Notes from the Weekend: April 7

Notes from the Weekend is a feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. We'd love to hear all about YOUR weekend eating adventures in the comments. Go for it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)

Adam Erace: AE

Caroline Russock: CR

Friday was the most insane day I've had in a long time. My bro, Andrew, and I signed a lease for a second location of Green Aisle at 2241 Grays Ferry (the old Betty's Buttons/Juice) and I was running on adrenaline and Rival Bros. coffee from Plenty. When things settled down in the afternoon, I had to help C get ready for a girls' night party at my crib, then headed out to Gennaro's to pick up white and tomato pies from Gennaro's. I brought the cracker-thin, soot-trimmed pizzas and the dogs over to my parents' for dinner, ate six slices and promptly passed out in my old room.

Deciding to forgo my usual in the hood Mexican option (The Cantina), we headed up to Fairmount on Friday night for dinner at La Calaca Feliz. Packed with a wait at 9:30, we had a drink next-door at London before landing a table at La Calaca. The Mezcal Mules and guac were solid but I'm thinking that next time I'll stick with tacos instead of apps and entrees.—CR

I fasted most of the day on Saturday, because friends of mine from New York were coming in for dinner at Zahav. I've eaten at Zahav probably a dozen times since it opened and I think the place is better than ever. We had a parade of stuff, a lot of it new spring additions, like ramp puree with the lamb tartare, spiced apricots with the flaky cigar-shaped chicken bastilla and poached rhubarb with the kataifi dessert. The hulking pomegranate-lacquered lamb shoulder, as usual, was the star. Our party of eight tore it apart with two pairs of tongs, but could have easily used our grubby mitts.—AE

On Saturday I woke up and mentally prepared for serious day of spring cleaning with a cappuccino from Ultimo and an excellent bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant from Artisan Boulanger. Most of the day was spent reorganizing my massive cookbook collection and by the time we wrapped up it was midnight. Exhausted and really hungry, we weighed our options (Domino's delivery, Melrose Diner) and opted to do takeout from David's Mai Lai Wah. Those dumplings with ginger sauce are killer.—CR

There was a lot of lamb shoulder left over, so I made lamb tacos for dinner on Sunday night. (Tortillas courtesy of San y Roman of course.) Then we headed up to Ellsworth Street for m goddaughter's eight birthday party. There were Termini eclairs, home-made chocolate-chip cookies and a birthday cake lathered in ice-blue frosting and decorated with a snowman. A winter-themed cake in April? Frozen, my goddaughter explained. Man, I'm out of touch.—AE

Some days it's probably better for me not to reveal my sometimes regretful eating habits but I suppose that's not what NFTW is about. So on Sunday I pretty much just ate some green grapes, a few leftover dumplings straight out of the fridge and a couple glasses of Gruner Veltliner. Ugh.—CR