🍸 Let’s get holiday drinks at one of 40+ new bars | Let’s Eat
Yule want to read about the Christmas bars, our critic loves the new Meetinghouse, and what’s happening at Lou Bird’s?
This holiday week, we have word of nearly four dozen new bars, a rundown of Philly’s Christmas-themed bars and restaurants, a review of the new Meetinghouse in Kensington, and Craig LaBan’s raving about a hoagie dip you drag a warm croissant through.
Ah, carbs.
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Your friends and relatives are counting on you to show them where “all the new places” are in Philadelphia. Let me help with nearly four dozen bars that have opened this year — sweet little rooms like Superfolie (shown above) and Poison Heart, more rollicking restaurants like Bolo and Starbolt, and even a nonalcoholic bar, Palmina.
The halls are decked, and Hira Qureshi delivers your roundup of Christmas-themed bars and restaurants.
The days-old Bar Lesieur (shown below) has brought an understated, vintage French style to Rittenhouse Square. I’ll give you a look inside.
The beers, the warm energy, even the green salad are next level at Meetinghouse, the successor to the pioneering Kensington pub Memphis Taproom. “At every turn,” critic Craig LaBan writes in his review, “potentially overlooked classics are celebrated through a commitment to craft that elevates the mundane to the memorable.”
Cheesesteaks are high
Who’d imagine Frank Olivieri shutting down his Pat’s King of Steaks for a couple of months for kitchen renovations. He instead commissioned a food truck, which will be parked outside during the work starting in mid-December. Then he’ll use the truck for events, because nothing says “Sweet Sixteen” better than Whiz wit.
Queer Eye alum Carson Kressley will be in Philly for the Thanksgiving parade, and Earl Hopkins asked the Lehigh Valley native about food. Read about Kressley’s special “jacked-up mashed potatoes” and his thoughts on cheesesteaks — which he believes need a little zhush.
Thanksgiving ideas
You haven’t started getting ready for Thanksgiving yet? Here’s our special edition of “Let’s Eat,” with all sorts of tricks and tips, in case you missed it.
Try seven tasty Thanksgiving sandwiches that are not the Gobbler from Wawa. Between bites, Stephanie Farr chatted up Northeast Philly sandwich man Dennis Fink, creator of the Finksgiving hoagie (above): “Every time you drive by Wawa after you eat this, you’ll roll down your window and boo at them.”
What’s open and closed on Thanksgiving: Henry Savage names names.
We know you’ll order pizza on Friday. Here are some of our favorites.
Not one but two scoops involving Pub & Kitchen, the gastropub at 20th and Lombard Streets:
Craig LaBan loves the hoagie dip and croissant loaf available on Eagles game days. New chef Alex Schiff goes highbrow-lowbrow with a hot croissant you scoop through a Delco-style hoagie dip. In Craig’s words: “It’s hard to imagine a more bougie version of a hoagie-adjacent specialty than this.”
The second: A liquor license application was filed the other day for a new bar-restaurant at the former Lou Bird’s across the street — and it bears the name of the corporation behind Pub & Kitchen. Dan Clark, a partner in P&K and the nearby Trattoria Carina, told me that his team is hashing out a name and concept; meanwhile, a Carina offshoot is being prepped for a 2024 opening in Bryn Mawr.
Restaurant report
You can go to King of Prussia Mall to shop, or for chops — as in this falling-apart-tender pastrami-cured short rib chop ($31) from Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue, near Neiman Marcus’ parking lot entrance. It’s a Eastern European-inspired culinary departure for Cenobio Canalizo, the Pueblan-born chef who juggles the kitchens at Morgan’s in New York and KoP as well as Tiny’s Cantina in Brooklyn. Canalizo cures the ribs in brine for eight days and smokes them over white oak for seven hours, serving with bold,, grainy mustard; it’s available Friday, Saturday, and Sunday only.
This beefy decadence might remind you of the Montreal-style pastrami-smoked short rib from the now-closed Abe Fisher restaurant in Center City. Note that chef Yehuda Sichel (who now owns Huda) used a dry-rub, not brine. If you want to make the Abe Fisher version yourself, check this technique that a former colleague used to re-create the dish.
♨️ Nick’s Charcoal Pit at 13th and Snyder in South Philadelphia, which had closed earlier this year, is being revived this weekend. Same family.
Briefly noted
BOTLD, arguably Pennsylvania’s coolest liquor store, will open a branch Friday at 117 S. 13th St. in Midtown Village. Legally bypassing the PLCB, Andrew Auwerda bottles and sells small-batch spirits that are not stocked at Fine Wine & Good Spirits. The shop will be open Tuesday to Sunday going forward, with sampling encouraged and an upstairs tasting room planned for 2024. Here’s the backstory.
This weekend’s weather appears to be chilly and cloudy — not altogether terrible for a wine tour in New Jersey. Garden State Wine Growers, a collection of 60 wineries and vineyards, is offering its annual Holiday Wine Trail Weekend, with a full slate of events and activities.
As you slog through Philadelphia International Airport, take note that workers at 15 restaurants will get pay bumps and free health care after years of union bargaining.
❓Pop quiz
President Biden pardoned two turkeys with Pennsylvania-ish names. What are they?
A) Travis & Taylor
B) Liberty & Bell
C) Betsy & Ben
D) Nola & Harper
Find out if you know the answer.
Ask Mike anything
What happened to the Buena Onda location on 20th Street near Sansom? — Allan B.
That location of Jose Garces’ Baja-style taqueria — which was Tinto awhile back — is closed permanently, said Garces, who told me that this Buena Onda had underperformed, compared with locations on Callowhill Street in Franklintown, Radnor Chester Road in Radnor, and at the Wells Fargo Center and Concourse at Comcast Center. Garces said he was unsure of the space’s future, musing that he and his partners were considering using it for pop-ups.
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Enjoy your holiday.