The one where we rank all the boardwalk pizza shops in Atlantic City | Let’s Eat

You can get a great slice of pizza on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. And you can find a tasty breakfast/brunch in a bucolic setting by the Schuylkill. And there’s Filipino street food at a new stand at Reading Terminal. Busy week here. Read on!

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– Michael Klein

Atlantic City has its destination pizzerias, like Tony’s Baltimore Grill and Tony Boloney’s, as well as Bakeria 1010 on the mainland in nearby Linwood. But what about just regular pizza on the Boardwalk? Staff writer Amy S. Rosenberg hit the boards to rank all 12 shops, and the town’s signature quirky weirdness was present at every stop.

How about some ice cream? We found the best scoop shops all along the Jersey Shore.

Restaurateurs Nicholas Elmi (Laurel) and Fia Berisha (ex-Aether, Mistral) have transformed a relic of the region’s industrial DNA into what critic Craig LaBan calls “a riverside oasis for avocado toast, cocktails, and bocce.” It’s the Landing Kitchen in Bala Cynwyd, just across the Schuylkill from Manayunk. “Where once stood the smoke-belching hulk of the Pencoyd Iron Works is now a lush hideaway for brunch and leisure with an expansive terrace anchored by a Residence Inn,” Craig writes.

Looking ahead for this weekend: Craig names the best Mexican restaurants at the Jersey Shore.

Reading Terminal Market regulars might know Kathy Mirano from her two decades behind the counter at Olympia Gyros. When work dried up during the pandemic, Mirano honored her Filipino upbringing by making cakes and later savory dishes for private clients. Now she is back at Reading Terminal with her own business: a Filipino lunch counter called Tambayan, which means “a place to hang out” in Tagalog. “This is really the American dream for me,” she said.

Pennsylvania Libations Philadelphia has opened inside the market, on the 12th Street side. This marks the third location for the Pittsburgh-based wine-and-spirits shop, which sells the wares of more than 20 Pennsylvania wineries, distilleries, and cider houses.

A hundred lucky Philadelphians will be getting a baked-good binge of fairly epic proportions — and one with a pretty sweet upside, too. It’s the Philly edition of Bakers Box from restaurant-world veteran Arnold Byun that spotlights and supports the local Asian American Pacific Islander community. Byun called on Philly’s hive mind to curate a lineup of bakers from West Philly to North Wales, who will contribute one dessert to create an assemblage of 18 sweets. The $100 package, now sold out, is served in two handmade wooden boxes with nine compartments each. Byun said the boxes may return next year. Ten percent of proceeds from the Philly edition will go to Callowhill-based Asian Americans United.

Tatiana Wingate’s Sprinkled Sweetness is taking over the former Homemade Goodies by Roz bakery, on Fifth Street near South, in early August. Wingate worked with Roz Bratt a decade ago after graduating from the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College, and went on to decorate cakes at Isgro Pastries in South Philly before striking out on her own in September 2017. “I’ve outgrown my cottage business,” Wingate told me. Total redecoration is in progress, which will yield a cake studio and dessert bar.

Machine Shop Boulangerie’s Emily Riddel shares some sweet news with staff writer Jenn Ladd: She is moving within the Bok building in South Philadelphia from the fourth floor to a permanent retail home next to Two Persons Coffee. Fall 2021 opening, possibly by the end of September. “I really put a ton of love and effort and thought into the product, and I want to be able to see the faces who are eating it,” she told Jenn.

The dish before you is the Adrian’s Garden salad offered at A Mano at 23rd and Fairmount. Chef George Sabatino not only will plate it for you but he also planted its beets and radishes. Farming was his pandemic job. If you think cooking on the line is hard, he tells what it was like to be a 39-year-old hand at a Central Jersey farm.

Did someone say, “farm”? Oh, wait. I just typed it. Why not take a day trip outside the city to stock up on local cheese, milk, and ice cream — and see the animals that make these staples possible up close. Contributor Alexandra Jones offers a round-up of local dairies worth a day trip.

Big developments are on the way in Center City. First, I’ll tell you that Wm. Mulherin’s Sons in Fishtown is coming to East Market, next to the Iron Hill and Roost hotel. Second, the adjoining buildings on the 1200 blocks of Chestnut and Sansom that housed Porta and Brickwall Tavern before the pandemic have new tenants on the way. One is Sugar Factory, and the other is a New York-based restaurant group.

Briefly noted

Chloe, the long-running BYOB across on Arch Street from the Betsy Ross House, is temporarily closed. Co-owner Mary Ann Ferrie says on Instagram that her husband, chef Dan Grimes, fell while avoiding a speeding car and shattered both heels.

Miami-born, Atlanta-based chef Cleophus Hethington, known professionally as Chef Ophus, is bringing his African diaspora-inspired Ębí Chop Bar pop-up dinner to the Bynum brothers’ catering venue, SouthSide Events (1410 Mount Vernon St.), for a 6:30 p.m. seating on Aug. 30. The seven courses ($95) include dishes from Cameroon, the West Indies, West Africa, South America, and the southern U.S. , and will wrap up with Grandma Daisy sweet potato pie from his grandmother’s house.

Kismet Bagels has a permanent brick-and-mortar home on Sunday mornings at Vanessa Wong’s wine bar/bottle shop, Fishtown Social (1525 Frankford Ave.). Kismet’s Jacob and Alexandra Cohen will have three sandwich options, plus loose bagels, tubs of schmear, seasonings, bialys, and pastries from Erica Pais, from 9 a.m. to noon, effective Sunday, July 25.

Up to Eleven is a new coffee shop at 65 Cricket Ave. in Ardmore from Laura Fay, cofounder of Separatist Beer Project. Serves Reanimator Coffee, Kismet bagels with schmears and two sandwich options, and locally sourced pastries, plus Specialized’s line of turbo electric bikes. Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. daily; bike shop is open by appointment.

Southwestern-style nachos, tamales, chimichangas, wings, burros, and cactus fries are the draw at Shannon Dougherty and Liz Petersen’s snug and casual Pinto (24 E. Glenside Ave., Glenside), whose ground floor is now called Nacho Spot.

Don’t miss the nachos (available in sizes dubbed “parking spot” for the merely huge and “parking garage” for the utterly gigantic) and especially the red chicken, pinto bean, and rajas tamales, available in red or green enchilada style or bathed in a plate-licking-worthy bacon-corn sauce. There’s a line of mixers for those toting tequila or other spirits.

Hours: noon-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon-6 p.m. Sunday.

If you’re savvy enough to snag a table at the romantic/stylish Restaurant Andiario in West Chester, you’ll probably scour the web for the menu.

And you’ll strike out.

Chef Anthony Andiario — whose restaurant was Craig’s top suburban establishment in 2018, during its a la carte days — now puts out one four-course pre-fixe meal option a night.

Andiario likens it to going to a friend’s house, shying away from calling it a tasting menu. “This is dinner. This is what we’re cooking,” says Andiario, who runs the place with his wife, Maria van Schaijik. The $75 tab includes an amuse bouche and bread service from the couple’s nearby bakery, La Maguette Magique.

As it’s always been for three years, everything is hyper seasonal and local — meaning that you probably won’t enjoy the ricotta cappellacci with trumpet mushrooms that you see here, which was featured recently with a starter of marinated tomatoes with herbs, shaved onion, Clipper cheese, and pangrattato, an entree of duck breast cooked over coals with black currants and served with a side of buttered cabbage, and wrapped with blackberry clafoutis with mint ice cream. There’s an optional wine pairing.

The reservations typically go up on the website midmonth for the following month, and the spots are gone in minutes. August’s tables go up on July 23.