Table Talk: Ambler brewpub rolls out changes
Ambler brewpub Forest & Main is rolling out a few changes, including a new tasting room in the fall. Johnny Della Polla, who formerly ran Kennett in Queen Village and helped set up tasting rooms for Yards and Conshohocken Brewing, is helping owners Gerard Olson and Daniel Endicott. Chef Kelly Fischer, who starts next week, is streamlining the dinner menu to be more pub-friendly.
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Forest & Main changes
Ambler brewpub Forest & Main is rolling out a few changes, including a new tasting room in the fall. Johnny Della Polla, who formerly ran Kennett in Queen Village and helped set up tasting rooms for Yards and Conshohocken Brewing, is helping owners Gerard Olson and Daniel Endicott. Chef Kelly Fischer, who starts next week, is streamlining the dinner menu to be more pub-friendly.
What's new
Lee Quach, who has owned several Vietnamese restaurants in South Philadelphia, is the Lee behind Lee's Cafe & Bistro, a stand-alone family-run shop at 522 Washington Ave. (267-273-0922) in front of the Oriental Supermarket at Sixth Street and Washington Avenue.
The first floor, open daily at 7 a.m., is a counter stocked with bao, rolls, and pastries. The second floor is a dining room (open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.) whose menu runs the board (pho and other soups, vermicelli, and broken rice). Lee's has gained a following for its banh mi, served on rolls baked by James Beard Award finalist Artisan Boulanger Patissier. (The South Philadelphia bakery, owned by Cambodian-born André Chin and Amanda Eap, also makes Quach's pastries.)
South Indian cuisine comes to Queen Village with this week's opening of Imli Indian Kitchen (769 E. Passyunk Ave., 267-858-4277), a dignified redo of Ulivo at Fifth and Catharine Streets. Owner Paul Samy keeps his BYOB's entrées - including chicken balti, coriander adrak gosht, and lamb pasanda - in the teens. It's open daily for dinner.
Coming and going
Gnocchi - Sandro Frusone's homespun Italian BYOB at 613 E. Passyunk Ave. - is coming back, a year and a half after the space was rented to another restaurateur. That trattoria, Spitalieri's, closed recently. A mid-June opening is the target.
Freeway Diner has ended its 37-year run on Route 41 in Deptford. Retirement is the reason; the land has been sold to a developer.
The second Pizzeria Vetri, at 1615 Chancellor St., will open June 2.
The winner of this season's Hell's Kitchen on Fox will find local employment: He or she will work with the last season's winner, LaTasha McCutchen, at Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill at Caesars in Atlantic City. The show airs at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.