Category Archives: Eating

Have You Been to Kraftwork?

I’ve been to Kraft­work a num­ber of times now and I think I like it. I mean, it’s okay. There’s that one sand­wich that’s real­ly deli­cious, but not much else that real­ly stands out on the (recent­ly recon­sid­ered) menu. The draught list is amaz­ing, although it’s like doing surgery with a shot­gun; put enough beers on tap and you’re sure to get some­thing right, no?

But you can fix menus and curate beer lists to make it seem like you know what you’re doing, rather than not want­i­ng to get it wrong. What you can’t real­ly change is phys­i­cal plant. If you want to be clubbed over the head with con­cept, Kraft­work is the place. With­out even men­tion­ing the clunk­er of a name, you know it’s styl­ized to a fault, which real­ly dis­tracts from the things that prob­a­bly brought you there in the first place. Did I men­tion how NOISY it is? Now, I know I’m get­ting old­er, but when you have a DJ spin­ning dance music dur­ing din­ner, at a place that does­n’t have a dance floor, you’re going out of your way to seem sil­ly. I mean, at least the Abbaye had sen­si­ble brunch DJs.

Thing I hear from fans of craft beer and gas­trop­ubs in gen­er­al though is that the prices are sim­ply too high. I can get a pint of Russ­ian Riv­er Blind Pig for less than I can a tulip of the same at Kraft­work. And while the taps are more plen­ti­ful than oth­er neigh­bor­hood bars, I don’t get the sense that more thought went into select­ing what’s on them. Instead of feel­ing like you’re get­ting a deal on some­thing that’s been care­ful­ly con­sid­ered, you know you’re over­pay­ing for some­thing you can prob­a­bly get some­where else in town.

Will I keep going back? Absolute­ly. I have faith that Adam Rit­ter will get it right and, hell, who I am to say any­thing: the place is usu­al­ly full to over­flow­ing, which is a good prob­lem to have in this econ­o­my. If they can build a tasty, inex­pen­sive menu around their beer can chick­en sand­wich, then they’re already on the right track. Where else can you get a Mikkeller Break­fast Beer Geek Impe­r­i­al Stout at 10:30 on a Sun­day morning?

Drew Lazor on Philly Pizza

I’ve doc­u­ment­ed my strug­gles with piz­za here in the City of Broth­er­ly love. It ain’t easy to find a good pie in town. Philly food­ie phe­nom Drew Lazor has a great look at all the best spots to get a slice in town in the most recent issue of City Paper and it’s worth check­ing out. Read it here.

N.B. he does­n’t high­light any spots that deliv­er or even are known for take-out. For what it’s worth I’m thrilled that he did­n’t pro­file the exe­crable, over­priced Rus­ti­ca in NoLibs either. Do I even have to men­tion that I’m absolute­ly in love with Zavi­no’s Ken­nett pie?

Want more Lazor in your life? Fol­low him on Twit­ter. He’s a hoot. He also con­tributes to City Paper’s Meal Tick­et, which has swept me off my feet since Kirsten Hen­ri left for Philly Mag. Now with Adam Erace! They’re a powerhouse!

A Quick Word on Philly Pizza

The Philadel­phia piz­za scene is hor­ri­ble. I know Doug Wallen ded­i­cat­ed a small part of his life to assess­ing the Philly piz­za cul­ture and I’m sor­ry to not have tak­en part. I have, how­ev­er, sam­pled more than my fair share of piz­za and, con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, nev­er favored any par­tic­u­lar spot just out of dumb neigh­bor­hood loyalty.

Part of the prob­lem is that peo­ple will set­tle for bad piz­za. I would not. I tried piz­zas all over town in a quest to find some­thing I could hon­est­ly endorse with­out reser­va­tion. It was impos­si­ble. Peo­ple would rec­om­mend their favorite spots and I’d bring a pie home only to dis­cov­er their favorite was­n’t up to snuff.

Helen and I had been feast­ing on Gian­fran­co’s piz­za, which I would pick up down at 3rd and Mar­ket. It was­n’t bad and was a far cry bet­ter than most of the deliv­ery spots that serve Port Fish­ing­ton. (I’m sor­ry Rus­ti­ca, but your piz­zas are all too smoky and sog­gy for my per­son­al taste. San­tuc­ci’s isn’t bad, actu­al­ly, but out­side the deliv­ery range.)

We decid­ed enough was a enough and dri­ving that dis­tance for piz­za was just sil­ly. We searched the neigh­bor­hood for some­thing decent, but Cas­sizzi’s was­n’t cut­ting it. We final­ly had to break down and take the nuclear option: call­ing ahead for pick­up at Tac­conel­li’s.

I’ve put this off for some time. We know it by rep­u­ta­tion and had even tried it a cou­ple times, but weren’t so blown away that it seemed worth plac­ing a piz­za order at 11 a.m. Piz­za is a spon­ta­neous dinner!

Well, after two con­sec­u­tive nights of Tac­conel­li’s piz­za, I can safe­ly say we’ve been con­vert­ed. It’s worth the has­sle, espe­cial­ly if you live with­in five min­utes dri­ve of Tac­conel­li’s like we do. We’re no longer piz­za nomads, wan­der­ing Philly’s desert.

Starting 2010 Right

Osso buco, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by J T. Ram­say.

The iPhone pho­to does­n’t do it jus­tice, but Helen’s osso buco was noth­ing short of amaz­ing. That risot­to was divine and the meat fell right off the bone. Recipes like this one are what win­ter­time is all about: slow-cooked food that gets you right where you live.

The home­made tiramisu we had for dessert was to die for. I washed it all down with a deli­cious Rogue Choco­late Stout and it was time to call it a night.

Hap­py 2010, everybody!

Food: It’s All Good in the ‘Hood

When Helen and I left our Mum­mer’s Row apart­ment for our house here on Let­ter­ly St. in Decem­ber 2006, it was a sad affair. We left behind a deli­cious world of Ital­ian bak­eries and restau­rants, as well as some great sand­wich­es, too, for a new neigh­bor­hood where the most obvi­ous food options were Jovan’s Place, a quaint Yugoslav restau­rant around the cor­ner, and Key Foods Piz­za across the street. It pains me to tell you that one evening we were so des­per­ate for din­ner we got take­out from — gasp — Apple­bee’s. It was prob­a­bly our culi­nary rock bottom.

But there was light at the end of the tun­nel. In the two years we’ve lived up here we’ve found some great food, whether it’s Mem­phis Tap­room around the cor­ner when we’re just look­ing for a quick bite and some­thing to drink, or Bistro Juliana for the delight­ful Ital­ian food we loved so much in our old neigh­bor­hood. But that’s not all! I recent­ly made an ear­ly morn­ing run to Czer­w’s on Tilton St. for sev­er­al pounds of smoked kiel­basa and fresh-made piero­gies. If there is a heav­en, I hope it smells like Czer­w’s. There’s great Mex­i­can at Las Cazue­las, or quick Mex­i­can at Taco Rien­do. We’ve even found some decent piz­za, hav­ing recent­ly tried San­tuc­ci’s upside-down square pie. Now we feel like we have more options than we ever did back in old Pennsport.

We’re not alone. Our neigh­bor­hood has recent­ly been a new focal point in local cui­sine, fea­tur­ing both new­com­ers and old. The amaz­ing Rick Nichols recent­ly ven­tured up Rich­mond St. in Port Rich­mond, high­light­ing all the won­de­ful Pol­ish food the neigh­bor­hood offers. Think that sounds deli­cious? Then you should spend a Sat­ur­day after­noon with him on his Edi­ble World Food Tour that’s being orga­nized by First Per­son Arts! (I’ll add that you should check out the oth­er New Wave Cafe up on Alleghe­ny Avenue for a few rounds of strong Pol­ish beer and more than your fair share of kiel­basa and pierogies.)

Metro con­trib­u­tor and Foo­booz writer Arthur Etchells also reps for our ‘hood in his recent arti­cle, “Riv­er Ward Steps Up.” He talks about some of the restau­rants I men­tioned above, as well as The Pick­led Heron, a restau­rant that will bring fin­er din­ing to Frank­ford Avenue lat­er this spring. They also hope to take part in Riv­er Ward Restau­rant Week! That’s real­ly excit­ing, espe­cial­ly since there was some spec­u­la­tion about whether or not they would still be open­ing as the econ­o­my took the plunge. I can’t wait to try their menu!

When our friends Rick and Grace recent­ly moved up to Let­ter­ly St. just two doors up the block, we assured them it was a great neigh­bor­hood that we’d been beta-test­ing for over two years. It’s a great area that blends old favorites like Jovan’s Place and Mem­phis Tap­room. We have Greens­grow Farms and Philadel­phia Brew­ing Com­pa­ny around the cor­ner, too! Now when you think of Port Fish­ing­ton, think food!