Stargazy: Meat pies and eels for Yanks and homesick Brits
London calling. Chef Sam Jacobson opens a pie shop on East Passyunk.
Having run some of the region's better kitchens for the last decade, such as the late NoBL and Sycamore in Lansdowne, Southwark in Queen Village, and Leila in Jenkintown, Sam Jacobson is pretty handy around American cuisine.
What this town needed, the London-raised chef had been saying to anyone who would listen, is a pie and mash shop.
And so Friday, Aug. 28 (11 a.m.) will be opening day for Stargazy at 1838 E. Passyunk Ave. (215-309-2761), the storefront off Mifflin Street that until recently was Ms. Goody Cupcake.
It's a simple spot - a plain room with cases and counters enhanced by tile half-walls with mirrors. The counter is faced with mosaics. His friends Craig Parahus and Owen Mercurio (aka Hoboglyph) did the woodwork on signs and tables.
Hardly fancy fare, pies and mash provides low-cost, savory sustenance to the masses. Meat pies are served with a side of mashed potatoes topped with parsley liquor (that is, a sauce made of parsley - no alcohol involved), with a splash of chili vinegar.
Traditionally, they're served with jellied or stewed eels; a hitherto uninitiated test audience last week at Cook, the Rittenhouse Square demo kitchen, gave them a thumbs-up.
Basically, you're eating hearty for under 10 bucks, and a mug of hot tea is free.
Stargazy offers counter service as well as take-away. You can also sit at one of the few tables and watch football on the tube. The table tops, by the way, are inscribed with more wicked puns than you can shake a shtick at. One table by the counter proclaims, "Baby I was prawn to run" at one corner and shows a knot on the wood followed by the word "ingham."
The shop name, incidentally, is borrowed from the English pie made of sardines. The fish heads and tails are positioned to poke through the pie crust, making the heads appear to be gazing starward.
Stargazy's regular hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (or sellout) Tuesday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (or sellout) Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday; it's closed Monday.