Jose Garces’ Village Whiskey opens next Thursday (11:30am if you’re particularly antsy) and the menus are now available for analysis.

The Whiskey King burger that Grub Street teased us with in July now has a price, a steep $24 for the 10oz  farm-raised Angus beef from Maine. It’s topped with foie gras, maple bourbon glazed cipolini, blue cheese and applewood bacon.There’s also a Village Burger for a more reasonable $9 that can be topped with a choice of Haystack Mountain Chevre, Jasper Hill Cheddar or Rogue Smokey Blue for $3 and bacon for $2.

There’s a lobster roll at an Oyster House matching $26 and a Kentucky Fried Quail with sweet potato, chanterelle and corn succotash, roast chicken gravy for $14.

The bar snacks intrigue with homemade cheese puffs, deviled eggs, tater tots and soft pretzels. But for decadent finger foods, we’re most intrigued by the duck fat french fries served with Sly Fox cheddar sauce. Go all out by adding shortrib to the fries. We’d like to think of this as some high-end version of Nick’s Cafe’s gravy and cheese fries.

Check out the complete food menu after the jump as well as the beer, wine, cocktails and whiskey menus.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past week or so details have been coming out on the soon to open Resurrection Ale House on Grays Ferry Avenue.

The menu by chef Joe Chmiko has interesting seasonal items like watermelon, cucumber and mixed basil salad, hoisin braised pork ribs and twice fried chicken with watermelon and salted honey.

The bottled beer list will contain a unique concentration of Belgian Lambics plus owner Brendan Hartranft’s finely picked selection of other Belgians and quizzically, Natty Bo .

The opening is tentatively set for the September 9th but as Hartranft told Michael Klein,  he’s got “a punch list as long as my arm.”

When they do open though they will have a keg of Brewers Arts Resurrection Ale which they picked up themselves from the Baltimore brewery.

Resurrection, a Philadelphia Ale House. Soon. [Jack Curtin]
Sneak Peek at Resurrection Ale House Menu [Grub Street]
Dinging Bites [The Insider]
Resurrection Ale House [Official Site]

If we asked you what the most happening corner was east of Rittenhouse Square and west of Old City what would you answer? A year ago we know you wouldn’t have said 10th and Spruce. But on a recent evening with the bustle of Kanella on one side and the buzz of Varga Bar on the other, we were convinced. Adam Erace noticed the same thing in his review of Varga Bar. He also noticed the sliders on R. Evan Turney’s almost All-American menu.

The memory of those sliders is still vivid. Turney added Boursin, bacon, caramelized shallots and tomato and packaged them neatly in fluffy LeBus brioche. All good, but the beef … damn. Each patty came with cores the color of bubblegum, perfectly medium-rare, surrounded by a trim brown seal. The attending bangle bracelet onion rings also happen to rock.

Varga Bar [Philadelphia Weekly]
Varga Bar [Official Site]

David Snyder visits the Swift Half and finds the traditional pub fare excels as well as some of the upscale dishes.

Both the rich bacon-wrapped chicken liver/pistachio pâté (served with bright, tangy house-pickled beets) and the gamey duck prosciutto made me wish all of the bar’s charcuterie items were cured in-house. My favorite upscale dish was the lamb “lollichops.” The quarter-rack of chops were cooked to a perfect tenderness, but it was the mint chimichurri sauce – a playful take on the traditional mint/lamb combo – that gave this dish its smartest upgrade. Balancing the mint’s herbaceousness with a gentle warmth created depth and sophistication.

Prepare for swift-off [City Paper]

It might not be a clone of Good Dog but it’s good to know the burger’s at Swift Half has got Adam Erace’s back.

As at Good Dog, the Swift Half menu hinges on the almighty presence of a great burger. The beef is the same at both gastropubs: an 80/20 sirloin blend that cooked up pink and implausibly juicy. The cheese selection is luxe (Boucheron, Sardinian Pecorino, etc.); slabs of Stilton sat on my burger like slabs of Carrera marble with fine indigo veining. It melted slow, mingling with the toppings on its descent, depositing drops of smoky bacon and beef fats into the slightly sweet, sponge-like Wildflour brioche bun. If all that sounds a bit rich, there was also a piece of bibb lettuce and some tomato.

Swift Half [Philadelphia Weekly]
Swift Half [Official Site]

David Snyder visits Varga Bar and finds the beer and starters to be the best stuff on the menu.

Indeed, the dishes that seem at home beside beer – apps, bar eats – are where Varga Bar is at its best. I loved the crunch of the lightly broiled panko crust on the truffled mac and cheese, a deceptively light layering of gruyere, mascarpone, fontina and Parmesan. Turney’s wings, slow-cooked in duck fat, are the most tender rendition I’ve had, gifted with a slowly unfolding finish from the pomegranate molasses bourbon chili sauce.

A deep, smoky flavor in the onion ring batter meant the fried snacks were the perfect partner for applewood-smoked-bacon Kobe beef sliders. A fragrant chorizo-spiked fennel herb broth made for an inviting bowl of cockles and mussels. I almost wished the jumbo lump cheese fries featured less crab so I wouldn’t feel so guilty dunking them in Turney’s house-made ketchup.

 Strike a Pose [City Paper]
Varga Bar [Official Site]

When the Swift Half first opened at the Piazza at Schmidt’s it had a limited menu. But now the full menu has been rolled out. Best news, just about everything has dropped in price.

Read the rest of this entry »

We get a trio of early reports from Varga Bar with talk of food, heavenly bodies and a “battleship row” of beers.

CE Phood was there opening night and enjoyed the crab and cheese fries. [CE Phood]

Femme Fermental details the beer list and enjoys a pint of Damnation. [Femme Fermental]

Phoodie is excited for the “honest” food of Varga’s clam bake. [Phoodie.info]

Varga Bar [Official Site]

Trey Popp goes to Ladder 15 and gets beyond the bubblegum cocktails and into the food but finds its execution equally sophomoric.

The “chowda” flatbread was as dry as its namesake is creamy. Chewy chopped shellfish shared space with bacon and sliced potatoes, some of which could have used more cooking. The flour-coated crust was neither crispy nor chewy — more like a big cracker that had been left unwrapped on a humid day. Underdone crab and corn hush puppies were mealy in the middle, and bland all the way through. Root beer-glazed pork ribs were tender, if one-dimensionally sweet, but “glaze” really wasn’t the right word for those dull gray crescents, which made me think of cafeteria food. A side of roasted beets hadn’t been roasted enough.

Rung Turn [City Paper]
Ladder 15 [Official Site]

Craig LaBan may struggle classifying Slate but the kitchen is providing an identity worth noting.

My absolute favorite: a nod to the chef’s Greek heritage, a homespun revamp of lamb gyros so overdue, I can’t believe it took this long for someone to conceive it. Heat-charred slices of Paraskevas’ lamb and onion puree – spiced with poblanos and aromatic with cinnamon, cumin, and clove – come rolled inside a soft pita with fennel slaw and minty, homemade tzatziki. Opa!

On a lesser magnitude of ambition (but no less satisfying) was a thrilling encounter with chicken that wasn’t a boneless breast: an entree of apricot-glazed thighs, tenderly braised and served over Israeli couscous with tart cucumber-chive chutney.

Two Bells – Very Good

Slate [Philadelphia Inquirer]