Our 25 favorite Restaurant Week specials | Let’s Eat

We’re gearing up for Center City District Restaurant Week, and we spill our favorite offerings. Also this week, we tell you about the world’s longest cheesesteak, a South Jersey candy company that’s all the rage online, and the impending departure of our food editor. Also read on for scoops about New Haven-style pizza and a big, new restaurant coming to the Main Line.

⬇️ Read on for a quiz and restaurant news.

— Mike Klein

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Center City District Restaurant Week is revving up its 20th-anniversary edition from Sept. 10-23 with more than 100 participants. Some deals are better than others. The tabletop grilling at Jomon Japanese BBQ? Yes, please. The deeply discounted chef’s tasting menu at Double Knot? Also yes. We’ve narrowed our favorites and share 25 of them.

This 722.8-foot cheesesteak now claims the unofficial title of world’s longest cheesesteak. It’s from the Main Street Grill. If the name doesn’t ring a bell among you Whiz aficionados, that’s because it’s in Lewiston, Idaho. Mike Newall explains why they captured the crown from a restaurant in ... Idaho.

What do you get when you mix salt water taffy, marshmallows, Skittles, and Nerds? A new business in South Jersey that’s blowing up online. Friends Phil Kramer and Tommy Sandelier use a freeze-drier to transform them into new sweets with names like Scrunchums and Cosmic Clouds. Kevin Riordan writes about the craze.

We have updates on Jim’s South Street Steaks and Tequilas, two popular restaurants that have been shuttered by fire. The cheesesteak landmark and the upscale Mexican restaurant are pushing toward their reopenings, and are adding improvements. Jim’s is even becoming a kind of art gallery.

Jamila Robinson, The Inquirer’s assistant managing editor for food and culture, has announced her departure. She will become editor-in-chief of Condé Nast’s food magazine, Bon Appétit, and its culinary lifestyle and recipe website, Epicurious, next month. Her new boss, publishing legend Anna Wintour, pointed out: “It’s not every day you get to meet an accomplished writer and editor who has led features departments and food organizations, is a competitive skater, classically trained violinist, teacher, world traveler, and is an absolute whiz in the kitchen.”

Philly is getting New Haven-inspired pizza. Chris Barnes of the Lucky’s Last Chance bars will be rolling out Eda’s, named after his grandmother, at his Lucky’s Trading Co. offshoot (5154 Ridge Ave. in Roxborough.) He’ll offer eight pies, including a white with Italian sausage from Carl Venezia meats and broccoli rabe, a bacon and garlic pie, and a New Haven-style tomato pie. Target: Sept. 7. Hours for takeout will be 5-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.

P.J. Whelihan’s has come a long way since Bob Platzer opened a 14-stool barroom in the Poconos 40 years ago. After Jim Fris stepped into the CEO’s role in 2018, the Westmont-based sports-bar chain (including the Pour House, Treno Pizza Bar, ChopHouse, ChopHouse Grille, and Central Taco & Tequila) has been on a roll, dotting the Philly suburbs and attracting $$ from a New York investment firm. The 21st location opened in late 2022 in Lawrence Park Shopping Center in Broomall, and the 22nd is due to open in “late fall” in Plymouth Square in Conshohocken. Now there’s a liquor application for a location in Wynnewood Shopping Center, where it would fill the long-vacant space that housed Mad Mex. It’s up for 2024.

Vince DiRienzo and Mo Huss parlayed their profits from various pizzerias into real estate. Now they’ve gone into business together on a brick-oven pizzeria in Montgomery County that they call a passion project aimed more at quality. “The money is not that important,” DiRienzo told me.

The result is Verona Pizza, which opened a month ago in the strip mall next to the Giant supermarket in Maple Glen. High points: sandwiches on Sarcone’s rolls, pizzas made of imported Molino Caputo flour and San Marzano tomatoes, and organic chicken. There is limited indoor seating and some outside; it’s mostly takeout. Calling card is the cheesesteak (shown above), whose Cooper Sharp melts gloriously into nearly a pound of hand-sliced ribeye and chunks of sautéed onions. (I happen to like mine chopped, and if you prefer slab-style, that’s on you.) Below is a grandma-style vodka pizza that could feed five.

Verona Pizza, 1941 Norristown Rd., Maple Glen. Hours: 10 a.m-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.

Pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks. How many years have they been offered?

A) 5 years

B) 8 years

C) 10 years

D) 20 years

Find out if you know the answer.

What’s happening at 1625 N. Howard? I see a liquor application in the window and it’s a cool building. — @jfishtown

No one is talking, but as I wrote a few months ago, it appears that this former firehouse will become a new Mike Solomonov/Steve Cook restaurant, a block from their restaurant Goldie and event facility, Lilah, and several blocks north of their Laser Wolf. Name from public records appears to be Jaffa, the same as their new Israeli seafood bar in Brooklyn. Stay tuna-ed.

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