Michael Klein, editor/producer of philly.com/Food, writes about the restaurant scene in his Inquirer column, Table Talk. Have a question? E-mail it, and he'll answer in print or on his blog.
The Bucks County street was choked with cars and a TV news van Friday. Police cordoned off the end of the block. But inside the colonial on the cul de sac in Feasterville, it was just another calm morning for Stacey and Brendan Carey and their 11-month-old sextuplets and 2-year-old daughter.
Twenty years ago, Girasole on Locust Street just off 13th Street was the stylish go-to Italian spot for theatergoers. After it packed its tent in 2004 — it reopened in 2009 at Broad and Pine Streets — the space housed a series of sketchy nightspots. Now, with the neighborhood on the upswing — you have Fish on the opposite corner, Green Eggs Cafe next door, and a strip of hot restaurants around the corner (Sampan, Barbuzzo, Jamonera, Zavino, etc.) — the building is going the stylish Italian route again.
Wood-fired oven by wood-fired oven, the city’s pizza scene is heating up. When American-raised Antimo DiMeo, 20, expressed interest in following his Neapolitan-born father, Pino, 43, in the pizza business, the son insisted he wanted to cook in the old-country way, with a wood-fired oven. (Pino’s parlors use conventional gas ovens.)
Husband-wife veterans Guy Shapiro and Luli Canuso have been around the block a time or two after meeting at the once-trendy Mirabelle on Callowhill Street in the 1980s. She was a pastry chef at Le Bec-Fin. He cooked for Russian mobsters, among other employers. Now they have set up on a sunny corner near their Fairmount house with BlueCat (1921 Fairmount Ave., 267-519-2911).
Square Peg, the restaurant-bar at 10th and Walnut Streets (215-413-3600) that replaced a Marathon Grill a couple of weeks ago, has been ramping up its operation. Thursday marks the start of lunch (limited seating at first). Chef Matt Levin (ex-Adsum, Lacroix) is doing twists on American comfort food under owners Barry Gutin and Larry Cohen (Cuba Libre, GuestCounts Hospitality, 32°). Specialty is all-day breakfast.
Chef Peter McAndrews has added the Old World-elegant Popolino, in Northern Liberties (501 Fairmount Ave., 215-928-0106), to his collection of Italian-themers (Modo Mio, Monsu, Paesano's).
The answer to the hottest question in town: Walter Abrams. The former French Laundry sous chef (six years) is winging his way east to Le Bec-Fin, where he will become executive chef for new owner (and his former Laundry-mate) Nicolas Fanucci.
