ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Café Ynez, DeBella’s Comfort Food Fest, Rocky’s director
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
New, gossip, goings-on.
Café Ynez, the rootsy, Point Breezy Mexican diner from South Street doyenne Jill Weber (of Jet Wine Bar and Rex 1516 fame) is looking to March 31 as its grand grande opening. Ynez will pop its cemitas at 2025 Washington Ave., right next to Evan Malone’s (her husband) NextFab Studio. If Jet and Rex are any indication, the Weber/Malone’s have another hit — an all-day one at that — with Ynez. I’ll report back.
Reforms for the prison system in America have a few good friends in Philadelphia. Local artists such as Inga Brown have been acting as mentors through the Open Windows/Prisoners Express program and are currently showing their joint works at Rosenfeld Gallery on Arch Street with the Art, Alibi and an Anonymous We: Collapse exhibition. Tonight, March 13, the Rosenfeld will host a talk with the exhibit’s curators and participants.
Another Philly prisoner advocate, local poet Aja Beech, is one of the principles behind Putting Millions in Prison Doesn’t Make us Safer: Symposium Beyond the Wall on April 15, an event featuring filmmaker El Sawyer and rapper Dice Raw conducting workshops on using art as a tool for justice, along with a performance by spoken word artist Bryonn Bain — a man falsely imprisoned while studying law at Harvard — and Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez. Beech is working with the Mural Arts Program and Robyn Buseman, MS, its Restorative Justice program director. The tax day event will be held at Community College’s Fox Rothschild Center for Law and Society and info can be found here.
Remember how Icepack had the very first news about Philly restaurateur Stephen Starr’s super-sized El Vez and its menu heading to NYC’s financial district/Battery Park? Well, it looks as if Starr’s Vesey Street El Vez is going to get a familiar neighbor: Philly Iron Chef Jose Garces. Hot on the heels of opening ticketing for his Volver, his boutique restaurant at the Kimmel (due to open April 16, tix here) Garces and Brookfield Office Properties announced their restaurant teaming on Vesey Street’s World Financial Center. Garces spot will be part of a klatch of tony dining options and should be done by 2015. Starr’s El Vez should be ready by late spring.
I was sorry to miss one-time Grubstake-r Patrick McHugh’s new Deadeyes’ at the Fire last weekend but am happy that I can feel like I’m at the homey Fire just by looking at the McHugh’s band’s music video for “O Anaheim.”
Lord knows I don’t want to be the guy to advocate sugary eating habits, but I’m pretty certain I can recommend Pure Sweets & Co. The ready-to-pop bakery and coffee/juice spot opening at 17th and Locust will start offering their organic, gluten-free fare on-or-around March 28.
South Carolina-born actor Gavin Whitt gets a crack at portraying Bop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie for Suzanne Cloud of Jazz Bridge fame’s Last Call at the Downbeat, a theatrical experience about Diz’ famed stint at Philadelphia’s Downbeat nightclub in November, 1942. Last Call hits the Red Room of the Society Hill Playhouse on Eighth Street starting April 4.
WHOWHATWHERE: Jamie Foxx hit up HQ Nightclub at Revel in Atlantic City after his show at that casino’s Ovation Hall, drinking and hanging in VIP until night’s end. Country king George Strait was ever the gentleman during his farewell tour stop in Philly at Wells Fargo Center when he hung backstage with folks from The Messina Group and Global Spectrum. Rocky director John G. Avildsen — you know, the good Rocky director — got a City Of Philadelphia Special Citation in celebration of the BluRay release of The Rocky Heavyweight Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He even jumped up and down in front of the Museum just like his pal Stallone once did. Ex-President Bill Clinton was the special guest at U.S. Senator Chris Coons’ annual conference on Africa at The Chase Center On The Waterfront in Wilmington, Delaware. Philly may not have hometown director Lee Daniel’s pilot for his Fox drama Empire with Terrence Howard and Gabourey Sidibe (Chicago has that), but we’ve got How to Get Away with Murder with Viola Davis and director Michael Offer shooting around City Hall just days ago. Keep your eye out, as they’re scheduled for more Center City stuff this week. Imagine Dragons’ pal Nico Vega visited Radio 104.5 performance theater in Bala this week, hot on the heels of pop tween Becky G who stopped at Q 102 in the same building. I’ve been remiss in mentioning the arts-centric Philadelphia Flower Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and its opening soiree. It was sweet. I was just in a bad mood. Luckily, Miss Philadelphia Francesca Ruseio was cheerier than I during her stop there. As always, 102.9 FM WMGK’s John DeBella was the hit of his annual DeBella Comfort Food Fest at Vie for a crowd of invited guests, though I dare say that Cuba Libre chef Scott McLeod’s winning dish — biscuits and gravy with homemade duck sausage, duck gravy, brie-chive biscuits, satsuma tangerine and peppercress — came a close second.
