SUMMER GUIDE

Lettuce praise: Memphis Taproom’s ALT is one of hundreds of debut dishes this season. (Photo by Michael Persico)

Food Roundup

Summer is a Philly foodie’s bonanza.

by Adam Erace

This summer you can’t swing a dead publicist without hitting a new restaurant. Among them are many of the year’s most hotly anticipated, like a beloved tandoor house’s Lazarus-like resurrection into a haute hotel bistro, and the first Big Apple celebri-chef setting up in Philly since Marcus Samuelsson skedaddled so long ago. Recent openers Zahav, Goodburger, Apothecary, Time, Memphis Taproom and Les Bon Temps have kept gastronomic aficionados and gourmands alike busy, but there’s still plenty on our plate, so to speak.

Holy AmEx bills, fatman! A big boost to upscale dining comes with May’s twilight. Comcastic Table 31 (May 18), Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio’s “steakhouse bistro” will be serving wagyu steaks alongside black truffle mashed potatoes across 15,000 square feet and three levels of the cable giant’s spiffy new HQ. Meanwhile Eric Ripert, Mr. Le Bernardin, is keeping it notably light at his 10 Arts (May 20) in the Ritz with fennel-topped fish burgers, lemony carpaccios and “grandmother-style” striped bass with mushrooms and fingerlings. Their dramatic wine tower has our economic stimulus check’s name all over it. Meanwhile, Fort Lauderdale-based churrasco mini-chain Chima (May 27) challenges Fogo de Chão as the only Brazilian kid in town with 16 types of meat at the Kennedy House.

We’ll have to wait till June for English pea soup with vanilla and lobster timbale and smoked Meyer cumin preserves at Root, L.A. native Chris Hora’s BYOB that’s taking over the old Palate at 10th and Spring Garden. The website for King of Tandoor, a fine dining Indian in Fairmount, says end of May, but owner Mohammed Islam reports the tandoors’ll fire up May 19. Midtown Villagers will be able to get curried away around the same time at the remodeled Minar Palace, which closed July 2006.

Can you believe those bastards at LCB delayed the opening of E’Punk gastropub Sticks & Stones (originally scheduled for early April) till mid-June? Looks like DaVinci Ristorante up the Avenue might open first—just in time, since the area desperately needs another Italian restaurant. The May 1 projected opening of Adobe Café, the Passyunk offshoot of Manayunk’s Southwest steakhouse, has come and gone, another opening pushed into the deep end of summer.

Mt. Airy brewpub Earth Bread + Brewery opens this month with hearth-baked flatbreads, drinkable summer beers and a business model focusing on environmental stewardship, along with gastropub Kite & Key Tavern at 18th and Callowhill. Bar Ferdinand owner Owen Kamihira is going all Touch of Evil on us with a Mexican border bar called El Camino Real coming any day now to the shuttered Deuce. Dude’s busy, with a gastropub at 44th and Spruce tentatively named Local 44 and an Unnamed Izakaya across from Ferdinand planned for later in the season.

Speaking of izakayas, the Borgata PR mouthpiece is firm on June for Izakaya, the glossy Japanese tavern from Michael Schulson, formerly of Pod and Buddakan N.Y.C. Careful crossing the glass bridge (any Scientology weddings there?) over the indoor koi pond after one too many cherry sake bombs. Borgata’s new tower the Water Club hosts its first overnight guests (for $329) on June 15 with 400-threadcount Egyptian cotton sheets, L’Occitane toiletries and breakfast in bed (and the rest of the in-room dining menu) crafted by Geoffrey Zakarian of New York’s Town/Country.

Jose Garces is hedging his bets by confirming only “summer” for Chilang—err, Distrito Federal—his Mexico City-inspired spot in University City. We’re excited about the food, but possibly more so about the secret karaoke lounge. Brasserie Parc, Stephen Starr’s first Philly opening since October 2004, premieres in “early July” at Parc Rittenhouse condos. The Shawn Hausman-designed space (he did Conti-Mid and the supercool Standards in Downtown L.A. and Miami) will include a 75-seat sidewalk terrace under a ruby-red awning. No word from His Starriness on what’s happening in the Sofitel or the old Angelina space or with Unnamed Izakaya No. 2 in the Rittenhouse area. He’s busy down the shore too.

Retro steakhouse Chelsea Prime (Aug. 1) and groovy coffee shop Teplitzky’s (Aug. 1) open in A.C.’s “return-to-glamour” boutique babe the Chelsea. Developer Curtis Bashaw has tapped Paul Sevigny (actress Chloë’s bro) and Matt Abramcyk, owners of New York’s hipper-than-thou Beatrice Inn, to promote the scene on the hotel’s SoHo House-y Fifth Floor. Can we get in if we say we liked Big Love?

Adobe Café
1919 E. Passyunk Ave.

Apothecary
102 S. 13th St. 215.701.4786. www.apothecarylounge.com

The Chelsea/Chelsea Prime/Teplitzky’s
111 S. Chelsea Ave., Atlantic City, N.J. 866.393.3285. www.thechelsea-ac.com

Chima
1901 JFK Blvd. 215.525.3233. www.chimasteakhouse.com

DaVinci
1533 S. 11th St.

Distrito Federal
3945 Chestnut St.

Earth Bread + Brewery
7136 Germantown Ave. www.earthbread brewery.com

El Camino Real
1040 N. Second St.

Goodburger
1725 Chestnut St. 215.569.4777. www.goodburgerpa.com

Izakaya
1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J. 866.MY.BORGATA. www.theborgata.com

King of Tandoor
1824 Callowhill St. 215.568.0750. www.kingoftandoor.com

Kite & Key Tavern
1836 Callowhill St.

Les Bons Temps
114 S. 12th St. 215.238.9100. www.lesbonstempspa.com

Local 44
4400 Spruce St.

Memphis Taproom
2331 E. Cumberland St. 215.425.4460. www.memphistaproom.com

Minar Palace
1304 Walnut St. 215.546.9443

Parc
225 S. 18th St. 215.545.7272.

Root
1033 Spring Garden St.

Sticks & Stones
1909 E. Passyunk Ave.

Table 31
1701 JFK Blvd. 215.569.2243

10 Arts
10 S. Broad St. 215.523.8273. www.10arts.com

Time
1315 Sansom St. 215.985.4800

The Water Club
1 Renaissance Way, Atlantic City, N.J. 800.800.8817. www.thewaterclubatborgata.com

Zahav
237 St. James Pl. 215.625.8800. www.zahavrestaurant.com