How Instagram helps the restaurant business | Let’s Eat
Also: Craig LaBan gets down with duck, Reading Terminal Market names a new GM, and nutritionists share their favorite takeout restaurants.
This week, we offer a look at how Instagram has become an essential part of the food world, ideas for tasty homemade duck dishes, nutritionists’ favorite takeout and delivery options, and a full plate of restaurant news.
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Instagram has become even more essential to restaurants during the pandemic
Instagram has long been a food lover’s friend. It’s the go-to app not only for cooking tips and inspiration but for more detailed looks at restaurants’ specials, news, and ordering. (Smart restaurateurs add links to their point-of-sale systems, such as Toast, so you can pop in an order and pay for it seamlessly.) The pandemic has made Instagram essential to restaurants, and reporter Jenn Ladd talks to longtime operators and newbies about the power of posting.
Waddle it be? Craig LaBan steps up his duck game
Cooking duck can be more intimidating than chicken, says food critic and skilled home cook Craig LaBan, so he tended to leave it to the pros. But when the pandemic shut down some of his favorite venues, he’d daydream about his favorites from years past. When he got extra refrigerator space, he decided to take another quack at cooking it. He asked six chefs for their recipes, and you should find at least one to fit the bill.
Meanwhile, the Free Library of Philadelphia has moved its Culinary Literacy Center online. The shift was a learning experience for the center’s Caity Rietzen, as Jenn tells us. Since May, the library has hosted more than 60 virtual events, including chef-led cook-alongs covering everything from homemade hot chocolate and marshmallows to Syrian cuisine.
Nutrition experts weigh in on healthful takeout and delivery options
There’s no shortage of delicious takeout and delivery options in Philadelphia. Reporter Grace Dickinson asked local nutritionists where to find fare that will fill you up and make you feel good, too.
Reading Terminal Market hires a new general manager
Annie Allman, previously a senior director of marketing at Comcast, started this week as the Reading Terminal Market’s general manager. She replaces Conor Murphy, who quit in December after only six months. As reporter Katie Park tells us, Allman had decided to get out of her comfort zone to apply for the job.
Restaurant report
There’s been a recent parade of Fujian-born customers into Chinatown Square, the food hall at 1016 Race St. in Chinatown. The destination: Chinatown Dumpling House, a new takeout from Kenny Poon and David Taing. The calling card: steaming bowls of Fuzhou fish ball soup. It’s a light broth with fish dumplings whose outer layer combines ground eel, flounder, and whiting, which seals a pork filling. Years ago, chef Alan Zheng sold them from a street cart in Fuzhou Zheng Village, where Poon grew up. Small world: The two men found each other in Philly. Alas, for now, Chinatown Dumpling House has no online presence — only an Instagram with no posts that is linked to a web page that is parked by GoDaddy. (I popped the menu on my own Instagram post.) Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-Monday (closed Tuesday). Orders can be phoned to 215-519-8888. UberEats, Grubhub, and Postmates will begin delivery next week.
South Philly sandwich and pizza mecca Angelo’s Pizzeria is opening a bar down the block “sooner, rather than later.” The bar will serve the entire Angelo’s sandwich menu, along with drinks. Angelo’s, meanwhile, is still a few weeks from reopening after a pre-Christmas fire.
And speaking of fire: Victory Brewing Co.’s brewpub in Kennett Square, and the apartments above it, was heavily damaged Monday night. No injuries were reported. The cause is still under investigation, the borough’s police chief said today, and a Victory spokesperson said it would “take some time” to reopen.
Mural City Cellars, Philly’s first independent urban winery, opens for retail sales only on Saturday, Jan. 30. Tastings will follow after COVID restrictions abate. Hours will be 5-8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
More destination restaurants are opening their indoor dining rooms on Friday, Jan. 29, including Suraya, the Middle Eastern spot in Fishtown, and Elwood, the classic American in Fishtown. Check their Instagrams for details.
And if you want a touching read, I’d recommend Craig’s piece about restaurateur KeVen Parker of Ms. Tootsie’s, who died Jan. 15 of cancer. He left a big impression on generations of Philadelphians, especially young Black chefs.