Sister site iSportacus is hosting an NCAA Bracket Challenge with restaurant gift certificates (synergy baby!). The winner gets $200 in gift certificates, second gets $100 and third gets $50 in certificates.

McCormick and Schmick’s, Bridgid’s, South Philadelphia Taproom and Rum Bar are among the gift certificates in the mix.

Sign up today and enjoy the productivity drop-off.

$375 in Prizes in iSportacus Bracket-tacular [iSportacus]

Foobooz head honcho Arthur Etchells has joined forces with Philadelphia celebrity Quizzo host Johnny Goodtimes and BMT, a mysterious Buffalo native with a penchant for philosophy to launch iSportacus. iSportacus aims to be a sports web site dedicated to Philadelphia sports at a level of discourse that will remain above that of sports talk radio and “McNabb sucks” screamers.

If you’re into sports, we hope you check it out.

iSportacus [Official Site]

As we told you on Friday, the Center City District has extended restaurant week for another six days. The vast majority of restaurants are participating in the second week but not all.

We’ve updated our Guide to Restaurant Week with sad faces for restaurants that are not participating in week two.

Check back frequently as we will be keeping the guide up to date.

Guide to Restaurant Week [f8b8z]
Center City District’s Restaurant Week [Official Site]

Hey we know some of you out there read Foobooz via an RSS reader and that’s OK with us. But by not visiting the site regularly you miss out on some of the features not captured in the feed.

One of the things you miss is the Calendar of Events. So don’t forget to stop by every once in awhile and check out the fun events in the calendar. Heck you can even get an RSS feed of the events too.

Calendar of Events [Foobooz.com]

Drew Lazor who has been doing a bang-up job with Feeding Frenzy in City Paper and in the Bite This category of the Clog now has a City Paper blog to call his own, Meal Ticket. Drew is joined by Felicia D’Ambrosio who we’re certain as served us at Belgian Cafe.

They’re promising to do “roundups, dish profiles, easy recipes, events coverage, interviews with local and national food personalities and more.”

We look forward to checking it out.

We’ve never done real restaurant reviews at Foobooz and we don’t have any plans to, despite the cold hard fact that people are obsessed with them. Legitimate restaurant reviews take deep pockets, lots of time and anonymity, all of which are not really available to us. We’ll let Craig wear the bag of baguettes over his head and ring his bells.

We think we’ve come up with a better way to review for our purposes – a Foobooz way – that distills the essence of each restaurant. If you’re looking to read food porn, we’ll still be linking you to that, but right here you’ll find Review in Haiku™! We’ll be using the traditional Japanese poetry form to give you our take on new restaurants. First up, Parc, after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

At Foobooz World Headquarters, we get a lot of requests for emergency restaurant assistance. As in:

“I’m celebrating a birthday/graduation/generic special occasion with 12 people, two of whom are vegetarians, one who won’t eat garlic and three who love steak… can you tell us where to go on a Saturday night at 8pm? Oh, and if it’s BYO, that would be better. And it has to be cheap.”

We’re still working on solving that great mystery of the dining universe, but in the meantime, we’re tackling a really important restaurant-related riddle: where should you go on a date?

We’re putting together a comprehensive guide of dating agendas that will address every dating situation we can imagine: Where to go on a first date? Where to go when you’re breaking up? When you’re just trying to get laid? When you’re having a secret affair? When you’re meeting the parents? Where should you take a beer lover? A wine lover? What do you do with a hot vegan?

We’ll be rolling out a new date every Tuesday and then collecting them in a feature, which you’ll find on the menu at the right.

Remember Dating Makes You Want to Die, But You Have to Do It Anyway.

Hi! I’m back! Well, I didn’t actually go anywhere, but after a four month hiatus – or perhaps more of a time of listening, of orchestrating, of engaging in behind-the-scenes machinations rather than writing – I have returned to Foobooz. Did you miss me? Wait, don’t answer that. Maybe you never noticed I left with Captain Arthur Etchells smoothly steering the ship. He’s super smooth, you know…

It’s been a busy summer in the Philly restaurant scene and it’s only going to get busier. Are you geared up for the impending re-opening of Minar Palace? Did you have anxiety dreams when L&I paid a visit to Bob & Barbara’s? Do you hate Parc or love it? So much to discuss! 

It’s good to be back.

Another summer has come and gone and it’s back to the slog of school and work… but Foobooz has you covered for fun. We’ve got some big plans for this fall… make sure to check the site frequently for some new features including Table For Two, a dating compendium for foodies, more blind items and some other exciting food-related stuff. Look for the return of the Restaurant Yenta, just one of the original features provided by former Philadelphia Weekly restaurant critic, Kirsten Henri, who you will see more of this autumn. Plus more of your old favorites like upcoming openings, new menus, Recession Specials and things to do around town.

Tonight at 6pm the Mojito Olympics kick off at the Rum Bar. Join Foobooz’s Arthur Etchells as he judges which bartender can make the best mojito.

$8 gets you in the door and your first mojito for free. Subsequent mojitos are half-priced and there will also be plenty of samples being passed around from the competitors.

Mojito the Moment [City Paper]
Rum Bar [Official Site]