Inquirer Columnist - Rick Nichols

Beefing up the hot dog

The possibilities of the classic American burger having been if not exhausted, certainly exhaustively explored (I give you the excessive foie gras-laden Whiskey King eight-ouncer, adorned with maple bourbon glazed cipollini, Rogue bleu cheese, and applewo

On the Side: Targeting groceries

By the end of rush hour Monday, the aisles at the big Target on City Avenue near the ramps to I-76 East were waking up - boxed pizzas getting restocked, gaps in the Great Wall of Soda being meticulously plugged.

Artisan coffee from a truck

The food trucks that stretch along 38th Street near the western edge of Penn's campus provide an antidote to - no, make that a repudiation of - the sad-sack food-court fare that lurks in greasy shame just blocks to the east.

On the Side: For Gourmet's Reichl, book-tour show goes on

Nowhere is it written how to comport oneself upon having been unhorsed right in the middle of a victory lap.

Back home, with a bistro

Clark Gilbert isn't promising the moon at Gemelli, his new bistro at the edge of Narberth, on rowhouse blocks once called - when the town was Irish-er - "the Italian section."

On the Side: Steve Poses @ home

On the Side: Within minutes, Steve Poses' rules for home entertaining - for boosting it 10 percent! - were going out the window of his apartment above Rittenhouse Square, swan-diving toward the fountains and dog-walkers below.

Penn Dutch with pizzazz

Merely farm-to-city concepts having achieved the status of what-else-is-new?, perhaps the time is ripe for MidAtlantic, which at 37th and Market (on the ground floor of a sterile ice cube of a Science Center, no less) is taking a slightly different bite of that chestnut.

Takes a Village to raise a glass

Now let us toast Village Whiskey, a wall of hard stuff, shaded rich amber and rosy copper, rising behind the bar, more bourbons here (54 and counting), and rye, Canadian, Irish and Scotch than you'll likely find - well, maybe you can find a few more at Bourbon, the bar (now two bars), in D.C., but that pretty much covers it.

On the Side: Hershey took his 1st shot at fame here

On the gun-shop sign, a cop has fired the same pistol into the same silhouette of the same bad guy for years, announcing the presence of Colosimo's, the longtime provider of sidearms to the police - and eventually to any Tom, Dick, or Harry who wanted to carry, regardless, it now appears, of legal status or apparent criminal intent.

Twinkle, sprinkle, rising pizzas

Passersby could not help but notice last Sunday that the shuttered Cosi at the corner of Second and Lombard was suddenly set off by a flared skirt of red-and-blue Cinzano tables, giving the sidewalk a romantic whiff of Roman holiday.