This week in Philadelphia Magazine’s Restaurant Club Newsletter.

• The Ultimate Philly Brunch Guide
  Get a tasty sampling of Philly Mag’s 55 favorite places to spend a weekend morn
• Special Delivery on the Main Line
  new online service brings 20 Main Line restaurants straight to your door
• Where We’re Eating: Rat’s
  Stephen Starr’s catering division has taken over this Best-of-Philly winning Jersey restaurant
• This Week’s Featured Restaurant
  Order Le Virtu’s Best of Philly 2009 appetizer Olive All’Ascolana and receive 25% off any signature cocktail or Meletti brand digestivo.

Restaurant Club Newsletter [Philadelphia Magazine]

Tonight’s Le Virtu is hosting an earthquake relief benefit. The Abruzzese buffet dinner starts at 5pm and costs $40 with all proceeds going to Abruzzo earthquake victims.

For more information call LeVirtu at 215-271-5626.

The Center City District recently released their State of Center City 2009 report where they counted 215 outdoor cafes. As the outdoor cafe has become ubiquitous we’ve started hearing a new question, where can I eat outside away from the sidewalk. Today’s edition of The Bite highlights a handful of restaurants where the atmosphere is never broken by the blaring of, “welcome to route….”

Outdoor seating without the cars [Metro Philadelphia]

Le Virtu will be serving Abruzzese summer food in the garden next to their Passyunk Avenue restaurant. Expect lamb chops, sausages, steaks,shrimp, calamari, vegetables and smoked mozzarella all cooked on an outdoor grill. 

“Little Tibet” Coming to East Passyunk [Blogalicious] 
Le Virtu [Official Site]

Philadelphia Weekly’s Field Guide lists six Philadelphia wine bars worth visiting.

Wine of the Times [Philadelphia Weekly]

Sly Fox and Le Virtu are combining to do a tasting dinner next Thursday. This is the first time we can recall a beer dinner featuring Italian food.

Sly Fox beers will be $3 after dinner in the newly liquor friendly garden. The liquor license has recently been extended to include the outdoor courtyard.

The event begins at 6:30 and tickets to the five course meal are $45 per person.

Menu after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Elisa Ludwig loves her some Le Virtu:

But if Le Virtù has a primary virtue (and actually, it’s harder than you think to choose just one), it’s its ability to seamlessly bridge Passyunk old and new, staying true to the neighborhood’s Italian roots while asserting its own regional identity, the Abruzzi cuisine this kitchen masterfully rocks.

Trey Popp braves Chinatown’s Potluck Cafe:

Potluck serves literally hundreds of offbeat (and offal-based) entrées. Frog, hairtail fish, loofah sponge — it’s hard to think of a multicellular organism you can’t order at this place.

The Clog has scoop on a change in ownership at The Happy Rooster:

Laurence Berk Esq. is now a new owner at The Happy Rooster, a Philly restaurant and bar institution for all smart business folk. Though I’ll have a full interview in next week’s Icepack, there will be no change in food, employees or concept. “It’ll be the same exact Happy Rooster tradition.

Food Section [citypaper.net]

Craig LaBan is a sucker for couples who own restaurants and he finds another favorite twosome in this week’s review of Le Virtù on East Passyunk.

If you’ve eaten at handsome Le Virtù in South Philadelphia, you’ll realize that Francis Cratil and his wife, Catherine Lee, are among the lucky few. And if you’ve had a chance to savor the homespun Abruzzese pastas topped with lamb and duck ragus, or to nibble on deep-fried olives stuffed with braised meat, then you’ll know we’re the lucky ones, too. Because Le Virtù is not simply one of the most pleasant new restaurants I’ve visited this year; it adds yet another layer of authenticity to our already rich and growing Italian scene.

Le Virtu [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Le Virtu [Official Site]

Rick Nichols visits Le Virtu which finally opened after many delays.

So it was with sense of “At last!” as much as anything else that I popped into the newly opened restaurant a few weeks ago, a romantic mural of the scarlet-cloaked daughter of Iroio (the inspiration for Abruzzi’s only opera of note) striding on one wall, the bar populated – who woulda thought? – by a gaggle of high-spirited Pittsburgh expats, one of whom, the soprano RoseMarie Peraino, was easily coaxed into launching into a few sweet bars of the Puccini classic O Mio Babbino Caro.

Book on Abruzzi turns into a cafe [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Philadelphia Weekly takes on Italian newcomer Le Virtu and certainly likes it.

The kitchen takes its cues from centuries-old recipes, but the food feels fresh. Mint lends the pesto sauce on the Taleggio-stuffed gnocchi an Alpine clarity. Frilly rabbit-filled ravioli capture an ephemeral sweetness from cocoa powder and grated Amaretti cookies. Even meek filet mignon becomes a stud with a sprezzatura of anchovies and Claudio’s mozzarella.

Virtù Rewarded [Philadelphia Weekly]
Le Virtu [Official Site]