Photo: Passyunk Post Soon to be VeganCommissary. Steve Laurence, an industry lifer and caterer who supplies vegan comestibles to coffee shops like Good Karma 2 and Last Drop, is targeting a pre-holidays opening for his VeganCommissary at 11th and Morris, the…

via flickr/Bruce Guenter Each month, Adam Erace picks a crop that’s in season locally rightthisveryminute and asks some of the city’s best chefs how they’re preparing it.  If you order the biscotti plate at Le Virtù this week, you’ll find…

What do ratatouille, chicken Kiev, tiramisu and cheesesteaks have in common? The sprawling (16,000 square foot) mega-restaurant Royal Cracovia (405 S. White Horse Pike), which soft-opens tomorrow over the bridge in Magnolia, New Jersey, of course! Owner is Stanislaw “Stosh” Stachowski,…

Neal Santos AW, SHUCKS: Pristine bivalves at a.bar It was like sailing onto the private beach of a tourist-jammed island. A.bar, the two-and-a-half-month-old candlelit cocktail cove at the AKA Hotel, had just opened for the day, and I had the…

via flickr/infobunny Each month, Adam Erace picks a crop that’s in season locally right this very minute and asks some of the city’s best chefs how they’re preparing it.  As the 2013 cucumber crop comes to a close, there’s a…

Yesterday, the Inquirer reported aristocratically named chef Townsend Wentz was leaving McCrossen’s Tavern to breed standard poodles on his hunting estate in the Yorkshire countryside focus on opening his own restaurant later this fall. The Four Seasons vet certainly gave…

It’s not every day you find a Cornish hen in your curry. Actually, its not every day you find chicken in stateside Thai spots that isn’t of the dull boneless-skinless variety. Circles has plenty of that at both it’s locations,…

Neal Santos IN THE BAG: Fried chicken cozies up with pickled okra and sweet-potato fries. The “Blue Point oysters were like shriveled gray prunes.” The savory tart? “An Easy-Bake reject” layered with onions “as pallid and scrawny as Michael Cera…

In where-will-we-get-our-$100-a-pound-jamon-Iberico-now news, Jose Garces has eliminated the retail counter at Garces Trading Company (1111 Locust St.). In its place, an 18-seat full bar opening this Saturday. Old-world wines, a German-and-Belgian-focused beer selection and cocktails will complement a separate bar…