If you thought the burger craze of the summer was over you are sadly mistaken. The Bite looks into how it’s continuing this fall and doesn’t even get into the $7.17 Kobe beef burger at Union Trust or 500°, the burger shop by the Rouge owners that is planned for Sansom Street.

Want to enjoy some of Center City Philadelphia’s favorite burgers, then check out the Foobooz Burger Cruise this Tuesday. We’re hitting up Barclay Prime, Good Dog, Noble: American Cookery and Pub & Kitchen. Get your tickets here.

This fall, there are buns in every oven [Metro Philadelphia]
Rouge opening a burger shop [The Insider]

Oysters have long been thought of as aprodisciacs and Philadelphia Weekly has a list of spots where you can get in the mood for just a buck.

• Union Trust
• Pub & Kitchen
• Oyster House
• Coquette Bistro
• Devon Seafood Grill
• Johnny Brenda’s

Buck-A-Shucks [Philadelphia Weekly]

Build your own Restaurant Week with Grub Street’s prix fixe picks for every day of the week. [Grub Street]

Snackbar has added a special food and drink menu between 5 and 7 with all items between $5 and$7.

Derek’s is celebrating 18 years in Manayunk with a 3-course meal for just $18. The bargain has been extended through August. [The Latest Dish]

Illadelph does its own deal dump just on $1 oysters. Oyster House, Union Trust and Pub & Kitchen are all offering bargain bivalves. [The Illadelph]

With a name like Miel Patisserie, you might not expect a great deal. But that’s just what you’ll get at the 17th Street spot. $5.35 for a sandwich, water and dessert bar. [Meal Ticket]

The $24 “Appetite Stimulus” lunch at Lacroix features 3-courses including a Gouda burger with double-smoked bacon plus fries topped with truffle oil, Parmesan and shallots. [Restaurant Club]

Want to try new Liberties Walk restaurant Sonata? Hit up any store on the walk for a 10% off coupon. [Meal Ticket]

There are lobster specials at Bridget Foy’s through mid-August including a $29 lobster boil featuring a 1 1/4 pound lobster, chorizo, mussels, corn and potatoes. [Meal Ticket]

Craig LaBan finally makes it to Union Trust to give the oppulent steakhouse the once over. What he finds is a restaurant that has come back to Earth from its heady opening in February but one that does at least deliver where it matters most.

When it comes to the main event – the steaks – Union Trust more than holds its own. The wet-aged prime chops were simply spectacular, from a “rib eye filet mignon” cut two inches thick from the eye of a rib steak that tasted like filet injected with butter to a Kansas City strip wrapped in an L-shaped bone that sang brightly with well-peppered complexity. A thick mallet of 14-ounce, grass-fed veal chop was among the most flavorful veal chops I’ve had. Even the steak sandwich at lunch, a half-inch pad of rib eye layered with spicy fried onion laces and blue cheese, was memorable.

Two Bells – Very Good

Union Trust [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Union Trust [Official Site]

Craig LaBan will be running Union Trust through the wringer this week. He smacked around Del Frisco’s pretty good in his one-bell review of the 15th and Chestnut meat den. Butcher & Singer did much better garnering 3-bells but he did fiercely snipe the manager. How will the oppulent Union Trust fare?

Craig LaBan + Steak [f8b8z]

This week in Philadelphia Magazine’s Restaurant Club Newsletter.

• Our Favorite Local Chinese Spots
• First Peek Photos: Savona Goes Casual
• Food for Thought: Don’t Drink the Kobe Kool-Aid
• Free Lunch at Union Trust!

Restaurant Club Newsletter [Philadelphia Magazine]

Union Trust is offering a free happy hour for ladies through Saturday.

Specialty cocktails will be free of charge tonight and tomorrow from 6 to 8pm. Saturday and Sunday the deal goes from 10pm to midnight.

Union Trust [Official Site]

It’s only Tuesday and already we’ve seen a lot of steak related items this week. Philadelphia Magazine biked from steakhouse to steakhouse Thursday to see if our cow palaces were packing them in. 

Union Trust, Del Frisco’s, Capital Grille, and Butcher & Singer were all visited between 7:30 and 8:30. Check out who was lively and who was hurting.

Foodonomics: How are our steakhouses surviving? [Philadelphia Magazine]

Derek Davis is better known for his high-end culinary aspirations but now he’s opened something much more for the masses, Pizza Rosso near Temple University Hospital. [Table Talk, Philadelphia Inquirer]

Girasole, which had a 16-year run at 1305 Locust will open its doors at the base of Symphony House this Friday. [The Insider]

Jazmine brings Thai food to West Chester. [Daily Local News]

The long dormant Peace of Sole is set to be reborn Mango Bush, a Caribbean Restaurant off of South Street. [Meal Ticket]

Lunch service has begun at Union Trust. [Feeding Frenzy, City Paper]

Have you all heard enough about steakhouses yet? Can you even stand one more piece of info about them?  Of course you can! You love them. Or love to hate them. Or both, we can’t really tell.

The eagle-eyed KleInsider noticed that some of the menu prices at Union Trust have been slashed significantly since the original menu was released. Like that Wagyu strip just lost $50 off of its original $150 price, among others. You can check out his whole comparison list here. The current Union Trust menu is available on their website. Union Trust told Klein it was a ‘printing error’ and that the current (cheaper) prices were what diners were actually charged all along.

Also over at the Inky, architecture critic Inga Saffron delves into the many bank-to-steakhouse transformations with a focus on Union Trust and Del Frisco’s. There are some interesting highlights, especially the staggering quantities of  cash they each spent on renovating these grandiose spaces.

What’s up with Union Trust’s menus? [The Insider]
Changing Skyline: Grade-A Prime Locations [Inquirer]