Salt Pepper Ketchup checks out Taco Loco at 4th and Washington where they go beyond the basics.

Johnny Goodtimes kicks off a new Quizzo tonight at the Ugly American. The fun gets underway at 7:30pm at Front and Federal.

Adam Erace visits The Witch American Bistro in Pennsport and finds a spot cursed by its own inconsistencies but not without potential. 

Be-Witched and Bewildered [Philadelphia Weekly]
The Witch American Bistro [Official Site]

Craig LaBan reviewed South Philly BYOB Nicholas and discovered that chef-owners Nick Matteo and Nick Sweeney, “clearly remembered to give their casual new bistro the one essential ingredient it needs to eventually become complete: heart.” But… LaBan cautions his cranky suburban readership that there’s no need to hop in the Beemer and head to Pennsport to sample the fresh-n-local fare:

“The result may not be the kind of fine-dining destination that merits a drive from far afield. But the little BYOB they created has the charm, personality and value to be a delightful neighborhood fixture, especially for an emerging neighborhood like Pennsport in deep South Philly, which had yet to score its go-to local bistro.”

Next week, LaBan hits another South Philly jawn, Da Vinci.

Nicholas Review [Inquirer]
Nicholas [Official Site]

Adam Erace begrudgingly lets the cat out of the bag regarding Pennsport’s Nicholas.

Sugary grilled Jersey peaches marinated in rum and molasses and flecked with DiBruno’s gorgonzola make me forget the delicious grilled hickory-smoked Cannuli’s pork chop on the plate. Lemony chicken piccata scattered with capers pales in the limelight of roasted summer squash and Yukon wedges with crunchy edges.

“Beef & Reef” brings a succulent grilled prawn and petite flatiron steak that looks like it was butchered with child-safe scissors, but the slender, clover honey-glazed carrots and waxy yellow and deep violet fingerlings quickly shift the focus. Blackened tilapia accentuates charred corn-and-tomatillo salsa, not the other way around.

Nicholas [Philadelphia Weekly]
Nicholas [Official Site]

We haven’t heard much about Pennsport spot Peppercorns since it opened late last year, but it looks like the building is for sale. The phillyblog thread, ominously titled “Poor Peppercorns“, offers 10 pages of neighborly assessments that run the gamut from hopeful to grim on the future of the spot. 

Pennsport is a tricky spot for a restaurant, bar or resto-bar. It clearly can support a bar – there’s no shortage of them there – but the food situation is inconsistent. The Ugly American seems to be surviving. There’s a newish BYOB Nicholas (anyone been?). So what might work in Peppercorns space, if not Peppercorns? Another BYO? Another gastropub? Sushi? Bueller?

Here’s the Restaurant Yenta’s pick: lose the restaurant and open a craft beer store with prepared foods. The prepared foods should be delicious, but affordable and accessible. It should be staffed by cute guys and girls who are earnest but not snotty about their love of craft beer. They should have cake, because cake is wonderful and everyone loves cake. 

Thoughts? 

 

Drew Lazor has all the details fit to print on Nicholas, set to open at 2015 E Moyamensing Avenue. Owned by two chefs, the menu can be called New American and will feature lots of local ingredients and seafood as both owners have spent time in the kitchens of Striped Bass and Morimoto.

Details on Nicholas [The Clog]
Nicholas [Official Site]

Nothing ugly in Craig LaBan’s write-up on Pennport’s Ugly American.

[Chef David] Gilberg has a few nice moves with seafood, too, like the garlicky head-on shrimp, and the seared dayboat scallops with chunky bacon-laced chowder and puffy popovers, and fried oysters with an addictive celery root-spinach salad.

But he has a special touch with beef, including possibly the best prime-grade steak deal in town. His ginger- and soy-marinated “Belvedere” – a wonderfully marbled chuck cut patented by Wells Meats – comes with a skillet-seared crust over a lavish smear of black truffle bearnaise. At $22 (and with a brilliant side of twice-baked potato stuffed with sweet creamy crab), this dish should draw surf ‘n’ turfers of all ilk, from the Pennsport neighbors to visitors from the no-man’s-land of the nearby Riverview complex.

Two Bells – Very Good

Ugly American [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Ugly American [Official Site]

Adam Erace finds nothing ugly at Ugly American, especially not Carla Goncalves’ biscuits.

The biscuits, though, are all Goncalves’. She does all the baking—from the French country loaves for the truffled mushroom “meatball” po’ boys to the coarse-salt-and-caraway-sprinkled kaisers holding the beef-on-wick (Buffalo’s version of the roast beef sandwich). The roll hugs the shaved beef and lacy onions well, keeping fingers dry even when the sandwich is plunged into the accompanying pool of au jus.

Both sandwiches are tasty and satisfying, but man, I just keep going back to those biscuits.

A Taste of Home [Philadelphia Weekly]
Ugly American [Official Site]

The Daily News takes an early look at the Ugly American and urges the restaurant chill out on some of its dishes.

The restaurant is in its infancy and I really liked much of the experience, but there needs to be some restraint in the dishes. Too much is going on in over-the-top combinations. One of my tasters described it as going back to the period when American chefs started adding ingredients and fusions just because all those flavors were there.

It led to what some called “confusion cuisine.”

So, while I love the fact that the bar menu has the classic Beef-on-Weck sandwich (Buffalo, N.Y.’s, answer to our cheesesteak) and that there are some delicious dishes to be had, there are – like American tourists – some real loud and boorish ones to be found.

Two Forks – Good, worth the trip

Ugly American could use a little restraint [Philadelphia Daily News]