Craig LaBan decides to pay Fairmount’s Umai Umai a visit almost three years after it opened. What does that mean? Does LaBaninator come to bury or praise?

This Saturday the Bishop’s Collar is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a block party and concert.

The party runs from 1pm to 6pm and features butlered hors d’oeuvres and discounted beer from Yards, Sly Fox and Bells. Black Landlord will also be on hand to perform a free concert.

Philly Mag may have Osteria slipping from 1st to 4th in its list of best 50 restaurants but after reading these two accounts of the restaurant we know we’ll have to be back soon.

Eateria III: The Return to Osteria [McDuff's Food & Wine Trail]
Osteria [Veggicurious]

Chris Leonard has pulled the plug on 6-month old Tiedhouse in Fairmount and he goes out with guns blazing. The General Lafayette Inn remains open.

Update: The blogging continues at Lafayette’s Escape.

Closed [Lafayette's Escape]
Tiedhouse [Official Site]

Adam Erace finds promise at Kite & Key but despite chef Justin Hoke’s impressive resume the menu needs more finesse.

Aside from a mushy crab-cake slider that squished out the sides of its poppy seed bun, the rest of Hoke’s efforts showed promise. Like the perfectly respectable burger, for example, and the eight-hour-braised barbecue pork butt sandwich gone Italian with roasted long hots and sharp provolone, both served (with the sorry crab cake) in Kite and Key’s slider trio. True, the mussels lacked fire, and (except for the chili sauce) the ingredients—shallots, garlic, vermouth, chicken stock, butter, parsley— evoked more Provence than Phuket, but still, the PEI pileup was plump and sand-free, and the broth was charged with all the flavor I missed in the crepes.

Soaring Ambition [Philadelphia Weekly]
Kite & Key [Official Site]

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a dour look at the restaurant scene nationwide. But being that we’re silver lining types of people, we want to highlight the London Grill deal mentioned in the article.

You and up to three guests to join us for a three-course dinner.  The menu includes your choice of Fresh Maine Lobster or Filet of Beef, with salad and dessert, for $18.95 per person.  For an additional $10, we’ll hand-select two glasses of wine to pair with your first two courses.

Please make reservations though, just so they know how much lobster and fillets they’ll be needing.

What’s Not Cooking [Wall Street Journal]
London Grill [Official Site]

Fairmount’s Bridgid’s is a good spot that combines tasty food, with good prices and great beer. Phoodie.info highlights the $5 Bowl of Chili and beer special. They can keep their Miller High Life but we’d gladly wash down the chili with Yards Brawler or Sly Fox Dunkel Lager.

And today, Meal Ticket excitedly exclaims that you should eat Bridgid’s brunch “immediately.”

Bridgid’s $5 Happy Meal [Phoodie.info]
EAT THIS IMMEDIATELY: Brunch at Bridgid’s [Meal Ticket]
Bridgid’s [Official Site]

Have you ever felt that sense of accomplishment at a kegger or even a bar when that keg kicks and spews out its last gasp of foamy goodness? If that doesn’t sound like complete insanity, read on as Bridgid’s has a Kick the Keg Recession Special.

When the second handle at Bridgid’s kicks, the person they’re pulling that draft for gets a $25 gift certificate. To further entice you to come in and help kick some kegs the second tap is either $4 or $5 and a dollar off after midnight.

Bridgid’s [Official Site]

Maybe you forgot but yes, beer baskets do make good gifts. Bridgid’s can help you put together a gift basket, whether it is Yards, a local blend, 100% Belgian or something else entirely. Baskets start at $25 and can also be paired with Joe Sixpack’s Holiday Beer Guide and Bridgid’s gift certificates.

Bridgid’s [Official Site]

The spirit of the great pumpkin will be flowing through the taps of Bridgid’s in Fairmount.  This weekend there will be seven pumpkin beers on draft including Southern Tier, Southhampton, Dogfish Head, Wolaver’s Organic, New Holland and Elysian.

Pair the pumpkin beers with a three course, $25 pumpkin-centric menu that will include the likes of a Poor Man’s Beef Wellington with Pumpkin Demi Glace and Pumpkin Mousse Cannolis.

If you bring your own pumpkin they’ll carve it up and fill it with the beer of your choice!

Bridgid’s [Official Site]