When last heard from, the Howard Stern prankster known as Capt. Janks was sitting in Montgomery County prison after being accused of taking money from bar owners in three states for personal appearances he skipped out on.

Janks (Thomas Cipriano of North Wales) was sprung on bail last week, and Friday night (5/29), comedian Artie Lange held a benefit comedy show at a club outside of New York. Proceeds will help Cipriano make restitution, said Thomas Carluccio, his attorney. Carluccio says he's identified about 20 bars in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware who say Cipriano scammed them, and he said Cipriano wants to make good on all accounts.

Cipriano, who did not attend Lange's show, is living with his parents, said Carluccio, a fan who is representing him for free.

Here's a great recap of Cipriano's legal woes.

Rick’s Philly Steaks, ousted last year from Reading Terminal Market, is looking for its soft (perhaps slightly chewy) opening on Thursday (6/4) in the food court beneath the Bellevue. (It might be Friday, owner Rick Olivieri explains, as his contractor broke a toe.) Olivieri is hoping to stage a star-studded grand opening on June 19.

On Wednesday, June 17, from noon to 2 p.m., chef Tom Colicchio (Craft Restaurant and Top Chef) will be at Williams-Sonoma to sign copies of his new book Wichcraft. It's free.

The Inn Flight on Old York Road in Abington, across from Abington Memorial Hospital since 1970, has been sold. It closed for good last night.

Buyer is David Van Buren, an associate of restaurateur Marty Grims (Moshulu, Du Jour, White Dog Cafe). Manager will be Michael Dombkoski, former co-owner of the shuttered ¡Pasión! in Center City.

Dombkoski says it'll be a gastropub. No name yet. It's due to open by September.

Any old-timers out there know the name of the restaurant that preceded the Inn Flight in Abington? First correct response gets a cookbook.

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The frenzied final days of construction and staff training are underway at the Oyster House, the seafooder formerly known as the Sansom Street Oyster House at 1516 Sansom St. (SSOH, under different ownership, closed last year.)

Since I first tipped the info on this project back on Jan. 8, the facade has been shrouded in plywood.

Opening is scheduled for dinner Thursday 6/4, with lunch to follow in about two weeks. I'll have the full story in "Table Talk" on Thursday, but for now, here are some high points:

• Owner is Sam Mink, working with his father, David, who opened Sansom Street Oyster House in 1976. This is a generational thing: David Mink's father, Sam, got into the seafood biz in 1947 when he bought Kelly's on Mole Street, which was closed in 1969 to make way for the Centre Square project. (Fellow Philly history buffs: That block of Mole came in off of Market Street between 15th and 16th. It is now beneath Centre Square II, the tower closest to 16th.) Kelly's then briefly moved into 1620 Ludlow St., now beneath One Liberty Place.
   
• Brett Webber Architects gutted the interior, and about the only original stuff is some wainscoting. Milk-glass cocktail rail (saved from Kelly's) will be installed in the front windows.The look is wide open, vaguely industrial (thanks to exposed steel), with a white-subway-tiled-backed drinking bar and oyster bar toward the front. The white bar and oyster bar tops are made from marble landscaping salvaged from Independence Mall. Whitewashed brick walls are adorned with 200 pieces from the Mink family's collection of oyster plates. Tables were made from 19th-century oak salvaged from the roof of the Academy of Music.
   
• No sidewalk plans. Windows will not fling open.
   
• Moderate prices.

 A working menu (no prices yet) follows.

(Projected opening date has been corrected.)

Credit: Mark Stehle

Susanna Foo is selling her Center City restaurant after 22 years, and the last night of service at 1512 Walnut St. will be Saturday, June 13.

Foo will spend all her time at Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen in Radnor, a 10-minute walk from her home. Those who dine at Walnut Street in its final weeks will get a 20-percent voucher for dinner in Radnor.

This just in:

Steven Cook and Michael Solomonov, flush with critical success at Zahav, are going into 900 South St. -- the former Crescent City -- with a Texas-style barbecue restaurant. Name and chef are to be announced. Zahav designer Elisabeth Knapp got the nod to do the interior.

BBQ seems to be the rage, as Philadelphia Fish & Company reflagged itself Q BBQ & Tequila Bar and other spots like Bebe's Barbecue in the Italian Market and Holy Smoke in Roxborough are getting traction. (Of course, any mention of BBQ in Philly will set off an outpouring of wailing that "Philly doesn't [or don't] know real barbecue.")

Cook/Solo will bump up a Bella Vista neighborhood that includes a Starbucks next door, Supper down the block and Horizons two blocks away, says real estate broker Laurence Steinberg.

The partners have quite a quiver of concepts: Israeli (Zahav), Mexican (Xochitl) and Southern (Marigold Kitchen).

Cook told me that he wants to open in mid-fall.

What's more exciting than watching race cars go round and round and round on television?

Why, hearing race cars go round and round and round on the radio.

Philly's 950 ESPN has obtained the rights to radio coverage of NASCAR’s 2009 Sprint Cup Series, starting with the Autism Speaks 400 at 2 p.m. Sunday (5/31) from Dover International Speedway. For you visual types, Fox is carrying the race on TV.

Azie on Main will be the name of Win Signature Restaurants' new Asian fusion eatery, opening in midsummer on the upper level of what was Maia in Villanova.

This is the website of Azie in Media, and the concept is expected to be similar.

Win and Sutida Somboonsong also own Teikoku, Mikado Thai Pepper and Flavor on the Main Line. The Somboonsongs also are working on Parker's Prime, a steakhouse at the former Roux 3 in Newtown Square.

A rep for Maia told me that there is interest in the downstairs space from several restaurateurs, but no deal is in place.

Joseph Tucker, chef-owner of Joe Pesce (in Center City and Collingswood), has signed a lease for 505 Haddon Ave. in Collingswood for Mom's Kitchen, a budget-priced comfort-food BYOB.

(The space was last a Curves. How fitting.)

Tucker envisions it as a '60s-'70s-themer, opening in late August.