Meal Ticket has the latest menu from Peter McAndrews’ Modo Mio.Among the items we’ll be considering the next time we hit up the Girard Avenue BYOB are:

• cannellono — crispy crab-stuffed prosciutto di Parma, asparagus & almonds
• gnoccho — crispy fried potato dumpling stuffed with foie gras and chicken liver, orange-fennel mostarda, shaved gorgonzola
• tortelloni — butternut squash-stuffed large navels, sage butter, amaretti
• anatra “all’apicio”— roasted duck leg, chestnut honey, spices, cunja
• guancia — braised beef cheek, salsa passito, crispy polenta, golden raisin gremolata

The menu turista , which features an antipasto, pasta, secondo and dolce for $33 is still available and one of the best deals in town.

Seasonal menu changes at Modo Mio [Meal Ticket]
Modo Mio [Official Site]

The change in season has brought a change in the menu at the new Marigold Kitchen. Among the new items are:

• Champagne Braised Escargot over crispy polenta with wild mushrooms.
• Butternut Squash Bisque, garnished with banana bubbles, autumn spiced crema, freeze dried raisins and fried sage leaves.
• Monkfish “Picatta”, served with preserved lemon mash, black olive emulsion, broccoli rabe and crispy fried capers.

Still on the menu is the intriguing pork, beans and beer (pork tenderloin, white bean puree and Guinness foam). Check out the full menu here.

We really need to get to West Philadelphia to check this place out.

Marigold Kitchen [Official Site]

Adam Erace visits Sonata and if he has one bit of advice for chef Mark Tropea,  it’s go easy on the sauce.

At times during my dinner at Sonata, it was like Tropea couldn’t help himself, that add-more reflex that afflicts lots of young chefs. It’s a real shame, since mostly he’s doing fresh things with quality ingredients at friendly prices. His pan-crisped pork belly, brined for 24 hours and cooked sous-vide for 12 more, came correct with opposing textures, and I loved the little spheres of compressed Fuji apple and the deeply autumnal calvados molasses—even if the latter tattooed the plate in passé diner-dessert squiggles.

Sonata [Philadelphia Weekly]

French BYOB, Fond opens on East Passyunk today. Former Le Bec-Fin chefs Lee Styer and Jessie Prawlucki will be in the kitchen and Lacroix’s Tory Keomanvong will be in the front of the house.

Fond Slideshow [Grub Street]
Fond [Thrillist]
Menu for Fond on East Passyunk [Meal Ticket]

Craig LaBan visits Bibou where he finds chef Pierre Calmels and his wife Charlotte creating another star French bistro on 8th Street in South Philadelphia. Of special note was the “gastro-splurge” of the seven-course $70 tasting dinner.

Our meal soared from an ethereally light but vivid chilled asparagus soup to a velvety-tender slice of poached veal tongue with sauce gribiche (a decadent throwback mayo with capers, cornichons, minced hard-cooked egg, and tarragon.) There were wonderfully crisped scallops with lime emulsion, sea beans and shaved cucumber noodles, another bowl of Madeira-sauced chanterelles (which I gratefully devoured), seared foie gras, and an intensely beefy hanger steak in a light green peppercorn sauce alongside snappy plumes of black trumpet mushrooms that glistened with a butter shine.

Three Bells – Excellent

Bibou [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Bibou [Official Site]

Philadelphia Magazine’s Joy Manning handed out an A- for the food at Bibou, calling the fare “the country cousin to the citified cuisine of Le Bec. It’s more rustic, without fussy embellishments or unnecessary elements, but just as genuine, and made with the same skill, the same obsessive attention to detail.” [Philadelphia Magazine]

Wine guru David McDuff visits Bibou on a Sunday prix fixe night for the $45 per person meal and finds the “plats principaux are the stars.” [McDuff's Food & Wine Trail]

Drew Lazor runs down what he had at his Sunday prix fixe and in addition to still being full the next day, he found it “ridiculously tasty.” [Meal Ticket]

Bibou also made the Philadelphia Weekly 50-Must Eats with its seven-course tasting menu for $70. PW calls Bibou’s foie gras some of the best in Philly. [Philadelphia Weekly]

Bibou [Official Site]

Michael Klein reports that Dmitri Chimes is adding a third location to his Dmitri’s empire. The grilled-octopus emporium is going in to the old Elixir Cafe on North 2nd Street. Opening is set for late September and like the original, it will be BYOB.

A third Dmitri’s [The Insider]

Adam Erace reviews Bibou, Philadelphia’s latest French bistro and finds the service and food is so good there’s nothing left to be done but some nitpicking.

To eat Calmels’ food is to, at least momentarily, depart the bistro parameters that have lately defined (or constrained, maybe) French in Philly. Sure, Bibou is a bistro at heart—in addition to ivory scallops ringed 
by couscous, summer squash ribbons and frothy gold curry (course No. 4), they also serve pigs feet and escargots—but the clean presentation, precise execution and sheer élan with which Calmels cooks puts it on another level.

Bibou [Philadelphia Weekly]
Bibou [Official Site]

For the haters of self promotion out there, here’s a restaurant review sure to warm your heart. David Snyder goes to Bibou which opened without much fanfare except for from some hardcore foodies in May and crowns it “the best French bistro in a city teeming with them.”

These upscale versions of French country fare far exceed the typical expectations and limitations of a bistro. After just one bite, the classical methods the chef perfected at several Michelin-rated restaurants in France, New York City’s Daniel and Philly’s Le Bec-Fin (where he was executive chef) are apparent.

Nowhere are these skills more vivid than in the chef’s sauces. It’s difficult to upstage perfect, double-seared hanger steak, but the depth that green peppercorn, red currant gelée and a touch of cream brought to the dish’s red wine bordelaise sauce (a Georges Perrier recipe Pierre tweaked) had me asking for more house-made bread to mop one of my companions’ plates. Grenadine syrup added structure to the rhubarb and Meyer lemon-zest sauce accompanying crisp-skinned sea bass. The whisper of clove in the Black Diamond plum chutney was a creative bridge to house-made pumpkin bread served with seared foie gras. Fresh sage from the Calmels’ personal garden made the jus in veal medallions sing.

Eiffel Power [City Paper]
Bibou [Official Site]

Opening Today

Iron Hill Maple Shade opens today. It’s the regional chain’s first foray into New Jersey and the first brewpub to open in the state in 10 years.

Chris Lapierre, formerly of Iron Hill West Chester will be manning the kettles at the 280-seat brewery and restaurant. Of particular note is the brewpub’s automated growler filling system which means you can take some of Maple Shade home with you.

Iron Hill Brewery [Thrillist]
Iron Hill Brewery

Opening Tomorrow

Sonata is set to open on Liberties Walk where Swallow once resided. The BYOB from executive chef and owner Mark Tropea will serve American fare “in inventive and unique presentations.” Among the highlights are duck prosciutto with cantaloupe frisee salad and braised short rib with celery root puree.

Sonata Restaurant in pictures [Meal Ticket]

Complete Sonata release after the jump.

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