Since the opening of The Wishing Well on 9^th and Catharine early this month, we have been receiving emails directing us to the burger that got kicked out of Atlanta for being too rib sticking.

The SHAME burger was invented by chef Carmen Cappello at his southern location, where he improvised on Pennsylvania tradition in creating this enigmatic creation.  A bit of background- the restaurant is part of the Slow Food Movement – meaning that they pledge to bring ingredients in that are grown within 100 miles of their location, contributing to the local economy and respecting the environment.  The Burger is made of local Lancaster sirloin, bought fresh right down the street in the Italian Market.  It is topped with house-made scrapple, American cheese and a runny fried farm fresh egg. Yep. It’s ridiculous.  Carmen calls it a “gluttonous treat that you can feel good about eating” and we definitely agree.

The burger is cooked well-done because the gooey cheese and fried egg provide all the juiciness you need. The fresh scrapple is well spiced with thyme and sage, and is both creamy and crispy – it’s fried, as it should be.  The multiple textures and contrasting breakfast and lunch flavors, shifting back and forth depending upon the ratio of what you get in each bite, together make this a fascinating sandwich.

We speculate that another reason that they belong to the Slow Food movement is because you ain’t moving so fast after you eat one of these.   Next time we head to Wishing Well, we’re going to get the appetizer version of this burger, which comes topped with a fried quail egg, so that we can save room for the fresh fish, inventive meat dishes and seasonal vegetables that they actually work directly with farmers to source.  Wishing Well is a welcome addition to the Italian market.  Co-owner and GM Chris Martino is already seeing repeat customers at the bar, which carries over 50 bottled beers.  Final verdict: do this burger at least once, it’s delicious, it supports the local economy and is definitely something to talk about.

The Wishing Well
767 S. 9th St. – Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Google Map)
(215) 238-6555

For a few months now we’ve been privy to Peter McAndrews’ and Nathan Baynes’ plans to introduce an Italian Market location of their wildly successful Paesano’s Philly Style. Last week word spread that the shop was nearing an open. Hastily, lunch plans were made for that Friday. However, those plans had to regretfully be postponed. Today, after impatiently waiting for five very long days, we were able to stop into the new location on the northwest corner of 9th and Christian, on their first day open to the public.

Following in the footsteps of the first shop on Girard Ave., the owners of Modo Mio have once again impressed us with a little bit of sandwich heaven. Generously, heaven has added four new angels on its menu: The Liveracce, Bolagnese, Meatloaf Parmesan and Pesce Fritti. Aside from new sandwiches, Minestrone soup and a Chopp salad will also find their place as fixtures. With the new location comes a larger kitchen and a dining area that will allow customers to sit down, and enjoy every breathtaking bite.

Like their predecessors, these sandwiches all have an explosive multitude of flavor in each and every bite, stemming from Chef McAndrews’ slow cooked approach. The Liveracce is seared beef liver topped with sauteed onions, iceberg lettuce, roasted tomato and gorgonzola on an Italian long roll with a spread of garlic mayo. Baynes remarked that as always, the sandwiches are constantly being improved, and told us that the Liveracce will most likely be finalized with the addition of hot sauce and salami in the near future.

The Bolagnese, is something of a guilty pleasure for McAndrews, apparently, he’s eaten it forever — and we sure are glad he’s decided to release it to the public. Crispy-fried lasagna bolagnese is dotted with smoked parmesan and topped with the chef’s favorite, a fried egg. Baynes tells us that it would be delicious when paired with red wine. A subtle hint that the shop is BYO? The Meatloaf Parmesan sandwich is, you guessed it, Italian-style meatloaf with Modo Mio’s signature Sunday gravy and fresh mozzarella. Finally, there’s the Pesce Fritti a fried Tilapia fillet with lettuce, tomato, onion, caper maionese and sharp provolone.

A majority of the original menu from the first location has also been brought down into South Philly, some of the notable favorites offered include the Arista (whole roasted suckling pig, broccoli rabe, italian long hots and sharp provolone), the Diavlo (spicy chicken breast, salami, herb cheddar, roasted tomato and broccoli rabe), the Daddywad (their award-winning Italian hoagie) and of course the namesake Paesano (slow-cooked beef brisket, roasted tomato, sharp provolone, horseradish mayo, topped with a fried egg). The rumored Paesano Burger hasn’t made the menu just yet, but is sure to come sometime soon, topped with fries, pancetta, gorgonzola and an aged balsamic vinegar mayo.

With locations north and south of Center City, downtown Philly has essentially become “sandwiched” in pure bliss. The South Philly location will have its hours of operation eventually fixed from 11am to 7pm, Wednesday through Sunday. While the folks over at Paesano’s have no intention of starting a separate brunch menu, we can only imagine that this availability on the weekend might just draw some patrons away from waiting in the long lines just across the street.

Gallery

Paesano’s Philly Style
901 Christian Street – Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Google Map)

Lou Sarcone Jr., the fourth-generation baker on 9th Street in South Philadelphia, is known among his family simply as Junior.  His father, also Lou, and his son, Louis, share more than a name – they share a commitment to keeping a very old business operating the way it did a very long time ago.  That is not to say that they haven’t modernized Sarcone’s Bakery – which they have – but they have done so while maintaining their focus on delivering the exact same product, time after time after time.  Using premium Pillsbury flour; giving the dough a full 2 hours to rise; baking the bread in the old brick ovens to bring out the flavor.  “It’s just like making a gravy,” said Sarcone, “Slow cooked food tastes better.”

So the food you put on that bread better be good.

For Lou’s cousin, Anthony Bucci, food is a passion.  A former executive chef at the Wyndam Franklin Plaza hotel and a longtime veteran of the family bakery, he now runs Sarcone’s Deli.  The deli is not a typical hoagie and sandwich shop.  They serve food that you’d expect to find cooked in a restaurant or your own home, but on that crusty, chewy, flavorful bread.  It’s the preparation and ingredients that differentiates them from traditional “lettuce and tomato” hoagie shops.  House-prepared roast beef, roast pork, meatballs, chicken cutlets, and eggplant are just some of the restaurant style cooked dishes that find their home on a Sarcone’s roll.  Juicy ripe roma tomatoes and bits of prosciutto, sopressata and cappicola that don’t make it onto sandwiches become the starter for the gravy for the hot sandwiches.  If you like marinated fresh asparagus and a balsamic drizzle, you can get it on the roast beef sandwich.  If you like house-roasted peppers and roasted garlic with fresh herbs, spread it on your veggie sandwich.  And if you like DiBruno Bros cheeses, gourmet cured meats and imported parma prosciutto, why not get them on an Old Fashioned Italian sandwich?

Anthony and Lou admit, it always starts with the bread.  And at Sarcone’s Bakery, the business is all about tradition.  Listen to the previous generation, and do exactly what they do.  It’s like whisper down the lane; without all the context and subtext, something can get lost along the way.  Five generations of Sarcones have donned the baker’s whites and pledged to keep the bakery exactly the same.  As Lou’s grandfather said, “put too much food in your mouth, you can’t chew.”  It’s about staying in business.  It’s looking at 90 successful years of history and believing that the business could continue for another 90 years.  No wholesale, only retail.  They’ve seen lean times before and economic booms but the business has remained steady and focused.

A mainstay on the Italian Market if there ever was one, Sarcone’s has witnessed the sell-off of the generations-old businesses a few blocks away; but Lou Sarcone believes that history repeats itself and he welcomes a new generation of business owners coming back to the market.  Not just businesses, but Sarcone sees the influx of young professionals, students and young families into South Philadelphia as a good thing for everyone.

Sarcone’s Deli has plans to move into a newly renovated space next to its current location on 9th Street later this summer. (The current space will be put to good use but plans are still being developed.)  The bigger growth plan centers around 10-15 new franchise locations in the tri-state area over the next few years.  So how does a business so deeply ingrained in its environment extend outside of its location?  Sarcone’s has pledged to maintain tight control over the product and training new staff.  Keep it geographically limited, keep a handle on quality, and follow the Sarcone’s operator’s manual to the letter: serve up restaurant food on the very best bread.

Already one former franchisee has had the Sarcone’s brand pulled from his shop for cutting corners and cheating the customer.  But it was a valuable learning experience for Lou and Anthony, a lesson that will stay with them as they grow their vision beyond 9th Street and into the suburbs.

Gallery

Sarcone’s Deli
734 S 9th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Google Map)

Barbecue is popping up all over Philadelphia these days. From the recent opening of Q BBQ & Tequila to the popularity of pulled pork sandwiches on gastropub menus (think Slate, Pub & Kitchen, etc.), the heat is on for competitors in this category. The newly opened Bebe’s Barbecue on 9th Street in the Italian Market is the newest foray into smoked meat. We unbreaded their signature item, a Carolina-style pulled pork sandwich, and found that is has the right stuff to smoke out the competition.

Bebe’s pulled pork sandwich starts with a cut of pork shoulder coated thickly in homemade dry rub. It is then smoked for twelve hours, when it emerges tender and with a pronounced and flavorful “bark,” or crust created from the rub. To construct the sandwich, the pork is pulled apart by hand, tossed with homemade Lexington-style barbecue sauce (a tangy red sauce with a deep and complex flavor), and served on a toasted roll. “Don’t waste good bread on barbecue,” proprietor and chef Mark Coates says. “The bread should melt away… it’s about the meat.”

Coates, an affable and charismatic character with a Southern drawl, was born in Charlotte, NC but raised on a chicken hatchery in Mississippi. On the hatchery, he got started on barbecue with his family’s chicken recipe (whole chickens mopped with vinegar, butter, and lemon over an open flame). Coates’ grandmother Bebe, the namesake of the restaurant, taught him how to cook early on and he still calls her for recipes. But it wasn’t until 1998 that Coates learned the nuances of Carolina-style barbecue from an uncle in Greensboro.

When Coates moved to Philadelphia in 2005, he settled in Bella Vista and perfected his pork and other goodies on a home smoker. After tossing around the idea of opening a restaurant with friend (and now business partner) Tamara Van Winkle for a couple of years, Coates finally pulled the trigger in April and moved into his Italian Market location.

Why a barbecue joint in the Italian Market? Coates was reading an article in The Inquirer about girlfriend Heather Bryson’s sculpture installation at The Inquirer’s offices on North Broad (she also owns B-Squared gallery up the street from the market). In the same edition of the paper, he stumbled upon Rich Nichols’ article about the revitalization of the Italian Market. “It clicked,” Coates says, adding that “the Market has a reputation for thriving during tough economic times.”

Besides the pulled pork, which is also served as a platter with two sides and cornbread), Bebe’s serves a rotating selection of dry-rubbed, smoked ribs (“try them without the sauce first”), brisket, and whole rotisserie chickens. Look for the brisket and chicken as sandwiches when available. Sides, which are all vegetarian, are made in-house and include collard greens, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes and Dixie-cut cole slaw. Coates sources everything he can from the Italian Market itself, and stresses that his kitchen lacks a freezer, microwave and can opener–which means that everything he serves is fresh.

Despite his commitment to authentic Southern barbecue traditions when crafting the pulled pork, Coates is eager to incorporate the flavors of today’s Italian Market into his cooking.  On Sunday mornings, he makes a nod towards the market’s heritage by serving prosciutto and provolone sandwiches on homemade biscuits.  Noting the explosion of taquerias and Mexican grocery stores in the area, he is experimenting with pulled pork tamales.  He even imagines someday serving smoked tofu sandwiches for the vegetarian crowd.

Bebe’s will be a fine addition to the booming food scene on 9th Street. As Coates puts it, “If you want a hoagie, go to Sarcone’s. If you want roast pork, go to George’s. For some real barbecue, come to Bebe’s.”

Bebe’s Barbecue
1017 S 9th Street Philadelphia, PA, 19147 (Google Map)

The torta, a Mexican sandwich on a soft roll topped with a selection of different fillers from carne asada to tripe, is not the easiest to come by in certain areas. In Philadelphia your selection is exceptionally limited, but we’ve been told by readers and friends to check out Taqueria La Veracruzana on Washington Avenue. Being only a few steps from the Italian Market, Veracruzana has big shoes to fill; some of the best sandwiches in the city are located within a half mile radius.

The menu offers a traditional torta selection including pollo, chorizo and huevo revuelto con jamon (scrambled eggs with ham). We opted for the carnitas (before we knew about the flu) and watched a soap on Telemundo as we awaited its arrival. About ten minutes later we were presented with a beautifully crafted sandwich, a large mound of juicy pork topped with lettuce, tomato, avocado, a long jalapeno pepper and a slice of American cheese? Wait, what?! The thick cut, white American seriously threw us off, seemingly an after thought considering it was in no way melted, perhaps even cold.

That aside, we enjoyed the flavor of the meat, crispy yet tender and the avocado, fresh and creamy. Upon asking for hot sauce, we were presented with two, a smokey roja and cilantro-laden verde that both packed a spicy punch. The bread could best be described as an oblong kaiser roll, not a single employee could inform us from which bakery it was provided.

Although Veracruzana’s torta filled an empty void in our stomachs, we’ve yet to find an incredible version of the sandwich in the city. After being named Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philly for Mexican cuisine in 2002 and 2003 by, it seems that this spot has fallen by the wayside in recent years, but don’t neglect it entirely. Just make sure to lose the cheese before you bite in.

Taqueria La Veracruzana
908 Washington Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Google Map)

Stroll down any street in downtown Barcelona and you will find at least one shop selling a variety of sandwiches or bocadillos as they are known. Typically the sandwiches are premade and stacked on top of one another in a display case.

I was studying there for six months and was not initially prepared for the local cuisine. The only bocadillo I liked was tortilla de patatas, which is essentially a potato pancake sandwich. Then I saw an article that convinced me to venture in to unchartered waters.

A year prior to my arrival, a New York Times writer proclaimed a bocadillo from a Café Vienna on Las Ramblas as the best sandwich in the world. Needless to say, this restaurant pounced on the praise and posted flyers and posters around the city and outside their location highlighting the article and luring in tourists and potential customers.

The sandwich is very straightforward to a typical American food critic. The flauta or bread is a long and crispy roll that is sliced in half. Fresh tomato is smothered on the bread in typical Catalan style to provide taste and moisture. The sole remaining ingredient is simply what makes this sandwich so darn special—jamón ibérico or Iberian ham.

If you think Italian prosciutto is tasty, you simply have never tried Spain’s jamón ibérico. The reason for this is most likely because the United States did not allow the importation of the cured meat until 2008.

When I returned home to the states, I didn’t realize how much I liked and missed that little sandwich until I could no longer get it. Then, while strolling through Di Bruno Bros one day, I saw the prized ham.

In fact, they offered two versions of the pata negra (black hoof pig) ham, one at $99.99/lb and another at $129.99/lb. I selected the cheaper of the two, bought a fresh tomato and grabbed a fresh baked roll that looked as close to the original from Barcelona.

The finished product was absolutely delicious, immediately bringing my palate back to spring 2007. The ham has a complex taste that will leave you trying to compare it with previous foods you have tried until you realize there is simply nothing like it in the world. Admittedly, the bread was not on par with the bocadillos offered at Café Vienna and throughout Barcelona, but Philadelphia knows bread.

I made an additional small sandwich on a seeded roll from Sarcone’s Bakery and loved it. Combining ingredients that are among the best from North America and Europe respectively, I think that South Philly’s version of the flauta d’ibéric is even better than the original.

I recommend any sandwich lover head on down to the Italian Market and get the right ingredients and make yourself a truly delectable sandwich. Although the meat is expensive, you really do not need much to appreciate the flavor.

Ingredients:

• – Sarcone’s Bakery long seeded roll
• – Olive oil
• – Fresh Tomato
• – Jamón ibérico