JG Domestic

Yes, we read reviews stating "you sit under an escalator" and the food was good but pricey.  Even so, we looked forward to trying JG Domestic to see for ourselves.  I was already a fan of the chef and was anxious to see if I still felt that way when I left.

Friends from a former employer took SEPTA in from the Western suburbs on this cold day for a "reunion" over dinner.  Conveniently, they did not have to even go outside as this Iron Chef Jose Garces restaurant is connected to 30th Street Station.  Up one escalator and down another delivers hungry travellers or foodies to this restaurant within a business office building.

It is easy to see how some would fret that the space is "under an escalator."  This criticism seemed much ado about nothing as the dining space that doesn't have an actual ceiling is limited and it looked very comfortable with  overhead beams and lots of plants to soften the space.

Our group followed the hostess to the back, which was most certainly an actual room with walls and a ceiling.  A party of 5, we sat in the back right corner.  As seen in the picture below, this room was obviously for larger parties as there were only 4 tables - 3 for 6 and 1 for 8.  For quite some time we had our own private room.  About mid-way through our meal we were joined by a party of 8.

It did not appear that you needed to have a large party to get a seat away from the hostess stand (read: away from the escalator).  The restaurant does have an open kitchen, so bear that in mind when making a reservation to help you determine if you want to see what's going on or not.  One possibility if you do sit by the kitchen - you may get to see Jose Garces in action.

We didn't sit by the kitchen but our waitress told us that "Chef" was in that night.  We joked that we were going to complain about a dish and demand to see the chef.  Our waitress semi-smiled.  She had either heard that a dozen times or she thought we were complete rubes.  We didn't complain but we did see "Chef" on the way out and he was kind enough to greet us, asked if we enjoyed it, and thanked us for coming in.  We thanked him, as well, for this treat of a dining experience.

When we were first seated we asked some questions about the wine.  Even though our waitress' "favorite" was the $165 bottle, we opted for the $40 bottle of Rosenblum (red) Zinfandel.  The wine was perfectly acceptable - especially after it breathed a little.  (A few days later I saw the exact bottle in a New Jersey wine store for $11.)  One of my friends ordered a drink with Stoli vodka and we were reminded what the "Domestic" means in "JG Domestic."  (Everything is from the US.  While Stoli didn't make the list of exceptions, we were told a few scotches did.  Apparently they make that concession for the older businessmen in the Cira Center, the building in which JG Domestic is housed.)

There is a Chef Tasting Menu every night but the entire table has to order this.  This night one of the two tastings was based on the passion fruit menu Chef used when he retained his Iron Chef title just the week before. (If that's something you want to try, it should be available for quite awhile as I've backdated this blog entry almost three weeks and it is still on the menu.)  We, however, were all anxious to sample a wide variety of dishes.  Since we had some specific ones we wanted to try, we opted not to go for the tasting menu ($65 per person) where the chef chooses what is served. 

And speaking of the menu.  Wow.  We were unanimous that everything was excellent and one dish was "OK."  Fortunately, each of the five of us didn't mind passing dishes and allowing others to try everything.  This is what we ate:

• Maine Lobster Cappuccino - a soup including Butternut squash dumpling and vanilla emulsion
• Kabocha Squash - with black kale, sheep milk cheese candied squash seeds
• Sugar Pumpkin Croquettes - with chevre, baby fennel, orange
• Chef's Garden Crosnes - a tuber with potato dumpling and crispy artichoke (more detail below)
• Chilled Heirloom Baby Beets - with whipped creme fraiche, molasses vinaigrette
• Texas Wild Boar Rack - with mustard glaze and maple grits
• Jidori Chicken - herb roasted with baby carrots, fingerling potatoes, cipollini
• Adobo Rubbed Ribeye - with refried rancho gordo cranberry beans and vidalia onion rings

The precious gems amongst all of these jewels were the lobster cappuccino soup, the pumpkin croquettes, and the crosnes.  The soup had great texture and taste.  The pumpkin croquettes literally melted in your mouth.  And the crosnes?  Quite a discovery for our party!  We asked the waitress questions about this tuber.  She said they had the texture of a water chestnut and were becoming more and more popular in the US.

This root vegetable is pronounced "crones" (one syllable) and was named after the French town of Crosne where they were brought from Japan in 1882, according to The New York Times.  In February 2004, the paper had an informative and amusing article about this unsightly vegetable.  A New York farmer was quoted as saying this one-inch vegetable is difficult to harvest in the late fall when the ground is cold.  For cooks, 

they are impossible to peel and annoying to clean. (Rub them with salt and a little water -- the salt gets the dirt out of nooks and crannies.)

Apparently, much of the flavor resides in the skin.  The article added,

The French variety tastes a bit like potato. The American variety is smaller and nuttier. The delicate flavor suggests jicama or Jerusalem artichoke. Unlike most tubers, crosnes stay crunchy when cooked.

Intrigued by this little vegetable prepared so well at JG Domestic, I did a little more research on chow.com.  It said this tuber is "from the mint family with a nutty, artichoke-like flavor."  This website differed from The New York Times, however, in that it stated crosnes were brought to France from China.  Whatever their origin, I will be on the hunt to try crosnes in other restaurants.  I want to see if they are as fabulous as I think or if they benefited greatly from the wizardly of Chef.

The last two meals listed above (chicken and ribeye) were extremely large portions.  The boar was..well...a bore. It received mostly rave reviews online but our table was very ambivalent about it.  I've had better in several places, including Pumpkin in South Philly.  Also, it was a much smaller serving than the chicken and ribeye.

After discovering the proximity to the escalator is not an issue for JG Domestic and, yes, the food is pricey I still highly recommend it.  If you're going to travel by car, it may be easier to park at 30th Street and walk through the train station than navigate the maze of roads and railroad tracks around the Cira Center.  But if you decide to drive anyway, I certainly understand.  Chef Jose Garces' restaurant is so comfortable and the food so creative that this fan knows you do what you have to do to experience it.

The Angela Bofill Experience at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA

She topped the charts in the 1980's with the voice of an angel and the looks of a bombshell.  Even after her star faded a bit here in the US during the 90's and 00's, she still widely performed internationally.  But in 2006 her star crashed to the ground when she had the first of her two strokes.  Even so, over the years I - and many others, apparently - wondered what became of her.  It also made me wonder - again - what happened to someone else.

Angella Bofill's voice has the ability to stir places in one's heart that have been fortified for years in self-defense.  Tonight I Give In is filled with almost painful joy, I'm on Your Side makes one ready to enter battle for a loved one and declare your undying loyalty, and This Time I'll be Sweeter can drop you to your knees remembering past remorse.  I know - sounds dramatic.  But these songs can really make you feel.  Give each of the three below a chance.  You don't have to listen to each song in its entirety to get the gist of the emotion and the voice.

Tonight I Give In (Actual Video with her singing on Soul Train)

I'm on Your Side (Audio only)

This Time I'll be Sweeter (Audio only)

This daughter of a Cuban-American father and a Puerto Rican mother grew up in The Bronx where she started performing in her teens.  She wrote much of her music and used it to showcase her 3 1/2 octave range.  After her 2006 stroke, and her second stroke the following year, that wonderful voice was silenced.  "Angie," as she is know to her friends, could not walk or speak for three years.  During those three years she lived in a rehab facility.

After being released from the rehab facility, Bofill moved in with her baby sister in California.  Friends saw her getting depressed and doing nothing in life.  They encouraged her to put together the Angela Bofill Experience, which is what I saw.  During this show, a wonderful singer named Maysa sang Bofill's classics - in a voice that rivaled Bofill's.  (She was truly amazing.)  Bofill's role was to briefly describe the origin of the songs, why she wrote them, etc.  This part of the evening was painful.

While Bofill's speech is back, it is very labored.  She speaks in very simple, incomplete sentences.  If you cringe with compassion when you hear Dick Clark speak on New Year's Eve, you would do a double-wince to hear Bofill.  She also needed some prompting by Maysa when it was her turn to speak, almost as if she was a little confused.  And watching Bofill get out of the wheelchair and back in it?  Ugh.  I felt like a voyeur as the clock seemed to tick loudly while the audience held its collective breath.

At one point Bofill played the cowbell with her one functioning arm.  At first I thought, "Look what she's been reduced to" but then I realized, "Hey, she's out there, back in front of an audience that loves her decades after her heyday.  Good for her!"  Even if she was mostly watching someone else perform her songs, she was showered with applause by the audience.

Angela Bofill (left) watching Maysa perform the Bofill hits

A few newspapers, including The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer, published articles about this Angela Bofill Experience that were interesting to read.  This experience and the articles made me wonder about a woman I didn't even know.  Bofill's music reminds me of her...although not for reasons you may think.

Back in the 80's I frequented a bar where I would often go after my evening of (college) studying ended because I liked the bartender.  This was a small and quiet bar that never had a lot of patrons during the week.  One night, a woman came in and sat at the far end of the bar by herself.  This meant there were only three of us there.

This woman ordered a drink, got quarters, and played Angela Bofill over and over again.  When the jukebox stopped, the woman got up and put more quarters in.  In between, she often sat with her head on the bar in obvious emotional pain.  Every now and then, she would raise her head - eyes closed - and sing to Bofill's songs in such a beautiful voice.  One song - I'm pretty sure it was I'm on Your Side - made her cry.  I'll never forget the quiet tears rolling down her cheeks.  I now realize she was probably grieving for the loss of  a relationship with someone she loved so much that she was still willing to be on that person's side, even if it was obviously killing her.

I still see that woman in my mind's eye today, and probably always will.  It was a powerful moment in time for me.  Just as I wondered these past years what happened to Angela Bofill, I've wondered more what happened to that woman.

The Persian Grille in Lafayette Hill, PA

Over 20 years.  That's how long it has been since I have wanted to try The Persian Grille just outside the northwest county line separating Philadelphia and Montgomery counties.  I wish I could say it was worth the wait.

Years and years ago I lived in the Germantown and then West Mount Airy sections of Philadelphia.  I also worked in nearby Chestnut Hill for awhile.  During these times, I would often pass this restaurant, which seemed extremely exotic and mysterious in my limited world experience and youth.  I finally stopped there this past weekend as I was heading to a concert in Glenside, PA; this restaurant is only about 7 - 8 miles from the theater.

The dining experience got off to a great start.  The restaurant had quite a few patrons at 6pm and I could tell from the way many interacted with the waitstaff that the patrons were regulars.  That, combined with the intriguing Iranian/Persian art, made for a comfortable and interesting atmosphere.  The food also got off to a good start.

Two of the three appetizers we had were very tasty.  We started with Halim Bademjoon ($6.95), a

special seasoned open flame charcoal grilled eggplant made with shredded chicken, sauteed onions, mint and walnuts.

This was very good.  Next, the waiter brought us complimentary dishes, costing about $9.00 on the menu if we had to pay for them.  These were very reminiscent of starters that accompany papadam at an Indian restaurant.  The tomato, onion, cucumber mixture (Salad-Shirazi) was very good.  The yogurt and cucumber dish tasted sour.

Even though I tried it, I can't remember what my partner ate for an entree.  Chicken-something that apparently did not "wow" me. I had Shereen Polo ($19.95), which is described on the menu as

basmati rice with saffron, slivered almonds, orange peels, slivered carrots and pistachio nuts. We add our special sauce and a generous portion of oven roasted chicken topped with a mild orange sauce. This dish is served at persian wedding (sic).

Sounds great, right?  I wish I could say it was.  It wasn't bad, mind you.  It was just that the orange taste was overwhelming and the chicken was dry.  The portion was huge and, because there was not a great diversity of taste, I wound up with the dreaded "same-taste syndrome."  (Remind me to copyright that phrase.)  I left a lot on my plate. 

We ended the meal with some baklava and I had some tea that came with rock candy on a stick - dunk to add the sweetness! 

Too bad the enjoyable and tasty beginning and end of the meal wasn't accompanied by a strong middle.  Perhaps I unfairly expected more diverse flavor.  Maybe I jinxed myself after the first eggplant appetizer and all of the interesting eye-candy (in the form of decoration) when I said, "I'm definitely coming back here."  All I know that is that I'm glad I tried it after 20+ years of thinking I would get to it.  I'm willing, however, to wait that amount of time again before I re-visit, even if the place did have a large line of eager customers when I left.

Tinto in Philadelphia

I don't like it when a person professes to be a "foodie."  I'm not sure why I don't  like it; maybe because it seems snobby or pretentious?  But if loving food that's creative, unique, a nd beautifully presented makes one a foodie, Tinto has done that to me.

According to this restaurant and wine bar's web site,

Tinto, a colloquial expression used to describe the red wine served in typical pintxos bars throughout Northern Spain, is the ultimate expression of what a Basque wine bar should be.

This pintxos (or pinchos - the Basque version of what more people may know as tapas) bar on 20th Street between Chestnut and Sansom, is a warm (albeit a little dark) space with impeccable service. My experience was very pleasant; my mind was relaxed and my palate was thrilled.

In this Eden of good food, I had a cheese plate as well as an arugula salad with serrano ham, mission figs, and goat cheese to start.  I also had octopus with lemon powder.  My partner also shared her olives, sea bass with cockles (clams) and salsa verde, and a chicken dish.  With the generous tapas portions, we both felt like we had enough to eat.

It's been over week now since we ate there so I can't remember the red wine we had but the server recommended one.  Both were great complements to the food. 

If I were the Lone Ranger I would say, "Go to Tinto, Tonto!"  OK, call me corny.  Just don't call me a foodie.

Jolly at Jolly's

A dueling piano bar sounds old school but the bartender says he gets a young crowd on the weekends.  During the week, an older crowd comes in.  If you like old-fashioned sing-alongs - bumped up a notch with two pianos - Jolly's Dueling Piano Bar at 20th and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia is for you.

I have passed this place on occasion for several months whenever I rode the 42 bus down Chestnut from University City.  I popped in this particular night because I was killing time before my dinner reservation.  Plus,  I had been up since 4:30am (to get to work by 6am) and...it was my birthday and I wanted to treat myself!

There was just one other patron when I got there at 5:15pm.  The bartender had plenty of time to tell me all about the place and show me the happy hour menu. which is good from 5 - 7pm.  I had a $4 glass of wine (imported and domestic beers are $3 during happy hour and cocktails are 1/2 price) as I looked over the food menu.  The happy hour menu has the standards - chicken tenders, hummus, quesadillas, brushcetta and potato skins - and one twist in the form of chips and pineapple salsa.  All of these are $3 or $4 dollars.  The menu also has small plates that seem worth trying.  (Check out the web site for these.)

There was no music at the early hour I was there and the web site doesn't list the hours.  I do recall there is music every night but some nights it starts at 8pm and earlier other nights...I think.  Interesting, the "duelling" is not what you may think.  The piano players don't "duel" each other; they duel the audience.  This means that money, in the form of tips, is involved and the more money per song means that's the song that starts playing.  I would imagine there's always some patron throwing money around.  But, if not, I can't imagine the pianos remaining silent. 

Call me old-fashioned.  I am looking forward to going to Jolly's to see how it all works.  I'm glad I spotted it while passing by on the bus.

Can We Keep it, Please?!?!

So reminds me of the many times my brothers and I asked this question. Many, many times the answer was "yes."  Dogs - BIG dogs like a huge, male St. Bernard - and dozens of cats. Just realizing today what gifts pets are in childhood.

No Upstares Upstairs

Philadelphians know the corner of Broad and Locust as the location of dual restaurants Sotto Varalli and, just upstairs from Sotto Varalli, the other restaurant called Upstares.  As of today, the 21-year old Upstares is gone and Perch Pub occupies its space.  The menus of Sotto Varalli and Upstares will combine - "Northern Italian seafood with a Mediterranean twist" - in the downstairs restaurant.  In addition, Sotto Varalli is now simply Varalli.

According to City Paper, Perch Pub is

A gastropub of sorts, Perch will pour local craft beer and feature a moderately priced ($1.50-$19) comfort-food-style menu (melts, tacos, braised lamb shank, housemade chips and fries...   

The Varalli website hasn't changed yet so I'm not sure if Perch Pub is open for lunch, but I plan on wandering over there sometime next month to check it out.