PhillyLunchBox

Stephen Starr discusses Striped Bass

The Citipaper's A.D. Amorosi interviews Stephen Starr:

Though its $1.3 million seems inexpensive in the current economy of the restaurant biz (where Continental Midtown will reportedly cost $4.5 million), why would Starr buy Striped Bass when, as he confirms, the rent is too high and the kitchen is in terrible disrepair? "Despite who may have money, few people have the vision and ability to take on an operation of this size. Besides, most people with money are smart, know their limitations," he laughs.

Starr is dealing with the limitations of what Stein wrought by doing what any fashion-conscious man or woman would do: Look in the mirror and take off the first item you see that’s wrong. He started with Stein’s wicker chairs, its expensive entrees and its oddly Moroccan ceiling design.

"For his time, he was a visionary," said Starr of Stein’s legendary largess throughout the ’90s. "These [restaurant] enterprises are million-dollar businesses with CFOs. They’re not mom-and-pops anymore."

Wicker chairs are out?

Read the full story here.

Django Review

Django
526 S Fourth St.
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 922-7151

Craig LaBan reviews Django:

For a city that discovered its first modern culinary urgings in a '70s funky-storefront restaurant renaissance - nearby, in fact, largely around South Street - what could be more quintessentially Philadelphian?

This is an intensely personal food-lover's paradise where the seasonally inspired menu and seamless service are, dollar for dollar, unmatched in the city. Among the most expensive dishes, an extraordinary loin of venison topped with a scoop of foie gras glazed with date syrup is an astonishingly low $24. Try that in Manhattan.

He's right on.. here's more..

To think I could have missed Sikora's farmstand-corn bisque, a bowl of sunshine-colored broth swirled with spicy Old Bay butter and topped with two crisp fried Ipswich clams. It's like summer on a spoon. Roasted corn kernels make another cameo on the goat cheese gnocchi, this time with golden chanterelles and slivers of summer truffle.

Seafood also rules the evening. Nuggets of tender oil-poached lobster are tossed with homemade bowtie pasta in an exotic curried cream with salty pistachios. Crisp fillets of tilefish pose over white Tarbais beans moistened with a fish broth punctuated with olives and caramelized fennel.

I wonder if they still serve the bread that comes baked in a flower pot?

BYOB Guide

Looking for a great BYOB restaurant check out this guide:

It the Largest online directory of Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) restaurants, www.BYOBguide.com.

El Azteca IV - Reducks (and the chicken was good too!!)

Mr. Box and I stopped by yesterday for lunch at this spunky little Mexican
concern on 19th St. between Market and Chestnut, the same place we
reviewed last summer.

As with El Vez, we had another unusual seating experience, but this time it was quite pleasant. As we walked in, a cute Spanish waitress asked if we wanted the table for two near the door, but we declined, citing our freezing hands! So, she took us towards the back of the place, then, as if entering another dimension, we made a left-turn into another room. Turned out to be the dining room of the bar next door called Togo's (we think).

The room was a little Austin Powers-ish, with oversized green olives for seats and curvy colored seat-back cushions against the walls. We were the only ones in there, so we just sat back and enjoyed the atmosphere of solitude and silence, quickly broken by our usual inane chatter about co-workers.

(Oh - someone needs to put signs on the bathroom doors - no less than 10 people came to use them during our meal, and all of them had trouble finding them, they even had to ask the distracted bartender at the empty bar, who - to our amusement - was wholly absorbed in his cigs and reading material, enveloped in a swirling cloud of smoke.)

My chicken quesadilla was really good, nice and cheesy and hot, but the black beans were cold (although tasty). Mr. Box's Burrito Blanco (that's "white burrito" for you gringos out there) was "very good", but
he maintains that the refried beans are "watery," as before. Watch out for the hot plates too, ouch!

Oops - our waitress (the one who seated us) forgot my iced tea, brought me water instead, no biggie, I think I mumbled that part of the order anyway. She was a little pouty too during the meal, but we understood - this place is busy as hell at lunch. Oh - check out the neck tattoo on the Asian-guy waiter's neck, it looks Chinese writing (not that we would know!), very neat.

Flamers Burgers

Flamers
Liberty Two Food Court

Went to Flamers today, and had a mushroom-swiss burger combo for lunch. I like Flamers because they grill their burgers and you can customize the toppings. I've chomped quite a few flamers burgers, and usually they are quite good. However, my bun was kind of soggy today, which was kind of dissapointing. The fries were great! Additionally, when you go to order a burger at the register, half of their menu is not visible. You can only see the Chicken combo meals? The service is kind of raw, but I realize this isn't Le-bec fin.

Overall, I would recommend Flamers for a quick bite!

P.S.

They just opened a Subway at Independance place and it looked really crowded. My wife was tried it the other day and said the service was pretty lame. They probably just need time to tweak it a little.

Welcome back.

Greetings Lunchboxers,

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks, I'm in the processing of moving to a new home, I haven't had much time. But with a little luck, I should be done by Friday and the Lunchbox will be back to regular updates.

Once again, thanks for reading!