Recent reports have Janet Jackson ailing in Montreal, and now comes word that her show at the Wachovia Center scheduled for Thursday (10/2) has been postponed. Her stop in Boston on Wednesday (10/1) also is on hold.

No new dates have been scheduled.

Jackson's tour, with LL Cool J, is due to pick up Saturday in Greensboro, N.C.

Credit is tight, the economy has gone south, and yet restaurants keep opening.

The last two weeks have seen these rollouts:

• Melograno, in new quarters at 2012 Sansom St.; details in Thursday's "Table Talk" column
• Mémé, at 22d and Spruce Streets.
• Sakeya, a dark and sexy Japanese pub in the Academy House, 1420 Locust St.
• Mix, a pizza/pasta/coffee joint with bar at 21st and Chestnut Streets
• El Fuego's second location, now getting its footing (the grill is not quite there yet) at 2104 Chestnut St.

More to come. A sampling:

• Around the corner from El Fuego/Mix is a not-quite-named pub from bartender-about-town Laurentiu Muras at 102 S. 21st St.; when I first wrote about it back in March, Muras was considering the name Mamaia (to honor his Transylvanian ties), but he is reconsidering it. He seems to be only a few weeks away.
• Tiedhouse, in the works for nearly a year, has its soft opening up for Oct. 9 in the ground floor of CityView Condos at 20th and Hamilton Streets. By "tiedhouse," it's associated with Lafayette Hill's General Lafayette Inn. Chris Leonard plans 19 draft beers of 19 different styles, "select" bottles to fill in styles that won't be on draft, and a tight wine list whose choices will be available by the half-glass, full glass and bottle. Menu will be international small-plates, and he's promising great prices ($4 to $5, and nothing over $15). Atmosphere will be dark and pubby.
• South Philly's Lucky 13 (1820 S. 13th St., a few steps off Passyunk) has been in soft-opening mode to keep its liquor license intact. The grand opening is penciled in for Oct. 13.
• Camac, a brick-oven pizzeria/lounge, is under construction at 1305 Locust St., the spot that most remember as Girasole; the owners are suggesting a late-November opening.
• What was Citrus at 8136 Germantown in Chestnut Hill is being taken over under the name Soul by a well-traveled server most recently at Parc.
• What was Clementine's at 1617 E. Passyunk in South Philly is being converted into Lynda's Mediterranean.

Here's a transcript of my live chat from last Wednesday. I'll be back to chat online at noon Wednesday.

The new Casa Brand, in a Realtor's photo.

The 76ers' Elton Brand plans to be here for a while. He settled last month on a spread on the Main Line, as I reported Sunday. The sale price was $3.35 million for a six-bedroom, nine-bath stone mansion on 4.3 acres in Gladwyne, according to Montgomery County records.

The house, used in the 1990 shooting of Rocky V, has an indoor pool.

Just after Brand left the L.A. Clippers, he put his three-bedroom, 3½-bath house in the Hollywood Hills on the market for a shade under $5 million. Earlier this month, the price dropped by $200,000.

Elton lives with his wife, Shahara, but the deeds are recorded in his name and his mother's name.

In other former-star-Philly-athlete-related real estate, both Allen Iverson's and Terrell Owens' former homesteads remain on the market.

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Chef David Katz cleared out some of the tables at Mémé, his new Fitler Square bistro, and brought in some friends and family for Saturday night bites in anticipation of Monday's opening. Mémé, named for Katz's pet name for his Moroccan grandmother (say it "MAY, MAY") and set up in the former Melograno corner spot, rustic American with an open kitchen, cherry tables and blackboard menu. (He's doing "small-ish" and "larg-er" plates; figure on $40 a person.)

The restaurant, awaiting its liquor license, will be open nightly except for Tuesdays, and for Sunday brunch. Menu is here and here.

Mémé
2201 Spruce St.
215-735-4900

For all the restaurants that fling open the doors five minutes after they get their health inspections -- no matter how "ready" the owners think they are -- we have Alison two, on Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington.

Night after night for the last week and a half, the glowing lights and dining patrons can spotted through the windows. Friday night (9/26), this sign on the front door warded off the public.

Even though chef-owner Alison Barshak opened the reservation lines the other day, the first reservations are not being granted for a full month out: Oct. 23. It's not clear when walk-ins may be accommodated.

Barshak is being slow and deliberate, fine-tuning with friends-and-family meals before the masses come in. It's commendable. No restaurant is up to speed from Day One, and negative word of mouth can be a killer. It's also expensive to dole out food, pay staff and fund Peco with no income. Keep in mind that Barshak recently shut down Alison in Blue Bell, her other restaurant 15 minutes away, as it undergoes renovations.

WIP afternoon talker Howard Eskin will be the man of the hour on Nov. 6 as he gets a lifetime achievement award at the 15th annual Philadelphia Achievement In Radio (AIR) Awards, which are the local radio version of the Emmys. (Unlike the local Emmys, though, all the stations participate.) 

WOGL's Cadillac Jack

Cadillac Jack, who's pretty much held the afternoon shift on WOGL (98.1) since the death of "Big Ron" O'Brien in April, was tapped today as the full-time replacement. Jack, who was on the old Eagle 106 from 1991 to 1993, was known as Jack Seville when he started at 'OGL about four years ago because WXTU had a Cadillac Jack of its own; he is now on the air in Vegas.