2011 Philly Beer Week Cheat Sheet

This Friday is the official start of Philly Beer Week, a ten-day celebration of beer. You can find hundreds of beer and food tastings, special firkins and meet-the-brewer events on the Philly Beer Week event page. The list is endless and you will surely find it difficult to narrow it down to a few go-to events.

We created a cheat sheet of events we thought readers might enjoy. It will be nearly impossible for us to attend all of these, but we hope to get to as many as we can and maybe see you there. Let us know the events you plan or want to attend in the comment section.

Have fun, drink safely and enjoy the best beer celebration in the U.S.

22nd & Philly’s 2011 Philly Beer Week Cheat Sheet (in chronological order):

Review of Pamcakes, a Philly Cupcakery

Who knew that a little piece of heaven was sitting just a few blocks away? 22nd & Philly readers spoke up recently in ravishing support for Pamcakes, a new-ish cupcake boutique on 20th Street between Pine and Lombard. I visited right away and the sugar high had me typing at lightning speed to get my thoughts documented on screen.

Pamcakes fittingly opened on Valentine's Day 2011 in the old Darling's Cheesecake location. It is proprietor Pam Kingsland's first formal venture into the cupcake world. She started in Northern Liberties selling cupcakes at farmer's markets to get her name out, but when demand for her treats got too high, she opened up shop.

Manakeesh: Best Baklava in Philly?

It’s been three years since our hunt for authentic baklava in Philadelphia began. Both of us still dream about the Ottoman-era pastry we had while sitting on the curb of a small street in Santorini, Greece, one sweltering summer day. The deliciousness haunts my memories.

The search has been disappointing and frustrating to say the least. The baklava at the Greek stands in Reading Terminal Market did not seem fresh and was below average in taste. Sadly, the Greek restaurants we've been to (Kanella, Effie's, Dmitri's) either didn’t offer it or we found it to be nowhere close.

It was therefore with much anticipation and trepidation that we approached Manakeesh Cafe in West Philly, who many claim has amazing baklava. Could our three year search finally end? YES!

While still not as good as Santorini's baklava, the Manakeesh rendition was certainly close enough to become our new go-to spot to rekindle one of our fondest foodie memories.

The Food Experiments Comes to Philly Beer Week

There is nothing better than the local community coming together to share in their passion for food. We were excited to learn about a very cool event coming up during Philly Beer Week called The Philadelphia Cheese Experiment.

Theo Peck and Nick Suarez

The event is the ingenious idea of competitive food cooks-turned-hosts, Nick Saurez and Theo Peck. Bobby Flay Throwdown watchers might remember Nick when he took down Flay in an epic hot dog throwdown.

Nick and Theo launched The Food Experiments several years ago in Brooklyn, NY, and since then have been the talk of the neighborhood. They are now on a national tour sponsored by The Brooklyn Brewery and will stop at the World Café Live on June 5th for a local competition – with cheese as the main ingredient.



Man Down in Philly's Hot Chocolate War?

(Update 5/21: Oh look the comments are back, yay!)

(Update 5/15: This post originally ran last week. Thank you to everyone who commented with their fav Pamcakes flavors! But then Google Blogger went down for a day, taking this post and all the comments with it. I can't get the comments back but took them to heart and visited Pamcakes on Friday. Report to come this week!)

Are national recognition for your hot chocolate and a Best of Philly win not enough anymore? We were sad to read that Naked Chocolate's original location at 1317 Walnut St. has closed. The sign on the door says they are moving, but no one seems to know where yet or when they'll reopen.

I'm glad I finally made it Naked Chocolate in January to try their famous "European style" hot chocolate, and then returned a few weeks later to blissfully inhale one of their amazing cupcakes. I suppose the summer months are a good time to take this break, but hopefully Naked Chocolate will be back by Fall.

In the meantime, for a cupcake fix I'll be trying out Pamcakes on 20th between Pine and Lombard, the old Darling's Coffee and Cheesecake location because a) how completely adorable is that name??? b) it's right down the street from 22nd, and c) almost everyone on Yelp so far is raving about it. Any readers been yet and have recommendations?

Cocktails Garnished with Brotherly Love

There are so many different elements to master in the restaurant/bar business - food, drinks, service, ambiance, price, marketing - that it's nearly impossible to master everything, causing even the hottest spots to close shop quickly.

That's why it is so cool to see two local establishments - Supper and the Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. - teaming up to share what they each do best. Last year, Supper Chef Mitch Prensky developed a seasonal menu of bar snacks for The Franklin. (Fitting, as Supper did win Best of Philly Bar Snacks last year). Now The Franklin is creating seasonal drinks for Supper's cocktail menu. Brotherly love is filling the springtime air!

We recently previewed the new cocktails and they were deeee-lish. I highly recommend putting Supper on your to-do list for this spring/summer, even just to chill at the bar. 22nd & Philly is also determined to hit up The Franklin asap. We've never been and although the following drinks are only available at Supper, we have complete faith that anything else drinkmaster Colin Shearn creates, and super smooth bartender "Mike" mixes up, will be tasty.

Two drinks tied as my favorites, the Village Green Preservation Society and the Station to Station. Both served in martini glasses, both ideal for a warm summer day/night, and both dangerously easy to suck down in three minutes or less.

Station to Station (left) and the Village Green Preservation Society (right)

New Features to Follow 22nd & Philly

We made a few quick adjustments to 22nd & Philly to make it easier to read and follow us. Here is an overview for all our current readers as well as any new visitors who saw our Philly Luncher profile on Midtown Lunch.

You can always follow 22nd & Philly on Twitter, and "like" us on Facebook to receive updates on new posts, as well as our random foodie thoughts throughout the day.

At the top of the right hand column, there's now a box to sign up for email alerts to new posts. Also, at the very bottom of the page, you can add our feed to your RSS reader of choice, or bookmark the site.

We've always found it tough to scroll back through lists of dates on other blogs to find posts we want to read, so we added a list of the restaurants reviewed to the right column as well. There are also some concepts, chefs, neighborhoods and food types listed. For example, if you want to check out all our reviews of Mexican spots, look for "Mexican" in the list.

Hope it leads to easier and happier reading. More to come!

Guest Post: Media, Pa., is a Hit with Foodies in the 'Burbs

A guest post from one of our Suburban contributors, my sister Julie...

The city of Philadelphia isn’t the only place in the tri-state area where you can get a nice diversity of culinary delights. For the past decade, I have made the Borough of Media, Delaware County, my home and go-to place for dining out. Media is the county seat which makes it not just a dinner community but a lunch one as well – a place for county workers, lawyers, and jurors to appease any craving during the work week.