Swift Half is adding weekend brunch tomorrow. It’ll start with a small menu but will include biscuits and gravy. Perfect for those days when the Standard Tap isn’t offering theirs. Also new at the Swift is a menu of $2 bar snacks. Look for fried pickles, homemade pretzels, deviled eggs and marinated olives.

P.Y.T. is adding daily lunch starting on Black Friday. The burger lounge is also starting a weekly burger and first up is a Thanksgivin’ Dinner Burger featuring a turkey burger topped with cranberry relish, stuffing and gravy. Also the always dangerous Victory Golden Monkey is $3 a pint during their half-priced 5-7pm happy hour. Be scared, be very scared.

Swift Half launches brunch this weekend [Meal Ticket]
Tommy Up [Facebook]

Half-priced Monday starts at P.Y.T. tonight. There will be half-priced draft beers and $4 shots of Jameson. Combine that with Swift Half’s $2 half pints and the Piazza at Schmidt’s is the place to save some money on a Monday night.

Tom Drinker’s West will be the name of the 250-seat pizzeria and pub from Avram Hornik (Drnker’sPub, Drinker’s Tavern, Lucy’s Hat Shop) set for University City this month.  Elsewhere in UCity, Sang Kee is also hoping to open this month, City Tap House is aiming for after Christmas and Landmark Americana on Drexel’s campus is targeting February. [The Insider]

The New York Times profiles Bart Blatstein and the Piazza at Schmidt’s. Most notable, Blatstein owns the liquor licenses and can evict tenants for the sin of being un-cool. [New York Times via Grub Street]

Martha Stewart dined at Pod and made her own chopstick rests. [The Martha Blog via The Illadelph]

Friday Saturday Sunday has had a wonderful $10 above cost wine list for some time. Now they’re dropping any corkage fee so diners can BYO without charge. [The Insider]

Keith Taylor’s Holy Smoke in Roxborough will be opening outlets in Quakertown and Mt. Laurel. [Gluten Free Philadelphia]

Cuong Truong, an owner of Pho Ha at 6th and Washington is looking to open a two-story noodle house and smokeless barbecue at 216-18 South Street sometime next year. [Grub Street]

A second Trolley Car Diner location is set to break ground this week. Ken Weinstein is opening this one at the “Bathey House” near Kelly Drive in East Falls. [Meal Ticket]

World Cafe Live has a new chef, Michael Breslin who will be showing off his stuff at a Victory beer dinner on Tuesday, November 17th. [Beer Lass]

The Swift Half has been steadily expanding its menu since opening this Spring. Check out the latest incarnation of the menu after the jump.

And don’t forget, on Mondays Swift Half offers half-pints for $2.
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Tomorrow, Chefame is hosting a giant clambake behind the Piazza at Schmidt’s. There will be clams, mussels, sausage, lobster and crabs cooked in big pots and 5 tons of sand on Hancock Street. The clambake kicks off at 6 and tickets are $25 per person.

The BIG Clambake [Chefame]
Tickets for the Clambake [Dining By Design and ChefAMe]

Craig LaBan has been driven to haiku and song over the Good Dog so it was sure to be interesting to see what he had to say on the Swift Half, the sibling bar whose environs are almost sterile in comparison. And guess what, he likes it, finding nothing generic about the food.

Granted, there may not be any lightning bolts of bar-food brilliance on the level of that cheese-stuffed burger. But this menu is full of good ingredients and satisfying flavors, with a shade more culinary ambition and a lighter touch than the Good Dog’s comfort-food ruminations.

For starters, there is a pair of thick-cut lamb chops edged in a garlicky green marinade of mint chimichurri, fairly priced at $14. It’s easy to recall O’Donnell’s Striped Bass experience in the menu’s deft seafood items, like those gorgeous Jersey scallops with zucchini ribbons and cherry tomatoes. A simply grilled whole branzino was as plump and juicy as any I’ve had recently around town for $21. A $24 steak-frites is relatively pricey for Northern Liberties. But as meat goes, this tender strip steak glazed in jalapeño butter with good house-cut fries and a side of grilled corn was worth the cost.

Two Bells – Very Good

Swift Half [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Swift Half [Official Site]

Trey Popp tries to cut through the buzz to review P.Y.T. this week. What he may have done is crank up the hype and bluster meter to 11. But first the review:

Popp refers to P.Y.T.’s burger as “a juiceless nugget on a grocery-store bun with mass-market potato chips on the side.” Ouch! He wasn’t much more impressed with the fries or veggie burger. He did however call the onion rings a “title contender” and to his own surprise, he enjoyed the $10 “adultshakes.”

And if you thought Tommy Up would stand idly by while Popp smacked his Pretty Young Thing you haven’t been paying much attention. The first comment on Popp’s review was of course from Tommy Up. Within two hours of that, an e-mail was sent out to Up’s mailing list highlighting the positives and critiquing the critic’s take on the burger. And being the master of promotion that he is, print or tear out Popp’s review between now and the 10th and you can get a free PYT Burger to try for yourself.

Hype Beast [City Paper]
P.Y.T. [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]

Sunday through Thursday the Swift Half at the Piazza offers a 20% off in the business discount.

Swift Half [Twitter]
Swift Half [Official Site]

Thrillist has the low down on Tommy Up’s P.Y.T. The burger and shake joint will open tonight at 6. This weekend will be food free but when the menu does get fully implemented, expect burgers, dogs and even lobster fish sticks.

P.Y.T. [Thrillist]