Good Stuff Eatery Brings More Great Burgers and a Celebrity Chef to Philly

Good Stuff Eatery opened yesterday on 18th St. between Chestnut & Sansom. It's the latest in a fast casual burger craze that has swept the U.S. over the past few years. Good Stuff comes to Philly with pretty big street cred - celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn (Top Chef, Iron Chef, etc.) is behind it and has already captured the D.C. market. We had Good Stuff burgers a few years ago in D.C. and loved them so this Philly opening came with much anticipation. 

Details on the burgers below, and for lots more photos of opening day, check out our Facebook album.

The place was packed right away but seemed to keep people moving quickly. I was fortunate enough to enter an hour early and chat with Chef Spike. The most interesting part was actually witnessing the scene one hour before a grand opening - contractors screwing in last minute fixtures, gigantic crates of potato rolls being carted around, rugs still being rolled out, stuff literally everywhere. But it all came together in time for a nice ribbon cutting and celebration with the Mendelsohn family and Philly owners, George & Elaine. 

By opening time there was a line down the street and around the block! Filled up quickly. 

The Scoop on Philly's New Underground Supper Club, Runaround Sous

Underground supper clubs can be one of a city's best kept dining secrets. They take you out of the regular restaurant routine and often bring you up close and personal with a chef. But how do you find out about these "underground" events?"

Well, we've got the scoop on one of Philadelphia's newest supper clubs called Runaround Sous. It's held monthly for 20 people and cooked by one of Philly's hottest chefs, or - even better - their sous chefs, who probably cook a lot of the great food you eat at restaurants but you never hear about them. For $75 per person, you get a five-course meal, a totally different dinner experience, and a great way to make new foodie friends.

Runaround Sous guests are spread out between the living room, kitchen and roof deck of a row house to dine, but you can hang around the kitchen to watch the chef cook, take photos, ask questions, etc. as much as you'd like. It's also BYOB but you'll find out the menu in advance, along with wine pairing from the attending sommelier.

We attended the second installment of Runaround Sous over Memorial Day Weekend. Our dinner was with Chef Sylva Senat, best known for his time as executive chef at Tashan, who used flavors of the Caribbean, France, India and Asia to make us a fantastic meal. He's working on his own new restaurant concept right now, which we'll definitely be excited to try.

Here are some of the best photos, for more head over to our Facebook page. To find out about upcoming dinners, request to join the Runaround Sous Facebook group, follow on Twitter or email runaroundsous at gmail.com. The next one is on Tuesday, June 24. We recommend checking it out sometime!

Giveaway: 2 VIP Tickets to The Farmer & The Chef

Whew, September already? We're sad to see summer sail off into the distance, but fall only brings more awesome food festivals, a craving for amber beers and the return of pumpkin-everything.

This month we will attend The Farmer & The Chef, an annual culinary celebration/cook-off that friends have raved about for years... AND we're giving away two VIP tickets to come with us!

Details: 

Thursday, September 19, 2013 

5:30pm - 8:30pm (VIP starts at 5:00pm with bonus drinks/apps)

Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, DE

Giveaway: 2 tickets at $40 value each!

Deadline: September 9, 2013

How to Enter:

There are two simple ways you can enter.

7 1/2 Tips to Make Your Diner en Blanc Simply Marvelous, Darling

Diner en Blanc 2013 is just 12 days away. We had a sincerely magical experience last year (see photos and our blog post) and can't wait to take part in this year's event with double the number of people. Any guesses on where it will be??

As first-timers last year, it was a little stressful to understand all the details and collect everything we needed, but it all worked out just fine. If you're still stressing over Diner en Blanc preparations, here are 22nd & Philly's 7 1/2 tips to make it a perfect night.

1. Have fun and be classy. Join in the dance party, meet new people and savor every moment. Just act like an adult and respect the public space we take over and the people who put a lot of effort into pulling this off.

What's to Eat at The Porch at 30th Street? Food Trucks of Course

There was a point last year when I felt like I knew all the food trucks in Philly. People asked us for opinions and we actually had one. Today? Not so much. There are so. many. food trucks on the streets of Philadelphia now, it's tough to keep up. I'm told we pale in comparison to other cities, but don't care. Philly has more than its fair share of great mobile food.

Porch photo borrowed from http://universitycity.org

I have the privilege of working close to The Porch at 30th Street so each Wednesday and Friday my co-workers and I can catch up on some of the new and old (by "old" I mean, like, a year) food trucks that visit for lunch.

The Porch, by the way, is one of the absolute best concepts brought to life in Philadelphia lately. Food, entertainment, nice places to sit, zumba classes, special events, gorgeous flowers... right next to 30th Street Station. Kudos to the University City District, with significant support from the William Penn Foundation, for pulling it off.

9 Observations about Local Food and the Philadelphia Region

The Philly Farm & Food Fest is your annual chance to meet local farmers and speak with other food makers from the region. Fair Food was kind enough to give us complimentary passes to this year's event in April (yes, better late than never with this post).

I wasn't sure what to expect because similar food events are often overwhelming or too crowded to actually speak with the vendors. Neither was the case with Philly Farm & Food Fest. The crowd was just about right and I had plenty of time to chat with the vendors and sample their produce or food. I'm looking forward to next year and making some time to attend the classes and seminar discussions.

What follows are nine observations about the local food movement in Philadelphia that I collected from the event.

2013 Philly Beer Week Cheat Sheet

Philly Beer Week, the largest beer celebration of its kind in the United States, starts Friday, May 31 and runs through Sunday, June 9.

22nd & Philly is here to help you with our 3rd annual Philly Beer Week Cheat Sheet. This list is a good start if you don't want to spend hours (like we did) researching the endless number of events to attend. We picked a variety of events with brewers and venues that we enjoy, plus some others that just sounded like fun.

You can find more info about each event on the Philly Beer Week Event Page. Follow Beer Week on Twitter or like it on Facebook for updates throughout the week. Even more details can be found via the official smartphone apps.

Headed to London for Chowzter's International Food Awards

We are continually honored to know that people read our posts and thrilled to have met so many others through this blogging experience who are just as passionate about Philly and its good eats as we are. It’s why we write a Philadelphia food blog in the first place.

www.chowzter.com

When we launched 22nd & Philly, however, we would have laughed at the idea that one day we'd have the chance to travel overseas and meet bloggers from all around the world.

Well, laugh no more since we’re off to London this week after being invited to a big awards party honoring the tastiest food items from around the world. The event is hosted by a new website and mobile app called Chowzter. We'll get to meet bloggers from Milan, Edinburgh, Ho Chi Minh, Paris, Mumbai, New York, Brussels, Seoul, Mexico City and more. Keep an eye out for tweets from across the pond all weekend (#ChowzterAwards) and photos when we get back.

If you know anyone in London, pass on the word or have them get in touch with us. Hosted by British comedian, Alexander Armstrong, the Chowzter awards are Sunday, April 28th at the Village Underground, London, EC2A 3PQ. Tickets are £25. Food will include dishes from London's best street food vendors, Big Apple Hot Dogs, Pizza Pilgrims, The Rib Man and Yum Bun, plus drinks of course.

So, what is Chowtzer?

Spring Food Events in Philly

Brewer's Plate 2013

Not sure about you, but we're ready for spring. Let's make today's snow/sleet/rain the end of it and bring on the tulips. Springtime will bring the end of cold and - even better - the beginning of food event season. Brewer's Plate helped kick it off last weekend with a packed house of local food/beer pairings. We tried as much as our stomachs could handle and posted the highlights in photos on Facebook.

We've been hearing about all sorts of other food-related events coming up and wanted to share a few more that look fun:

Interview with Jose Garces: Journey along the Latin Road Home

Philadelphia restaurant icon Jose Garces recently published his second cookbook titled, The Latin Road Home: Savoring the Foods of Ecuador, Spain, Cuba, Mexico and Peru. The cookbook has received a lot of attention considering Chef Garces' national reputation.

His first book, Latin Evolution, is where I found the recipe for the orange habanero ceviche I used in my birthday dinner.

The Latin Road Home is meant to be not only a cookbook, but a journey of his life and how his family and heritage influenced his cooking. The stories of cooking alongside his grandmother and mother remind me how I came to find a joy for food experiences doing just the same.

We recently caught up with Jose Garces, who answered several questions about the Latin Road Home, some favorite recipes, Latin food culture and the Philadelphia food scene. See below for the interview.

Diner en Blanc Philadelphia in Photos

Diner en Blanc in Philadelphia last night was a huge success! More than 1,300 party people dressed in all white and lined up their tables and chairs around Logan Circle to share a great picnic meal and dance the night away (in the fountain!). The location was a secret until we arrived but turned out to be just the right size and backdrop.

Here are a few of the best photos we grabbed in between munching on meat/cheese from DiBruno Bros, drinking wine, and making new friends. For our full collection of photos, see our Facebook album. 

Picnic, Learn and Grow This Summer in New Pop Up Community Garden

Last Friday, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) launched its second pop up garden in an empty lot at 19th & Walnut, just off the northwest corner of Rittenhouse Square. We're proponents of transforming any unused lots into green space, but this one struck a special chord. 22nd & Philly was conceived while we lived at 22nd and Walnut, and for three years we would shake our heads as we walked past this multi-million dollar piece of city real estate that was left to sit as a barren wasteland. What a shame! Bradd's vision was to turn it into a Citizens Bank Park replica for whiffle ball, but a community garden is also a nice idea.

19th & Walnut pop up garden

So it was with pleasure that I braved the oppressive heat last Friday to attend the grand opening of the garden. Mayor Nutter gave a quick speech emphasizing the importance of these gardens to bring fresh food to thousands of Philadelphians who don't have regular access to it. It is also part of a critical effort to clean up our city's plethora of abandoned and empty lots with green space for communities to enjoy. According to Nutter, Philadelphia's goal is to be the #1 green city in America.

Take a Tastykake Tour Thru Philadelphia

In case you haven't noticed, Tastykakes are everywhere in Philadelphia. They sponsor Flyers goals, they get flung over the Eastern State Penitentiary walls on Bastille Day, and they make appearances at Philly-themed corporate lunches all over the region. Tastykakes have also made their way onto the menus at several Philadelphia restaurants in one way or another. Here's where to find them.

Square Burger

Foodspotting and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) hosted a Foodspotting "Eat Up" recently so those among us who regularly broadcast photos of our food across the Internet could try some of these treats. It was essentially a three-course dessert for dinner, but hey that's what all the Broad Street training was for anyway, right?

We made three stops on the tour. First up, Square Burger in Franklin Square, the park sort of behind the Constitution Center that was refurbished a few years ago with a carousel, Philly-themed mini golf course, and lots of green space. Stephen Starr opened the walk-up burger n' shake spot there a few years ago. One of its signature items is the Cake Shake, made with a Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpet, vanilla ice cream, and caramel sauce drizzled on the sides. It was quite a light and delicious treat, not overly sweet or butterscotchy. It also comes with a wide, squatty straw/spoon for easy consumption by kids or adults. Regularly $4.50.

Get Your Sandwich On: The Food Experiments are Back!

We're excited to report that The Food Experiments National Tour is coming back to Philly! Last year, we wrote a couple times about The Philadelphia Cheese Experiment, a local amateur chef competition held during Philly Beer Week. It was a really fun event to attend and demonstrated exactly what we love about Philly's food culture - it brings people together to share their common passion for fun times and good eats. Here's co-founder Theo Peck describing the inspiration for the tour and offering advice to the competing chefs.

This year, the competition is on May 6th and has a new theme: Sandwiches! If you've paid any attention to our Sandwich Quest, you know how much this excited the 22nd & Philly crew. There is no better sandwich town than Philadelphia, so we can't wait to see what the Sandwich Experiment contestants come up with.

Brewer's Plate 2012 in Pictures

Earlier this month we attended The Brewer's Plate 2012, a large tasting event at the National Constitution Center to benefit Fair Food. The local nonprofit works to bring locally grown food into Philly's markets and promote a humane, sustainable agriculture system for the region. A cause we strongly believe in. 

Brewer's Plate is an annual celebration of the Philadelphia region’s independent craft breweries, restaurants, farmers, and artisanal producers. Under the tasting theme, each participating restaurant/food source prepares a small dish or dessert that is then paired with a local craft beer. It would be an understatement to say that we stuffed our faces with lots of great food and beer. 


It was a little tough to stay in the right lines and keep track of our thoughts on the actual pairings, but we did take a ton of photos and notes on whatever we tried. Here's a run-down of our feedback. About 50 more photos can be viewed on Facebook, where you can "like" our page to get alerts on new posts. Enjoy...

Pre-Prohibition Cocktail Class at the Wine School of Philadelphia

The Wine School of Philadelphia sent us an alert recently for the debut of its wine-based cocktail class, held last Friday night. Always interested to learn about different cocktails, I jumped at the chance to check out.

Billed as the Pre-Prohibition Cocktail Class, it's objective was to take us "back to the golden era of the cocktail, before the Volstead Act… and long before vodka destroyed the martini."

The class instructor was Jason Wilson, who writes the spirits column for the Washington Post. His column has twice won an award for Best Newspaper Food Column from the Association of Food Journalists. He is also the author of Boozehound.

The class featured seven classic drinks of the era: the Duke of Marlborough, the Dunaway, Light Guard Punch, Manhattan Bianco, Red Hook, Nouveau Sangaree and Thieves’ Punch.

Before recapping the details of each drink, here are a few interesting tidbits from the class:

- A true martini uses gin and vermouth. A drink with vodka should never be called a martini.
- Vermouth could not be imported during Prohibition. This led to the rise of the dry martini as vermouth never really caught back on once Prohibition ended, which is one reason you see vermouth used less today.
- When making a cocktail use a higher proof version of the alcohol. Jason said above 90 proof is best.
- A good bartender ALWAYS measures his or her cocktails. Always.
- Pre-prohibition alcohols mainly consisted of gin, brandy and whiskey.
- Whiskey is white but the color changes almost immediately after it is put in a barrel to age. But, look for the hip trend of white whiskey to spread over the next few years.

Here are the drinks we sampled, my reactions and links to their complete recipes. I may try making a few at Thanksgiving.

Generous Pour Summer Wine Event at The Capital Grille

UPDATE 6/27/12: The Capital Grille's Generous Pour Wine Event is back this summer. Seriously, it's a great deal on a crazy amount of good wine, when purchased with dinner. The deal runs from July 9 - September 2. Check out the restaurant's website for this year's wine list. Cheers!
________________________________

Several weeks ago we received an invitation for a complimentary preview of The Capital Grille’s Generous Pour Wine Event for 2011.

The Generous Pour is available at any Capital Grille from July 12 - September 4. During the event, you pay only $25 per person - when ordering with dinner - and get to try as much as you want from nine pre-selected wines (red, white and sparkling).

All the wines were chosen by Master Sommelier George Miliotes, one of only 170 wine experts in the world to hold that title. Servers will also be available to pair each wine with the food you order. Alex was our server at the Broad & Chestnut location and he was awesome.

Overall the Generous Pour experience was fantastic. For a night out to a high-end restaurant, this is a no brainer at only $25 (remember the food is regular price). Miliotes said it would normally cost $750 to purchase all nine wines at retail. They are listed at the bottom of this post along with some brief notes we took and thoughts on which wines really stood out.

Miliotes was available during our special tasting via a webcast to explain his selections and to answer live questions from participants at Capital Grilles around the country. We were also able to ask questions by tweeting directly to Miliotes' twitter handle, @TheWineExpert, using the hashtag #tcgpour11. Miliotes is active on Twitter and we suggest you ask him questions, too, using the same hashtag since it's live for the entire event. Another cool thing about using this hashtag is that you can go back and see other people's questions and his answers over the past few weeks.

The food we sampled was excellent. The bone-in kona crusted sirloin was far and away the best. The addition of an incredible caramelized shallot sauce made it one of the best steaks I’ve had in recent memory. The lobster mac n' cheese as a side was phenomenal too.

Here are the nine wines offered during The Generous Pour:

Celeb Chefs Headline Philly.com/Food Launch Party

Today the Philadelphia Inquirer launched its brand new food website in style. Four of the hottest local chefs provided demos right smack in the middle of Reading Terminal Market and all the proceeds from folks buying/eating the food went to Philabundance, MANNA and The Food Trust. It drew quite a crowd of lunchers, food bloggers, jurors and Bravo/Food Network fans.

Next Food Network Star winner Aaron McCargo Jr., Top Chef D.C. winner Kevin Sbraga (who said his Philly restaurant should open in Sept or Oct on the first floor of the Symphony House), Top Chef Las Vegas contestant Jennifer Carroll of 10 Arts, and Down Home Diner owner Jack McDavid all cooked, but my lunch break visit only afforded me time to eat Aaron McCargo's yummy crostini and then see Jennifer Carroll and some of Kevin Sbraga. Philly Insider's Michael Klein hosted, and as I was rushing out the door back to work I think I heard him say the Phillie Phanatic had arrived.

Check out my photos below