🍦 The ultimate guide to soft-serve ice cream | Let’s Eat

Here’s the twist in our ice cream coverage: We’re focusing on the best in soft serve. Also this week: Craig LaBan finds a solid Italian restaurant in Montgomery County, we explain what’s being done about food insecurity in the region, and we bid happy retirement to a family of restaurateurs. (PS: Voting is still open for our 2022 Readers’ Choice survey — help celebrate local restaurants and food businesses by casting a vote!)

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❓ But first, a quiz.

As Golden Dragon prepares to close, how many pounds of rice do you think it served over 40 years?

A.) 100,000

B.) 200,000

C.) 500,000

Clue: Figure on 100 pounds a week. Click here for the answer.

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— Mike Klein

We at The Inquirer love to give you scoops. This week, we give you soft serve. Just in time for peak summer, my colleague Jenn Ladd presents 25-plus local spots in the Philly region to get your fix.

Soft serve’s traditional flavor profile is vanilla and chocolate, of course. Jenn found shops and restaurants offering imaginative flavors like brown sugar, hazelnut, graham cracker, blueberry, chocolate-tahini, ube, and even avocado. Oh, and one shop will give you sprinkles (or jimmies, as I grew up calling them) for free.

Philly was the standard-bearer of American ice cream in ye olde days. Contributor Selena Bemak tells us about the women and people of color whose work helped elevate the craft. Nancy Johnson, for example, revolutionized production when she invented and patented a hand-cranked churn.

(Couldn’t you just melt from Jurnei Mitchell, 2, shown above enjoying her cone at Mill Creek Pool in West Philadelphia?)

One out of 10 households across our region lacks consistent access to affordable, healthy food. Food insecurity, as this is known, is more complex than simply not having grocery stores nearby. Colleague Henry Savage runs down the problem and explains how it’s being addressed.

After living their American dream for four decades, Lang Vuong and family will begin a new chapter next month: retirement. Golden Dragon in Plymouth Square near Conshohocken, which opened three years after they fled Vietnam, will close. Asked who of the dozens of siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles from the Long, Le, Ly, and Hua families have worked there, granddaughter Jennifer Hua said: “All of us.”

Chef Brad Daniels practices “the subtle art of fresh pasta” at his “impressive solo debut” at Tresini in the Ambler section of Lower Gwynedd, writes critic Craig LaBan in his review. One hit: That black and white spaghetti alla chitarra you see above, for example, made from squid ink and local durum and topped with crispy octopus drizzled with salsa verde. Tresini’s setting, in a restored building dating to 1860, offers what Craig calls a “sturdy old sense of place.” There also may be ghosts at this haunt. 🔒

The restaurant community is mourning the death of chef Jim Burke, who waged a two-year fight with a rare lung cancer. He and his wife, Kristina, owned James, a celebrated South Philadelphia restaurant, and later taught in the culinary program at Drexel University before helping to repair another restaurant’s troubled work culture. Too soon at 49.

The outpouring of support has been impressive. Friends are rallying around Kristina Burke and the couple’s children, ages 13 and 9. A GoFundMe has been established, and other benefits are on their way.

P.J. Whelihan’s 27th location (and its first since the sports bar’s Harrisburg debut in 2020) opened this week in the Hatfield Pointe shopping center (190 Forty Foot Rd., Hatfield).

Wednesday, Aug. 10 is Day One at Samuel’s (shown above), an all-day restaurant from Michael Schulson on the ground floor at 1523 Sansom St., above his Giuseppe & Sons. An eclectic menu includes extensive in-house baking by Parc alumni Nick Brannon and pastry chef Abby Dahan, plus Jewish deli, salads, fried chicken, bagels, caviar, Challah French Toast, and the like. Wine and beer by the bottle or glass. Initial hours: 7 a.m.-9 a.m. for takeout and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for dine-in Wednesday-Sunday.

Friday, Aug. 12 will see the debut of the Rittenhouse rendition of Buena Onda (114 S 20th St.) by Jose Garces in his former Tinto. (The taqueria has a location teed up for September at 200 Radnor Chester Rd. in Radnor.) Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m.: daily, though it will be closed Sunday, Aug. 14 for training.

Shake Shack is planning three locations in late 2022 and early 2023: Conestoga Crossing in Lancaster, Airport Square in Montgomeryville, and Springfield Square North in Springfield, reports Doug Green, a principal at MSC Retail, who handles all of the burger chain’s real estate.

You’re looking at the signature garlic bread, baked in a crock and coming out like a giant, steaming bun, that just about everyone orders at Roz & Rocco’s, which opened three months ago in a strip center in Broomall.

The homey BYOB is a homecoming for Christine Nigro, who grew up a mile away and went off to run restaurants in Atlantic City, California, and New York. She and Scott Brayton, who career-changed at 30 from insurance to culinary school, met at Atlantic Grill at Lincoln Center in New York, fell in love, got married, yadayadayada, and then came the pandemic. This is their first joint project, aside from their two children.

Chef Ned Maddock, last at White Dog Cafe’s locations in Wayne and Glen Mills after a Center City turn at P.J. Clarke’s, turns out an Italianesque menu — that is, in addition to the salads, meatballs, chicken Parm, and house-made pastas, there’s a section of grilled items (fish, chicken, steak, cauliflower, shrimp, served a la carte with a sauce), as well as toasts. Shown below is the salmon filet with lemon and caper sauce that I combo’d with a ricotta and honey toast. (Yes, that lemon is branded with the restaurant name. How very ... un-Delco.)

The brunch/lunch menus are on from noon to 4 p.m., followed by a dinner menu.

Roz & Rocco’s, 2904 West Chester Pike, Broomall. Hours: noon-9 p.m daily.

Briefly noted

South Philly vegan cheesemaker Bandit is gearing up for a big expansion after receiving a $1.5 million venture capital investment, reports my colleague Harold Brubaker. If the name is unfamiliar, it formerly was offered under the name Conscious Cultures Creamery.

The Jim’s Steaks fire also idled Eye’s Gallery next door. Julia Zagar, who founded the boutique in 1968 and intends to reopen, spoke with colleague Jenna Miller for a lovely five-minute video.

Wawa is ending 24-hour service at most Center City stores, most recently the one next to the Ninth Police District near the Parkway.

Chicago-style Italian beef — you’re watching The Bear on FX, right? — is now on the Sunday menu at Hook & Master, Chicago-born Jose Garces’ pizzeria in Kensington. The sandwich is a process, which is why it’s offered only on Sunday: dry-spiced top round that’s marinated overnight, slow-roasted and sliced thin, served on a Sarcone’s roll with provolone and jus and a side of giardiniera, and an optional Esposito’s sausage. You can get it wet or dry for $15.50.

The vaunted BLTs from Middle Child (in Washington Square West) and younger sibling Middle Child Clubhouse (in Fishtown) feature juicy tomatoes from Newtown Square’s Urban Roots Farm, and when they’re gone for the season, that’s it. Which would be a pity to @knilegram, who snapped this. Owner Matthew Cahn thinks the maters will be around for a few more weeks, but the 2022 season started early.

In Kensington, @cantknockthefix raves about the birria tacos at LMNO from chef Frankie Ramirez, which go perfectly with the restaurant’s lively atmosphere and frozen drinks.

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