Craig LaBan tests two luxury steak houses | Let’s Eat

If you’re dropping big bucks at the region’s two new, posh steak houses, let critic Craig LaBan clue you in on what to expect. Also this week: Philly has one of the best new chefs in the country (per Food & Wine), two dads are shaking up the condiment industry, we get to the bottom of Voltaco’s closing in Ocean City, and Jose Garces has (another) new restaurant. Fall seasonality has arrived. Check out the new Center City District Restaurant Week and edition of the Halloween-theme bar Nightmare Before Tinsel.

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🦇 And now for the quiz. Nightmare Before Tinsel, the Halloween-theme pop-up bar, starts this week. Amid the spooky decor, what can you find behind the bar?

A.) Bartenders.

B.) Busts of Gritty and the Phanatic.

C.) Ghouls.

D.) All of the above

The answer should be clear. Check your work and the details here.

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Fiore Rosso in Bryn Mawr and Bardea Steak in Wilmington are reimagining the luxury steakhouse, offering large steaks to share and intriguing menus beyond the meats. (That’s the Chianina sirloin tartare featuring bubbling lychee cream, avocado, mango mostarda, and a cow-shaped dried liver cracker (!) at Bardea Steak.) These two new joints also could not be more different, as critic Craig LaBan writes. With a predicted tab of $110 to $120 per person, here is what to expect. 🔑

Emily Riddell of Machine Shop, the bakery on the ground floor of the Bok Building in South Philadelphia, has been working in kitchens for 16 of her 36 years. The other day, she was named to Food & Wine’s class of 10 best new chefs for 2022. Machine Shop opened to retail customers only on Jan. 13, 2022. After sampling her croissants, F&W restaurant editor Khushbu Shah called Riddell a “lamination savant.”

Also on the awards radar: Amanda Shulman’s Her Place in Rittenhouse, Michael Vincent Ferrari’s Irwin’s atop the Bok Building, and Philip Korshak’s Korshak Bagels in South Philadelphia were named to Bon Appetit’s list of best new restaurants in America.

Big doings for chef Khoran Horn, who runs Stripp’d Juice and is a partner with Matthew Gansert at Guard House Cafe in Bridesburg. This week, he won It’s CompliPlated, a Food Network cooking competition show (also on Discovery+), with a smoked shiitake barbacoa burrito with pepita crema and a maple-roasted butternut squash pizza with butternut cream sauce, balsamic gastrique, smoked gouda and sage. Horn also recently added the role of director of operations and culinary for Center City’s Mission Taqueria. That’s him above with Guard House’s plant-based chicken sandwich, made with a new product called Tindle.

A wind of change is sweeping through the food scene of Ocean City, N.J. I chatted with Jeff Taccarino, who is closing his family-run Voltaco’s next month, after 68 years. “We make a really good living here,” says Taccarino, who has been there for 30 of his 42 years with his parents, Joe and Victoria. “We’re very fortunate for that. But it’s not just about the money,” he said. See what happens when The Great Resignation hits home at a Shore classic.

Along with that news comes word from colleague Amy S. Rosenberg that Sunday, Sept. 18 will be the finale at Ward’s Pastry (buttoning up after 98 years) and breakfast destination OC Surf Cafe (ending a 10-year run). Fun fact: Ward’s boasts a collection of cookie jars valued at $20,000.

And in Atlantic City news: There’s no official opening date for Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen at Caesars, but I see that the reservation book is taking names, effective Sept. 21. The irascible Scot also has Gordon Ramsay Steak at Harrah’s Resort and Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill at Caesars.

Nightmare Before Tinsel, the annual Halloween-theme pop-up bar in Center City, is a selfie fan’s dream: Apocalyptic scenes, a smoking dragon, zombie versions of Gritty and the Phanatic, pirate skeletons, and monsters abound. There’s also a drink garnished with a flaming marshmallow. Take a look inside, in advance of Thursday’s public opening.

P.S. After Nightmare’s closing on Halloween night, the creative crew will transform it into the annual Christmas-themer called Tinsel.

Center City District Restaurant Week’s September edition is on now, and colleague Michelle Myers tells you everything you need to know, from restaurant deals to where to park. Up to you to find someone to go with.

Dine Latino Restaurant Week starts on Monday, Sept. 19 and runs through Sept. 23. Expect 23 participating restaurants, 12 of which are brand new to the event celebrating Latino-owned and operated restaurants throughout the Philadelphia region.

Taco Fiesta 2022, coinciding with Hispanic Heritage Month, will raise funds for the Association of Mexican Business Owners of Philadelphia at its inaugural edition at the Bok Building at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22. Details here.

Two coworkers at a suburban school went deep into grilling over the pandemic. The side-effect: the empty sauce bottles in their recycling had multiplied. They started marinating an idea: “Can you take the water out of sauce?” And, as colleague Jenn Ladd reports, you can and they did. Their business, AWSM Sauce, reproduces condiments in space-saving (and potentially earth-saving) packets. She sat down with Paul Lehmann and Carl Starkey to ketchup.

You can almost taste the breakfast tacos wrapped in house-made flour tortillas from Taco Heart, opening to the public next Wednesday at the triangle intersection of Seventh Street, Carpenter Street, and Passyunk Avenue. Keep an eye on Instagram for details, as owner Nano Wheedan is setting up a timed ordering system to minimize waits (hours will be 7-11 a.m. Wednesday-Friday, 8 a.m.-noon Saturday and Sunday). Shown above is a taco with eggs, cheese, bacon, and avocado at left and one done migas-style (with crumbled corn tortilla pieces) at right. Corn tortillas from the nearby Tortilleria San Roman will be available for the wheat-averse. Stay tuned.

Briefly noted

Key Pizza in Fishtown collapsed this morning.

Milk Jawn is rolling out Pup Cups — doggie ice cream cups featuring peanut butter, banana, and yogurt — starting at noon Saturday, Sept. 17, and the first 25 dogs will receive comp cups. Regular price is $3.50. The shop, at 1439 E. Passyunk Ave., will have a photographer for customers wanting to get photos with their dogs from noon until 1 p.m.

Northern Liberties Night Market will gather 60 food trucks, mobile vendors, restaurants, bars, makers, and merchants along Second Street between Laurel Street and Fairmount Avenue from 5-10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22.

Starbucks is planning a Center City location with no seating or restrooms.

Emmy Squared, the syndicated burger/pizza shop with a Philly outpost in Queen Village, has spilled its recipe for its Emmy Sauce in advance of National Cheeseburger Day (Sept. 18). It’s 2 cups mayo, 1 cup sambal oelek, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice — proportion as you wish.

Garces Trading Co., a marketplace and restaurant, used to be in the heart of Center City. Jose Garces, meanwhile, had an upscale farm-to-table restaurant called JG Domestic at the Cira Centre, the office tower across from 30th Street Station. In a pandemic pivot, this week Garces Trading Co. has taken the Cira Centre space. It is part coffee shop, daytime restaurant (that’s a duck Lyonnais salad for lunch), bakery, marketplace with grab-and-go offerings, corporate catering outlet, and soon a wine shop. Mindful of staffing and demand in that part of town, Garces closes it by 7 p.m. after happy hour.

Garces’ Buena Onda location in Radnor is expected to open in the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of Machine Shop: Reader @maxdatner sends high praise for this “jammy” egg/green harissa tart, at right. “A lot going on in this little concoction and it all just works really well,” he says. At left is peach blueberry toast from Evermore Coffee Roasters in Burlington, a favorite of @trufflesandtakeout, who accompanied it with an orange blossom latte.

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