A First Look at Tria Fitler Square

The Fitler Square neighborhood shed a quick tear last year upon learning that our beloved Dmitri's was leaving the corner of 23rd & Pine. We weren't regulars but that place sure was popular and an anchor of the hyper-local culture.

In a blog post, Bradd and I offered up eight restaurants that should replace Dmitri's - everything from a re-emergence of our favorite Koo Zee Doo to a Philly outpost of Zeppoli - but we didn't expect Tria to jump on the chance to open yet another wine bar. With two other Tria locations already close by, admittedly we were a little disappointed in the news. However... after giving it a first try we have to say we're excited to go back.

What's most appealing about Tria Fitler Square is the sidewalk seating and extra windows along 23rd Street, opening up the restaurant to great natural light, airflow and a view of its lovely namesake Fitler Square. What's going to be frustrating are the crowds. A no reservation policy = wait lists, especially this first summer. Go early or be prepared to wait, even for a bar seat. It was nice to see the hostess willing to track down people waiting across the street in the park.

The new Tria offers a similar wine, beer, cheese and snacks menu to its sister bars, including some recognizable bruschettas. You can't go wrong with any of the bruschetta; our go-to is the comforting pistachio-herbed ricotta with lavender honey ($4½ for two pieces). As for the cheese menu, go with whatever jumps out at you, or ask the knowledgeable staff for recommendations.

Pistachio-herbed ricotta with lavender honey on toast

Montealva Curado, a goat's milk cheese from Spain

What's different at Tria Fitler Square are the 'medium plates." Too cool to be called entrees yet appropriately named for their portion size, the two we had were pretty darn delicious.

Grilled octopus with orzo salad, golden raisins, chili and citrus-mint yogurt ($18) is Tria's homage to the crowd favorite dish at Dmiti's. It's a perfect, lighter plate for summer, drawing us both to pick at every last nibble so none of the flavors would go to waste. Hand-rolled ricotta cavatelli with asparagus and Castelvetrano olives in a hazelnut brown butter ($14) could have used slightly more punch, maybe even just more salt, but was still a really pleasant way to round out our meal.

Grilled octopus over orzo salad and citrus-mint yogurt

Hand-rolled ricotta cavatelli

With some time off this spring/summer to raise a newborn (yikes), I'm hoping to roll the stroller right up to an outside table at happy hour. Contrary to our initial hesitations, Tria Fitler Square will be a nice spot to relax with a glass of wine, grab a good quality bite and enjoy the scene.

For a Special Occasion: The Fountain at The Four Seasons

The trend among Philadelphia restaurant openings today leans heavily toward gourmet pizza shops, food trucks and high-quality-yet-affordable eateries where jeans are always acceptable. Jacket-required, $$$$ restaurants may be on the way out, but recent experience tells us that there is still a time and place for the white tablecloth.

Case In Point

A few weeks ago we took our sister- and new brother-in-law to The Fountain at The Four Seasons as their wedding present. When it comes to family, spending time together over an outstanding meal beats out stainless steel cookware and fluffy towels any day. 

Sauteed jumbo sea scallop

We will disclose upfront that a good friend of ours is a veteran server at The Fountain so he'd been begging us to come for a long time. He provided generous pours of wine and ensured our service was A+ but we paid full price for our meal.

Also keep in mind that chef William DiStefano's five-course weekend tasting menu at The Fountain is $100 per person, plus $60 each for wine pairings, so we're talking about a big night out. 

This was an exquisite meal paired perfectly with wines that we would probably never have otherwise and service that really does make you feel like a million bucks. For the right and rare occasion, it's worth considering.

Neighborhoods: Where to Eat and Drink in Fairmount

In the second post of our neighborhoods series, let's talk about Fairmount.

The Fairmount section of Philadelphia offers a haven from the bustle of Center City and distills a unique neighborhood charm at all times of the day. Brunchers, dinner parties and afternoon boozers in between pack the area's growing number of approachable restaurants and bars during all seasons.

Expanding from its traditional hub along Fairmount Avenue, anchored by London Grill at 23rd St. and Bishop's Collar at 24th, Fare, BlueCat and Hickory Lane are pushing the local food scene further east a few streets. La Calaca Feliz and Paris Wine Bar fill in the 2300 block with new concepts for the area.

8 Tips for Visiting Napa and Sonoma

Earlier this month we gave you a throwdown between San Francisco and Philadelphia in terms of food and fun things to do. Also a memorable part of that trip was our two day visit to wine country. One day in Napa Valley and one day in Sonoma worked out perfectly. They're really only 30-40 minutes away from each other, so it's easy to do both. Here are a few tips for each based on what we ate/did, with lots more photos to check out on Facebook and Google+. 

NAPA VALLEY:

Drive past the main little towns. As first timers, we were surprised that so many big wineries were literally right in a row and close to the main road (Rt. 29). There are dozens and dozens of great places to stop along there, but we encourage you to also drive past those towns and off onto smaller roads like the Silverado Trail to find other great wineries in more quaint, rustic settings. Duckhorn and Chateau Montelena are two of many great options. On Rt. 29, Peju is a very pretty winery with a fun, crazy guy behind the tasting counter (hat tip to PhillyFoodDude for sending us there).

Beautiful Chateau Montelena with a famous Chardonnay

Duckhorn Winery with tastings on the wrap-around porch.

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!
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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:

White Wines for Summer

We recently took a quick trip to North Jersey for a wine tasting. It's an annual affair hosted by the Women's Club of the community I grew up in, Indian Lake.

The room has been packed year after year, but this time a focus solely on white wines lessened the crowd to half its normal size. We are not that picky but I guess some people really are just red wine drinkers. Hey, for the $15 entry fee, I'd drink just about any 5 glasses of wine you put in front of me. Except port. I despise port.



With summer rapidly approaching, I know I'm looking forward to some warm nights outside a BYOB or on the back patio sipping white wine. Here are some brands and tips to keep in mind as you gear up for white wine season.

Tip #1: Bring a lot of food. You're probably not going to get 5 full glasses of wine at a tasting, but you will drink a fair amount so snacks are key. Be festive - grapes, cheese, nuts... and of course don't forget your wine-themed napkins. (P.S. favorite line from The Office this week - Meredith: "You should stay. I have Vienna sausages... and napkins." Love it!)

The first wine we tried was a 2009 Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. If it sounds familiar, it's because they've been advertising a lot and are apparently a staple in chains like T.G.I. Fridays and Outback Steakhouse right now. Best word I could think of for it was "thick." It is pretty dry with grapefruit/pineapple flavors, and leaves a strong aftertaste. At about $8 a bottle, it's a decent pick when you want something different than run-of-the-mill chardonnay or pinot grigio, but only buy it if you plan to have just one glass. It's a bit much for two.

Next was a Clos du Bois 2009 North Coast Chardonnay, a very typical California chard. Really mild, light apple and butter flavor. It was the easiest to drink and would make a good summer wine, especially for a BYOB or party. This one is simple enough to drink several glasses of before your taste buds start to tell you it's time to switch to beer. Should be about $12/bottle. And the name sounds french so it might make you look fancier.

After that, we had a 2008 Louis Jadot White Burgundy. Fun fact: white burgundy is the exact same thing as chardonnay. French wineries have recently had to abandon efforts to market their traditional labels like "white burgundy" because us clueless Americans browsing though the liquor store have no idea what it means. Note the word "chardonnay" in big letters across the front of the bottle, while "white burgundy wine" is pushed to the lower right corner. They're trying to maintain the original name, but have to include chardonnay otherwise it would never sell.

The wine itself had a hint of peach and a lot of oak. It's aged in steel and then french oak to limit the acidity, but you can really taste the oak. Another good pick for summer, but as an import it's slightly more expensive at around $20/bottle.

By now, most of the crowd at this tasting was anxious for the pinot grigios. Here's another thing I learned: if you are offering/drinking a variety of white wines in a single sitting, always serve the pinot grigio last. Once you have multiple wines back to back, you realize how much more sugary the pinot grigio is than any chardonnay or sauvignon blanc. If you drink the sugary wine first, the sweetness will stick with you, and all hope for experiencing the real flavors of the other wines will be lost. Noted.

And so we ended the night with two pinot grigios, a 2010 Ruffino Lumina from Italy and a 2008 Pavi from Napa Valley. The first went down easy (then again, what doesn't after you already had three?) with taste of pear. It never sees oak during the aging process and you can tell that flavor is absent. A bit fruity for my preference, but it is 12% alcohol and only $8-9, so depending on your objectives, it could be a good pick. Most people who "know" Ruffino" apparently know the brand for its Chianti, but its whites are equally as good.

On that note, the Pavi is 13.9% alcohol, so choose your BYOB victim wisely! And try to remember to take a picture, because I didn't. The Pavi has a difficult finish, in which you can actually taste the alcohol content. I think serious pinot grigio fans like my mom liked it best, but I'd go for the chardonnay instead.

Pavi does have a good story though. It's a California winery but the owner's wife (named Pavi) is Italian. She convinced him to transplant real vines from Italy to Napa soil. So if you prefer Italian wines, you still get the traditional Italian grapes with this one, only "made in America."

Another tidbit: You may already know that white wine should be served chilly but not right out of the fridge. Most people say to take it out about 20 mins before opening. But if you realize you only have bad-tasting wine and are desperate to serve it, keep it really really cold, serve right out of the fridge and no one will notice the difference. The coldness will take out the flavor but not the effect of the alcohol.

Last tip: Bring your mom and dad. It will be fun, I promise. Wine tastings are a great way to bring the family together and enjoy all that is good about wine and life.

Whether it's a quick, local gathering like we went to, or a weekend trip to the Finger Lakes (highly recommended. Love it there, especially Seneca Lake) wine tastings can be great events to enjoy with friends/family, and teach you a few things too. Bring on summer!