Your guide to a Philly Thanksgiving | Let’s Eat

Whether you’re dining in or out for Thanksgiving, we have you covered. Also this week, be advised that not one but two French-owned bakeries have opened, a distinguished Philly chef has retired, and critic Craig LaBan reviews a serious deli that’s not a deli.

⬇️ Read on for scoop: Get first word of a restaurant that everyone will be talking about, and your first looks at The Pullman, in the works for two years, and Grace & Proper, which has been ”on the way” for a decade.

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— Mike Klein

Let’s say you’re hosting Thanksgiving. Congrats! 😉

Colleague Hira Qureshi offers guidance. She called on six Philadelphians — actor Sheryl Lee Ralph, the Phillie Phanatic, film director Nardeep Khurmi, Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, chef Emily Riddell, and drink maestro Jamaar Julal — to join a hypothetical Friendsgiving potluck. Wait till you see this feast and their plus-ones.

Hira also rang up Audrey Claire Taichman, who’s hosted more than a few large gatherings in her restaurant days, for advice, and she delivers. Example: Know that recipe you’ve been dying to try out? “It’s always a disaster for me,” she says. “Stick to the tried and true ones.”

Let’s say you want food to go. We offer a list of options here.

Or you just want to go out to eat. No judgment! Our roundup is here.

How will the price of your holiday meals be affected by inflation? And how can you get help? Colleague Henry Savage has some answers.

At Weavers Way Co-op, the general manager explains the impact of inflation, and colleague Jenn Ladd breaks it down.

A wine to serve? Contributor Marnie Old recommends this $13 California chardonnay.

A cheese? Critic Craig LaBan likes this creamy Lehigh Valley brie called OK Boomer.

Even with house-made pastrami, whitefish salad, bialys, Jerusalem rugelach, Jewish apple cake, latkes fried in schmaltz, and two kinds of rye bread, the Schulson Collection won’t bill Samuel’s at 1523 Sansom St. as a deli. That doesn’t stop critic Craig LaBan from kvelling in his review of the “all-day restaurant.” 🔑

It’s a fine time for fans of baguettes, laminated doughs, and other tasty carbs with the openings of the French-owned J’aime French Café, near Rittenhouse Square, and Matines Café, in Chestnut Hill, just a scone’s throw from the Chestnut Hill East SEPTA station.

Guillermo Pernot has packed up his knives, literally and figuratively, as he and his wife, Lucia, have retired to Mexico. Pernot, 67, who won two James Beard Awards in his career, oversaw the East Coast expansion of Cuba Libre.

The blaze of orange outside a commercial property is a literal sign of a forthcoming restaurant. This one, on the former Xochitl across from the Head House Square shambles on Second Street in Society Hill, bears the name Originfoods LLC. This will be the ownership debut of chef Nicholas Bazik, last at 13th Street Kitchens after stints with The Good King Tavern, Lacroix at The Rittenhouse, and La Peg. He’s going for fine dining with the intimate Provenance, focused on tasting menus featuring French seafood, with a 12-seat chef’s table wrapped around the kitchen. Downstairs will be a dining room seating eight to 10, also for tasting menus, plus a four-seat bar with a la carte offerings. Natural and biodynamic wines will be stocked in the new wine cellar, and there will be a serious approach to beverages for those who don’t drink. Planned opening: August/September 2023.

Want the intel about an orange sign you’ve seen in your travels? Ask me.

About two years after signing the restaurant lease at the Bryn Mawr train station, mother-daughter team Roni and Jennifer Hammer, who own Snook’s Bayside Restaurant & Grand Tiki Bar in Key Largo, Fla., will open The Pullman on Thursday.

Based on a quick look last night, they’ve pumped plenty into the former Tango (and Central Bar & Grille), going for a look and feel that evokes the Pullman dining cars of the 1940s: plush velvet banquettes, chandeliers with purple shades, black-and-white tiles, romantic lighting, cozy nooks, a music lounge, and a sleek, 21-seat bar with vaulted ceilings.

Chef Corey Baver, formerly of South Philly’s Paradiso and Izumi, is cooking the classics, e.g. oysters Rockefeller, foie gras, Roma style escargot, fried lobster bites, and a 16-ounce bone-in cowboy steak (the top entree priced at $52).

The Pullman, 39 Morris Rd., Bryn Mawr, 610-727-0777. Lunch, happy hour, and dinner hours are in flux for the opening weekend; dinner reservations are required.

Restaurant openings

Besides The Pullman (above) and Grace & Proper (below), we’re looking at:

Nov. 18′s debut of a Fishtown location for Bagels & Co. (1317 Frankford Ave.), after the original at the Piazza in Northern Liberties. Free bagels and cream cheese from 8-10 a.m. Friday and free coffee from 9-11 a.m. Saturday. Derek Gibbons and Tim Lu say they have six additional shops on the way.

Nov. 19′s grand reopening of Sky’s Place (2843 W. Girard Ave.). Sky’s Place will also be part of Nov. 17′s largely sold-out Taste of Fairmount event at the Divine Lorraine.

Nov. 22 rollout of El Chingon (1524 S. 10th St.), specializing in the Mexican sandwiches known as cemitas.

Also brand new are The Record Kitchen & Bar (206 Lincoln Highway, Coatesville), a spiffy contemporary American on the former site of the Coatesville Record newspaper; the family-friendly VK Brewing Co. & Eatery (693 E. Lincoln Highway, Exton) on the former site of the Ship Inn; and the revival of Brickette Lounge, a barbecue-and-honky-tonk bar at 1339 Pottstown Pike, near West Chester.

Back to bagels: Upstart Kismet Bagels is planning to open a Rittenhouse shop at 1700 Sansom St. during the week of Dec. 5. Owners Alexandra and Jacob Cohen also have a bialy stand opening soon at Reading Terminal Market. Kismet, whose first brick-and-mortar opened earlier this year, was a pandemic pivot all the way.

Ruff work. Philly couple Sam and Allison Mattiola (above, with Buda) are opening The Boozy Mutt, combining a dog park, bar for humans, and re-tail store, all under one woof, at the former North Star Bar in Fairmount. (They could have just called it North Star Bark.) Meanwhile, Bark Social will break ground in Manayunk this week. This concept is taking off elsewhere, so the thought of two in Philly is not so far-fetched.

Briefly noted

A Vietnamese brunch and Philly Wine Week are two of Hira’s suggestions in this week’s “Eat, Drink, and Do” column.

Philly restaurants can now apply for sanctioned streeteries. For now, writes colleague Max Marin, the city won’t enforce new regs.

Get to Smoke BBQ (34 W. Merchant St., Audubon, N.J.) before Sunday, its last day after five years.

They bought the building in April 2013, and this Friday, Chris Fetfatzes and Heather Annechiarico will open Grace & Proper (shown above), their old-time corner bar, in a century-old former drugstore in Bella Vista. Their manager Susan Freeman is a partner at G&P, which is not a destination restaurant per se but a neighborhood drop-in. Serious drink list (Portugal’s Super Bock on the beer tower) and a menu that shouts Europe, including this decadent plate of black-truffle potato chips layered with Calabrese picante salami (below). The facts are here.

Grace & Proper, 941 S. Eighth St., no phone, walks-ins only. Hours: 4 p.m.-midnight Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, noon-1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, noon-midnight Sunday; closed Tuesday.

The vegan side of the menu at Huff & Puff BBQ (246 S. 11th St.) is just as interesting and tasty as the conventional side, and Larry Felzer vouches for the “brisket” sandwich made with seitan and built on a seeded Sarcone’s roll. At Reading Terminal Market, @chimpi123 has high praise for the Filipino spaghetti at Tambayan (one of my favorite Market destinations).

A guy announced that he would show up at an abandoned pier behind a Walmart to eat a rotisserie chicken for the 40th consecutive day, and Chicken Man caught the attention of the nation. The Inquirer Features team’s Slack channel popped with feedback about this public poultry partaker. What was our sentiment?

A) “Could this have happened anywhere else?”

B) “I do think the fact that hundreds of people showed up to watch says something about Philadelphians.”

C) “This coverage will not win anyone a Pullet Surprise.”

D) “Should we call him ‘Chick-Phil-A’?”

Get the answer here.

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