Sound off: What are your Philly favorites? | Let’s Eat

We’d like you play favorites. Read on to learn how you can choose winners of our 2022 Readers’ Choice awards. Also this week: Plenty of news, about ice cream, new restaurant tipping rules, a boon for food trucks, and even a summer soup you need to make.

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❓ But first, a quiz: The historic Pennsylvania brewery Stoudts is coming back. Philly’s Evil Genius Beer Co. will produce some classic and even new beer varieties under founder Carol Stoudt’s guidance. What year did she open Stoudts in Adamstown?

A. 1981

B. 1987

C. 1979

Tap here for the answer. (That’s beerspeak for “click.”)

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— Mike Klein

Philly’s food options are as beloved as they are abundant. The cocktail scene, new restaurants, and tried-and-true standbys are all part of what make producing The Inquirer’s annual Dining Guide so much fun for us. But this year, we’re doing something different: Letting you tell us your top picks. We narrowed down favorites to five nominees in 13 categories, and you’re invited to vote through August 17th. Readers’ Choice winners will be announced in the 2022 Dining Guide, publishing in October.

Friday, Aug. 5 marks the debut of Milk Jawn ice cream’s first scoop shop, next to Essen Bakery at 1439 E. Passyunk Ave. Free cups of ice cream will be given to the first 100 people beginning at 5 p.m. Back story: Amy Wilson (above) founded Milk Jawn in 2020 in her kitchen, and brought in Ryan Miller and Cathryn Sanderson as partners. The shop, offering pints, cups, and cones with a limited menu to start, will be open noon-11 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. (They’re producing the ice cream a couple of blocks away.) Fun fact: Milk Jawn has nondairy (vegan) options, including mango sticky rice.

These are hot times for ice cream in Philly, folks. Here are our favorites.

Franco Lombardo of Collingswood’s Sapori Trattoria Italiana and his mamma used to argue about the bowl of broken linguine and fresh vegetables splashed with broth that he grew up eating in the summer in Palermo. Mamma called it a pasta. Il figlio called it a soup. They agreed on “summer soup.” Critic Craig LaBan not only discusses the history and the technique, he shares Lombardo’s recipe.

Restaurant economics turns off front-of-the-house people like Floew Wright of West Oak Lane (shown above), who just left her job as a bartender after 10 years, partly due to pay. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage and tipping regulations change on Friday, Aug. 5 for the first time since 1977, and my colleague Marina Affo explains the updates.

Jim’s South St. Steaks at Fourth and South Streets is out of commission for the foreseeable future because of a fire last week.

Hershey says it will not be short on chocolate this Halloween, disputing news reports that suggested otherwise.

Ice cream trucks are so 1962, right? Latifah Lackey of North Philadelphia (above) runs Candygyrl, a candy truck, that stops at local festivals. “I’m going to sell candy until I die because I believe in me and I believe in what I want,” she told colleague Stephanie Farr — whose personal fave is Junior Mints.

Food truckers are giving thanks to Matt Rossi (below), who saved Philly’s largest food truck commissary from lawsuits and debt. Craig, who last summer documented the extensive legal issues surrounding the previous operator, reports on the next chapter of the business. 🔒

There’s an Aleksandar behind Restaurant Aleksandar, opening this week at 126 S. 19th St., in a double brownstone just off Rittenhouse Square. Aleksandar Stojnic (above), 31, son of Serbian-born restaurateurs, grew up in Bremen, Germany, and fell in love with Philly while an exchange student at Northeast High. He also fell in love with Monika Maj, whose father, Marek, is the developer who bought the building, which formerly housed V Street and Wiz Kid. Stojnic, who had been doing construction work for Marek Maj, took one look at the space and decided that he, too, needed to open a restaurant.

Executive chef Montana Houston took Stojnic’s Euro suggestions for the menu. The cabbage rolls, ($13) for example, contain oyster and shiitake mushrooms and jasmine rice and are topped with tamari sauce. Also on the menu is a lamb shank ($27) over polenta, root vegetables, and red currants; “forest floor” gnocchi ($22) with pumpernickel “soil,” wild mushrooms, halloumi “rocks,” Brussels sprout leaves, and leek ash; and seared scallops ($25) with purple cauliflower puree, asparagus and corn couscous, and frisee salad topped with lemon miso vinaigrette. The pierogi (shown below) come with celery apple salad.

The early bar list offers five beers, all but one local, on draft; five wines; three zero-proof cocktails; and eight cocktails ($12 to $16).

Read more about the vibe and see the space’s bold, large-scale paintings done by his mother, Svetlana Alimpijevic, here.

Briefly noted

The American Vegan Center, at 17 N. Second St. since late 2021, will (at last) cut its ribbon at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 5. Party runs till 9 p.m. with food, fun, and surprises.

Jose Garces will open a food stand on the club level of the Wells Fargo Center for the 2022-23 season. It will be a collection of dishes from his restaurants, plus some new offerings.

The Ranstead Room, the speakeasy-style bar behind El Rey (2013 Ranstead St.), is partnering with Amor Y Amargo of downtown New York City for a bartender swap. Sother Teague and Bruce Schultz of Amor Y Amargo will be at the Ranstead Room from 7-10 p.m. Aug. 8, offering some cocktails from their bar. On Aug. 29, the tables will be turned as Ranstead Room bartenders show up to work at Amor Y Amargo.

Do not adjust your screen. This is a representation of the lighting at Pitch Black, a traveling dining concept that promotes the idea that eating in the dark heightens diners’ senses, making for a more pleasurable experience. (Yes, you’re blindfolded for dinner. Maybe not the best idea for a first date.) “The focus is instead on taste, smell, mouthfeel and sound, as well as promoting the art of conversation,” say organizers. The experience, aimed at ages 21 and over, is coming to Manayunk’s new Blondie (4417 Main St.) in mid-September.

Frieda is an art gallery, it’s a boutique, it’s a community center, and it’s also one of the cutest cafes in the Historic District, at 320 Walnut St. It’s where @thienanphotography enjoyed this brioche French toast from the breakfast menu served from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. daily. (A lunch menu is on from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.) Up in East Falls, @pineapplepam66, dropped by Franco Faggi’s chill Tuscan BYO Fiorino (3572 Indian Queen Lane) and tuned up for dinner with tuna carpaccio, simply prepared with olive oil, lemon, and capers. It’s also a favorite of Craig LaBan.

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