DiCicco Floats Handbill Ban

Councilman Frank DiCicco is going to save us from the scourge of the city, ubiquitous thai menus:

Frank DiCicco, councilman for the first district, says in his South Philadelphia neighborhood handbills usually end up not inside the recipients’ homes, but as litter in the gutter:

“Pizza shops, restaurants, take-out food restaurants, car washes: small businesses who hire people to go and circulate hand bills that ultimately wind up in the street.”

So DiCicco is pushing a measure that would require those small businesses to leave hand bills only in the hands of actual homeowners, or face fines.

Geeze. Don’t these small business owners know only places that have enough money for a billboard should be able to little the city with their crap?

Photo by striatic used under a Creative Commons license

New Places To Drink In Center City

Just what Center City needs: Another burger joint!

Actually, no, that might work out well. That’s nice, then, since two NYC-based restaurants are set to open locations west of Broad in Center City; one of ‘em is a burger joint.

The 4,000-sq ft. Goodburger (!) moves in to 1725 Chestnut St. and will have a liquor license and probably Kel working there, if he’s fallen on hard times. (Keenan is on on SNL!) And, uh, Mad River is opening a new restaurant right down the street from PW at the old firehouse at 1528-30 Sansom (not Sampson) Street.

I can only assume the 5,000-sq ft. firehouse bar will have a liquor license, being so close to a newspaper and all.

Two NYC Eateries Ink Leases West of Broad [GlobeSt.com]

Restaurant Weak

On the left, the advertisement for Center City Restaurant Week. At right, the ad for South Jersey Restaurant Week (apparently featuring hot chefs). The Restaurant Week on the left was started in 2003. The one on the right, in 2005.

And now the people behind the one on the lefthave sued the people behind the one on the right.

The Center City District’s lawsuit, filed Nov. 1, asserts the ads of South Jersey Restaurant Week — held at a different time than Center City Restaurant Week — are “confusingly similar” to the CCD’s Restaurant Week ads. And “column list of restaurants with red background” is trademarked by CCD, watch out. But as a commenter on the Food and Drinq (har) blog comments, “Philly’s is 3 courses for $30, SJ’s is 4 courses for 30 - that’s a major difference.” That might be enough to turn the case.

Actually Eating Good In The Neighborhood

The Illadelph points to a Philadelphia Business Journal story last week that should let all Philadelphians breathe a sigh of relief: Chain restaurants are largely avoiding Center City.

While Center City does have some chain restaurants, particularly steak houses, most of the big casual dining chains have swarmed to the suburbs. To the point, the nation’s two largest owners of casual dining restaurants — Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando and OSI Restaurant Partners LLC of Tampa, Fla. — have a combined 48 restaurants in the eight-county Philadelphia market, but only three are in Center City.

Yeah, there are some chains, but there is a difference between, say, Morton’s and the Olive Garden. Even Fado and Fox & Hound are on a different level than the Big Four (Applebee’s, the Olive Garden, T.G.I. Friday’s and Chili’s — did I miss anything?).

Anyway, apparently we have old people (who have enough money to eat at nice places or are grizzled enough to hate chain restaurants) and young people (who would rather drink at McGlinchey’s on the cheap) but not enough suburbanites. Imagine that, not enough suburbanites in the city! (But who’s living in all these condos?)

“Center City has a strong residential population,” some consulting firm president told the PBJ. “It’s mostly young and old, but not the middle, which is the market for casual dining.”

Somebody remind me when I’m 40 if I want to go to Applebee’s all the time that I’m a big sellout or whatever.

Tastes of Center City denizens prove, thankfully, to be far too refined for the likes of artless national chain restaurants [The Illadelph]
Chain restaurants expand in the suburbs, not in city [PBJ]

More People To Tell Us What To Do With Our Lives

In the future, 9/11/07 will be known as the day that the tide finally turned and the ducks and geese would be free to, uh, die in peace. Yes, a new group has joined the fight against foie gras, bringing the total number of people who really care about this issue to 15. (This will probably get them about 48 more Sunday Inquirer cover stories.)

Foie gras — pronounced “foy grass” — is made from the fattened liver of geese and ducks. About 2-3 weeks before slaughter, the goose or duck is force-fed through a tube in its esophagus. Some people think this is cruel to the animals, sometimes pontificating about it while they chew on a juicy hamburger.

The new group that’s entered the fray is called Professionals Against Foie Gras; its members are attempting to convince City Councilman Jack Kelly to push a bill through City Council that would ban foie gras; he introduced a bill back in April 2006 but — surprise! — nobody who matters actually cares.

Meanwhile, a bunch of horses were killed today after breaking their legs on horseracing tracks, but that’s heroic.

Local Group Enters Fray Over Idea To Ban Foie Gras [KYW 1060]

Stephen Starr cares for serfs’ well-being

Food blog Eater got an exclusive look inside Philly restaurateur Stephen Starr’s NYC version of Buddakan, and it seems you could fit at least 35 Alma de Cubas into it:

It looks like a spruced-up Dark Ages castle. No word as to whether this NYC Buddakan will have court jesters serving giant turkey legs. They’ve been posting photos all day over at Eater.

Buddakazam! Kalina Gets Inside [Eater via Gawker]

Blogicized: I’m telling mommy!

• Will Bunch goes all, “Stu Bykofsky doesn’t care about Washington politics!” [Attytood]

• Everyone’s favorite Inquirer sports columnist Stephen A. Smith — who’s back on the anti-La Salle beat — and his show, Quite Frankly, is moving to 11 p.m. So now you can stay up late and not watch. [Deadspin]

• It’s never too early to prepare for Philadelphia Restaurant Week, from Feb. 19-24. Okay, maybe it’s a little early. [Philadelphia Restaurants]

• The Dirty Jerz goes all progressive on us: Homosexual partners can get same rights of burial and inheritance and straight couples and they may get rid of the death penalty. And they’re banning smoking soon, too? The times they are a-changin’ in New Jersey. [A Smoke Filled Room]

• Occassional Daily News columnist Christine Flowers and a blogger exchange nasty emails; the blogger whines to the editorial page editor of the Daily News in an email. [Brendan Calling from the Underground]

Quickies: To be fair, it’s the best coffee shop run by an Internet bank in America

• The New York Times on going to Philadelphia: get your coffee and wifi at the ING Direct Cafe, dawg! And open an Orange Savings Account! [NYT]

• Craig LaBan recaps his year: Nothing got four bells — whatever that means — and only one restaurant (Haru) was bad enough to not get any recommendation at all. Oh, snap. Better keep extra disguises when you’re around 3rd and Chestnut, Craig. [Inky]

• New Action News sports anchor Jamie Apody is a a second-degree black belt in karate. This kitten’s got claws! How long until 6 ABC has her do some headache-inducing “Challenge our anchor to a sport!” gimmick? I give it two weeks. [DN]

• And — it’s in the middle of this story, so you gotta read — but one little documentary makes a woman sign the “Free the Elephants” petition. A whopping 100 signed, which means about .015% (note: figure made up) of the people in the gallery care about elephants. Eh: As long as the zoo keeps those red pandas, I’m down. [Inky]

• Hey, how about this one? La Salle’s basketball team is 6-0 after a four overtime win against Central Connecticut State. And nobody arrested! Nobody! Whoo! [DN]