Happy-hour pick: Jansen
Jansen is set up in a stone mansion in Mount Airy with a refined American menu.
Jansen 7402 Germantown Ave.; 4:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday
One of the great food inventions of the 1990s was the cheesesteak spring roll — the crunchy-on-the-outside, hot-and-gooey-on-the-inside snack. At least two local establishments claim credit: Davio’s, the Boston-based Italian steak house whose owner, Steve DiFillippo, now sells them by the millions in your grocer’s freezer, and the old Fountain at the Four Seasons. One of the Fountain’s top chefs, David Jansen, moved on to his own restaurant. Jansen is set up in a stone mansion in Mount Airy with a refined American menu. The charming patio and garden out back, tucked off Germantown Avenue, host happy hour three nights a week. Jansen offers such bites as cheesesteak spring rolls ($12, with spicy ketchup), deviled eggs, bang bang shrimp, and truffle fries with a couple of French wines (a rosé and a white, $9), a vodka-limoncello cocktail and margarita ($8), and one beer, Evil Genius’ Stacy’s Mom ($5). Get there soon, as it’s seasonal.