Alexandra Harcharek touched on this in her latest What’s Cooking column, but we figured we’d remind you here, too: Tonight at 8, drop by Devil’s Den (1148 S. 11th St.) for a taste of Duvel Green, the first beer the time-tested Belgian brewery developed for draft. (Glasses will be a buck off from 8 to 10.) A Duvel rep will be on hand to remind you that Duvel is, in fact, readily available in Philly once more.

Kraftwork on Flickr

Kraftwork, the set-for-April Fishtown bar from Sidecar’s Adam Ritter, got its webby game going this week, formally launching a Twitter, a Tumblr and a Flickr. Hit up that latter link for a few sneak peeks at the signage and branding, including their growlers (above). Check our previous post for more info.

sjhotchefs.com

Take PATCO, Philly Car Share or your own set of wheels (whaaat, we have FREE parking lots!) to one of 44 restaurants participating in South Jersey’s Restaurant Week, scheduled for April 11-16. Depending on which place you choose, the four-course menus will run you either $25 or $35 — call or visit your pick’s Web site for more details and reservations.

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When there’s less than a week left before opening, restaurants tend to enter what we like to call “hyper scramble mode” — this is the time when ordinary men and women can achieve extraordinary feats of speed and strength to work out all the kinds before a grand debut. 500° (1504 Sansom St.), the quick-serve burger joint from Rouge owners Rob and Maggie Wasserman, is deep in hyper scramble, as evidenced by the flurry of hardcore activity going on inside earlier this morning.

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Tom McCusker’s Honest Tom’s Taco Truck, which usually sets up shop at 33rd and Arch and at Clark Park, is wheeling their tortilla-filling operation down to Logan Square today, from around 11 a.m. till the sun goes down. (It’ll be hard to miss the paint job.) McCusker will be dishing out the fish tacos we became obsessed with over the summer.

UPDATE: McCusker tells Meal Ticket that he plans on making Logan Square (corner of 18th and JFK, to be exact) a weekly Friday stop. Sweet!

Lee Styer, chef/partner over at Fond (1617 E. Passyunk Ave.), is in the process of overhauling his dinner menu for the spring season. While hit dishes like his crispy sweetbreads (above) remain, he’s introduced a slew of new plates, which you can check out after the jump. As of today, only the appetizer section has been overhauled (he did add one new entrée so far), but Styer says the entirety of the menu will get its seasonal makeover in about a week’s time.

For more thoughts on the spot, read Trey Popp’s glowing October ‘09 review.

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-  First off, be sure to check out Team Meal Ticket’s spring supplement! We crewed up to bring you this feature on Philly’s regional pizza styles, and Felicia D checks in with this piece on the growing trend of bartenders making their own bitters.

- Trey Popp eats at popular new bruncherie Green Eggs Café and leaves pleased with both the grub and the non-preachy approach they take to environmentally sound restaurant habits.

- This Saturday night, drop by the Trocadero to catch a screening of Blood Into Wine, a pecuiliar and awesome documentary about Tool frontman Maynard Keenan growing wine grapes in northern Arizona. Here’s our full review.

- In What’s Cooking, Alexandra Harcharek details hella events, including tonight’s $35 Bar Ferdinand tasting, the Yards Real Ale Invitational and Monday’s cheese-meat-rosé night at Mémé and more.

- Word on Tabu, Gaetano’s, King Kabob, Pub & Kitchen’s new floor and more in Feeding Frenzy.

- A culture of beer fear? In Opinion, editor in chief Brian Howard wonders if the PLCB’s recent crackdown on Philly bars will have a chilling effect on our local brew-heavy culture.

- In Agenda, Alexandra Harcharek checks in with a preview of this weekend’s Yelp Philly Homegrown Party, which’ll feature food and drink from a dozen different bars/restaurants.

Columnist Rick Nichols catalogs the fallout from recent unregistered beer raids – but holds out hope for a happy Beer Week – in today’s Inquirer, while restaurant critic Craig LaBan talks beer in his weekly online chat.  Via Jack Curtin’s Liquid Diet.

Excerpt from Craig LaBan’s online chat, posted March 18

Reader: What do you make of this whole beer raid situation? Maybe this will begin the overthrow of our Prohibition-era liquor laws.

CL: I think the situation is complicated: There are good reasons to have basic liquor laws – but the Keystone Kops execution (to quote Don Russell) really irked people, smacking of overreaction and control-state bureaucracy and even a little personal vendetta on the part of one anonymous complainant who apparently launched the whole thing. These confiscated beers were at other unraided bars, too. Overall, it’s a black eye for our liquor control apparatus to have so clumsily taken a swipe at our growing beer scene – one of the most vital engines for restaurant growth, not to mention urban renewal, such as what Resurrection Ale House has brought to the neighborhood south of South. In the end, the bad publicity may end up having a positive effect in terms of reform (there’s a hearing in April, says colleague Rick Nichols, who has followed this story in today’s column). But don’t count on the demise of the PLCB any time soon.

nydailynews.com

There are two steady truisms you can set your damn watch to this NCAA Tournament: 1) Jay Wright is ridiculously good-looking (that’s him above, politely telling us that he’s not interested); and 2) bars bust out some great deals to get asses in stools to watch all these games. Below, we’ve collected a few March Madness specials around town after the jump. If you have one to add, leave a comment or e-mail drew.lazor[at]citypaper.net. Go Wildcats, go Owls!

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Photo l Neal Santos for City Paper

“Simply Honest” vegan pie at Fino’s Pizza

Twice a year, Meal Ticket leaps from the Web to the print edition of City Paper for a little extra-curricular romp. Our Meal Ticket Spring ‘10 supplement hits newsstands today, lovingly coddled within the regular Food & Restaurants section.

Find inside Team Meal Ticket’s exhaustive exploration of regionally delicious non-Neapolitan pizza; those local pies that aren’t Tacconelli’s, Osteria, Zavino or Stella. We’ve got the inside info on vegan pies made by vegan Sicilians, the secret of Greek pizzerias and the American cheese-coated mystery that is Pizazz.

Concocted from proprietary blends of botanicals, bitters are the comeback kid of the new cocktail culture. Now five local bartenders are getting back to the roots of the historical cure-all by making their own custom infusions. Their bespoke bitters range from the aromatic tincture of kaffir lime and curry leaves for Phoebe Esmon’s Madras version to Poppy Brewster’s tobacco-hit iteration inspired by the cigars of Havana at Alma de Cuba.