Yesterday the Foobooz Burger Cruise for the First Person Festival set sail and it sure was fun. Thanks to First Person Arts for approaching me for the tour and to everyone who came out. It was an awesome time.

A synopsis follows with notes about the burgers and beer.

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Foobooz is hosting a Burger Cruise on Tuesday, November 3rd as part of the First Person Arts Festival.

Yours truly will be leading the tour to sample some of Center City Philadelphia’s best burgers.

Finalized bites and drinks are from Good Dog, Pub & Kitchen, Noble: American Cookery and Barclay Prime.

Tickets are $45 for First Person Arts members and $50 for the general public until October 25th. After that, prices go up $5.

And no worries about World Series conflicts, November 3rd is an off day.

Edible World: Foobooz Burger Cruise – Tuesday, November 3 [First Person Arts]

Tomato Station? An unsuccessful early 90s super group? Nope, it’s the heirloom tomato station at Barclay Prime. And color us intrigued, because we really love tomatoes when they’re in season and we haven’t really had any awesome ones yet.

Starting this evening, a display table is being set up in Barclay’s dining room filled with bowls of heirloom tomatoes with fun names like Sicilian Plums, Green Zebra, Pineapple, Purple Cherokee, Sun Gold and Tiger Striped. For $20 (more than a Butcher & Singer rib-eye) diners will receive 3 varieties which are cut, plated and served to the guest in the dining room with their choice of salt (Hawaiian lava, Adler Wood Smoke Salt from Washington, or Maldon salt from England) [Editor's Note: Foobooz's mother is going to be thrilled when she hears about this. Seriously, she has at least three types of salt on her kitchen table. Seriously!] and extra virgin olive oil (Olio Verde or Frantoio Della Rocca, both from Sicily).

The tomato station is available Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. The tomatoes have been freshly picked from Branch Creek Farms in Perkasie, Pa.

The Gary Maddox BBQ Challenge is this Saturday from 4 to 7pm at Citizens Bank Park. The event is open to the public (you don’t need tickets to the Phillies game to attend) and food tickets make money for the Youth Golf & Academics Program, an academic enrichment program founded by Garry Maddox to support children who reside in troubled city neighborhoods.

This year Stephen Starr has been brought on board and four of his restaurants, Barclay Prime, Jones, El Vez and Buddakan will be competing.

Check out the complete list after the jump, sorry Illadelph, no Bebe’s.

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The Bite wonders if your holiday barbecue can rival some of these dishes around town.

• Kobe Beef hot dogs at Varga Bar
• Dry-aged burger at Barclay Prime
• Grilled octopus at Johnny Brenda’s
• Corn on the cob at Cantina Dos Segundos
• Apple pie from Jones

Holiday barbecue to rival your own [Metro Philadelphia]

Unbreaded tries out the Barclay Prime Pub Burger and declares it “by far, the most flavorful burger we’ve ever tasted.”  [Unbreaded]

24 members of the Burger Club of Philly visit Five Guys and ranks the burger a B+. Fries with that Shake break it all down. [fwts.net]

Barclay Prime is launching a new menu exclusively for its bar and lounge. The new pub menu will feature gourmet takes on bar food bringing pretzels, wings and mac and cheese to the luxe steakhouse. The new menu kicks off Friday. Of course the high-end steak menu Barclay is known for is still available as well.

Check out Executive Chef James LoCascio’s take on bar food after the jump.

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Philadelphia Magazine ranks the 35 Best Steakhouses in the area and Barclay Prime as well as Capital Grille come out on top with 5 star ratings.

Let Them Eat Steak [Philadelphia Magazine]

We know, we know. You’re all such foodies that you would never dream of dating someone who wouldn’t plunge headfirst into a plate of organ meat with great gusto. Or would you? There are exceptions to every rule and sometimes those exceptions are totally hot and you want to marry or maybe even just have sex with those totally hot exceptions. Which begs the question, where do you take the dreaded Picky Eater on a date? The answer, after the jump.

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Auspicious Chinese Restaurant has opened in Ardmore next to MilkBoy Coffee. Most notable is the create-your-own stir fry and web site, masterskungfood.com. [Feeding Frenzy, City Paper]

Michael Klein highlights three new Phoenixville spots, the Bookend Cafe, Bistro 156 and Molly Maguire’s. [Table Talk, Philadelphia Inquirer]

Drew Lazor has the details on the Maoz Vegetarian looking to open at 1115 Walnut Street in January. And yes, it will be much bigger than their South Street spot. [Feeding Frenzy, City Paper]

Barclay Prime has raised the beef bar with Tajima beef (more tender than Kobe). It’s $80 for an 8-ounce filet, $90 for the 16-ounce strip and $245 for the 36-ounce porterhouse. [Table Talk, Philadelphia Inquirer]

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