Varga Bar Al Fresco

After falling in love with Kanella earlier this year, it was hard to not notice the birth of the Varga Bar across the street. It opened in May and I finally got a chance to go check it out. It is literally across the street from Kanella. Lots of pinup shots and even pinup murals on the ceiling. There are a smattering of tables and booths inside, and while it's still nice out, a decent amount of al fresco seating.

It was coincidentally the last night of restaurant week, but we just decided to pick our own food. The menu itself is kind of slim, but there's plenty of choose from. It's actually quite simple, but the dishes have been swankified a bit. Like these crab cheese fries. A simple bowl of fries, but they throw crab on top! It was like a bowl of fries topped with crab chowder. It was brilliant. I'm going to start doing this on my own. They also have a large selection of beers and cocktails. This was one of the special sidecar cocktails. It was nice and strong, but it still doesn't beat my favorite sidecar, at the Sidecar.

Another example of how they swankify food. This is a little crock of mac and cheese, but it is made with gruyere, fontina, and mascarpone cheese, and topped with bacon and some bits of truffles. The bacon was a lovely touch. The truffles, not so much. Since my last experience with truffles (the truffle deviled eggs at supper) I realize that I'm just not into it. But it was still a good dish.

P got one of the specials of the evening - goat with pasta. He liked it, but it was not enough goat. I do have to say, the bowl was a little small, and probably way too small for a grown man. He cleaned his bowl and probably could have eaten a few more bowls of this.

I wasn't too hungry after the mac and cheese so I went with the kobe beef sliders. You get three adorable little sliders with bacon, shallots, vermont cheddar, tomatoes, and lettuce. I liked these (they just come cooked medium) but the buns were too thick and too dense. There was tons more bread than slider, so it was a bit too heavy on the bread side. It also came with really excellent onion rings on the side, and some pickle slivers.

The service here was pretty good. The clientele here is nice and mixed . I think it's a nice place to stop by for a drink if you are in the neighborhood. The food is pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. It's a nice addition to the philly dining/drinking scene, but nothing to bowl you over. But I could probably see myself coming back here.

Little Eats Downtown

I got to attend a little event downtown this week at APO. It used to be called Apothecary, but I remember hearing that they had to change their name since they weren't an actual apothecary. It's a bar. And a pretty cool one at that. They're not normally open on a tuesday night, so we have the place to ourselves. That was pretty cool.
The event featured some food from Leila Cafe, a fairly new middle eastern joint. Honestly, I wasn't too crazy about the food. The hummus was too salty and a bit too dry. The rice and chicken/lamb dish... the chicken and lamb were good, but the rice wasn't, and it was overloaded with cinnamon. I could see all the cinnamon powder on it. Eek. The dolma were pretty good. They had little falafel disks (not balls) that were the best of the offerings this evening. I don't really see myself going to Leila to check it out myself. I think there are better middle eastern offerings around.
There were also mini cupcakes from Cupmakes, a very young cupcake place. These little things were adorable. A might on the dry side, but the frosting made up for it. It was banana chocolate. Incredibly banana-y and delicious.
There were also a number of special drinks for the evening. This is the blood orange swizzle. Really tasty. You could hardly taste the alcohol. Since this is a fancy drink place, they make each individual drink to order. So there were long lines. It was annoying. I can see on a normal night doing this. But when there are only 5 drinks on the menu, and hundreds of people are going to be ordering the same drink, it wouldn't kill you to make bigger batches.
We didn't get quite enough food, so we stopped by El Vez for a little snack since it was right down the street. The salsa mexicana. They all had a bit of a kick. Now these chips. Let me just say something about these chips. They were crunchy. But they were super greasy. Beyond greasy! It just seemed ridiculously greasy. I think they could totally degrease these a bit.
I was driving, so I had a virgin strawberry margarita. I know how strong their typical margaritas are, so I knew I had to be good. Damn it if these virgin margaritas aren't freakin tasty. I could have drank a giant pitcher of this. Gah. So damn good. Since it cooled down a bit, we enjoyed the drinks and chips outside and it was a lovely evening.
Leila Cafe
401 S 13th St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(267) 319-1903

Cupmakes
520A S. 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(267) 581-6586

Sushi At Raw

Had an amazing dinner at Raw on Friday night. It's not a place I would normally go to, because it's sorta on the fancy pants side. Not super snooty or anything, but most people that go here are dressed up. Like glittery and shiny and such. And I'm not typically one to hang around glittery and shiny people. But when M invited me out, I couldn't say no. And man, we had such a surprisingly good meal.
The place is sizeable, one long dining area, along with some outdoor dining. You would never know it from the outside how big the place is or how nice it is on the inside. It's next to capogiro, but it's almost like an alleyway because the street on that block is so small. The decor is nice and bold with asian accents, but not in a cheesy way. It's quite tasteful! Very warm, with all the deep red paint and all.
Cocktails! And really strong ones to boot. Miso soup. Their version is very mis0-y! They definitely don't skimp on the miso. So if you like that, then you'll be happy. I like all kinds of miso soups, strong or weak, so I liked it regardless.
M's friend R had told us to get a very specific roll, but it was not on the menu, and it was not one of the specials either. Disappointing. But that's ok! We got one of the special rolls - the white tiger. Holy lord was this good! And hello, they give you seaweed salad with it! And I love me some seaweed salad.
Behold - white tuna in the middle, with some seared white tuna on top, and then topped off with some spicy white tuna. Gah, this was one of the greates things ever. And their rolls are nice and big! They're pricey, yes, but you get a lot! My goodness, goodness was this delicious. The fish was amazingly fresh. Like crazy fresh!
And the freshness of the fish was just so obvious with the sashimi that we got. First off, this was a lot of fish, and really lovely thick cuts. You don't get scrawny fish here! And everything was just so amazingly fresh, you could just tell with every bite. I haven't had fish this fresh in such a long time... perhaps since I caught my own and ate it! And this was tons of food for two people. I said this place is expensive, and yes, it sure is, but the quality of the food and the freshness of the fish kind of make it totally worth it. And you're hearing this from the queen of frugals. I would totally go back here. Yes, I said it. I would come back to this fancy place. It tends to get mixed review, so perhaps I had low expectations. But our meal was superb and I would recommend it highly to anyone.