.

🗓️ Jim’s South Street Steaks, restored from that 2022 fire, returns next Wednesday 5/1 at 4 p.m., and here’s what you need to know.

Pizza Pazza. Haddonfield’s only wood-fired pizzeria, Pizza Crime, closed several months ago, but the oven is blazing once again. Endrit ”Andrew” Bodi of Verona Ristorante next door has taken over the space with Antonio Pietropaolo, an old friend and pizzaiolo who had returned to Italy four years ago. After Pietropaolo’s parents died last year, Bodi summoned him back to the U.S. to lift his mood.

They’re proud of their cheeses — “none of that ‘plastic’ here,” said Pietropaolo, who drives up to an Italian distributor in North Jersey for fior di latte mozzarella, fresh provola (“not provolone!”), caciocavallo, and ricotta di bufala.

Above are the pizza rolls, sort of like Pizzeria Vetri’s signature rotolo, though the fillings are more tightly packed into two-bite snacks. Varieties include a supreme ($12) packed with mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, prosciutto, pepperoni, peppers, olives, and mushrooms.

Small line of pizzas includes the quattro formaggi pizza ($17), which is actually a cinque formaggi when they add Gorgonzola upon request. Pastas are available only at lunch, lest Pizza Pazza dip into Verona’s dinner biz. Thin-crusted schiacciata sandwiches are also available only at lunch.

Idea: Bring in beer from King’s Road Brewing Co. or wine from William Heritage, both neighbors, or go the other way with takeout from Pizza Pazza.

Pizza Pazza, 139 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield. Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Sunday. Closed Tuesday.

(That’s Pietropaolo at left, Bodi at right in the photo below.)

Wetzel’s Pretzels, marking its 30th anniversary, is giving away free pretzels from 3 p.m. till closing on Friday. The lone Philly-area location is at 11th and Market Streets, at the Fashion District.

The weekend-only Southeast Asian Market in South Philadelphia’s FDR Park has overcome the hiccups surrounding its 2024 reopening. It returns May 4, per its website, but will be closed May 5 during the Broad Street Run.

Careers Through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), which teaches kitchen work to 1,800 students at 22 high schools in Camden, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties, has set its annual Philly Pheast benefit for 6 p.m. Monday at the Pyramid Club. Tickets ($200 per) and info are at the website.

Interesting collab: Ogawa Sushi & Kappo and Little Fish chef de cuisine Jacob Trinh and his Philly Sake Club for a tasting event on Sunday at Ogawa, 310 Market St. Seatings at 5:30 and 8 p.m. ($160pp) for 10 courses of hot and cold selections, plus nigiri, and five sake pours. Reserve via Resy.

Tickets go on sale at noon Wednesday for ShuckFest, Oyster House’s annual oyster festival, coming June 2 at Liberty Point on Penn’s Landing. The $80 ticket grants tastings from 12 New Jersey-based oyster growers, oyster-shucking tutorials from experts, a craft table for children to create jewelry from oyster shells, live music, and the event’s high point: an oyster-shucking competition. (The Inquirer’s own Margaret Eby will be one of the judges.) Additional food and drinks will be available for purchase. See Oyster House’s website.

Philly’s South Fellini and Dirty Hands Studio have partnered with which local snack-food company on a line of merchandise?

A) Herr’s

B) Center City Soft Pretzel Bakery

C) Utz

D) Rita’s Italian Ice

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s going on with Doobies Bar? — Steve G.

The classic watering hole (and David Bowie-theme bar) at 22nd and Lombard Streets is on the way back, owner Patti Brett wrote on Instagram the other day. She’s been under pressure, you might say. The liquor license expired in October, and she is ironing out “messy tax issues,” as she told FitlerFocus.com. Figure on a reopening in late May or June.

Do you know what’s up with Cuzzy’s ice cream? — Laura L.

With cone season about to kick in, neighbors wonder if they’ve taken their last licks at this well-regarded scoop shop on Fifth Street in Queen Village. It seems buttoned up. Vin Angiolillo, cousin of Andrew “Cuzzy” Angiolillo, politely no-commented when I called yesterday, and I have not heard back from the building owner.

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

By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.