Tag Archives: Mike Madaio

A Chef’s Life Comes Into Focus

BOOKS

Melissa Wieczorek didn’t study at a prestigious culinary institute, didn’t apprentice under a stern chef and she didn’t pay her dues as a line cook. What she did was approach the kitchen as an entrepreneur who loves to cook. And it’s paying big dividends, professionally and personally.

 

Melissa-Wieczorek

The chef’s coat may not have been Wieczorek’s first choice, but it fits her just fine.

Too many among us have been there, are mired there now: Hemmed-in-verging-on-suffocated-by an unrelenting work schedule that left little room for anything else. The only rays of hope, the increasingly frequent daydreams about living an entirely different life.

Melissa Wieczorek was there 15 years ago, advancing within the administration of Temple University’s Fox School of Business, but, in the back of her mind, thinking about cooking.

“I knew I wanted to do something in food,” she recalls, “but it had to be conducive to having a family. So a restaurant was out.”

Ironically, while Wieczorek was studying for her own MBA at Fox, an independent study led her to the personal chef industry. She created a business plan as part of her coursework and presented it to venture capitalists. Later, in 2005, she’d put it to use, founding the Newtown-based A la Maison Personal Chef Service, now Zest Culinary Services, which she owns with her partner, Theo Petron, another corporate dropout.

Initially, Wieczorek operated primarily as an in-home personal chef, but she’s since pivoted to prepared-meal delivery, a $1.5 billion market that’s expected to at least double over the next few years. Wieczorek may be at peace with herself in the kitchen, but she’s clearly thinking beyond it. It’s that savvy that landed her in the book, Behind Their Brand, Chefs Edition, Vol. 1, published last September, which offers narratives by Wieczorek and several other chefs who followed non-conventional paths.

We caught up with her—after her trip to Cuba—to find out what’s trending in her kitchen now.
—Mike Madaio

 

 

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Wieczorek in the kitchen in Cuba and strolling the streets of Havana with Petron.

 

How is a personal chef different from the chefs we read about and see on TV?
MW: Great question. That’s part of why I participated in this book, because so many people think the industry offers a single career track, working the line in a restaurant and eventually becoming executive chef. But there are so many different culinary careers. For me, cooking is only one part of the skillset. It’s an entrepreneurial venture, so I’m everything from bottle washer to business strategist to salesperson.

Meal-delivery subscriptions are blowing up. How are you

distinguishing yourself?
We offer a more complete experience. First, it’s like having a personal trainer. This is a one-on-one program, customized not only to your likes and dislikes, but also to your lifestyle. Second, our clients are not cooking at all. They’re taking something out of the fridge and heating it up within a few minutes, which is life-changing for busy people.

What advice would you give someone who’s looking to be more efficient in the kitchen?
Cook once. Eat twice. It’s something often overlooked because people don’t want to eat leftovers. But if you reinvent it into something else that doesn’t look like Monday’s dinner, it’s more exciting.

What kind of food are you passionate about?
I rarely meet a food I don’t like! But, right now, ethnic cuisine is something that consistently excites me. I’m always on the lookout for lesser-known ingredients, that next new thing to try.

What’s your ingredient-of-the-moment, then?
Well, we’ve been working a lot with quinoa—

—Come on! That’s so last year.
[Laughs.] True. We actually just got back from Cuba, where we learned to make a stew that was traditionally made with whatever protein they could find, monkeys, rats, snakes, you name it. But I’m not going to say rats. My big takeaway, seriously, was plantains. They’re versatile and delicious and readily available here. Though, unless you are from a Latin culture, you probably don’t know what to do with them.

What’s your guilty pleasure?
I love making a peanut butter-and-jelly with potato chips on the sandwich. I know, this does not exactly fit with our vision of “eat well, live fit, have fun,” but I’m a big fan of everything in moderation. Though, sometimes I do OD on chocolate.

Photos courtesy Melissa Wieczorek

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Buying Wine in a Brave New World

NAVIGATOR

Just because we Pennsylvanians can buy wine pretty much anywhere we want now—or, at least, at the supermarket—doesn’t mean that we should.

By Mike Madaio

The only thing keeping that corner of the grocery store that seemed to spring up overnight from looking totally alien is that it’s a totally common sight almost anywhere else we’ve been beyond our own borders. Yeah, we Pennsylvanians are now free to buy our wine at the grocery store like the rest of civilization. But just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. There are a few wrinkles that, for some, may outweigh the convenience.

Prepare to be hassled
Your supermarket, you may have noticed, is handling its wine (and beer) sales more like a store within the store rather than just another section. There’s a specially designated register, a separate set of hours and, in many cases, a separate entrance. There’s also this inconvenient rule: You’re restricted to buying three liters at a time. Of course, there’s nothing really barring you from depositing your purchase in your car and returning for more. And why wouldn’t you? Little about the experience is seamless anyway.

But not pay much more
The industry standard is a 30 percent wholesale discount. But Pennsylvania licensees are relegated to 10, which should translate to significantly higher pricing. Yet it hasn’t.

“It wouldn’t be convenient if our cost was higher,” says Mike Kier, who oversaw the incorporation of Wegmans’ wine and beer inventories, which match state-store pricing. “Our customers shouldn’t have to shop around for price.”

That isn’t to say, though, that prices, by and large, compare favorably to those found in neighboring states. Only that they’re relatively consistent throughout this one.

Treasure-hunt elsewhere
Don’t expect to discover any obscure bottles at the grocery store. “Given the speed to market, retailers are operating from our standard catalog, the items we have in our warehouses,” says Elizabeth Brassell, the director of communications for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. “Yet, many have expressed interest in developing customized portfolios.”

In other words, it’s a vanilla, but fluid, selection.

Still, it’s progress
It’s easy to complain because it feels like a fairly straightforward process is being overcomplicated. But, to the bureaucrats’ credit, they appear to be listening. We were frustrated by the dictatorship-like rule over our drinking supply. It finally loosened, and there’s a little more give all the time.

“This is an industry in its infancy,” Brassell says. “It’s too early to predict where it’ll go. But this is an exciting time and we’re embracing these challenges as opportunities.”

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What the Hell is Poké

LOCALLY SOURCED

Only the mother of all food trends.

By Mike Madaio · Photography by Matthew J. Rhein

Though our suburban dining scene isn’t always hip to the food world’s latest and greatest, the poké revolution is no ordinary trend. It’s the culmination of several widespread trends: raw fish features prominently, along with a rainbow of healthy ingredients. It’s served in a bowl and it adapts easily to fast-casual dining.

Poké (pronounced poke-ay)—the name is derived from the Hawaiian word for cut—is traditionally made from cubed, marinated ahi tuna served over rice, a style that originated with fishermen as a more appetizing vessel for their leftovers. Chefs, however, have been treating poké more as a technique than a recipe, opening it up to an endless array of variations.

Enter Andrew Danieli, a Jersey Shore surfer who fell for poké during a tour of Oahu’s North Shore, where it’s served everywhere in every shape—roadside snack, appetizer, entrée. Danieli’s also a restaurant veteran. This fall, he claimed his spot at the head of the curve with the opening of PokéOno in Ardmore, which provides yet another twist: build-your-own bowls.

Where’s he draw the line? Poké should remain “within the realm of the ocean,” Danieli says. “Salmon, shrimp, other shellfish, sure. But cut-up pieces of chicken would be too much.”

Novices should begin with the Shoyu Classic, which highlights traditional flavors before moving on to the radical-by-comparison Umma’s Tofu, a Korean-inspired blend named after Danieli’s girlfriend’s mom. If it wasn’t already obvious, he’s a perceptive guy.

A Long Time In The Brewing

With an opening date finally set, we surveyed the scene at La Cabra Brewing, in Berwyn. If it sounds familiar, it’s because its brewer’s been testing the waters for a while now.

By Mike Madaio        Photography by Matthew J. Rhein

In recent weeks, Dan Popernack’s found himself reflecting often on the circuitous route that’s led him, a home brewer once upon a time, to the cusp of opening his own craft brewery and gastropub.

“I’ve been developing this concept for 10 years,” he told me last month, as we surveyed the construction-in-progress at the future home of La Cabra Brewing in Berwyn. Though, later, I’ll find an interview he did back in 2013 in which he quoted the same duration. “Ten years of thinking, planning, researching, talking to every bartender, brewpub owner, distributor that I could before I felt confident enough.”

What he’s created is a compelling lineup of beers that deftly walks the line between and adventurous, paired with a Latin-inspired menu that runs much the same, served in a dramatic setting in which every intriguing, historic feature’s been restored and accentuated.

“We probably could’ve been open by now, but we don’t believe in rushing,” Popernack says. “We’ll open exactly on time.”

That time came Tuesday.

Popernack taught himself home-brewing in college. “My parents wouldn’t let me drink in the house, but they gave in when I said I’d make it myself,” he says. Later, he worked at The Beeryard, in Wayne, while he pursued his master’s at Villanova. La Cabra started to come into focus in 2013, while he was teaching at The Phelps School and home-brewing in his spare time. It was then when he launched a mailing list that quickly found a cult-like following. In it, Popernack described his latest experimentations and made available “samples” to the recipients. The arrangement is officially described as a “brewery-in-planning.” Aspiring craft brewers can make and share their beer with the public, but they can’t sell it. Think of it as a means of fostering a grassroots following with the expectation that it’ll lend some momentum to an eventual brick-and-mortar opening.

Popernack’s since built his reputation, and, in turn, La Cabra’s, on sour, funky beers crafted from wild yeast and barrel-aging, the kind that the nerds seem to make the most noise about. But they tend to not play as well with the casual-drinking crowd. “Of course I’m going to keep doing that,” Popernack says, as he shows me around an aging room in the basement. “But if that’s all I wanted to do, I would have stayed home.”

One of his aims is to riff off the food menu. “Playing with food pairings is actually one of my favorite things,” he says. And he’s quite talented at it. La Cabra’s Juno Pale Ale, infused with lime zest and rosemary, may be the best taco beer I’ve ever had.

Popernack’s, of course, devoted as much intention in partnering up and assembling his staff, from the chef to the servers, as he has to every tangible component. But while their missions may be aligned, they’re not singular.

“The bottom line is that we want people to feel welcome here, like they’re walking into our home, whether they’re really into beer or not,” Popernack says. “I’m obviously passionate about it. I’ve devoted my life to it. But beer isn’t everything. If we can be good neighbors, great members of the community, then we’ll really have achieved something.”

La Cabra Brewing, 642 Lancaster Avenue, Berwyn.

 

5 Fall-inspired Beers You Need to Try—And Not a Hint of Pumpkin to be Found

La Cabra Brewing Belma

The inherent berry flavor of the Belma hop, the banana esters of a wheat beer, united by the comforting spice of a traditional witbier.

Conshohocken Brewing Company Puddlers Row ESB

It’s not seasonal and it’s not especially trendy—the extra special bitter was big at the inception of the craft movement, back in the nineties—but this ale’s a near-perfect match for this schizophrenic weather. Toasty, mild sweetness up front, crisp and dry on the back end.

Flying Fish Brewing Co. Exit 7 Pork Roll Porter

The true meat here is a robust, dark-roasted malt which forges a beer that tastes closer to a Tootsie Roll than a pork roll.

Free Will Brewing Co. Coffee Oatmeal Brown

Crafted by cold-steeping an already-rich, brown ale with freshly roasted coffee beans, the resulting flavor is fueled by waves of sweet raisin and molasses with a pleasantly bitter undercurrent.

Victory Brewing Company Moonglow Weizenbock

Rich caramel complemented by the warmth of clove, the sweetness of banana and the brightness of apple. —MM

Beyond Burgers

LOCALLY SOURCED

Pick up your lagging grill game with these under-appreciated cuts.

The bacon-looking cuts, pictured alongside the pork shoulder, are the kalbi.

 

We’re all well aware of how long your burger recipe was under development before you finally branded it your own. And, yes, your chicken breasts are impressively moist, the cross-hatching on your T-bones, a masterful display. But it’s all starting to feel a bit stale. When you grill almost year-round and your wheelhouse consists of a few different things, it’s inevitable. Longevity comes from being bold enough to constantly reinvent yourself. Now’s not the time to hide behind a little bit of success. Or your smoking grill. (We can still see you.)

To spare you from the need to humble yourself, we asked Damon Menapace to show us the way through the dog days ahead. Damon’s the executive chef at Kensington Quarters, the Frankford Avenue restaurant that’s developed a stout reputation for knowing how to handle meat. Case in point, KQ has its own butcher shop, which Damon also took on earlier this summer.

Here, he offers up a few under-appreciated cuts that cook up especially well on the grill. (All, BTW, are available at the KQ butcher shop.)

Kalbi Short Ribs
Also known as galbi, these Korean barbeque-style steaks are cut thinly across the bone, so they’ll grill up fast. “Nobody wants to braise a big, square-cut short rib in the summer,” Damon says. Marinate them beforehand. They’ll come out tender, juicy and concentrated with flavor.

Country-style Pork Ribs
The name is misleading. These aren’t actually ribs. They’re bone-in slices of pork shoulder that are cut to resemble the barbeque favorite. They cook similarly, too. Think of them as a cross between pulled pork and ribs. Damon says, “Cook ‘em low and slow and with plenty of smoke.”

Chuck Eye Steak
“The poor man’s rib eye,” as he calls it, is taken from farther up the shoulder. “Most people hear the word ‘chuck’ and think it’ll be tough,” Damon says, “but this lovely little steak is tender, fatty and super-rich.”

Lamb Shoulder Chops
Sliced with a band saw across the bone, these inch-thick chops are an affordable alternative to the more widely-known lollipops, and they’re packed with way more meat and flavor. “Throw them on the grill with a little baste,” Menapace advises. “They can be chewy, but it’s fun to get messy ripping into them. This is summertime grilling, after all.”  —Mike Madaio

Photo by Matthew J. Rhein

The Making of a Pitmaster

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

Drew Abruzzese is a relentless chef. So when a smoker landed in his lap, he, naturally, dove down the rabbit hole.

By Mike Madaio

 

“I can’t sit still,” Drew Abruzzese says. “I’m always looking for my next big thing.”

Abruzzese is the executive chef at The Pineville Tavern, which is owned by his family. It’s a position he’s held since 2010 at a restaurant he’s helped out at in one way or another since he was a kid. So that hyperactivity may be rooted in a restlessness. But Abruzzese is also someone who’s keenly conscious of his evolution as a chef, perhaps because he realized early on that if he didn’t challenge himself, no one was likely to.

So when his mother-in-law gifted him a home charcoal smoker, it was an impetus. The kindling was already arranged. “Salty, crispy, crusty meats are maybe my favorite thing on the planet—besides my wife, of course,” he says. Overnight, he became consumed with barbequing. Soon after, he and a friend went in together on a 55-gallon drum smoker. Abruzzese christened it with a dozen chickens.

He spent the ensuing summer studying the nuances imparted by slight adjustments in temperature and different kinds of smoke, consuming book after book, experimenting as he went along. All the while, it was purely about mastery—until it became evident that it wasn’t.

“When we pulled that smoker open and met this amazing meat, that was the beginning of Big Q BBQ right there,” Abruzzese says. “That was when we said, we can do something with this.”

Big Q BBQ is the fast-casual restaurant Abruzzese opened last summer in Levittown. Earlier this summer, he opened a takeout-only offshoot at the tavern. But before it was either of those things, it was a massive smoker (his second upgrade) that Abruzzese carted between the tavern, where he served barbeque on the patio during the weekends, and the Wrightstown Farmers Market down the road on Saturday mornings. The latter became a testament to his latest progression. He arrived confident in his barbeque, dying to share it. But who wants to eat barbeque at 9 a.m.? Abruzzese adapted, quickly and creatively.

“I started putting pulled pork on an egg-and-cheese,” he says. “Which turned into brisket, egg and cheese and, eventually, The Ultimate: pulled pork, brisket, bacon and cheese.”

Once word of mouth started to catch on, he was making 50, 60 Ultimates on a given Saturday morning.

In spite of his rapid spiral down the rabbit hole, Abruzzese seems to have emerged with an appreciation for barbeque’s simplicity.

“It’s easy to get nerdy about it, but you shouldn’t overcomplicate it,” he says.

Then you won’t mind sharing how you go about making yours?

“It’s hard to explain, other than to say, well, it’s proprietary.”

The Big Q BBQ site, at least, dissects the process, but only in broad strokes: “traditional, time-honored methods,” “dry-rubbing our meat cuts,” “our secret blend of awesome seasonings and spices,” “slow-smoke it in our authentic, custom-designed smoker,” “our own blend of aged and seasoned hardwoods,” “smooth, slightly tangy smoke,” “literally hours and hours for the smoke to cook, tenderize and flavorize the meat.”

“You can use the same rub, smoke over the same wood for the same time and yours isn’t going to taste like mine,” Abruzzese says. “That doesn’t mean mine is better or yours is better, just that every single one is different. It’s important to do your own thing.”

Read: He spent more nights than he cares to remember breathing in thick smoke, learning and then perfecting the oldest—and maybe most elusive—culinary technique there is, cooking meat over coals. So, yeah, we’re on our own.

Abruzzese’s eyeing up additional Big Q BBQ locations—with one eye, at least. The other, true to his nature, is scoping out a potential new frontier.

“There just happens to be an H Mart across the street from the restaurant,” he says, “so now I’m all over Vietnamese cooking and Korean barbeque.”

 

Our Favorite Day-Drinking Spots

DRINK

Because the summer’s too fleeting to squander on work and socially acceptable drinking hours.

By Mike Madaio

Happy hour, pre-dinner apéritifs, post-dinner digestifs, a marathon pub crawl that lasts until last call (and then some). We don’t refer to any of those experiences as night drinking. Yet, we feel pressed to qualify any imbibing done before 5 p.m. (even though it’s always five o’clock somewhere) as day drinking, such is the stigma that stems from the “Mad Men” era, when the men drank themselves under the lunch table and the women, under the coffee table, neither supposedly the wiser. Clearly, we’re a much more restrained culture now.

Day drinking these days is more about taking advantage—of a rare couple of quiet hours among old friends, of a gentle breeze on a July afternoon, of a setting that’s far too cool for our likes come nightfall—than blacking out. (Though blacking out’s still on the table. We’re not Mormons.)

Summer itself is practically an open invitation to ditch the to-do list (and the kids) and rustle up a spur-of-the-moment BYO gathering by the pool, at the park or the beach. But there’s also something about sliding into a dimly lit booth on an ideal afternoon that feels deliciously rebellious. Neither way’s wrong. There are, after all, no rules for day drinking. Other than postpone the errands for another day altogether, not simply until later in the afternoon. That’s a viral video waiting to happen.

On that note, allow us to introduce you to a few of our favorite day-drinking spots.

Paramour (at the Wayne Hotel) | Wayne
When the sun’s shining bright and the humidity’s lightened up, the sidewalk seats along North Wayne Avenue are highly coveted, naturally. But the savviest among us know to seek out the 110-year-old Tudor Revival veranda, complete with ceiling fans and ample views of the surrounding gardens. Either way, order the Parisian Spritz, a light, bright sparkling wine cocktail spiked with a dollop of peach puree.

World of Beer | Exton
The franchise is comprised of 75 locations spread across 21 states, yet this one, which opened in May, is Pennsylvania’s first and only (because control states rarely get to have nice things). A thousand-square-foot patio holds more than enough table seating, as well as several outdoor sofas and a cornhole court. It’s what your backyard would look like if you had room for a thousand-square-foot deck, 60 rotating taps and a 600-bottle menu.

Martine’s RiverHouse | New Hope
People watching can be overstimulating. And sometimes—most of the time—the whole point of day drinking is to step out of your routine and dive headfirst into your company. On such occasions, there is no more tranquil setting (with a well-stocked bar and a well-versed bartender at your disposal) than the riverside deck at Martine’s. Main Street bustles on the other side of the restaurant, but it may as well be miles away.

Pag’s Wine Bar | Doylestown
Stuck home when, really, you should be using your vacation days more wisely? Head to Paganini. Between the deep (and reasonably priced) wine cellar, the small-plates menu and the just-out-of-the-way location, it’s an honest facsimile of a European square experience. Sip, nosh, repeat. No hurry.

Mas Mexicali Cantina | West Chester
If there was an official drink for day drinking, it’d have to be the margarita. Mas Mexicali obliges with 11 varieties. Paired with the rooftop deck, there may be no better place around here to watch a hazy sun set with a drink in hand (and a taco in the other).

Va La Vineyards | Avondale
Sidle up to the bar to try one (or four) of Anthony Vietri’s authentic, Italian-style field blends, each paired with a locally made artisanal cheese. From there, grab a bottle of your favorite and head for the deck out back, where it feels more like Tuscany than Chester County.

Tired Hands Fermentaria | Ardmore
The large picture windows (ideal people for watching), tall ceiling and the skylights make for one airy space. But unlike the saturated suckers walking by on the other side of those windows, you’re savoring your house-brewed session beer (a beer made for day drinking) and whiskey dills at a lovely 70 degrees with no hint of humidity.

X Marks the Spot
Legally, we can’t advise you to head for your secret-but-public spot with a bottle or a sixer in tow, but they’re the places that spring to mind first when you hear “day drinking,” are they not? No table, no chairs. Maybe a blanket. Definitely a spectacular view. We won’t tell if you won’t.

The Tomato Whisperer

DIY

A perfect day for Tim Mountz is eating tomatoes in his fields from dawn to dusk. Obsessive? Maybe. But, imagine yourself in his shoes on that day. Maybe not.

By Mike Madaio

Of all the fruits of summer, the tomato may be the one I covet most. Lettuce, peppers and beans, welcome sight as they are, come on so strong. Same with the berries. It can be smothering. But the tomato plays hard to get. While I gather another armful of cucumbers to haul back to the kitchen, the tomato, still Hulk-green after a summer’s worth of sunbathing, refuses to bend to my will. Until right about now. Even then, that first ripe tomato always comes as a surprise.

All of that comes from a couple of modest plants. Imagine the depth of Tim Mountz’s fixation. He’s growing over 400 kinds this summer. For the last eight years, Mountz and his wife, Amy Bloom, have been selling heirloom seeds, produce and, more recently, scratch-made sauces from that produce at a handful of markets and online as the Kennett Square-based brand Happy Cat Farm. But, tomatoes, obviously, are his first love. Second. Second love. Amy, of course, is his first. Probably.

“The perfect day for me,” Mountz says with a light laugh, “is when I lay down in bed at night and realize that breakfast, lunch and dinner were tomatoes in the field. That’s it.

“I was working with Tim Stark out at Eckerton Hill Farm,” he says. “I had never bitten into a tomato like an apple before. But one afternoon, I had a Jefferson Airplane-like, out-of-body experience. It might have been from sunstroke or something, but it was transcendent. From that point on, I started eating every tomato I could get my hands on.”

Whether cherry-picking from a farm stand or nursing them from your own backyard plot, heed Mountz’s advice on when the time is finally right: “A tomato has to have a little give, some movement to the flesh, so you know there’s juice in there. And full color. Unless it’s a green variety, it shouldn’t have any green. Lastly, fragrance: Much of the tomato’s aroma comes from the vine itself, but the fruit has a definite fragrance.”

Now, for what to do with those lush prizes, keep reading.

Summer’s Darling

A tomato salad is the epitome of summertime eating: simple preparation, complex taste. That line savvy chefs deliver whenever prompted about letting quality ingredients express themselves? It’s because seasonal fruits and veg at the height of their harvest, like tomatoes are right now, are akin to snowflakes—no two taste the same. All that nuance concentrated in just a few bites is the essence of summer: potent humidity, parched earth, a simmering sun and a soul-affirming oomph as it all comes together on the back of your tongue.

Recipe by Yelena Strokin

Heirloom Tomato and Beet Salad

Serves two.

3 sweet heirloom tomatoes (vary the sizes and colors)

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1-2 small beets, cooked, peeled and sliced

2 tbsps. feta

Fresh basil

Fresh mint

Olive oil to taste

Lemon juice to taste

2 cloves garlic (optional)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Halve the small tomatoes and cut the large ones into thick slices. Then, layer them on a platter, mixing the different shapes and colors in a way that looks as good as it’ll taste.

Tuck in the beets and onions, then the basil and mint. Sprinkle the feta over the entire salad. Season with salt, pepper and garlic to taste. Drizzle with the olive oil and lemon juice, and serve immediately, preferably with a baguette to sop up that beautiful medley of juices that’ll be waiting at the bottom of the dish.

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

Photos by (Tim Mountz) Matthew J. Rhein and (Heirloom Tomato and Beet Salad) Yelena Strokin

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 Delicious Simplicity of Cold-Brew Coffee

HOME BREW

If you ever thought about moving beyond your trusty ol’ drip machine but didn’t know how, this is your gateway.

By Mike Madaio

Five years ago, while serving as the director of education at the Wine School of Philadelphia, Zach Morris—yes, that’s his real name—presided over perhaps the greatest wine tasting I’ve had the pleasure of attending. Though the pours—Grand Cru Burgundy—were outstanding, it wasn’t just what was in the glass that left such an indelible mark. Morris’ palpable enthusiasm for the material made the region and its winemakers come alive.

He’s earnest and easygoing, but what’s immediately evident about Morris is his unquenchable thirst to know. Everything. At the wine school, his ability to digest even the most obscure details about a plethora of regions, producers and methods was uncanny. Curious as his decision to open a café may have seemed from the outside looking in, there could be no doubt that he’d approach Green Engine Coffee Co. with the same voracious appetite.

We meet at his Haverford café, where I planned to test the limits of his relatively newfound knowledge. I needed to know how to make a better cup of coffee. I finally arrived at the point in my life where I was ready to make an effort beyond setting the timer on my drip machine. Morris lights up and starts talking cold brewing straightaway.

“The beauty of cold brew is its simplicity. It’s almost no work. If you can grind and weigh, you just set it and forget it,” he says. “And you can use pretty much any vessel for brewing.”

The catch is the required steep time: at least 12 (and up to 24) hours per batch. In other words, planning ahead is mandatory.

“It’s just like barbecue, low and slow,” Morris says. “But the flipside of advance prep is that cold brew keeps well, especially when stored in an airtight, dark environment like your fridge.”

Beyond organization and patience, the grinding is the most critical part of cold brewing. Set your burr grinder to “coarse.” (If you’re not grinding your own beans, invest in a burr grinder. (See below.) Regardless of the brewing method, it’ll prove essential. And you’ll notice a difference in the taste of your coffee within the first sip. And every one thereafter.)

Once the beans are ground, use a two-to-one ratio of water to grounds. “But you can adjust that based on how strong you want it,” Morris says. Mix them thoroughly in a French press, ideally, then lower the plunger to the water line and let it sit overnight. Come the morning, lower the plunger the rest of the way. Morris, a perfectionist, suggests filtering, but I’ve seen consistently excellent results using just the press’s strainer.

 

[divider]The Cold Brew Essentials[/divider]

Morris shares his ideal set-up. —MM

 

Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder  | $100

It’s a great value. It’s easy to adjust, very precise, and it also happens to be one of the least messy burr grinders I’ve come across.

 

Smart Weigh Digital Back-lit Touch Screen Pocket Scale | $16

This is our ever-reliable backup at the café. Special features aside, the only one that matters when it comes to weighing coffee and water is that the scale measures to a tenth of a gram.

 

Bodum Chambord French Press  | $50 (34 ounces)

There’s little difference between brands—there’s not a whole lot to the French press—but the Bodum is the OG.

 

Rival Bros. Coffee  | $12.50-$17.75

These are the beans that we use at Green Engine. They’re roasted in Philly, and they never arrive anything short of the peak of freshness.

 

KoHi Brewing App  | $3

Taking pride in brewing your coffee gets addictive really fast. This app’ll come in handy when you start obsessing over tenths of grams and temperatures.