Tag Archives: Izakaya

Drinking Your Way Through Philly Wine Week

NAVIGATOR
If you have in mind a bunch of snobbish dinners, you’re in for an abrupt, and probably life-altering, awakening.

By Scott Edwards

 

When Philly Wine Week debuted back in 2014, the goal was elemental: to throw some attention on the city’s budding, but small, wine community—the shops, the bars, the makers. But as the industry itself has evolved over the last three years—winemakers growing younger, their products more unconventional—we, the audience, have become the target. Trend-happy as we are, a lot of us are still harboring a grudge against wine for being too uptight. We’ll drink it at dinner with the in-laws, but it’s rare that we’ll tote a Spanish sparkler to the beach, or even into the backyard. If we even know what a Spanish sparkler is.

Philly Wine Week

Much like your OS, wine has become much more user-friendly in recent years. This is the opportunity to fast-track your re-education. Pictured, from above: PWW hosts Panorama and The Good King Tavern’s Chloe Grigri.

“All of us at Philly Wine Week (PWW) are looking to change the perception of wine as something complicated, stuffy and only to be enjoyed on special occasions. And what better place to show how unfussy something is than our very own city, where keeping things casual and unpretentious is the way of life,” says Kate Moroney Miller, a PWW co-founder.

How that’ll be accomplished is through a wide range of tastings—more than 70 participants, the largest pool yet, are collaborating on over 100 events—that’ll be offering something, in most cases, a few degrees from what you’re familiar with. The hope is that you’ll get drunk along the way (unofficially) and discover a few new go-tos that go down easy with every occasion, including the complete lack thereof.

This year’s installment opens next Sunday, March 19, with the signature kickoff party, Opening Corks, at the Academy of Natural Sciences. (General admission tickets are $65.) In keeping with the aforementioned intent, the party’s designed to conjure a rather abrupt awakening by way of a sensory overload—a hundred-plus varieties flowing through halls populated by a T-rex and butterflies.

If you haven’t broken through your two-glasses-of-Malbec-then-off-to-bed regimen by the end of the night, there will be plenty of other opportunities to wear down your resolve over the coming days. (Still, ease up a bit on the reins.)

The next night, head over to Kensington Quarters for the pay-as-you-go Lambrusco Festival, at which bartenders will be pouring various kinds of the Italian sparkler and an impressive roster of guest chefs—Jesse Ito (Royal Sushi and Izakaya), Sam Jacobson (Stargazy), Steve Forte (Town Hall Provisions), among a slew of others—will be pairing dishes with them all night long.

Tuesday night brings perspective. Vintage will be hosting Think Inside the Box, a blind tasting to test your ability to decipher boxed and bottled wines. Think all boxed wines taste the same (cheap)? You’re a varietal-ist. And you clearly haven’t drunk from one since your sorority mixer. It’s time to cast your ignorance aside and have your mind blown. (After this, it’s on to cans. Yes, cans.)

Come Thursday, you may be confused, but it’s only the fast-track to awareness. Time to step in for an at-bat in the big leagues. Osteria is offering the chance to experience one of the great perks in a day in the life of a sommelier: the trade testing. You’ll be sampling wines from Italy, schmoozed by distributors and brand ambassadors as you go. Your goal for the night: Figure out how to decipher Prosecco from Lambrusco. (More on that in a moment.)

To ensure the last of your preconceptions are kicked to the curb, hit Afternoon Delights, a pastry-and-wine pairing at Jet Wine Bar Saturday afternoon. The wines have been selected because they’re especially conducive to day-drinking. That’s right; you can drink the stuff in broad daylight too. And not out of a paper bag. Then, Sunday, Barbuzzo’s hosting a brunch, its first, featuring wine-based cocktails, Calabrian and Sicilian wines and Italian sparkling wines (which you should be on intimate terms with by now) paired with Italian-inspired dishes.

Two serious bouts of day-drinking seem a fitting way to close out the week.

(*For a complete list of the tens and tens of events not mentioned here, including access to tickets, go here.)

Photos courtesy (from the top) Philly Wine Week, Panorama, The Good King Tavern

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The Maturation of Michael Schulson

DINING OUT

The fresh-paint smell’s barely gone from his latest restaurant, Double Knot, and already the sights are set on the next opening. Since The Saint James, there’s been no looking back.

By Mike Madaio

Clockwise, from top: The downstairs dining room at Double Knot; Schulson; and the toro at Double Knot.

Michael Schulson’s lack of prominence is a testament to the newfound strength of Philadelphia’s culinary culture. When you think of the restaurateurs who run the city these days, names like Starr, Garces, Solomonov and Sbraga come to mind. But Schulson’s umbrella covers six separate entities, including Double Knot, a coffeehouse-bar-Vietnamese café-izakaya mashup that opened in February in Center City. (And not including the epic fail that was The Saint James, in Ardmore.)

He was introduced to cooking by his bubby, but it was Susanna Foo who exposed Schulson to the nuances of Asian food. From her kitchen, he’d go on to cook for Stephen Starr at Buddakan, Pod and Buddakan New York City before breaking out on his own with the now-iconic Izakaya at the Borgata, in Atlantic City.

Double Knot represents a return to Schulson’s roots. In recent years, his forays have followed the trends: The Saint James, which relied too much on Schulson’s own rising reputation; a beer garden in a city now drunk with them; and a food truck, which has become the star chef’s proof, across the country, that he’s fully capable of slumming it. Double Knot, however, defies that kind of easy classification. And it feels like a purer reflection of Schulson for it. Not that he’s finally settling into a niche. In fact, plans are already well underway to stray again.

We caught up with him as he pulls together his next project, Harp & Crown, a southern-minded gastropub that’s due to open soon a couple blocks from Double Knot.

How’s your perspective on opening a restaurant changed since Izakaya?
Schulson My attention to detail is heightened. Over the years, I’ve realized the importance of all the factors, both big and small, that affect a guest—lighting, music, silverware, uniforms. To create an amazing experience, no detail can be ignored.

Does that mean you’ve boiled it down to a formula?
The difference between success and failure is so small. And luck is also a part of that. The key to success is to stay true to your vision. And pick a great location.

Your portfolio’s really diversified in recent years. What’s the rationale?
The expectation of guests has grown. They want more. Good food doesn’t cut it anymore. People want an experience when they’re dining out. Dinner used to be an add-on to something else, a show, a movie. Now, dinner reservations are the main attraction.

You’ve become known as an Asian chef, but you seem pretty determined to leave your stamp on comfort food, too.
Though my background is in classic French cuisine, which is all about technique and execution, those two take me back to when I was a kid. Comfort food is what I cooked growing up. And my parents’ financial resources were limited, so we’d often go out for Chinese food on Friday nights. That was my first dose of Asian cuisine.

At the rate you’re growing, Harp & Crown likely won’t be your last undertaking. Am I right?
Though we do have a few more concepts to execute here, we’re looking to expand outside of the Philadelphia market. Our end goal is to have 20 restaurants in our collective.

And how does the celebrichef status help your cause?
It doesn’t. It’s just a title. Titles don’t define you as a person. Your character and how you treat others do.

 

Photos courtesy MJS Schulson Restaurants