Category Archives: Food

FEASTIVAL Is the Best Annual Food Event in Philly

Four Chefs

While there are many great food events and outings in town each year, the annual Audi FEASTIVAL unquestionably stands out as one of the top highlights.  Since 2010, Philadelphia’s top chefs have been coming together to produce a culinary feast to benefit the FringeArts, which presents cutting-edge, high-quality artists creating art “without any curatorial barriers.”

This year’s FEASTIVAL is scheduled for Thursday, September 18, 2014 at 7 p.m. at Penn’s Landing, 1 North Delaware Avenue on the waterfront.  Over 75 restaurants and bars are participating.  About 1,000 people are expected to attend, and they will be treated to both the food and the artistic performances under the tents.

This past Monday, at COOK, FEASTIVAL held an early preview of the offerings from some of Philly’s best chefs: Peter Woolsey of Bistrot La Minette, Chris Paulikas of CoZara, Jason Cichonski of Ela and The Gaslight, and Nicholas Elmi of Laurel. Continue reading →

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A Night at Laurel, the Hottest Restaurant in Philly

LaurelSo what exactly is a dinner like at Laurel the hottest and toughest table in town.  Is it really worth the ten week (as of April 24, a midweek July 9th, 9:00 p.m. reservation was the earliest I could locate) waiting period?  To find out, I fortunately made a reservation when the waiting period was only seven weeks (for a midweek 8:15 p.m. dinner) and had dinner this past Tuesday night.  It was quite the experience.

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Los Angeles and Philadelphia: A Food Comparison

Langer's DeliPizzeria Vetri

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last time I was in Los Angeles was almost thirty-three years ago, which was well before my formative eating years.  Back then, there was no appreciation for barbecue, Neapolitan-style pizza, pasta made from scratch, smoked meats, and so forth.

So it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to my recent trip to Los Angeles.  Knowing all about the famed food scene in town, I carefully did research of what hot food spots I should target.  My primary resource was Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold’s comprehensive and fantastic list of the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles.  I also caught the recent AskMen.com piece naming the country’s ten best sandwiches, including two from Los Angeles.  Given the desire to “carb load” on the night before a marathon, I planned to hit up a top notch Italian restaurant.  The final guideline?  After much thought, I did not want to go to Spago or another expensive prix fixe spot, figuring that there were plenty of other outstanding, more affordable spots.

And what did I find?  Two observations: 1) There is plenty of amazing food in Los Angeles, from casual to high end places, and 2) some Philadelphia restaurants are just as good as those LA restaurants though there are just many more options in the City of Angels.

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