Feeding Frenzy

Restaurants opening, closing and pending

by Drew Lazor

>> NOW SEATING

Chef Dan Butler, who owns Wilmington's Deep Blue Bar and Grill and Toscana Kitchen, opened his third restaurant on Feb. 1 inside the Chadds Ford Inn. The 220-seat space includes a raw bar, a 500-bottle wine rack and a humidity-controlled dry ager. Butler also plans to renovate an adjacent antique shop and convert it into a brick-oven pizzeria/bakery. Bite This: The coffee-crusted venison loin is served with goat cheese gnocchi, chanterelles, port reduction and arugula coulis.

>> WAITING LIST

Marc Vetri's Web site says this anticipated trattoria is debuting in "winter 2007," but the phone recording says it'll be open for dinner starting Feb. 15. Here's what we know right now: 1) It'll have pizza; 2) The pizza will be good; 3) Philly Mag food editor April White is worried it's in the badlands—1.6 miles from Philly Mag's offices, to be exact. "As rents rise in Center City, startup restaurants will be pushed toward the fringes," she wrote in the January '07 issue. "See Marigold Kitchen, at a West Philly intersection you've never heard of." Larchwood and 45th? Shit, April, that's just two blocks from Pine. You know, the street with all the gay stuff on it?

N. 3rd owner Mark Bee is making progress on Silk City, which he acquired in the first quarter of 2006; Craigslist posts are seeking applications for managers and the back of the house.

>> LITTLE VITTLES

Soooo many Tut-related restaurant tie-ins. Haru has a scary Tutansushi roll, made with spicy salmon, tuna, mango and gold leaf. McGillin's has a King Tut-tini (yup, it's got Goldschlager in it). And London Grill's special Tut menu offers traditional Egyptian cuisine like sambousas (spiced meat turnovers) and braised rabbit. Really though, what about Tutankhamun makes people hungry? He was a kid pharaoh with a cleft palate who purportedly died from a gangrene infection. Just sayin'.