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  • Coffee with a side of cow nuzzles | Let’s Eat

    Coffee with a side of cow nuzzles | Let’s Eat

    Coffee, cream, and cows. Now that is how to spend a dreamy morning.

    Also in this edition:

    • Hot dinnerware: Jono Pandolfi, who makes the cult-favorite ceramic dinnerware from The Bear, is holding a pop-up sale in Philly.
    • Core issues: Apple farmers are pivoting because of a poor 2026 crop.
    • Bird feed: What’s on the Eagles’ menu at Lincoln Financial Field this season, besides the Tush Push Tater?

    — Mike Klein

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    Coffee with a side of cow nuzzles

    Brew and a moo? Maybe a little calf-feine? At a suburban animal sanctuary, you can enjoy your morning coffee while cuddling affectionate baby cows. Beatrice Forman tried it while on assignment and came back udderly enthralled.

    ‘The Bear’ dinnerware comes to Philly

    Jono Pandolfi’s ceramics turn up at some of Philly’s top restaurants — and on The Bear. Now, writes Zoe Greenberg, you can snag them for up to 70% off at a limited-time pop-up.

    What’s the Tush Push Tater on the Eagles’ menu?

    It’s called a Tush Push Tater, and it starts with a fried baked potato, then layers on breaded chicken cutlets and pimento mac and cheese, and finishes with hot honey-bacon jam. Ariel Simpson checked in on the Eagles’ new menu at Lincoln Financial Field and explains what’s in store this season. Go Birds.

    The apple crop suffers this year

    A spring freeze ruined much of the local apple crop this year. Sarah Nicell writes that farmers are getting creative, but they say they’re not sure if the experiments can fully make up for the apple losses.

    The best thing we ate last week

    There’s retro style and there’s genuine 1950s retro: We can attest that the Charcoal Pit in Wilmington, where a teenage Joe Biden once lodged a civil rights protest, still delivers quality burgers and ice cream.

    Scoops

    Fiorella, Marc Vetri’s bustling Italian Market pasta bar, is getting a big expansion. Big by Fiorella standards, at least. The 14-seat dining room, in the old Fiorella’s butcher shop at 817 Christian St., will allow an additional six to eight diners after an interior wall is popped out into part of the adjoining alley. Bonus: A six-top table will be available for a larger party. (There’s also a 30-seat streetery.) Vetri says he expects the project to be finished in a few weeks.

    Lost Time Brewing Co. in Kensington is adding a second taproom, as it replaces Our Time Brewery at 1519 Ridge Ave. in Francisville. Partner Andrew Mattes expects a mid-0ctober opening, “once we put our lipstick and fingerprints on it.”

    Restaurant report

    🤤 Butter chicken served on a cheesesteak is the secret-menu attraction at Pronto Pizza on South Street near Broad. Owner Umair Cheema explains its long path from Pakistan to his mom’s kitchen in Northeast Philadelphia.

    ☎️ Call Your Mother’s first of three Philly locations opened last week in Fishtown. Beatrice Forman calls it “America’s preppiest bagel shop, closer to a viral tween clothing store than a neighborhood deli.”

    😟 “The building may be gone, but our dream is not,” say the owners of Roxborough’s 76-acclaimed White Yak, who were weeks away from opening a second location in Montgomery County before fire destroyed it. Jess Rohan has the story.

    💣💣 Bomb Bomb Bar was the only Philadelphia spot to make the New York Times’ best restaurants list this year.

    🏆 Honeysuckle chef/owners Omar Tate and Cybill St.Aude-Tate were named to Food & Wine’s annual Best New Chefs list, putting them in august company. The McDonald’s Money Burger (shown below) wowed the magazine, in particular.

    🥟 Little Susie’s, the coffee-and-pie mini-chain, has overcome the zoning issues that delayed its Fairmount opening for months. Owner Daniel Martino says he expects to open the window at 2206 Fairmount Ave. by Halloween.

    🛫 Workers at five airport restaurants have asked management to voluntarily recognize their affiliation with Unite Here Local 274.

    Briefly noted

    Sisterly Love Collective’s fourth annual Cookbooks & Convos series returns Oct. 25-Nov. 7 with more than 15 events pairing cookbook authors and food personalities with Philadelphia women-owned restaurants, bars, and businesses. Guests will include Toni Tipton-Martin, Katie Button, Kay Chun, and Mia Castro, with dinners, tastings, demonstrations, and happy hours around the city. The Oct. 25 launch is a 5K/10K Bakery Run stopping at women-owned bakeries with an afterparty at the finish line featuring a book-signing by Alex George. Tickets and the schedule are here.

    Paws in the Vineyard brings adoptable Brandywine Valley SPCA dogs to Penns Woods Winery in Chadds Ford, from 5-7:30 p.m. Oct. 2. Guests can “check out” a shelter dog for a walk through the winery’s normally private vineyard, then stick around for music, wine, and food trucks. Tickets are $35, including a glass of wine, with proceeds benefiting the SPCA and Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association’s Brandywine Valley Chapter. Tickets ($35) include one glass of wine; info is here.

    Feastival, the FringeArts’ fundraiser that fuses Philadelphia’s performance and culinary arts under one roof across from Penn’s Landing, will return for its 15th year on Oct. 28, starting at 7 p.m. Tickets ($200 for general admission, and $350 for VIP) are here.

    The pop-up PHS Beer Garden in Manayunk will close permanently in about three weeks because its site is in line for development. Meanwhile, PHS is scouting a new location.

    Two Robbers Spirits Co. has teamed with the Eagles on two co-branded canned-cocktail variety packs of its 4.5% ABV vodka-soda, iced tea, and lemonade drinks. The Philly company, which also operates a bar-restaurant in Fishtown, started partnering with the team last year. Fan events are planned this fall, with individual Eagles-branded cans coming later in the season.

    The Cacia’s Bakery location in Haddonfield appears to be permanently closed.

    ❓Pop quiz

    What’s driving Reading Terminal Market’s latest honor?

    A) its complement of cheesesteaks

    B) a record for foot traffic

    C) a food-waste program

    D) a move to a 4 a.m. opening time

    Find out if you know the answer.

    And in more Reading Terminal news: Here are the dramatic results of an economic-impact study.

    Ask Mike anything

    We are subscribers at Lantern Theater and before/after theater dining options a close walk away have really narrowed with the closing of Barra Rossa, Iron Hill, and Jones. Any suggestions? — Russ W.

    Good point about relatively few dining options right by 10th and Ludlow, though I will point out that Iron Hill has reopened. Before an evening show, I’d suggest High Street (Ellen Yin’s bistro), Oloroso (Townsend Wentz’s Spanish restaurant), or Mi Vida (the stylish Mexican newcomer in East Market). For later, I’d suggest the charming Soufiane at the Morris House or a stop amid the 13th Street dining cluster, such as Bud & Marilyn’s, Pearl & Mary, Darling Jack’s, or Charlie was a sinner.

    Does 333 Belrose plan to return to serving lunch or is that a thing of the past? — Fred M.

    Chef Ross Essner at the Radnor landmark, which reopened over the summer, says lunch will come back in “early fall,” though the date is still in flux.

    📮 Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • You can cuddle cows while drinking coffee at this Montco animal sanctuary

    You can cuddle cows while drinking coffee at this Montco animal sanctuary

    Dolly is an Aries. She likes pink accessories, the feeling of freshly brushed hair, and morning coffee with friends. She also has to be the center of attention.

    No, Dolly is not a teenage girl. She’s a three-month-old Hereford calf with a job: To snuggle up with as many guests as possible at Rose Bridge Farm, a Montgomery County animal sanctuary.

    Rose Bridge Farm sits on almost 13 acres of land at 1314 Limekiln Pike in Dresher, once part of an estate owned by William Penn in the mid-1700s. When steward Kristin Sutch took over the property in 2013, she transformed it into a sanctuary for farm animals rescued from livestock auctions, dairy farms, and breeders.

    The sanctuary has 50 animals at any given moment, Sutch said, most of them babies that eventually will be adopted out to private farms and other sanctuaries. About a dozen kids — baby goats, that is — clomp around the property, climbing on lopsided trees as if they were a playscape. Freshly rescued lambs doze together in a dimly lit corner of the farmhouse, while kittens play upstairs in a renovated loft.

    Ava Cranshaw (left), a volunteer, and Diane Haggerty, of Doylestown, brush Teddy — a mini Highland cow — at Rose Bridge Farm sanctuary during a morning Cows & Coffee event.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    Rose Bridge has always been open to the public, offering guided animal husbandry tours, birthday parties, and the once-trendy goat yoga to offset the cost of running the rescue. Sutch, however, struck gold with a novel idea: What if people could start their morning like she does, by drinking coffee in the company of baby cows?

    The sanctuary started offering the delightful sessions — aptly named Cows & Coffee — in July. Almost immediately, videos of calves and kids staring into the camera began racking up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, giving Dolly and her companions the attention they demand.

    “A lot of these animals are bottle babies, so they really enjoy companionship. They’re like your dog: If you leave, they get sad,” Sutch said. “Having the public come in … [the cows are] getting as much love, snacks, and cuddles they could hope for.”

    Coffee cups with Highland cow decals from a Cows & Coffee session at Rose Bridge Farm and Sanctuary.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    During the hourlong, $20 sessions (which run daily at 8, 9, and 10 a.m.), guests start in the barn’s loft with an unlimited self-serve drip and iced coffee bar that includes sugar, nondairy milks, creamers, and cold foam alongside seasonal sprinkles.

    Next, one of Rose Bridge’s volunteers will lead the group to the farm’s pasture, where they can brush, cuddle, and bottle-feed Dolly and her friend Teddy, a five-month-old mini Highland cow with fringe bangs and a summer buzz cut that’s just starting to grow in.

    The sanctuary’s sessions are so popular that Sutch started offering an evening version branded Cows & Cocktails, where guests can sip on alcoholic iced tea and lemonade made with farm-grown mint and lavender alongside Teddy and Dolly. They’re content with booze-free bottles of milk.

    A goat eats a snack during a Cows & Coffee event.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    The events’ success has helped Sutch begin to check off a laundry list of renovations to the nearly 300-year-old farm, such as an automatic fire system, new barn doors, and eventually, a rehabbed bottle room.

    “Everything needs replacing,” Sutch said. “And you should see our vet bills, our feed bills, our hay bills. … It takes a lot to run this farm, so [Cows & Coffee] has really been a blessing.”

    Cows and goats and kittens, oh my

    It’s easy to feel chosen at Rose Bridge. When I attended Cows & Coffee on a recent crisp morning, it started with a tiny tuxedo kitten trying to climb inside my coconut cream latte. Outside, baby goats nibbled on the hem of my shirt at seemingly every turn. If I stopped petting Dolly under the chin, she’d moo as if she missed me.

    Melissa Watters, of Elkins Park, brushes Dolly during a Cows & Coffee event at Rose Bridge Farm.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    Cow cuddling has emerged as a surprising wellness trend, with farms and animal preserves from New Jersey to the Scottish Highlands getting in on the practice. Bovine snuggles are thought to reduce stress and release oxytocin, the hormone associated with social bonding and trust.

    “You look at them, especially the fuzzy baby ones, and they just make you feel all warm,” said Sutch.

    Rose Bridge caps Cows & Coffee sessions at 15 attendees, with a 10-and-up age minimum. Attendees are encouraged to brush Dolly and Teddy, and to let the calves suck their thumbs, sort of like a baby and their pacifier. For maximum bonding, Sutch recommends squatting down to the cows’ level and “talking to them like a friend.”

    Diane and Grace Haggerty, of Doylestown, brush Dolly during a Cows & Coffee event at Rose Bridge Farm.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    Dolly, who was dropped at Rose Bridge in April from the back of an SUV, wasn’t always a diva. Teddy, however, was always a ham.

    “He’s a big kisser,” said Sutch, and loves to get his floppy bangs styled.

    Rose Bridge also has a new cow in town: Lady A, a 1½-year-old mini Highland cow named after the country band. Since she’s the eldest, Sutch said, Lady A is still adjusting to socializing with the rambunctious Teddy and Dolly. But what she lacks in fans, she makes up for in friends.

    A goat walks on a tree at Rose Bridge Farm & Sanctuary, an animal rescue in Dresher, Pa.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    “She’s a little feisty,” said Susan Connolly, who drove nearly 50 miles to Rose Bridge from her home in Kendall Park, N.J. “I like that.”

    Diane Haggerty and her daughter, Grace, were partial to Dolly. “She speaks her mind and actually lets you pet her,” said Grace, who went to Cows & Coffee for her 12th birthday. “This exceeded all my expectations.”

    Admittedly, not everyone was sold.

    “I don’t know how at peace I feel,” said Katrina Miciek of Havertown. “I’m too busy making sure the cows and goats don’t eat my shoes.”

    Ella Skiles, a volunteer, kisses a lamb at Rose Bridge Farm & Sanctuary in Dresher, Pa.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    Rose Bridge Farm Sanctuary, 1314 Limekiln Pike, Dresher, rosebridgefarmsanctuary.com; Cows & Coffee runs 8 to 10 a.m. daily.

  • Honeysuckle’s Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate named best new chefs by Food & Wine

    Honeysuckle’s Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate named best new chefs by Food & Wine

    Honeysuckle chef-owners Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate have been named to Food & Wine’s annual Best New Chefs class, joining a prestigious list of Philadelphia talent who’ve shared the designation over the past 37 years.

    Though the Food & Wine list recognizes “rising talent at a pivotal moment in their careers,” the Tates have been lauded in Philly’s food scene for years.

    The couple have transformed Honeysuckle many times over the years; each iteration of the project has met significant acclaim. It started in New York City as a pop-up in 2017, then became a residency at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, followed by a brick-and-mortar provisions store and supper club in West Philly. In its current life, it’s a sprawling restaurant whose bar program and tasting menu Inquirer critic Craig LaBan has called “thought-provoking, original — and totally delicious.”

    The Tates are artists and storytellers — identities that are integrated in their roles as chefs and restaurateurs. In every iteration of Honeysuckle, they have celebrated the culture and foods of the Black American diaspora.

    Editorial director Melanie Hansche was particularly wowed by Honeysuckle’s McDonald’s Money burger: “As dinner unfolds, the couple show that they are wizards of surprise and delight,” Hansche writes. “Nowhere is that more evident than the McDonald’s Money burger, a ridiculous sandwich layered on slices of toasted shokupan, oozing with Cooper Sharp cheese, malt vinegar onions, and caviar remoulade, showered in gold leaf and shaved black truffles. It’s tangy, salty, sweet, and earthy and possibly the very best burger you’ll ever eat.”

    The McDonald’s Money burger at Honeysuckle on Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer

    The Tates are among 14 chefs from 10 restaurants across the country to make this year’s list. They arrived in New York on Monday to participate in programming around Best New Chefs, including panel discussions, a luncheon with other alumni, and a mentorship workshop. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday night. They’ll be back in Philly on Wednesday, in time for dinner service at Honeysuckle.

    They learned they had made the list back in March. “We’ve had to keep this secret for a long time,” said St.Aude-Tate. “And this win feels different. We’ve both been in the industry for a really long time but this puts us on a national stage in a different way.”

    The Tates join a long roster of Philadelphia chefs named to Food & Wine Best New Chefs, including Susanna Foo (1989), Marc Vetri (1999), Jim Burke (2008), Eli Kulp (2014), Emily Riddell (2022), and Amanda Shulman (2023), to name a handful.

    St.Aude-Tate grew up reading Food & Wine and looking up to other chefs who had been named Best New Chefs by the magazine. “I used them as barometers as who to look up to in the industry,” she said.

    Honeysuckle has been racking up consistent awards since its ambitious opening on North Broad in April 2025. Last month, it was named to Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurants list (along with Sao, which is owned and operated by fellow Food & Wine Best New Chef alum Phila Lorn). The Tates were also named as James Beard Awards finalists in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category earlier this year (they were semifinalists in 2024). Honeysuckle also appeared on The Inquirer’s 2025 edition of The 76.

    “After our first Beard nomination, we didn’t know what to expect and we got slammed at the restaurant. It was crazy. We fell on our faces. There was no coaching on what to expect,” said St.Aude-Tate, adding that the mentorship and coaching provided by Food & Wine even before the awards were officially announced are what set the Best New Chefs program apart from other awards-granting institutions. “We talked to other people who had been in this position to understand how to navigate this moment,” she said.

    St.Aude-Tate hopes to apply those lessons to her own business. “But we are most excited about being able to scream from the rooftops about what we’re doing,” said St.Aude-Tate.

  • Just one Philly restaurant hits the New York Times’ best restaurant list this year

    Just one Philly restaurant hits the New York Times’ best restaurant list this year

    Bomb Bomb Bar, the old-time South Philadelphia tavern revived last year by chef Joey Baldino, has been named to the New York Times’ 2026 list of the best restaurants in America — Philadelphia’s only entry this year.

    The city placed two restaurants — Mawn and Meetinghouse — on the list last year, Little Walter’s in 2024, and three — El Chingón, Kalaya, and My Loup — in 2023. Previous Philadelphia-area selections include Andiario, Gabriella’s Vietnam, Down North Pizza, Laser Wolf, and the now-closed Korshak Bagels.

    The front bar area of Bomb Bomb Bar.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    The Times praised Baldino’s ability to bridge old-school and contemporary red-sauce Italian cooking, describing him as a “singular talent” in the genre.

    Baldino also owns Palizzi Social Club in Passyunk Square — itself a lovingly restored South Philly institution — and Zeppoli, a 35-seat BYOB in Collingswood.

    Bomb Bomb still looks much like the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood bar it has long been, but the Times said its stuffed calamari, mussels fra diavolo, and lobster francese reveal the transformation. It called those dishes “as poetically reverent as a heartfelt eulogy” and summed up the experience as finding a remembered neighborhood joint “better than ever.”

    Bomb Bomb Bar owner Joey Baldino (right) with chef de cuisine Max Hachey in the dining room.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    That assessment echoes Inquirer critic Craig LaBan’s February review, in which he called Baldino “Italian South Philly’s culinary preservationist-in-chief” and praised him for retaining Bomb Bomb’s essential character while elevating its seafood cooking and drinks.

    Bomb Bomb’s rear dining room offers a $65 fixed-price menu, while the front bar is more casual. LaBan particularly admired the mussels fra diavolo — among the best versions he had eaten — along with the lobster francese, stuffed calamari, crab cakes, and black-ink spaghetti. Inquirer staffers later singled out Bomb Bomb’s crab cake and lobster shells among their best dishes of the week.

    The acclaim adds another chapter to a South Philly institution with an unusually colorful back story. As The Inquirer reported in 2024, it dates from 1936, when a chef left his job at a South Philadelphia bar and grill to work at Bob’s, a new bar at 1026 Wolf St. His former boss ordered him to return. When the chef refused, Bob’s was firebombed in the middle of the night. No one was injured, but the blast shattered windows and “rocked houses to their foundations,” as a news article reported.

    The Inquirer’s front-page story on Feb. 17, 1936, of a firebombing on the future site of Bomb Bomb Bar.Inquirer archives

    When the chef rebuffed his former boss again, a second bomb went off. This time, according to lore, the chef returned to his old job.

    By the time Frank Barbato Sr. bought Bob’s in 1951, everybody just called it the Bomb Bomb. Barbato began a 73-year family run built around seafood and red-gravy dishes and, later, barbecue, which was added to help the restaurant stand out. His son Frank Jr. and daughter-in-law, Deb, eventually took over.

    The couple retired in late 2024, and Baldino bought the business in early 2025. He reopened it that October after a deliberately restrained renovation.

    Reached by text Tuesday, Baldino called the Times recognition a “huge honor” and praised his staff, including chef de cuisine Max Hachey and manager Jack Kearney.

    “We may have been blown up twice but we’re still cranking out some great food,” he wrote, adding two bomb emojis.

    Bomb Bomb Bar at Warnock and Wolf Streets in South Philadelphia.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
  • The cult-favorite ceramic dinnerware from ‘The Bear’ holds a pop-up sale in Philly

    The cult-favorite ceramic dinnerware from ‘The Bear’ holds a pop-up sale in Philly

    On the first morning of the Jono Pandolfi dinnerware pop-up in Philly, a woman FaceTimed her best friend from the center of the studio, documenting the shelves of turquoise and yellow and persimmon salad plates. A man cradled a 4-ounce, birch white creamer made of toast-colored clay.

    Pandolfi is the designer behind the handmade plates and cups in some of Philly’s most well-regarded restaurants, including Southwark, River Twice, and Vetri Cucina.

    Based in North Jersey, Pandolfi started his eponymous company in 2004 and has since become famous in the (niche) world of high-end plateware. He crafted the espresso and cappuccino cups for Eleven Madison Park and recently designed five new shapes for chef Daniel Humm’s forthcoming West Village restaurant. (Usually, “I only release one new shape every few years,” he said.)

    Even Carmy on HBO’s The Bear uses Jono Pandolfi dinnerware.

    A price list for the Philly pop-up. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    The 10-day Philly pop-up, held at an Olde Kensington apartment complex, offers pieces at deep discounts. Some are overstock from restaurant orders or one-off commissions with special colors and shapes. Others are seconds, pottery with small cosmetic flaws. One of the best-selling pieces is the Alaska bowl — a “pasta-sized bowl,” as Pandolfi calls it — which normally sells for $57 and is on sale for $28.

    “If you need to make 100 dinner plates for a customer, you have to probably fire 120,” Pandolfi, in black jeans and a magnetic name tag reading “Jono, Founder,” said in an interview at the Philly sale. The pop-ups are a way to sell off the extras. Some are stamped with the labels of the restaurants that originally commissioned them.

    Founder Jono Pandolfi poses for a portrait at his Philly pop-up. His dinnerware has become a cult favorite. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    The sale runs daily 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Sept. 21, at 1525 N. American St. Studio #109. Reservations are available online, though people can also just walk in.

    The first day drew pottery enthusiasts and devoted home chefs, as well as fans of The Bear, from across the city. Customers pored over a crumpled seconds sale-price list on the main table, and the studio echoed with the gentle thunk of pottery being lifted, examined, and restacked.

    “I’m always looking for beautiful things to collect,” said Julia Jacob, 38, an interior designer living in South Philly. She is planning to host family in her new home for the first time this Thanksgiving and wanted clean white plates to make the food look good.

    One of Pandolfi’s golden rules is that his beautiful dinnerware cannot upstage beautiful food. He likes working within the confines of what chefs want from their dishes: They must be minimalist, durable, dishwasher-safe. The company churns out 1,000 such pieces a day from a studio in Union City, New Jersey.

    Alex Nguyen, of South Philly, examined a salad plate at the pop-up. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    “It feels like you’re buying something that’s not made at Target,” said Soumya Dayananda, 50, an attorney who lives in Society Hill. She was considering salad plates in four colors, as well as turquoise dinner plates.

    Susan West, 41, carried a large serving tray, a medium serving tray, two bread plates, and three small bowls, all in vibrant yellow.

    “I don’t need anything,” she said. She couldn’t justify buying all new dinner plates — but these were for hosting. For cheese, for olives! She liked the rustic look of the pottery, and the way it lent itself to showing off unfussy food. She was almost ready to check out when she spotted a small red-and-green-banded plate on a shelf by the register.

    “I’m very tempted by this for Christmas cookies. But I’m like, that’s ridiculous.” She paused to consider the plate. “Should I get one? This is where I spiral.”

    The pop-up is being held at a 500-square-foot studio at 1525 N. American St.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    Some customers returned multiple times in a single day.

    Catherine Pelletier, 60, a designer on the Main Line, had learned about Jono Pandolfi after researching the dinnerware on The Bear. She has since been to Pandolfi’s pop-ups in New Jersey and New York.

    She arrived at the Philly studio sale right when it opened, and bought serving platters and dip bowls for herself. Then she left. But her friend asked if it wasn’t too much trouble, could she return, and pick up a few things for her? So Pelletier came back and ended up purchasing serving trays and bowls for her friend as well.

    The “tiki cups” on sale at the Philly pop-up. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    Maryam Mahdavi, 64, and a collector of pottery, was eager to talk shop with Pandolfi, but she also recognized she had a lot to do. She had dragged her husband to the pop-up, and now he was enchanted by the shiny green tiki cup, a nearly foot-high mug with a face like an Easter Island statue. (“I don’t want that,” Mahdavi said, before magnanimously agreeing to buy it for her husband.)

    She stared down the studio’s central table, piled high with bread plates and pasta bowls and ramekins and square-sided salad plates originally designed for chef April Bloomfield’s Tosca Cafe in San Francisco. She had no more time for small talk.

    “Now,” she said, “I gotta focus.”

  • Fishtown’s latest sandwich spot is inside a car club

    Fishtown’s latest sandwich spot is inside a car club

    The vintage and collectible cars stacked behind glass at Fishtown’s new Cannonball club may be the obvious attraction, but founder Chris Allen thinks people need another reason to stick around — and, more important, to come back.

    That’s where the focaccia sandwiches come in.

    Cannonball, the new private club for car enthusiasts near the Fillmore, has brought in Focaccia Affair — a fledgling business from Anthony Santucci and Gianluca Mazzarelli — to run its food operations. The club, housed in the sprawling former Morse Elevator Works at 1105 Frankford Ave., combines car storage with social and coworking space, a bar, and a public-facing cafe where you can gawk at classic cars through the window while sipping espresso.

    Focaccia Affair’s cafe at Cannonball serves walk-ins.Michael Klein / Staff

    The cafe, open to anyone, is where Santucci’s focaccia sandwiches take center stage. He’s offering two sandwiches, plus cookies and coffee, to start.

    Santucci, whose family operates Santucci’s Original Square Pizza, developed the bread after moving to San Diego before the pandemic. He had initially considered expanding his family’s pizza business there but began experimenting with focaccia as table bread and as a possible addition to the pizza operation.

    The experiment eventually became something else.

    Santucci and Mazzarelli, a former VIP manager at Barstool on Sansom Street, were friends whose common bonds include hockey and Italian food. After Santucci returned from a 2024 trip to Italy raving about a focaccia sandwich he had eaten, the two made one using the recipe he had been developing.

    Focaccia Affair’s Anthony Santucci (left) and Cannonball founder Christopher Allen in the mezzanine seating area.Michael Klein / Staff

    Focaccia Affair grew from there, although quietly. Santucci and Mazzarelli started testing the sandwiches over the last year through small catering orders and by dropping off food for restaurant staffs around Philadelphia.

    The business is now making its formal debut on two fronts: at Cannonball, where it’s open daily, and at Barstool Sansom Street in Washington Square West. The Barstool menu, which started Thursday, is more extensive than Cannonball’s: six focaccia sandwiches, crostini (on focaccia), burgers on brioche buns, salads, and appetizers.

    Santucci said the bread — which took months of development — is baked after a 48-hour cold fermentation. The result is focaccia with a crispy crust and fruity olive oil flavor. Its sturdy interior holds up to substantial fillings without turning the sandwich into a sloppy mess.

    Seating on the mezzanine at Cannonball, 1105 Frankford Ave.Michael Klein / Staff

    Cannonball’s cafe will generally offer two or three focaccia sandwiches at a time, rotating them seasonally. Currently, the Muse combines mortadella and stracciatella, a pairing that puts the bread’s structure to good use. (It also survives a test that many sandwiches do not: refrigeration. Gently reheated in a toaster oven the next day, I found the bread just as good.) The Situationship layers sliced turkey, goat cheese, arugula, and fig jam between focaccia, the jam’s sweetness playing against the peppery greens and tangy cheese.

    Santucci has begun developing breakfast versions; the first combines soft-scrambled eggs and bacon with house-made Calabrian chile-infused hot honey. Pastries are being developed, too, including a pumpkin cinnamon roll with brown-butter icing.

    Cannonball’s members-only bar overlooks the car storage.Michael Klein / Staff

    Focaccia Affair also oversees food for Cannonball members and their guests upstairs. Dinner starts at 4 p.m. daily with a six- to eight-item menu modeled on Italian aperitivo culture: smaller dishes designed for sharing rather than conventional entrées. Fresh pastas and additional desserts are expected to join the menu in October.

    Allen said food was essential to his plan for Cannonball, because even a spectacular collection of automobiles has limits as a daily attraction.

    “You can visit the most amazing car collection in the world, but after 15 or 20 minutes, you want to sit down, have a coffee, and eat a sandwich,” he said. “Most of all, you want a reason to come back tomorrow.”

    Focaccia Affair, 1105 Frankford Ave., instagram.com/focaccia_affair. Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m. until roughly 3:30 or 4 p.m. weekends.

  • Philly’s top Tibetan restaurant was set to expand to Montco. Then its building caught fire.

    Philly’s top Tibetan restaurant was set to expand to Montco. Then its building caught fire.

    The dining tables were already inside the East Norriton building where the owners of White Yak Restaurant planned a second location when a fire ripped through the roof earlier this month.

    Chef-owner Treley Parshingtsang’s husband, a contractor by trade, made the tables by hand. The couple was about six weeks from opening what would have been Montgomery County’s only Tibetan restaurant.

    “I have so many packages that my brother shipped all the way from Tibet for the decorations,” she said through tears.

    White Yak Restaurant’s Roxborough location has drawn a loyal following and critical acclaim for its spicy momo dumplings, hand-ripped noodles, and house-made sausage. It’s been a regular on The Inquirer’s 76 best restaurants in the region.

    Co-owners Tsering Parshingtsang (left) and Treley Parshingtsang spoon out Thenthuk soup with beef and hand-ripped noodles at White Yak, the Himalayan Tibetan restaurant in Roxborough Nov. 26, 2019.TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

    Opening the first restaurant, at 6118 Ridge Ave., took six and a half years of work, Parshingtsang said, and her family had been working on the East Norriton location for four. The couple bought the building in 2021, property records show.

    The fire broke out Sept. 5 at the 123 W. Germantown Pike building, White Yak Restaurant wrote on social media last week. Images show flames pouring from the roof of the 6,000-square-foot structure across from Friendly’s.

    Though insurance and fire inspectors have surveyed the damage, the cause of the fire is still unknown, Parshingtsang said in an interview. The electricity wasn’t turned on, and the doors were locked.

    The top floor of 123 W. Germantown Pike, razed by fire on Sept. 5, 2026.Tsering Parshingtsang

    Parshingtsang is hopeful they can save the basement and first floor, but she’s worried about the rain pouring in from the open roof.

    “That building is very special for us,” she said. “We have a lot of memories.”

    The news drew messages of support, including from Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija.

    “[I] was so excited to welcome the White Yak Restaurant,” Makhija wrote on social media. “Their Roxborough restaurant is a favorite for our family.”

    It’s too early to tell when White Yak will be ready to resume expansion plans, Parshingtsang said, but her family wrote in a statement on the restaurant’s social media page that they’re determined to move forward: “The building may be gone, but our dream is not.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Reading Terminal Market’s efforts to prevent food waste get the attention of the EPA

    Reading Terminal Market’s efforts to prevent food waste get the attention of the EPA

    The Reading Terminal Market is often bustling with voices, crowded aisles, and populated hallways. But on Monday, the real motion was behind the scenes, among the trash cans and scraps.

    After two years of diverting as much food waste from landfills as possible, the market has managed to keep 1,045,931 pounds of organic waste from the trash fields.

    A pilot program began in April 2024, through a partnership with the composting service Mother Compost, and 10 of the market’s sellers. Now, as part of the celebrations for the nation’s 250th, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Feed it Onward program is highlighting initiatives that ensure food resources are redistributed instead of wasted.

    EPA officials toured the market’s facilities on Monday, getting a behind-the-scenes look at how the composting and other recycling and reuse programs work.

    “We are not just one organization championing for change, but more than 80 small, family-owned businesses under one roof who have the potential to make a difference,” said Annie Allman, Reading Terminal Market CEO and general manager.

    Kamal’s Middle Eastern Specialties is one of them. Its owner Adham Albarouki, has been in the market for 45 years and sees in the composting program a way for his juice bar to give back.

    “We produce about 15 to 30 pounds of waste per day. Being part of something a little bit bigger here we can contribute a lot more,” Albarouki said. “It’s something to give back to mother nature.”

    The process is easy, Albarouki said. He or his workers run the vegetables and fruits through juicers. The juice goes to the customers, while the peels, fiber, and leftover organics are taken to a merchants-only area.

    Behind closed doors, 20 Mother Compost green trash cans are lined up, waiting to be fed scraps.

    Miguel Servellon (left), assistant general manager at Reading Terminal Market, gives merchants, EPA officers, and news media a behind-the-scenes tour of the market’s food waste diversion operations and sustainability programs on Monday. The green bins are from Mother Compost, a local, woman-owned pickup service, that composts organic materials to keep food scraps out of landfills and return their nutrients to local soils.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Miguel Servellon, the market’s assistant general manager, runs a tight machine to ensure the compost doesn’t get contaminated.

    On Monday morning the cement room smelled like orange peels, as one trash can had already been loaded with the citrusy scraps ahead of an early pick up, Servellon said.

    Fruit and vegetable peels, meat, eggs, cheese, milk, coffee grinds, and even fish all go inside the green containers.

    “The smell is not so inviting; occasionally it can be a challenge,” Servellon said.

    The organic waste is layered on top of each other.

    Mother Compost takes as much as 1,300 pounds of composting per pickup, which happen three times a week, Servellon said. The waste then goes to be repurposed at Linvilla Orchards, in Delaware County.

    But organic waste is not the only thing being recycled.

    At the other end of the room, two big gray containers sat full of vegetable oil waiting to be picked up by LifeCycle Renewables.

    Since 2022, the market has gathered 100,209 gallons of oil from sellers to be used as heating fuel in commercial buildings, Allman said.

    And since 2023, the nonprofit Sharing Excess has been working with the market’s sellers to redistribute surplus food.

    Earlier this year, Sharing Excess got its own fridge inside the market where sellers can deposit their donations to be redistributed in places with food insecurity.

    “We come by five days a week, and our driver weights them and tracks who donated each so we can give them their proper tax credit,” said Braden Walper, Sharing Excess retail rescue manager.

    The food goes to stock food pantries and provides as much as 100 meals a day for people experiencing food insecurity, Walper said.

    These Reading Terminal Market programs are crucial to inspire businesses across the region to reuse and recycle their food, said EPA Mid-Atlantic regional administrator Amy Van Blarcom-Lackey.

    “More than one million pounds diverted from landfills is an impressive milestone, but what really stands out to me is how the merchants made these practices part of their everyday operations,” Van Blarcom-Lackey said. “It’s important to continue because it’s good for the community and better for the environment.”

  • This off-the-menu butter chicken cheesesteak comes by way of Pakistan — and Northeast Philly

    This off-the-menu butter chicken cheesesteak comes by way of Pakistan — and Northeast Philly

    Butter chicken has taken an indirect route to South Street’s Pronto Pizza: from its roots in North India to a Pakistani family kitchen in Northeast Philadelphia, then into an Italian American pizza shop and, finally, onto a roll.

    At Pronto, just off Broad Street, it’s a secret menu item. Owner Umair Cheema tops chopped marinated chicken with Cooper Sharp and butter chicken sauce based on his mother Asma’s recipe. The $12 sandwich is Cheema’s addition to a citywide assortment of cheesesteak variations that includes versions made with oxtail and salmon.

    Cheema does not skimp. He lightly toasts the Liscio’s roll before adding nearly a pound of a mixture of chicken and melted cheese. Then comes a ladle or two of the rich butter sauce, which comes perilously close to gilding the lily.

    Umair Cheema owns Pronto Pizza, 1347 South St., which previously was LaScala’s Pronto.Michael Klein / Staff

    Cheema, 28, had eaten plenty of butter chicken in Pakistan, but he credits his younger brother, Adil, with inspiring Pronto’s version. After the family moved to Northeast Philadelphia in 2019, Adil routinely asked their mother to cook for him.

    “One day my mom made butter chicken, and I was like, ‘Mom, this is outstanding. This is the kind of butter chicken I eat at restaurants,’” Cheema said.

    A staple entree on Indian restaurant menus in the United States, butter chicken typically features yogurt-marinated chicken in a mild, creamy tomato sauce seasoned with onions, garlic, and spices such as garam masala, turmeric, cumin, and coriander. The dish has proved adaptable to other formats. Chef Reuben Asaram, for example, has incorporated it into his Mexican-Indian “Reubychanga.”

    Pronto is also not the area’s only shop making a butter chicken cheesesteak. Double Down Kitchen at Ridge Hall in Ambler serves one alongside versions made with jerk chicken and bulgogi-marinated rib-eye.

    Owner Umair Cheema pulls a slice of pizza from the oven at Pronto Pizza, 1347 South St.Michael Klein / Staff

    Cheema’s sandwich is part of his effort to broaden the menu at Pronto, which he bought from restaurateur Rob LaScala. He largely retained LaScala’s offerings of pizza, sandwiches, wings, pasta, meatballs, chicken Parmesan, and grilled salmon platters.

    Cheema had not expected to enter the pizza business. After arriving from Pakistan, where his father had worked as a banker, he took a job at Kabobeesh, his aunt’s West Philadelphia restaurant. His father was diagnosed with severe diabetes soon afterward, while his mother found warehouse work.

    “I took charge,” Cheema said. “I was like, ‘Let me deal with all of this now. It’s my time to handle this.’”

    His opportunity came when an uncle learned that Naz’s Pizza in Chester was for sale.

    “He called me and said, ‘Someone is really desperate. They want to sell their pizza shop. I know you have some money saved. If you really want to look into it, I’ll help you out, too.’”

    Barbecue chicken pizza slice at Pronto Pizza, 1347 South St.Michael Klein / Staff

    Cheema drove to Chester the next day and arrived around 3 p.m., hardly primetime at most pizzerias. “I saw people coming in and the phones ringing,” he said. “That means a business is working. So I told my uncle, ‘Everything seems OK. They are short a couple of things, but we can fix it.’”

    Cheema and his uncle bought the shop, and Cheema said sales doubled within six months. They eventually expanded to six shops before dividing the business to pursue separate growth; Cheema sold off the Chester store. Besides the Pronto at 1347 South St., Cheema owns another Pronto in Torresdale, Holme Style Pizza near Holme Circle, and Old English Style Pizza in Olney.

    His most serious setback came in September 2022, when the three-story East York Street building housing Key Pizza, his busiest shop, collapsed. “You couldn’t tell there had been a pizza shop there the night before,” Cheema said. Construction work next door was blamed.

    The roll-up door and some bricks are all that remained of Key Pizza at 2329 E. York St. after its collapse on Sept. 14, 2022.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    No injuries were reported, but he lost the business, and the resulting insurance litigation was resolved only recently, about 3½ years later, he said.

    Cheema does not plan to rebuild Key. He is focused instead on Pronto, its catering operation, and potential additional locations. The butter chicken cheesesteak gives him a way to integrate his family’s cooking into the kind of business in which he found his footing.

    “Everybody in Philly knows what a cheesesteak is, and there are so many good places out there already selling cheesesteaks that are famous for them,” he said. “But I wanted to do something different, and something that still relates to Philly.”

  • The best thing Mike Klein ate last week: Retro burgers and fries at one of Joe Biden’s go-to restaurants

    The best thing Mike Klein ate last week: Retro burgers and fries at one of Joe Biden’s go-to restaurants

    The Charcoal Pit has been serving burgers on Concord Pike in Wilmington since the Happy Days of the Eisenhower administration, when a 4-ounce hamburger was considered a meal rather than an appetizer. (Funny how, in the GLP-1 era, that portion suddenly seems just about perfect.)

    This is honest food. The signature flame-broiled burger, ordered medium at my recent stop, arrived precisely that way — juicy and properly pink inside, speared by a charming retro toothpick helpfully confirming “medium.” The fries were similarly old-school: unevenly golden, crisp at the edges but softer through the middle.

    Charcoal Pit, 2600 Concord Pike, Wilmington, on Sept. 6, 2026.Michael Klein / Staff

    Everybody heads to the Pit’s soda fountain, where we all skipped the idea of the 20-scoop “kitchen sink” sundae in favor of a more manageable three dips: Pistachio and peanut butter swirl are two winners.

    Burgers, shakes, and sundaes never go out of style, and neither does this dining room. The Charcoal Pit looks less like a re-creation of a 1956 diner than one that never got the memo the 1950s ended.

    Despite renovations, enough survives that the nostalgia feels accumulated rather than contrived: red vinyl booths, a black-and-white checkerboard floor, saucer-shaped pendant lights, and mirrors multiplying the chrome stools and booths.

    Charcoal Pit, 2600 Concord Pike, Wilmington.Michael Klein / Staff

    One bit of history is more consequential. An oft-retold story holds that around 1960 or 1961, Joe Biden and several Archmere Academy football teammates walked out after the restaurant refused indoor service to their Black teammate, Frank Hutchins. Teammate Michael Fay later recalled Biden leading the walkout. As an adult, Biden frequented the Pit, stopping particularly for its butter pecan ice cream.

    And one practical tip survives from a more innocent part of the past: Always put the kids on the inside of the booth, so they can reach the free-play jukebox and flip through the 1950s hits.

    Charcoal Pit, 2600 Concord Pike, Wilmington, 302-478-2165, charcoalpit.net