Philly food love stories | Let’s Eat

Offering stories of love for Valentine’s Day: We’ll take you to Philly’s most romantic bar and share the story of a couple who run two stellar bakeries.

🚨In breaking news: Pod is closing after nearly 25 years.

Also in this edition:

— Mike Klein

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❤️ Friday Saturday & Sunday has oozed romance for a half-century. Jenn Ladd tracks down the “lovey-dovey vibes” of this Rittenhouse-area mainstay.

❤️ One of the secret ingredients at Machine Shop, the award-winning bakery at the Bok, is love. Kiki Aranita spills the story behind two bakers' fine romance.

❤️ Need a romantic night out? Here are some of our favorites from The 76, our ultimate restaurant guide.

Jenn Ladd has been spending time in Ardmore, and says she’s found a food, beverage, and shopping scene “so jam-packed and hip (as suburbs go), I’d argue it’s the Main Line equivalent of Fishtown, the city’s buzziest neighborhood.” Read on for her assessment.

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Randy and Amanda Rucker have followed up their South Philly hit River Twice with Little Water, in the Rittenhouse-area corner space that was Twenty Manning. “If you love seafood,” Craig writes, it’s “a destination-worthy experience for sustainable (and often local) seafood cooked with an impressive array of techniques.”

Black Dragon in West Philadelphia is the product of chef Kurt Evans' vision, paying homage to the role of Chinese American takeout in Black neighborhoods and aiming to fill the hole left by their decline. If you like General Tso’s chicken, Craig says, you may enjoy Evans’ version, named after the nation’s first Black four-star Army general, Roscoe Robinson Jr.

There’s been a fresh twist in the drama that has consumed Winnie’s Manayunk. Late last month, facing criticism from staff tired of bounced paychecks, she closed down. She later changed her mind, settling up with the now-former workers and reopening the popular Main Street restaurant. She told me: “I don’t want people to think that I’m running away.”

Fork’s new chef is Sam Henzy, shown below, last at Middle Child Clubhouse. He brings nearly two decades to the role, including six months at Noma in Copenhagen, time at the three-Michelin-starred Quince in San Francisco, and a stint at Angler, a live-fire, seafood-focused sister restaurant to Saison San Francisco — not to mention several years at Vernick Food & Drink.

Lourdes Marquez Nau, who calls herself Chef Lulu, is coming to East Kensington with a branch of her San Francisco vegan Puerto Rican restaurant, Casa Borinqueña. She’s leased the former Hello Donuts at 2557 Amber St., just off Frankford Avenue. The New York-raised Marquez Nau lived in Philadelphia about a decade ago when her children went to college here and she was working in construction. Then she moved to California and started a food business. During the pandemic, she stopped eating meat and turned her business vegan. “That kind of backfired on me,” she told me. “I got a lot of emails from people who were very disappointed.” Ultimately, “the vegan community really embraced us and took us in.” Specialties include a soy-based chicken, loaded tostones, mofongo “cups,” and pinchos. She expects to open this spring and, since she has relocated to Philadelphia permanently, will have a manager operating the San Francisco location.

DaVinci & Yu. Chef Marc Grika was on vacation in Rome last year from Flannel, his Southern-themer on East Passyunk Avenue, when he had what he called “the dish that changed my whole dynamic.” It was the black cod with Taleggio cream sauce at Zuma. He returned and set about to transform Flannel into DaVinci & Yu, whose menu fuses Italian and Asian cooking. It opens Thursday.

It’s clear that Grika — a veteran whom I remember from the late-1980s days of Mezzanotte in Spring Garden — is having fun with it. Above is the smoked mackerel pizza topped with shishito peppers, pickled mustard seeds, red onion Sriracha-kewpie, and shaved Parmigiano. Below is cacio e pepe e miso: He subs Sichuan pepper for black pepper and adds dandelion-leek miso for umami.

Decor is bold and mural-full, and there’s a full bar serving Pennsylvania wine, spirits, and beer. Read on for more, including his attempt at a menu joke that did not impress a Gen Z server.

DaVinci & Yu, 1819 E. Passyunk Ave. Hours: 4:30-9 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and 4:30-10 p.m. Friday and Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

The 12th annual Philly Bierfest will turn the German Society of Pennsylvania (611 Spring Garden St.) into an outsize beer hall with six floors of activities across two buildings plus outdoor attractions in the society’s gated garden from 2-5:30 p.m. Feb. 22. The event benefits the German Society as well as Philly Roller Derby and the Brewers of Pennsylvania. Tickets start at $59.

The Eagles' Super Bowl win has prompted Yards Brewing to move up the release of its sports-fan-inspired Trash Talk IPA, which had been set for April. It’s 6.5% ABV, and tasting notes suggest “bold, tropical flavors like juicy pineapple, balanced by a crisp, clean, and refreshing finish.” It will debut Thursday at Yards, Fifth and Spring Garden Streets, and some will be saved for the parade afterparty Friday.

Eagles star C.J. Gardner-Johnson sparked controversy with postgame comments on social media directed toward Taylor Swift and Chiefs fans after the Eagles’ Super Bowl win. The fans responded by bombarding a restaurant owned by his mother with one-star Yelp reviews. Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.

Philadelphia chef Kyle Timpson won Season 23 of Hell’s Kitchen on Fox. What did he say was his high point on camera?

A) the burger-making episode

B) yelling in chef Gordon Ramsay’s face

C) escaping major burns when a pan ignited on his sleeve

D) the lighting on set

Find out if you know the answer.

What do you know about a food hall coming to University City? — Jodi C.

This idea has been in the works for more than two years, though the operator has changed in the interim. Brandywine Realty Trust, developer of Schuylkill Yards, has space in the Bulletin Building on Market Street across from 30th Street Station, and it will be called Gather Food Hall & Bar. Hospitality HQ, a New York-based food-hall operator, will assemble six local vendors and an elevated bar on the ground floor. None of the vendors have been named and opening is targeted this fall, says Brandywine’s Jerry Sweeney.

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