Last month, Aljazeera became the latest offering in the burgeoning African/Middle Eastern food scene developing on the 4400 block of Chestnut Street. The latest eatery to take over 4403 Chestnut Street, former home to the short-lived Sudanese joint Al Khartoum Echo, might be also West Philly’s first-ever Middle Eastern buffet.

Owned by Samir Kassem of Upper Darby’s Falafel Exotic Cuisine, Aljazeera features an all-day, all-you-can-eat Halal spread of Middle Eastern staples like moussaka, yellow rice, stuffed zucchini, chicken curry, and beans with lamb meat for a flat price of $10.95. But guests visiting the new restaurant won’t taste dishes from just one Middle Eastern nation. According to the 48-year-old Kassem, who also acts as cook and manager, the daily-changing buffet menu represents the flavors of all countries in the region (he said he named the buffet Aljazeera, which means “The Island” in Arabic, for this fact.)

When West Philly Local visited Aljazeera yesterday, we had found ourselves standing in a dressed-down joint with a few tables and chairs, a simple buffet set up, and a few local residents chatting away. We had a chance to sample some of those buffet dishes upon the owner’s request and found ourselves noshing on hearty (albeit a tad greasy) home-style delicacies with just the right amount of salt, and a subtle but lingering kick. In the words of Kassem: It’s like your mama’s cooking. Continue Reading

We have some good news and some bad news for those who were anticipating a new date in July for the Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll after it was cancelled last week due to rain. The merchants have not been able to agree on a reschedule date so there will be no stroll until September, according to University City District’s Mark Christman. The next (and only) scheduled Stroll this year is on September 12, 2013 and we hope that the weather will be more favorable for this popular community event next time.

Another great way to try some of the best food in the area – though not for $1 – is the 9th University City Dining Days, which kicks off July 18. Some 29 West Philly restaurants are participating in the event and taking reservations now. As always, you can select a dining option that works best for your palate (and your wallet!) out of the list of restaurants participating in the “3 courses, 3 prices” promotion – a pre-fixe three-course dinner special for $15, $25 or $35. The list includes both most popular dining destinations, like Dock Street Brewery or Jose Garces’ Distrito, and newcomers, such as Han Dynasty, Harvest Seasonal and Doc Magrogan Oyster House. The restaurants that range from craft beer bars to celebrity chef restaurants to cozy BYOBs to international cuisine are now taking reservations.

Photos via Universitycity.org.

To check out the list of participating restaurants with downloadable menus and to make your reservation, please visit: http://www.ucdiningdays.com/ Note: prices are for dinner only and do not include tax, gratuity or alcohol, and reservations should be made directly through the participating restaurant. University City Dining Days will run until Aug. 1, 2013.

As you may know, a new version of Rx will return this summer when new owners and chefs Ross Scofield and Danielle Coulter reopen the restaurant at 4443 Spruce Street in mid-July.

Under the new moniker Rx The Farmacy, the culinary couple and The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College graduates will revamp the once-busy corner BYOB that closed in 2011 into a home-style farm-to-table eatery. Their brunch, lunch and dinner menus will feature a smorgasbord of fresh ingredients tapped from Pennsylvania and New Jersey farm networks, and sausage and bacon made in-house. They’ll also steer away from GMO-saturated products, opting for peanut oil instead of the much-maligned corn and canola oils.

In other words: box pasta and frozen fish need not apply.

Don’t expect the “farm-to-table” catchphrase to monopolize Rx The Farmacy’s attention, though. It’s more of a lifestyle than an attraction—a hushed marriage between local, healthy, sustainable food and the laid-back dining experience. But if you consider Scofield’s childhood in Woodstown, New Jersey, this inconspicuous approach makes sense. After all, growing up in South Jersey’s farming community meant harvesting fresh vegetables right in his Greek family’s own backyard and using them in every meal. Continue Reading

Photos by Dylan Moore.

UPDATE (6/12/2013): The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll has been postponed until July, 2013 due to heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast for this Thursday, according to an announcement on the University City District’s Facebook page posted this evening. We’ll post more information about the new date as soon as we have it.

The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll, the highly-anticipated annual event celebrating local businesses where most things are just a buck, is returning this Thursday, June 13. The stroll begins at 5:30 p.m. (it is always a good idea to get there early to avoid the crowds) and a record-setting 35 businesses will offer $1 deals along Baltimore Avenue, between 43rd and 50th Streets.

Besides the long-time participants, like Milk & Honey, Dock Street Brewery and Firehouse Bicycles, there will be some newcomers who recently opened shops in the area, including Little Baby’s Ice Cream and The Green Tambourine. This Dollar Stroll also showcases new parklets at Fu-Wah and Little Baby’s Ice Cream and the new pedestrian plaza at 48th and Baltimore.

In addition to storefront businesses, food trucks and vendors such as Jimmies Cupcake Co., Sunflower Truck Stop and Lil Dan’s will also be selling $1 items along the avenue. Also, don’t miss live music and entertainment: XPN favorite, The Fleeting Ends will perform live at 46^th and Baltimore, along with fire artists and street performers such as the Give & Take Jugglers. There will be also giveaways, face painting and balloon artists.

If you can’t make it this week there will be only one more stroll this year, on September 12.

Check out the flyer below for more details on what businesses are taking part in Thursday’s Stroll and what they are offering. For more information about this event, visit: http://universitycity.org/baltimore-ave-dollar-stroll

Click to enlarge.

Lois Zucker, owner of Lee’s Hoagie House – a neighborhood institution. (Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

Lee’s Hoagie House, a Walnut Street institution on the west edge of Penn’s campus for 28 years, is closing for good tonight at 10 p.m.

Lee’s owner, Lois Zucker, is retiring and a new restaurant is moving into the space at 4034 Walnut, which is owned by Campus Apartments.

Lois has run the business on her own since her husband Jan died 14 years ago. “He was the heart and soul of this business,” she said.

Lee’s is a licensed chain that once had several independently owned shops. Lois and Jan opened the Walnut Street location in September, 1985. Its closing leaves only two Lee’s shops left in the city. The rest are in the suburbs.

A possibility remained that Lee’s would stay open under another owner. But Campus Apartments, which owns the Lee’s property and is one of West Philly’s biggest landlords, “wanted a change” for the storefront location, a valuable property on a block that has nearly exclusively student housing, Lois said. The potential buyer of the Lee’s license is scouting other locations in the neighborhood.

It remains unclear when the new restaurant, which will specialize in chicken dishes and “savory pies,” will open. There will be extensive renovation to the space.

The Zuckers built their shop around the area’s student presence and Lois said that students returned to the shop long after they graduated.

“The kids now come back with their own kids,” she said.

Lee’s also delivered subs via Fed Ex to Philadelphians or Penn students who had moved out of the region. She recalled sending two hoagies to a woman in Texas who was pregnant.

“She said all she wanted was tuna hoagies from Lee’s,” Lois said.

So there are just a few hours left to get a Lee’s hoagie in the neighborhood. Be sure to thank Lois. She’s the one in the green Lee’s t-shirt and ever-present white apron.

By the way, they don’t have any of their iconic t-shirts left to buy. We asked.

– Mike Lyons

The future site of Dunkin’ Donuts on 41st and Chester (Photo: Annamarya Scaccia/West Philly Local)

A sixth Dunkin’ Donuts will call West Philly home this fall when the franchise opens its doors at 4116 Chester Avenue, just a block north of fellow coffee chain Starbucks.

The new location, which was proposed in February, is taking over the vacant warehouse space on the ground floor of 4100 Chester Avenue, a multi-tenant building housing offices for the University of the Sciences and Veteran Affairs. Once open, Dunkin’ Donuts will operate on the relatively quiet residential block Sunday through Saturday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“We feel that this stable use will provide a great amenity to the office staff and students in the building, as well as to our neighbors and the community,” said David Hess, vice president of acquisitions for Posel Management Company, which owns and manages the property on 41^st Street and Chester Avenue. “More importantly, it will add ‘eyes on the street’ and pedestrian activity to a block that can be lonely at night.”

The Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee approved the Dunkin’ Donuts site after the franchisee and their associates met with immediate neighbors on Apr. 9 to hear concerns, per SHCA’s request. According to Zoning Committee Chair Barry Grossbach, those concerns were then turned into a proviso, attached to the approval agreement, that the owner and property management must adhere to once Dunkin’ Donuts is operating. Among the issues to address: trash removal and pick up, exterior accessory signs, litter maintenance, security, and hours of operation.

Zoning-wise, the space, which has been empty for at least 10 years, was already zoned for a coffee shop, said Grossbach. The only matter the Zoning Board of Adjustment had to tackle was whether it would grant a special exception for a takeout restaurant, which the ZBA did on April 17.

Although the construction of the new Dunkin’ Donuts location has been met with little fanfare, some West Philly residents have taken to the UCNeighbors forum to express their opinions. One poster, Valerie, wrote “from an environmental and traffic point of view, as well as how it affects the residential quality of our neighborhood, Dunkin’ Donuts is not a good idea,” while another, Jon, counters: “Having been in this neighborhood when there was actual blight, such as abandoned housing on many blocks, I think we can handle a Dunkin’ Donuts. Baltimore Avenue seems to have survived the introduction of a Subway, for its part.”

-Annamarya Scaccia