David Snyder dines at Kite & Key off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and finds a place where the food hasn’t caught up to the beers.

The kitchen, on the other hand, doesn’t complete the circuit. Spicy pineapple wings, served with a puzzling “nest” of pickled carrots, showed up nearly petrified. Pan-fried crab cake sliders, too, had little flavor, though the accompanying gazpacho was refreshing. I enjoyed the house seafood seasoning that flavored moist tilapia in the grilled fish tacos, but an out-of-place Asian slaw topper gave them an unpleasantly soggy texture. I was into the roast pork loin sandwich despite the broccoli rabe coming out under-sautéed.

Higher Ground [City Paper]
Kite & Key [Official Site]

Sly Fox’s Pikeland Pils has been in the press a lot this past week getting a couple of Best Of awards and just some general love. Fairmount’s Bridgid’s is celebrating by offering $2 Pikeland Pils cans through Sunday.

Also new at Bridgid’s is the lunch menu, mini filet cheesesteaks, Thai shrimp and mango salad, crawfish lasagna and the Mac Daddy, mac and cheese with Angus beef hot dogs.

Bridgid’s [Official Site]

Foodaphilia tries the younger sibling of Bella Vista’s brunch superstar, Sabrina’s Cafe and Spencer’s Too.

Visit the new location of Sabrina’s Cafe. A larger space reduces the wait time but doesn’t take away from the fabulous portions or innovative ideas.

Sabrina’s Cafe and Spencer’s Too [Foodaphilia]

Trey Popp gives a history lesson on Asian-fusion cuisine that seems a bit more interesting than his meals at Fairmount’s Trio.

There are two ways to look at Trio’s entrées. On the one hand, they are solid offerings apportioned generously for the price. Philly could use more restaurants that priced mains between $11 and $19, and if I lived in this neighborhood, I am sure I would be drawn to these on a semi-regular basis. On the other hand, I probably wouldn’t hike more than six or eight blocks for them.

Tres Evidence [City Paper]
Trio [Official Site]

The Perelman Building has gotten a lot of ink recently and we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention that there is a cafe in the Philadelphia Museum of Art addition. The cafe serves light fare, plus open faced and pressed sandwiches Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM.

Gallery Café Menu [Official Site]
Photo via the Philadelphia Inquirer

Starting tonight through November 3rd Eastern State Penitentiary and the London Grill are teaming up for a Halloween Fright Night Package. The package will include a three-course dinner at the London Grill followed by a ghoulish tour of Eastern State afterwards. The cost is $65 per person, $35 for children ages 7 to 11.

Menu highlights after the jump.

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Kirsten Henri checks out Sabrina’s Cafe & Spencer’s Too, the new sibling of the Italian Market classic.

The menu too is a riff on diner food, much of it the same as at the original. Describing in detail what we ate at Sabrina’s seems pointless. Each dish contains so many ingredients combined together in inexplicable ways (that really shouldn’t work as well as they do) served in such egregiously large portions that it seems improper to analyze.

This is food built strictly for comfort, meant for instant gratification, not for picking apart and considering its individual components. You’re not coming to Sabrina’s for delicate flavors or to challenge your oh-so-refined palate. You’re coming to shove great forkfuls of sugar, butter and cheese down your piehole until your eyes glaze over, your belly bulges and you drop off into a satisfied post-brunchial daze.

Toast of the Town [Philadelphia Weekly]
Sabrina’s Cafe [Official Site]

We received an interesting tip this morning at Foobooz headquarters, the nachos at Azure might just be the best in the city. Tipster Eric says the Azure chicken nachos are followed closely by the nachos at Bishop’s Collar. And that’s some high praise as we sampled the Collar’s nachos just a couple of Fridays ago and imagine they would be tough to beat.

Any other nominees for where to check out nachos around the area? The comments are open.

Elisa Ludwig checks out Sabrina’s Cafe and Spencer’s Too and finds it a worthy sequel to the much loved Bella Vista original.

What’s nice about SCST’s lineup is that it doesn’t sacrifice the hominess of comfort food in the name of innovation. Usually, you get both. There’s the regular stuffed French toast — half a loaf tented on your plate — with cream cheese and bananas, or the daily variety, which was a super-sweet orange-molasses-butterscotch flavor on a recent visit. There are gigantic polenta fries, golden bricks of fried cornmeal embedded with jalapeño peppers that, with a side of marinara sauce, are a meal in and of themselves.

Too Much Love

The women’s beer club, In Pursuit of Ale meets tonight at the Aspen in Fairmount. The Aspen has a new menu that we’ve heard good things about, deep-fried cheesecake? Stop temptress!

And don’t forget it’s Center City Sips. Maybe the rain showers will keep some people away from the most popular spots. It’s worth a shot.