Where to find zero-proof beverages | Let’s Eat

The drinking options for those who avoid alcohol are picking up. We’ll tell you about eight bottle shops with outstanding N/A selections. Also this week, meet a TikToker on a coffee shop mission, learn about a “thrilling” new Puerto Rican restaurant, and check out some new Eagles game-day food options.

⬇️ Read on for a quiz and restaurant news.

— Mike Klein

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The sober curious movement, also referred to as spirit-free, nonalcoholic, zero-proof, or N/A, has grown over the years, with alcohol-free beverages taking up more space in Philly-area stores, bars, and restaurants. Colleague Hira Qureshi runs down the shops with the best selections, including Cork (above), whose product line of more than a hundred items includes extras such as infused organic cane sugar cubes.

Gloria Sullivan has an itemized spreadsheet of every coffee shop she plans to try in Philadelphia over the next year — 100 of them. And as colleague Beatrice Forman explains, it’s all going on TikTok.

The joyful Latinx energy at Center City’s new Bolo is infectious, says critic Craig LaBan, who calls chef Yun Fuentes’ homage to his Puerto Rican heritage “one of this year’s most thrilling debuts.”

Bolo happens to be participating in Center City District Restaurant Week, offering a $60 fixed-price dinner (your choices are vaca frita, Gulf shrimp asopao, or whole red snapper). It’s on through Sept 23. I offer other restaurant week offerings.

Society Hill Hotel in Old City will reopen as a boutique hotel and whiskey bar. Colleague Mike Newell tells us about the care and attention that’s being paid to Philly’s funkiest flophouse.

Lunacy Brewing Company in Haddon Heights will close Saturday, and management says it’s a victim of strict state regulations that hamper the craft-brewery business. As cofounder Rick Lees told colleague Alfred Lubrano: “There’s a knife in our backs and it sucks.”

New tailgate option for Eagles fans: JuneBug BBQ — created by Strother Enterprises, one of the region’s largest Black-owned, veteran-owned, and family-owned hospitality companies — will set up a Southern-style spread outside of Live! Casino (in the beer garden on 10th Street near Packer Avenue) before every home game. Shown above is JuneBug’s BBQ brisket burnt ends atop mac and cheese. JuneBug opens at 4 p.m. before 8 p.m. games, 10 a.m. before 1 p.m. games, and noon before 4:15 p.m. games. There are tables and chairs for those lacking a tailgate.

Inside Lincoln Financial Field, Aramark’s 2023 menu will include two additions (plus Little Caesar pizza), both offered at a stand at Section 134. Above is Slim Chicken 2.0 (an apple fritter with Frosted Flakes-crusted fried chicken, Cooper Sharp cheese, honey-glazed bacon, cherry jam, and ghost chili). Below are Cannoli Nachos, topped with Valrhona chocolate, whipped ricotta, diced strawberries, strawberry pearls, pistachio dust, caramel sauce, espresso dirt, and topped with micro mint, lemon, and doughnut sugar. You cannoli hope for an Eagles win.

South Philly’s Mish Mish returns Thursday after a temporary closing. In a refreshingly transparent move, owner Alex Tewfik posted a QR code in the window linking to an explanation. In sum: Last year, Tewfik and his brother bought the restaurant’s liquor license at a discount because it had violations attached. (Though they are pieces of paper issued by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, liquor licenses carry the legal baggage of previous owners.) “Clean” licenses in Philadelphia nowadays can cost $165,000, but those with violations sell for substantially less. PLCB records show that Mish Mish’s license had been owned by the now-closed McNoodles Irish Pub in Mayfair, which over the years racked up a staggering number of suspensions and fines for assorted misdeeds, including allowing underage drinking and smoking, and ignoring closing times.

Kensington was an industrial hub a century ago. Nowadays, you might say that the main industry is hospitality, what with all the drinking and dining options. Which is why we find the guys behind The Goat Rittenhouse, Time, Heritage, and Vintage Wine Bar (Jason Evenchik, Patrick Iselin, and Craig MacBain) on Front Street near the Berks El stop. Five years ago, they bought the old James Peter & Sons ironworks, and their industrial-chic bar/restaurant/events space, named Starbolt (after the hardware once produced there), opened last week with three bars, a pool table, plenty of upcycled materials, and chef Pat Szoke’s dinner menu (pay special attention to the roasted chicken). Note: It’s open Monday and Tuesday, and as such it’s becoming a restaurant industry hangout.

Starbolt, 1936 N. Front St. Hours: 4 p.m.-midnight Monday-Wednesday, 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday, noon-midnight Sunday.

It took seven years for the bagel business that baker Alex Malamy started in his basement to get a full-fledged shop, but it’s finally opened. Contributor Alexandra Jones tells the story of Cleo Bagels, where you can snag bagels, bialys, tinned fish, and this creative sandwich, which has marinated egg, bamboo, pickled ginger, togarashi mayo, seaweed crisp, sesame, and scallion. It’s called a Ramen Thing.

Big Philly news on the awards front: Amanda Shulman (of Her Place Supper Club and the new My Loup) is one of Food & Wine’s best new chefs, and just this morning, Heavy Metal Sausage Co. in South Philadelphia and Pietramala in Northern Liberties were named to Bon Appetit’s roster of best new restaurants.

The summer of 2023 will not go down as a good one for those who dine, own, and work at outdoor restaurants, writes Erin McCarthy. If it wasn’t the wildfire smoke, it was the heat and humidity.

Jose Garces’ Buena Onda has started franchising. Coming up from Zong and Alexis Chen are five new taquerias in the greater Washington metro, with the first due in mid-2024 at Pike Center in Rockville Md.

The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia will launch a fundraising dinner series called Farm to Fork at 6 p.m. Sept. 20 at chef Randy Rucker’s River Twice in South Philadelphia. Lauren Van Dyk from Wyebrook Farm and Mike Kenlay from Local 130 Seafood will lead a discussion on how these practices tie into their businesses. Tickets are $300 a head or $500 for two, inclusive of beverages, tax, and tip. Proceeds go toward SBN’s Local Food Systems Initiative.

Chef Kiki Aranita offers you a lighter recipe for the Hawaiian dish loco moco that features this ingredient:

A) bella mushrooms

B) taro

C) Spam

D) yams

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s going on at the old London Grill in Fairmount? — C. Lankenau

Not much. It’s still offered for lease, says Joe Scarpone of MPN Realty. London, whose glory days were in the 1990s and early aughts, closed in spring 2019 and restaurateurs Michael and Terry McNally sold the building to a local partnership. For whatever reason, Fairmount has not experienced much new-restaurant activity recently, though I spoke with Rabbi Hirshi Sputz of Chabad of Fairmount. He and his wife, Shevy Sputz, are converting the former Rembrandt’s on Aspen Street — once the largest restaurant in the area — into a school, synagogue, and community center, as well as Stephen’s Restaurant. The light menu will include the line of kosher baked goods from Shevy’s Babka Paradise, now offered Thursdays at Fairmount Farmer’s Market. Stephen’s opening is targeted for January.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com.

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