Author Archives: HomeandTable

Third Time’s a Charm for Earl’s

DINING OUT

Peddler’s Village’s signature restaurant returns with a looser vibe and an appetizing, weeknight-friendly menu.

By Scott Edwards

Like a cat, the signature restaurant at Peddler’s Village, in Lahaska, is landing on its feet—again—after an ugly-looking fall. Earl’s New American opens Tuesday. This will be its third iteration, if you’re counting at home, following Earl’s Bucks County, which closed after a catastrophic kitchen fire in January 2015, and Earl’s Bucks County, the original.

And like the first rebirth, don’t expect much carryover. Both the interior design and the menu have been dramatically over-hauled. Gone is the stiff, special-occasion restaurant. In is its more personable, trendier, hungrier niece.

Rebekah Brown, of Bethany Design Co. in Valley Forge, is responsible for the contemporary farmhouse look.

“We’ve taken the opportunity to really brighten the entire space,” says Richard Slutter, the director of hospitality operations for Peddler’s Village.

Think Edison-bulb lighting, distressed-wood flooring, copper ceiling tiles and a fireplace set into a stone wall. Much of the wood that was used to craft the dining tables was pulled from barns throughout Peddler’s Village, Slutter says. And you’ll be able to appreciate every inch of them because they won’t be shrouded in white tablecloths, a staple of the restaurant’s predecessors.

Approachable is a term that executive chef Bill Murphy, a holdover from Earl’s Bucks County, references a lot when describing his new menu. “We’re doing more food that’s along the lines of something you can eat a couple times a week,” he says.

He goes to shrimp and grits, the traditional southern comfort dish, as his first example. The grits are stone-ground at Castle Valley Mill, in Doylestown. He goes next to the pasta because he’s making his own. The fusilli will be served with wild mushrooms from Haycock Township, in Upper Bucks, spring asparagus, roasted garlic and tomato sauce; the pappardelle, with duck confit, fiddlehead ferns and mascarpone.

Panko-crusted Griggstown Farm fried chicken’s also among the 11 standing entrees. The menu’s spotted with the names of local outfits, like Griggstown and Castle Valley, but none are closer by than Murphy’s own 1,800-square foot garden behind the restaurant. “I planted asparagus three years ago and this’ll be the first year I’ll actually have asparagus in a yielding quantity and size that I can use in a restaurant,” he says, with about as much enthusiasm as anyone’s ever mustered for asparagus.

Murphy was born in Chicago, spent his teens in Newtown and Holland, then left the area for the next couple of decades. He cooked in France, moved back to Chicago. “That’s where I originally worked for the Four Seasons hotel chain before I transferred to Philadelphia,” he says.

Murphy describes his stint at The Fountain at the Four Seasons as the most formative stretch of his career. “Jean-Marie Lacroix, Tony Clark, Martin Hamann were all very influential in teaching me how to cook, and not only cook, but how to be a gentleman and respect your employees,” he says.

“But I never pictured myself back in Bucks County for some odd reason.” It was a woman he knew in high school that drew him back here. They’re married now, just had a baby. “And for the first time in decades,” he says, “I feel at home.”

[divider]Ordering Off-menu[/divider]

Don’t be fooled by the steak frites, Murphy’s got some serious cooking chops. A pair of upcoming wine dinners will be prime opportunities to see him flex his muscle. The first, on April 22, will pair J. Lohr wines with a four-course dinner that’ll feature herb-crusted carpaccio and roasted lamb loin. The second, May 12, pairs Pio Cesare with the likes of goat cheese cannelloni and prosciutto-wrapped quail. Reserve a spot here.

Photos courtesy Earl’s New American

How Deep Does this Closet Go?

ART

An exhibit at the Michener exposes a bit more of Drexel’s legendary fashion collection. But even its curator doesn’t know exactly what she’s sitting on.

By Scott Edwards

In spite of the elite names featured among its ranks—Chanel, Dior, Givenchy—what is now known as the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection spent almost all of its 125 years locked away from the public eye. It was used as a teaching tool at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, where the collection is housed.

“It wasn’t until the late nineties that some of my colleagues here started nosing around what we had,” says Clare Sauro, who joined Drexel in 2008 and serves as the collection’s curator. “It really kind of dawned on Drexel that they had an amazing asset here, and maybe something more could be done with it.”

A.J. Drexel invested $1 million shortly after he founded the school in 1891 to start an art collection that would include textiles. His expectation was that it would eventually evolve into the school’s own museum. Aside from his seed money, Drexel also rallied his friends and family to donate. “So, we were getting donations from prominent Philadelphia area families, but really and truly, most of them lived out on the Main Line,” Sauro says.

In 2013, another million-dollar investment changed the collection’s purpose. This one came from the Meadowbrook couple after which the collection is now named, and it enabled Sauro and the university to begin thinking on a grander scale. That movement began to come to fruition last October when the collection made its public debut. “Immortal Beauty: Highlights from the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection” put 75 pieces focused largely on international high fashion from the 20^th century on display at Drexel’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.

And in March, another exhibition, “Philadelphia in Style: A Century of Fashion,” featuring an entirely new selection, opened at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown. (It will remain on view through June 26.)

“You’re speaking to me at a very interesting point in our history,” Sauro says during a phone interview in the midst of preparing the Michener exhibit. “Also thanks to Robert and Penny Fox, we have started planning our own dedicated galleries. I mean, we won’t be able to do grand, gorgeous exhibitions like what you’re going to see at the Michener. But small, lovely exhibitions on the regular from us would be a dream come true.”

As will actually knowing what she’s preserving. Sauro and her staff recently began cataloguing the collection—the first time its been done in its history. But that was put on hold when the funding for last year’s exhibit came through. At this point, everything from the Drexel and Michener shows has been accounted for. Which only leaves an estimated 13,900 pieces to go.

“It’s going to take a long time,” Sauro says. And there’s no way around it. “In this digital world, if you don’t have a searchable database online, you might as well just not exist.”

Maybe the Foxes’ donation wasn’t such a blessing after all.

I read that Greta Garbo is among the collection’s donors. Are there any others of her caliber?
Sauro Actually, that’s not exactly correct. We have a dress that was worn by her. We also have a dress that was worn by Joan Crawford from the same period, but it was donated by a local family. We do have some pretty big names, though. We have a fantastic coral-encrusted gown that was donated by Princess Grace of Monaco. That’s probably the biggest get that we have.

So if I made you name a single crown jewel for the collection—and I am—you’re going with Princess Grace’s gown?
I would say that’s probably the most beloved piece in the collection. Princess Grace gave it to us in 1969. There are really only two things that people ask for. They want to see Garbo and they want to see Princess Grace.

Are there any local ties to any of the pieces featured in the Michener exhibit?
Yes. It’s a very local exhibition. The idea was, tell the story of fashion here in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia region for a hundred years. We’re covering a period from 1895 to about 1995. And it is focused on shopping and—basically, everything in the exhibition was either worn here in Philadelphia by somebody that we can document was wearing it in this area or purchased here. We have a handful of pieces that were made here as well.

Anything with an especially exotic lineage?
I am particularly fond of a pink tulle evening gown from 1916. It is almost certainly a French design. It is from the couture house of Callot Soeurs. I think it was purchased in Paris because it required multiple fittings and things like that, although they were sometimes imported. I know it’s a very expensive dress. It’s kind of this crazy fairy-princess dress. So I feel like that may be one of the things that people are really taken with because it’s so unexpected. It’s not really an exotic show. It’s a happy show—a spring-timey, optimistic, colorful show.

Why?
The color palette, the general mood. I have a little psychological quirk that I like to do springtime items on display in the springtime. [Laughs.] No heavy furs or velvet or anything like that. Lighter materials, lighter colors, lots of flowers—yellow, and navy blue and pink.

In the context of all that you’ve come across in your career, where does this collection fall?
It’s a difficult question to answer in that we’re currently operating without a true inventory, so my sense of what we have is based on what I’ve seen and what I know. I’ve been in this field for a long time. I was at the Museum at the [Fashion Institute of Technology] before I came to Drexel, which is a fabulous collection. And while we’re not as big as that, and they certainly have us beat in the realm of modern fashion, we have exceptional examples of early-20^th century high fashion. We have some really unusual designers. We have really exceptional high-quality items. We have a museum-caliber collection in a university research setting, which is an interesting thing to be the caretaker of.

Did the Drexel exhibition draw any new pieces out of the woodwork? How frequently are you receiving donations at this point?
It kind of ebbs and flows with the tax year. [Laughs.] But we have had a steady increase of donations in the last three years. We moved to a wonderful new storage space here in the URBN Center. And once people could see what we had in that space, they got excited. We started getting amazing donations. I don’t know exactly how many we’re getting a year, a couple of hundred, certainly. So we are growing at a quick pace.

Do you ever turn anything away?
Sure, sure. That is probably the worst part of my job because people hold onto things for a reason. They mean something to them—their mother’s hat, their wedding dress. But there are just certain categories we have a whole lot of. We have a lot of children’s wear and we have a lot of wedding dresses. And women’s fashion from the 1960s on, we’re fairly plentiful. So I have to be very particular because we are in an urban environment and space is not unlimited.

Is there an elusive piece that you’re holding your breath for?
Oh, there’s a whole bunch of them. I have a running list in my head of gaps that I’d like to fill. After the inventory is done, I’ll have a better sense of what we need. I know we need more of the Japanese avant-garde designers from the late seventies on. They’re just not coming to us. If someone out there is a Yohji Yamamoto collector and wants to clear out his closet, that would be great. [Laughs.] But there are holes that I have identified. Another one, and I really hope you put this is in because they might be out there, for whatever reason, we don’t have Claire McCardell in our collection, and she was a fantastic and important American designer. She wasn’t fine couture, but her cuts, her construction methods, she was very innovative and very clever.

[divider]The Fox Costume Collection by the Numbers[/divider]

14,000+ Total number of garments, accessories and textiles (estimated)

5 Gap in centuries between the collection’s oldest piece, a fragment of 16^th-century Italian velvet, and its newest, a 2012 evening dress designed by Alexander Wang

125 Age (approximate) of the collection

26 million Today’s equivalent of what A.J. Drexel invested in starting the collection

84 Total number of pieces featured in the Michener exhibit—34 full garments and 50 accessories

Photos courtesy Drexel University

Where My Dogs At?

ENTERTAINMENT

You loved Best in Show, right? This is that, but live. An insider’s cue sheet to one of the longest running dog shows in the country.

By Lynne Goldman

I love dogs. Small, big, fluffy, skinny, smart and even not so smart. Oh, sure, I may be partial to some breeds, but I scratch the ears of any dog and coo, “Hi, sweetie.” So when I had the opportunity to write about the Bucks County Kennel Club Show, I jumped at it. (Down, girl!)

The show is one of those “It’s-right-in-your-backyard-and-you-don’t-know-about-it” stories. Case in point: Next Saturday’s is the 75^th annual edition, making it one of the longest running dog shows in the country. It’s still lagging a few decades behind the 140-year-old Westminster show, but it’s been around way longer than you have.

That first Bucks Kennel Club Show was held May 30, 1942 in Doylestown, and it fielded 477 dogs. Next Saturday’s will be held in Tinicum Park, in Upper Bucks, and it’s expected to draw more than 2,500 entries. They’ll be spread across 16 rings and scored by judges from around the world.

“I love this show,” says Shawne Imler, a professional handler, breeder and owner of schnauzers. “It’s a beautiful location, and the best terriers in the country come to compete, so it’s prestigious to win here.”

Prior to my venture behind the scenes of last year’s show, my knowledge of dog shows comes from two sources: watching the Westminster show on TV, and the movie, Best in Show. From the sublime to the absurd. Or is it the other way around? I was about to find out.

Getting your bearings The day begins at 8:30 a.m. for many of the breed exhibitors—the people who show the dogs—but don’t feel obliged to get there that early. There are 16 rings, eight on each side, with a wide concourse between. You’ll find the food court there. The tents behind the rings, that’s where the dogs are prepped for their turns in the ring.

Golden retrievers, please If you’ve got a favorite breed, head to the Club Tent. They’ll be able to tell you where to find it. Ringside, look around for a spectator who’s brought his own chair and looks settled in for the duration. If you want to learn something, casually nestle in next to him and start picking his brain. These enthusiasts are walking encyclopedias, and most are happy to play color commentator for a bit.

What am I watching for? That’s a good place to start. The dog needs to be healthy and meticulously groomed. And then there are a whole slew of standards set for each breed by the American Kennel Club. Your new friend can tell you more about those.

It’s not entirely clinical. Personality comes into play, too.

“They have to show they want it,” says Ken Kaufman, the Best in Show judge at last year’s show. (As far as Kaufman’s own personality, he doesn’t ooze aloofness or sarcasm. Not even a hint of it.) “If they do, you can see it—they shine. The tail is wagging, the dog is paying attention to the surroundings, the handler, the audience clapping.”

“If they don’t want to do it, they won’t win. They have to enjoy it,” says Larry Cornelius, a pro dog handler. His skye terrier, Charlie, won Best in Show at the AKC/Eukanuba 2014 National Championship and Reserve (runner-up) at the 2015 Westminster Kennel Club Show. “ ‘Great ones are born and great ones are made,’ is the saying, because both are true.”

As I watched Imler groom her schnauzers, one of them, Valentine, was whining and restless. “She loves to show,” Imler said at the time. “She is now a champion and she’s going for the big win today.” Valentine, in fact, won Best of Breed that day, and went on to compete for Best of Terrier Group.

Learning the lingo As with any sport, showing has its own language—breeders, owners, handlers, classes. Breeders breed (obviously), but they may also own and show (handle) dogs. But all owners are not necessarily breeders or handlers.

Class refers to a group of dogs within a breed, and each class has its own requirements. One may be dedicated to puppies, another to American-bred dogs. (“Open” typically encompasses mature dogs of any nationality.)

No matter the class, in the end, “every dog competes for the best of breed,” says Bill Burland, the Bucks Kennel Club Show chairman. “And every dog but one gets beat.”

After a dog wins Best of Breed, it’ll compete for Best of Group. At that point, the dog’s being measured against other breeds, but they’re all similar in some way. They may be herding dogs, for example, or sporting dogs.

The Best of Group winners advance to the ultimate smackdown, Best in Show.

The main event How, you’re probably going to wonder at some point after you’ve been roaming from ring to ring all afternoon, gradually getting sucked in, can you judge a terrier against a doberman?

“You have to have a general knowledge of dog anatomy,” says Kaufman, who’s been judging for 30 years, “and 90 percent of that is the same across breeds.”

What it comes down to, the judge is comparing one beautiful—immaculate, really—dog to another, and sizing up which is the best example of the breed standard. At that point, it’s almost literally a matter of splitting hairs. It’s then that you can sit back and be grateful that you’re not in his position or one of the handler’s. You’re there simply to marvel at the lack of slobber—and the realization that you haven’t seen a single squirrel all day.

The Superfoods of the Masses

HEALTH + FITNESS

While we’ve been Googling the exotic headliners, these four foods have been hiding in plain sight, over-delivering.

By Todd Soura

A new, so-called superfood emerges every day. And each time, the air seeps out a little more from the over-hyped term. That’s not to say that such foods don’t exist. They do. It’s just that a lot of them are either exaggerated or too obscure or expensive or both to realistically incorporate them into our diets on any kind of regular basis.

A true superfood not only punches above its weight, it’s also within easy reach. While we’ve been Googling spirulina and maca, these have been hiding in plain sight all along.

Kimchi You’ll find it in the refrigerated produce section at most grocery stores. It’s a traditional Korean side comprised of fermented cabbage and some variety of shredded veggies, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes—it can have a kick. Fermented foods, and this one in particular, are loaded with good bacteria, which feed the existing flora in your gut, a critical component of our immune system. It’s even been shown to have a hand in balancing our moods. And new studies are indicating that those of us with the most diverse and greatest amounts of gut flora are also the leanest.

Broccoli sprouts (Pictured, top) They’re three- and four-day-old broccoli plants that taste a lot like radish. There are a lot of reasons to love broccoli, but glucoraphanin may be foremost among them. It’s used to make sulforaphane, which, studies are showing, helps shield cells from potential carcinogens. Promising as that sounds, it gets even better: Broccoli sprouts contain 30 times the concentration of glucoraphanin found in broccoli. The sprouts are gaining in popularity, but they can still be a little difficult to find. If your grocery store carries them, you’ll find them in a plastic container in the refrigerated produce section. They go bad pretty quickly—three to five days if you refrigerate them. I freeze mine and add a handful to my smoothies.

Parsley It’s packed with cancer-fighting oils and antioxidants. And all this time you thought it was just a garnish. Those oils activate an enzyme that attaches to and neutralizes potential carcinogens. One of them in particular, myristicin, has been found to inhibit tumor formation. Grow it in your garden and toss it in your smoothies and salads by the handful.

Rosemary (Pictured, above) Yes, that rosemary. It’s chockfull of anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants. It also facilitates digestion. Recent studies are indicating that it even boosts blood-flow to the brain, which aids concentration. Opt for the fresh variety found in the refrigerated produce section over the dried kind—the flavor’s more pronounced—then keep it in the refrigerator and pull it out often. Rosemary goes just as well with an omelet as it does with a roasted chicken.

Todd Soura is the owner of the Doylestown-based Action Personal Training.

My Morning Soundtrack

SCAVENGING

Before I plug in, I meditate on the wonders of the natural world. All I need to do is stand at the kitchen window.

By Susan Forker

I’ve developed a slight obsession. With birds.

Between a feeder we installed last spring outside our kitchen window (last year’s Mother’s Day gift) and another, larger one that went up this spring (this year’s Mother’s Day gift), we seem to have created a thriving haven on our patio. Every morning, no matter the time of year, there’s a constant flurry of activity and birdsong. I’ve come to start my days watching for a while from the other side of the window, coffee in hand.

I’ve managed to start identifying some of them: the tufted titmouse, catbirds and Carolina chickadees, all uniquely fascinating in their mannerisms and singing. The tiny downy woodpecker, with the graphic black-and-white pattern of his feathers punctuated by a bright slash of red down the back of his head, used to drill at the delicious seasoned wood of our barn siding with a loud rat-a-tat-tat. He now appears favor the fancy suet cakes that we put out for him. That may just be wishful thinking, though. And there’s a red-breasted house finch who we nicknamed “Bullybird” because he scares away every other bird that lands on the feeder while he’s eating.

My favorite guests, though, have to be the cardinal couple, which I’ve never seen apart. It’s the male, I’ve come to learn, who boasts the iconic deep red and the beardlike markings around the beak. The female’s more of a tawny, pinkish-brown. I often find the pair perched in the shrubs for many minutes at a time, seemingly content to watch the world go by like an old, married couple. Once, I convinced myself that I even saw them kissing. I did a little research and found out that the males will feed their partners seeds beak to beak during courtship and mating, and most cardinals will stay together for life. How sweet!

The detritus of seeds and sunflower hulls litter our patio, and the squirrels are usually lurking in nearby bushes for a chance to steal from the feeder. No matter. It’s all worth it for the songbirds. I’m getting a little better at distinguishing their calls, but, for the most part, they still blur into one sprawling composition. Or what I’ve come to consider my morning soundtrack.

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents, a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories.

Build a Better Home Gym

GARAGE

Forget the elliptical and the ridiculously expensive circuit trainer. All you need are these five versatile (and inexpensive) pieces of equipment.

By Todd Soura

I’ve followed an exercise regimen since I was in high school and dedicated my career to fitness, but I’m a stranger to gyms. From the beginning, I created one at home and never really strayed from it. Why would I? There’s no commute, no line, and I can use multiple pieces of equipment in a single superset without getting stared down.

If you have the space—I use our garage—don’t let the potential cost deter you. The foundation of an effective home gym is not a bunch of sophisticated machines. In fact, I can boil it down to five simple (and inexpensive) pieces of equipment.

Adjustable dumbbells. Gone are the days of a mammoth weight rack that eats up space and your checking account. The new generation is a single pair of dumbbells that can be adjusted to your desired weight. I use a set by PowerBlock. You’ll never run out of exercises, and, from shoulder presses to the farmer’s walk, dumbbells will strengthen every part of you.

Bench. Pay a little more for one that inclines. That’ll open you up to lots of variations of the bench press and chest fly. A legs extension is worth the additional cost, too. With or without it, the bench is a vital piece of equipment for lower-body exercises. Think steps-ups and box jumps.

Kettlebell. The standard kettlebell swing is about as efficient an exercise as you’ll find. It’ll tax you aerobically and anaerobically. And that’s just the start of its appeal. The kettlebell’s endlessly versatile. Beyond the tens of movements designed for it, you can swap a kettlebell for a dumbbell in lots of other exercises, like snatches and goblet squats. PowerBlock makes an adjustable one of these, too.

Suspension straps. You’re probably familiar with the TRX kind (from $200), but there are plenty of cheaper options that are just as durable and effective. I use a set by Woss that ran me about 40 bucks. It anchors to a wall or a door and packs up easily, which makes it a perfect travel companion. But, again, its versatility is what makes the straps an essential piece of home-gym equipment. Up the degree of difficulty of most bodyweight exercises, along with a slew of others designed specifically for them.

Jump rope. It’s still one of the most effective cardio exercises around. And the cheapest. I started jumping rope during the 30- to 60-second “breaks” between weightlifting sets to beef up the intensity. They’re also an integral part of my wake-up workouts. Try this one: three rounds of 20 pushups, 20 lunges, 20 crunches and 30 seconds of jumping rope.

Todd Soura is the owner of the Doylestown-based Action Personal Training (actionpersonaltraining.com).

[divider] What Goes Up Must Come Down[/divider]

I’m piecing together a modest gym in our garage—a barbell, a few sets of dumbbells, a jump rope, resistance bands, an adjustable kettlebell and a 36-inch box. (And a couple of space heaters in the winter.) About a year ago, I started gravitating to CrossFit-style workouts because they don’t require a lot of equipment. Not to mention, they’re challenging as hell. My latest addition, the Black Mountain Products Gym Rings (pictured; $35), has opened up a whole new batch of WOD’s for me, a blessing and a curse. Instability, I’m learning is the truest test of fitness. I managed to add 40 pounds to my clean-and jerks over the last few months. It’s rare that I bask in my progress, but fresh off of Grace (30 clean-and-jerks for time) one morning, I couldn’t help but let a smile slip in between gasps for breath. That pride lasted barely five minutes, because I whimpered and quivered through the next set: three—three—ring dips. It was a humbling moment. And one I’ve aimed to repeat during every workout since. —Scott Edwards

You’re Overthinking It

HOME COOKING

Even now, especially now, when everything’s fresh and within easy reach, less is more.

We hear it all the time these days from chefs of every walk: Keep it simple. Have faith in the ingredients. But that’s easy to say when you’ve been formally schooled and challenged by an elite mentor. For the rest of us, keeping it simple looks like a lot of disparate (and under-seasoned) ingredients spread across a plate. The trick isn’t just keeping the complicated techniques to a minimum, it’s also keeping the ingredients to a minimum. With almost everything in season right now, the tendency is to pick the garden clean and make it all somehow work together. But it won’t, and it never will, no matter how fresh everything is. Think smaller and lighter. It’s how you really want to eat when you’re not doing it with your eyes. Three to five ingredients tops, and they should all complement each other, as they do here in this bright salad and hearty sandwich. This time of year, if it takes longer to make than it does to eat, you’re overthinking it.

Photography and recipes by Yelena Strokin

Veggie Sandwich

Serves one.

2 slices multigrain bread, lightly toasted
2 tbsps. organic mayo
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
¼ avocado, sliced lengthwise
1½ tbsps. olive oil
2 baby portobello mushrooms
1 hothouse cucumber, sliced
Fresh microgreens
2 slices Swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Add the olive oil to a skillet and warm it over a medium heat. Cut the mushrooms into thin slices, then stir them in. Reduce the heat to low and cook them until they’re soft and blackened.

In a small bowl, mix together the mayo and the garlic. Spread it across one side of each bread slice. Then add a piece of Swiss to one of those slices. On top of that, layer the cucumber, avocado and mushroom. Top it with a handful of microgreens and the other slices of cheese and bread.

Place the sandwich in the oven just long enough for the cheese to begin melting, about three to five minutes. Then move it to a cutting board and cut it diagonally—because sandwiches always taste better when they’re cut diagonally.

Cabbage and Beet Salad
Serves one.

For the salad
½ medium head of green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
3-4 small beets, peeled and grated
¼ bunch scallions, finely chopped

For the dressing
2 tbsps. lemon juice
2 tbsps. avocado oil
1 tsp. dry-roasted tomatoes
1 tsp. dry dill
Salt and white pepper to taste
Sugar to taste

To make the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, dry-roasted tomatoes, dill, sugar, salt and pepper. Once it’s thoroughly mixed, whisk in the avocado oil. Set the dressing aside at that point to allow the flavors to marry. After about 10 minutes, taste it and season accordingly with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, carrot, beets and scallions. Add the dressing, then toss once more.

Yelena Strokin is a Newtown-based food stylist and photographer and the founder of the blog melangery.com.

[divider]What I’m Drinking Right Now[/divider]

Sangria
Makes about 15 portions.

1 pint fresh blueberries
1 pint fresh strawberries
2 medium apples, diced small*
2 oranges, peeled, seeded and diced small*
1 large cucumber, peeled and diced into quarter-inch chunks
12 medium to large basil leaves, chiffonade
12 medium to large mint leaves, chiffonade
1 bottle Art in the Age Rhubarb Tea Liqueur
3 bottles crisp white wine (pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc)
1 bottle moscato d’asti (or another semisweet sparkling wine)

* These ingredients can be swapped out for just about any other seasonal fruit you prefer. Peaches, nectarines and cherries all work especially well, too.

Combine all of the ingredients, save for the wine, cover/seal and let it sit overnight. The next day, add the wine and stir well.

Ladle the sangria, along with a healthy helping of the fruit, into a wine glass or goblet filled with ice. Top with two to three ounces of the moscato d’asti.

ADAM JUNKINS
Partner/Sommelier
Sovana Bistro

Barbeque Pairings
Stocking the bar for a barbeque is a little more complicated than it first seems. Cold beer and white wine—no brainer. Until an old-school southerner (or wannabe) slips in and you’re caught without brown spirits. Load up on these and you’ll be loved by all comers. —AJ

Beer Fat Head’s Brewery & Saloon Sunshine Daydream Session IPA
Low-alcohol (4.9 percent) with hits of pineapple, papaya, grapefruit and honey. Stays refreshing all afternoon and into the balmy night.

Wine Vinho verde
It’s a dry, super-acidic wine from Portugal. Big on citrus flavor, low on alcohol (about nine percent). And at 10 bucks a bottle, it encourages a generous pour.

Spirits J.M. Rhum Agricole Vieux 10-year-old
Imagine nursing this smoky, leathery, bourbon barrel-aged rum while you man those ribs, and tell me your mouth doesn’t water at the thought.

World Domination, One Pie at a Time

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

If you’re a fan of SNAP Custom Pizza, good thing. They’re about to be everywhere.

By Mike Madaio

Rob Wasserman was among the first in what’s become a legion of prominent restaurateurs and chefs nationwide hurrying to open a gourmet-grade, fast-casual restaurant. Or, in Wasserman’s case, a bunch of them.

The owner of the Rittenhouse Square mainstay, Rouge, teamed up in 2014 with Pete Howey and Aaron Nocks, the owners of Peace A Pizza and New Hope Premium Fountain, to launch SNAP Custom Pizza in Ardmore. A second location opened in Exton late last year. And a third followed a couple months back, where Wasserman’s Center City burger joint, 500 Degrees, was formerly located.

And they’re just the beginning of what’s become a very ambitious expansion plan that encompasses 15 openings over the next 18 to 24 months.

“Each store is a limited build-out, unlike the multimillion-dollar budget you need to remodel a fine dining restaurant,” Wasserman explained over a couple of pies at the Exton SNAP. “Here, the turnaround time is 60 days, and we don’t need a big cash infusion.”

SNAP bakes its pies—600 degrees for about two minutes—in a conveyor convection oven—think Quizno’s—which doesn’t require an exhaust system. The so-called artisanal pizza places that have been cropping up like mushrooms in April need one, along with a wood-fire oven that’s usually custom-built. Both equal a lot of time and money.

Spurred by the popularity of Chipotle and Shake Shack, chefs once relegated to high-minded concept dining—David Chang, José Andrés —are reimagining the fast-food staples and presenting them among customizable menus and modern spaces.

“I can’t take any credit. It was all Pete and Aaron,” Wasserman says of SNAP’s inception. “They’ve been doing Peace A Pizza forever and started to see the writing on the wall. The era’s over where you walk into a restaurant and see slices sitting under the glass waiting to be reheated. With what you can now do with the ovens and the fresh, local ingredients, it’s a game-changer.”

Feel free to go bananas. Or maybe you prefer sausage. Either way, you’re the bawse at SNAP.

The SNAP experience mirrors that of Chipotle. Customers build their own pizzas from a buffet of ingredients as they proceed through the line. Several pre-selected combinations are also available if you don’t feel like thinking about it. The appeal, Wasserman says, is the freshness as much as the freedom of choice.

“We’re not pulling a frozen pie out of the oven,” he says. “Everything is made from scratch, using high-quality ingredients.”

That said, SNAP pizza isn’t necessarily an upgrade. The expense and effort invested in all those wood-fire ovens isn’t for nothing. The intense heat they generate creates that fresh-baked flavor and the crispy-on-the-outside, doughy-on-the-inside texture. SNAP’s conveyor convection ovens fall about 200 degrees short, and the crusts, in turn, come out as crisp and as flavorful as a saltine.

But there’s strength in numbers. If there are two or three SNAPs within a 10-minute drive, chances are you’re landing there for a fair amount of your cravings, whether you like the crust or not. It’s convenient, which can never be overstated in our have-it-now culture, and the ability to customize is a powerful lure.

The stiff crust seems to be a nonfactor thus far anyway. We grew up, after all, with soggy crust as the norm. As we talked, our conversation was twice interrupted by satisfied customers. “I paid them,” Wasserman quipped. There’s also the 4.5-star Yelp rating, out of more than 100 reviews, which is no easy feat.

“People love the fact that they’re not looking at a reheat,” he says. Which may speak more to our blind love for pizza than our standards.

Photos courtesy SNAP Custom Pizza

The Awakening

SCAVENGING

Premature as last week’s heat wave was, it was enough for now.

Text and photography by Susan Forker

The winter can be long and tedious. Unless everything is covered with a fresh blanket of snow, which is generally spectacular, the leafless trees and the crackled and brownish land casts an overall dullness over everything, including our moods. Never is that feeling more acute than during these waning days of March—especially when there’s a nor’easter in the forecast.

I enjoy the change of seasons, but like most around here, I go into a mental hibernation until I see that first glimmer of spring. Amid the lovely, unseasonable warmth last week, there it was. Speckled among the dead grass were patches of bright green, spotted with the lone crocus. A purple hellebore peeked out from petrified leaves. The branches of forsythia held buds that promised of yellow blooms to come. And hundreds of straight and tall daffodil stems were suddenly ubiquitous, with the occasional bulb barely able to contain itself.

Those first warm breezes and the surprise sighting of snowdrops clustered in the woods never fail to stir something in me—hope, excitement, impatience—even after a (mostly) mild winter.

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents, a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories.

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