If you picked up a copy of City Paper this week, you probably already peeped out our fall ‘09 Meal Ticket supplement, which features features, recipes and more. It’s now online, so be sure to check out Felicia D’s roundup of delicious fall dishes (featuring recipes from Fork and Sweetie’s Pie Diner) plus her feature on the hot toddy, everyone’s favorite chill-in-the-air beverage. Cheers!

Photo | Mike Persico for Grub Street

You may not know this, but Meal Ticket’s very own Felicia D is also a badass bartender/font of boozy knowledge at the Belgian CafĂ©. Grub Street provides a cool profile of our girl via their recurring Bartender’s Bible series. Choice excerpt:

What’s your patented drunk-handling technique?: Enlist the drunk’s friends as allies, stall and “forget” to serve them another drink, serve fake all-soda drinks if necessary. Gently shaming them works, too, if they are not too far gone.

Not that she’s done that to us or anything. Read the full piece here.

Han Chiang, whose Han Dynasty restaurants are hits in Exton and Royersford, tells Meal Ticket he’s aiming at on or around Dec. 15 to open his third location at 108 Chestnut, in the former home of Joe’s Peking Duck Original 1984.

“I’ve always wanted to open in Philly, so when I saw a good deal, I jumped on it,” says Chiang, who won’t change much of the interior of the ready-to-go space much, at least not right away. Though these plans aren’t set in stone just yet, but the plan is to make this Han Dynasty more of a nightlife location, with weekly hot pot nights, karaoke nights and so forth. A liquor license should kick in a few months after he opens. The menu will be kept largely the same as Chiang’s other locations, the caveat being that he wants to start getting away from Americanized Szechuan cuisine and focus on a more true-to-tradition thrust.

The Swift Half in the Piazza at Schmidts is launching weekend brunch tomorrow, and it’ll run both days from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Exec chef Jessica O’Donnell says they’re starting off with a small menu to test the waters. Check out what they’ll be serving this weekend after the jump.

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David Chang (no, not that one) writes on the NBC Philadelphia site today:

[Leslie] Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa. with six friends.

Pope claimed that they had to wait nearly an hour for their order and that she had to get napkins and silverware for the table herself.

After the $73 bill came, the group paid for food, drinks, and tax but refused to pay the tip. After explaining the bad service to the bartender in charge, Pope claimed he took their money and called police. The couple was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.

Arresting officers charged the two with theft, since the gratuity was considered part of the actual bill. Chang opined in the piece that the charge is unlikely to hold up in court, where the couple appear next month.

Seriously though, dinner for eight people ringing up to just $73 with tax?  For that kind of deal, maybe you should be getting your own silverware and drink refills.

Adam Ritter of frequent Meal Ticket haunt The Sidecar (2201 Christian St.) tells us that he’s just inked a deal for a second location. Located in a long-vacant bar space on the corner of Montgomery and Girard in Fishtown, his as-yet-unnamed project will be most comparable to a contemporary European bistro in both design and layout — picture a 30-seat U-shaped bar in the middle of the space, surrounded by a smattering of picnic bench-style seating. The location, which’ll be single-level to start out, is roughly twice the size of The Sidecar’s floorplan.

Right now the plan is do between 20 and 24 beers on tap, plus growlers — “It’s going to take what we do at our place and put it on performance-enhancing drugs,” says Ritter. The menu, which’ll be handled by new Sidecar chef Brian Lofink (formerly of Matyson and Brasserie Perrier), will be focused on well-crafted smaller shareable plates. The spot should be open sometime in the first quarter of 2010.

By the by, Sidecar’s plan to expand to onto a second floor is still a go.

When we dropped by Michael O’Halloran’s Kong (702-704 N. Second St.) back in August, we got to check out his mother-in-law Ping (above) cranking out dumplings with the quickness. Tonight they’ll celebrate their house specialty with a dumpling shindig of sorts. The NoLibs eatery is offering 10 different varieties of dumplings — three pieces a plate, just 50 cents apiece. Check out the wrapped-in-dough lineup after the jump.

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If whimsical cocktail lore is to be believed, Nov. 19, marks the 100-year anniversary of the Cuban daiquiri — rum, sugar, lime, water — making its first appearance on American soil. Story goes that Navy Admiral Lucius Johnson caught wind of the drink and introduced to his boys at the Army Navy Club one century ago today in our nation’s capital. To celebrate the occasion (why do cocktails always have such awesomely erudite backstories?), The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. (112 S. 18th St.) is offering $8 renditions of the classic today from 5 p.m. till last call. For a dollar more, they’ll strawberry-ify it for you. Since all Franklin tipples are usually $12 across the board, this is a deal, so drink one or six in a salute to the good Admiral.

Photo | Neal Santos

- We take you inside the meticulous and altogether meaty research process that produced Percy Street Barbecue, the new Texas-style venture from Steve Cook, Erin O’Shea and Michael Solomonov. Be sure to check out Neal Santos’ excellent photo slideshow.

- Trey Popp finds that’s there a whole lot to like about chef Joshua Noh’s cooking at Paul, the unassuming BYOB on Pine Street.

- Erin Mae Szrankowski touches on Thanksgiving-themed goodness and more in this week’s What’s Cooking food events column.

- We fill you in on the latest openings in Feeding Frenzy — check out the deets on Hawthornes, Vietnam Café, Green Aisle and more.

French Laundry/Ad Hoc/per se superchef Thomas Keller, who you might’ve caught on last night’s Top Chef, will appear at the Williams-Sonoma in King of Prussia tomorrow at noon to sign his new book, Ad Hoc at Home. Here’s Erin Mae Szrankowski with details in her latest What’s Cooking column:

Renowned chef/restaurateur/multiple James Beard Award-winner Thomas Keller will visit King of Prussia’s Williams-Sonoma for a signing of Ad Hoc at Home (Artisan). Named after his casual Napa Valley restaurant that specializes in family-style comfort food, the cookbook provides recipes for dishes like their infamous fried chicken. Buy a copy of Keller’s cookbook at Williams-Sonoma to get the superchef’s signature. Williams-Sonoma, 160 N. Gulph Road, King of Prussia, 610-265-5970, williams-sonoma.com.