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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by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | Add the first comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Landmark Americana Tap and Grill (3333 Market St.) opened this past Saturday in University City. The first two locations (Glassboro, N.J. and West Chester, Pa.) are also situated near college campuses (Rowan and West Chester, respectively). GM Tom Revelli, who’s worked all three establishments, says these niche communities — a good mixture of students and corporate professionals — does well with their concept. “Here, we expect lots of people to trickle in before and after Drexel’s games,” he says, due to Landmark’s coordinates, on the ground level of Drexel’s Rec Center facing Market Street. (Drexel men’s coach Bruiser Flint even stopped by for a bite while we were there.)

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by mariechef for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | Add the first comment | Add to del.icio.us
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A Meal Ticket reader who works in a local restaurant sends us this cell-phone shot of a freshly laundered cocktail linen that was packaged up and delivered to the eatery yesterday. In case you can’t make it out, it reads:

Bitch
Why
The
Fuck
Would
I not
Want
To B
W you

Dunno dog, maybe she doesn’t want to be with you because you like dropping creepy-ass messages to people on cocktail linens?

by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | Add the first comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Tomorrow, green-clad revelers will crowd neighborhood bars and corporate chains alike, toasting with Irish whiskey and sharing cheer over Guinness. They can credit their day of revelry to the Irish-Catholic tradition of celebrating the religious feast day and death anniversary of St. Patrick with an evening off from the privations of Lent. With the 40-day ban on flesh-eating and boozing temporarily lifted,  our predecessors were free to consume bacon, cabbage and beer and generally carry on.

Swift Half in the Piazza at Schmidts (1001 N. Second St.) is prepared for the green tide of the Irish High Holiday with $3 Irish-inspired snacks and $3 draft half-pints beginning today and running through Sun., March 21.

The $3 menu by chef Jessica O’Donnell includes potato pancake “boxty,” mini fish and chips, stuffed cabbage, ham and cheese potato pierogies in Guinness brown butter and bangers in a blanket, described by co-owner and Cork native David Garry as “just like the sausage rolls I had every morning in college back home.” Among others, Sly Fox Seamus’ Irish Red Ale and O’Reilly’s Stout are on draft.

by felicia.dambrosio for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Tabu Lounge & Sports Bar (200 S. 12th St.), the redo of Sal’s on 12th, opened last night — just in time for March Madness — and Meal Ticket dropped in to get the lay of the land. Owners Jeff and Steve Sotland (the brothers also have Mikey’s in U-City) and Chris Lyons, have polished up Sal’s considerably to turn it into multi-level sports bar. On the ground floor, you’ve got a long tiled bar that leads into an exposed-brick dining room, with high-def flat-screens scattered throughout (they’re arming themselves with every cable sports package imaginable). Downstairs is a game room, with darts and billiards; upstairs, you’ve got a second bar and a lounge with a bit of plush seating (plus more flat-screens).

Tabu’s beer list is after the jump. We’re told the kitchen will not be launching until the end of this week; when the menu’s released, we’ll toss it up here. They are open daily from 11 a.m. to close.

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by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Wishing Well Public House (Ninth and Catharine), which A.D. Amorosi told you about back in the fall, is ready to open — but their liquor license is lagging a bit behind. For the past few weeks, owners Chris Martino and Carmen Cappello (also the chef) have been hosting dry-run tastings to get their bearings, and some feedback, so they’re ready to hit it hard once Harrisburg gets all that paper pushed. (They hope to hold a grand opening within the next three weeks.) The duo was kind enough to invite us last night in to check out a truncated version of their opening menu.

Those who remember the tight quarters of former tenant Pat Bombino’s will be surprised by the altogether open feel of the Well’s interior, which features a long bar along the north wall abutted by high-top tables; the space opens up to a casual dining room, with lots of group seating, toward the back.

Here’s what we sampled, in order (that burger is gonna be a serious contender, mark our words):

• SHAME burger: scrapple, fried egg, American cheese, house fries (housemade ketchup for the fries, too)
• Grilled octopus: shaved fennel, red onions, frissee, red wine vinaigrette
• Grilled ribeye: sautéed mushrooms, foie gras, roasted shallots and potatoes, horseradish sauce
• Shellfish “pirlau”: clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp, Italian sausage, smoked tomato sauce
• Poached pear: streusel, oatmeal crumble, butterscotch ice cream
• Deconstructed black forest cake: chocolate pot de creme, brandied cherries, chocolate gastrique

by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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We got a chance to preview Pub & Kitchen’s (1946 Lombard St.) newly-renovated second floor dining room and a few of the new menu items whipped up by chef Jonathan Adams. The new space is bright and open, with a rustic wood bar, shelving that stocks Adams’ collection of vintage cookbooks (they’ll be employed for the chef’s upcoming retro cookbook dinners, debuting in April) and views of Lombard Street from the big picture windows.

Adams said the restaurant was “thinking spring” with the new menu, which makes its debut today. We liked the truffled pork terrine with radishes on toasted brioche, and a crudo of scallops with rhubarb, hibiscus, pea tendrils and lemon vinaigrette. A list of $3 pub snacks includes fancy bites like duck liver mousse, gougère and lemon creme fraiche, or fried polenta with smoky tomato relish. Luckily, our old favorites, like the phenomenal cumin-spiced pulled pork sandwich, are still around.

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Tomorrow from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Michael Schulson’s pan-Asian restaurant Sampan (124 S. 13th St.) will launch weekday lunch hours by giving away a free pork belly bánh mì, complete with soda and chips, to anyone who sits down at one of their 24 bar seats. Those feeling “in funds” should eye up the five other sandwiches on the menu, a sort of bastard brood of bánh mì all stuffed into crispy Ba Le Bakery Vietnamese baguettes. Noodle bowls (including ramen), shrimp pad thai and salads all make appearances on the daylight menu; prices top out at $9.

Hit the jump for the complete lunch menu.

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by felicia.dambrosio for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Michael Spector’s Delicatessen, in what was Kibitz in the City, has been in soft-open mode for about a week now. Meal Ticket popped by the spot (703 Chestnut St.) earlier this week for a quick nosh. The space, which had two floors in public operation at Kibitz, is now worked down to one, with various cosmetic tweaks, including a cool old-school bathing-beauty print. (The second floor will be available for events.) They’re still working on filling up the deli cases with smoked fish, salads, meats and other treats; Spector says these selections will be a mixture of traditional deli-case fare and stuff off their more modern menu, which you can check out here.

Like any good Jewish deli, Spector’s spot is doing most everything in house, but here that extends to micro-brewed sodas (tried some great, not-too-sweet cherry cola and orange soda) and pastrami brined in small batches to guarantee quality. We grabbed a pastrami special with a side of waffle fries, and also tried the matzo ball and split pea soups and the “Benny Rubinson,” which is what happens when a Reuben sandwich and Eggs Benedict make sweet, sweet love.

Delicatessen is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily right now, with extended p.m. hours on the way.

by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Eight months after closing his restaurant Ansill, chef David Ansill has found a new home at Ladder 15 (1528 Sansom St.). Owners Max Tucker and Mike Mastellone, unhappy with Ladder’s less-than-stellar food reviews, sorted more than 150 chef resumes before receiving Ansill’s.  “I called my partner immediately,” says Tucker. “I was so excited. Our vision was for phenomenal food, and you need a phenomenal chef to make it happen — I can’t believe we got David Ansill.”

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by felicia.dambrosio for Meal Ticket, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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