You need a dinner table tonight? | Let’s Eat

Procrastinators, we feel you. Here are some dinner ideas for tonight. Also this week, I recap a dozen-plus new restaurants, Craig LaBan reviews the intriguing dinner series at Honeysuckle Provisions, and Jenn Ladd tells you how to score rare booze cheaply.

— Mike Klein

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For whatever reason, you’ve decided to go out for dinner tonight.

Then you’re shocked, shocked that you can’t score a 7:30 table at Kalaya or a deuce at the omakase at Royal Izakaya. Before I remind you that love is not defined by the restaurant you’re in but the person you’re dining with, here are some last-minute ideas.

When I asked at our staff meeting, my favorite critic replied, “a.kitchen,” where he says you can always wrangle a table. (Craig also wrote the book on cracking the reservation code.) There are openings at a.kitchen’s four-course Valentine’s Day tasting menu. The chef’s counter is booked, but try a bar walk-in.

Other ideas:

The Prime Rib at Philadelphia Live Casino, where the Library Bar is V Day-themed.

Blue Sunday Bar & Grill, a date-nighter in Bensalem (shown above), allows walk-ins for its $70 dinner for two: lobster entrees with one side option (New York strip, lamb rack, salmon, or beef short rib) and live jazz.

The charming Cafe le Jardin in Audubon, N.J., has a prix-fixe three-course prime rib dinner for $85.

Founding Fathers Bar hosts a one-night pop-up themed to the old Marmont steakhouse with four-course dinners for $65 per person or $100 per couple.

Play mini-golf at Libertee Grounds, which will accept walk-ins. There are board games, darts, shuffleboard, and cards to play, as well.

Fringe Bar (Penn’s Landing) hosts Valentine’s Day-themed quizzo alongside its build-a-burger night.

I’ve spotted availability at Rex at the Royal in Graduate Hospital (Southern), Starbolt in Kensington (American), White House Tajine in Bryn Mawr (Moroccan BYOB), Streetlight Kitchen & Bar in Drexel Hill (American), Trattoria Valona in Horsham (Italian), and Water Wheel Tavern in Doylestown (American).

And if you want to stay in, know that Oyster House in Center City is making “Shellebration” platters for pickup only. You get eight raw oysters with a pomegranate mignonette, four head-on prawns, crab dip with saltines, and two chilled splits of sparkling wine for $74. Pickups are from 3-5 p.m. on Feb. 14 or Feb. 17 (yes, Saturday); phone orders to 215-567-7683.

More than a dozen new restaurants have opened in the last couple of months. They range from coffee shops and luncheonettes to posh sushi and steakhouses. Read on for a look-see.

I dropped by 9 Prime, the new steakhouse in West Chester, and saw what $10 million buys. There’s video, too.

Chef Omar Tate, who owns Honeysuckle Provisions in West Philadelphia with his partner, wife, and co-chef, Cybille St. Aude-Tate, weaves poetry, music, philosophy, and art into compelling food narratives that evoke the nostalgia and struggles of growing up Black and economically disadvantaged in Germantown. Critic Craig LaBan writes that Honeysuckle’s new dinner series has lent “an exciting new element to Honeysuckle’s evolving mission to, as St. Aude-Tate says, ‘concentrate on our food and the stories we’re trying to tell about our community.’”

Pandemic Pantry is technically a buying club: a free-to-subscribe weekly grocery pickup patronized mainly by West Philadelphians. Jenn Ladd explains how it’s flourishing not only as a shopping spot but as a community hub.

Congrats to chef Reuben Asaram (at left in photo above with Cory Powell), who’s been hitting the local popup circuit hard while mixing Indian and Mexican flavors under the alias Chef Reuby. He’s just been named among the first three chefs in Taco Bell’s TBX program, in which emerging chefs put their spin on the brand’s Crunchwrap Supreme. The time and place for his unveiling are TBA but will be “later this year,” he told us.

Kevin Cooper of Drexel Hill won the Food Network show Guy’s Chance of a Lifetime, and now he has the prize: owning a Chicken Guy franchise in partnership with founders Guy Fieri and Robert Earl. Read on for Cooper’s story — from his childhood in North Philadelphia, to his years in the Army, to his time in front of the cameras in Orlando.

Chicken Guy, King of Prussia Mall’s first-floor food court. Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p..m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

How about a wagyu cheesesteak party? The crew from Joseph’s Pizzeria in Fox Chase and Dave Wesolowski (@feedingtimetv) are hosting such an event Feb. 27 for 50 people, at $100 per: Starts at 6 p.m. with a tomato-pie appetizer. Nan Sato, also known as the Wagyu Sommelier, will talk. Chef Richard Cusack of June BYOB will cook the sandwiches, which will be built on rolls baked by chef Carlos Aparicio of El Chingon. Cooper will provide sharp American or black pepper American cheese. Fishtown Pickles will supply the pickles (plus jars for take-home), and Saif Manna of Manna Bakery will have maritozzi for dessert. To be considered, sign up on Joseph’s website and you will contacted next week.

Tavern on Camac, the historic Gayborhood destination, will throw back menu prices Saturday and Sunday to mark its 20th anniversary under owner Stephen P. Carlino. Examples: crab-stuffed portobello mushrooms for $8; housemade duck liver paté for $9; mussels in garlic and white wine butter for $11; shrimp Louie with avocado, capers, and hardboiled egg for $14; glazed pork chop with pomegranate, potatoes, and asparagus for $18; and a 14-ounce New York strip with Roquefort, potatoes, and Brussels sprouts for $23. Cosmopolitans will be priced at $6, while bottles of Stella Artois will be featured for $3 all weekend.

East Passyunk Restaurant Week will run from Monday, Feb. 26 to Friday, March 8 with nearly two dozen restaurants offering three-course prix fixe lunch and/or dinner menus for $20, $30, $40, and $55. Among restos on board are Barcelona, Bing Bing Dim Sum, Cantina los Caballitos, The Dutch, Ember & Ash, Flannel, Gabriella’s Vietnam, Juana Tamale, Le Virtu, Marra’s, MoonNight, Noir, Ocho Rios, Perla, Pistolas Del Sur, Pizzata Pizzeria Birreria, P’unk Burger, Stogie Joe’s, the Palace of Indian, Townsend Wine Bar, and Triangle Tavern.

Chef Jose Garces will be among the competitors on the Guy Fieri-hosted Tournament of Champions’ fifth season. It launches 8 p.m. Sunday on Food Network.

The Dive and Watkins Drinkery are among the most down-to-earth bars in South Philly, writes Jenn Ladd. They’re now for sale, as owner Jonn Klein is moving to Europe.

Happy outcome to a sad situation. Lynette Hazelton tells the story of South Philadelphia restaurateurs whose vehicles were stolen over the summer and who got back in business, thanks to a GoFundMe campaign and support from the city’s Department of Commerce.

The career of Pierre Robert, the long-serving WMMR disc jockey, has been guided by the city’s dining scene. Dan DeLuca chews the fat with him.

Need food recommendations in the city’s Graduate Hospital neighborhood? Chef Ari Miller gives it to you straight.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has an online lottery going for the right to buy some rare bottles. Among them is the Pappy Van Winkle 23-year-old Family Reserve Straight Bourbon, which sells around the country for $5,000-plus. What is the PLCB’s price, as part of this lottery?

A) $2,000

B) $3,000

C) $4,000

D) $399.99

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s this I hear about Joe Cicala opening a pizzeria? — Cole M.

That’s a fact. Joe Cicala, who his wife, Angela, are chef-owners of the posh Cicala at the Divine Lorraine, are opening Sorellina, specializing in a simple combo of Neapolitan-inspired pies, wines, and apertivi in a handsome room across the lobby. They did a pop-up last night and hope to open in mid-March. Sorellina is aimed at the lunch crowd as well as those looking for a bite before or after a show at the Met across the street. The Cicalas, who have a pizza oven outdoors at Cicala, are no strangers to the pizza game. Recall that in 2020, as the pandemic shut down the world, Joe built an oven in their South Philly backyard and their “speakeasy” got busted by L&I. Below are the Cicalas and their new Moretti electric oven at Sorellina.

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