The Chef of Flanigan’s Boathouse prepares crab cakes at the event

Conshohocken Restaurant Week begins on June 14th and is sponsored by The Londonbury at Millennium Apartments, on Washington Street in Conshohocken. On Wednesday night the apartment complex held a party to kick-off the event. There are 18 restaurants participating in the event including the ones featured here.

The party was held to showcase the new apartment building and included a tour of one and two bedroom apartments, which I believe, but don’t quote me, start at $1700 per month for a one bedroom apartment. My obvious concentration was on the food! It was a fun night with lots of good eats and a great way to meet area residents and sample the local, expanding restaurant scene.

A guest sampling crab cakes and quesadillas from The Boathouse

Ribs from The Boathouse

Quesadillas from The Boathouse

The ladies from Trattoria Totaro

Erin from Trattoria Totaro serves a chicken and tortellini dish to a guest

Blackfish served chilled carrot soup

Jason Mase, The Chef from The StoneRose serves short ribs over mac and cheese

The StoneRose crew Brian Pieri, Jim Maglio and Jason Mase also served limoncello and Prosecco

Spamps served lots of sushi

Beautiful sushi from Spamps ~ photo by Kevin Tierney

Kevin was far more diligent than myself, as well as, knowing where to actually find The Londonbury, (I was on the other side on the bridge for 20 minutes), so he was able to get a picture of the full dish of beautiful, fresh sushi. I, on the other hand, arrived after hungry guests had devoured many of the delicious rolls.

Sushi plate from Spamps that was enjoyed by many

Guests relaxing with drinks in The Club Room at The Londonbury

The Game Room

The Club Room seating off of the pool

A great time was had by all!

Since I arrived late and left early, to be in place for the face-off of Game 6 of The Stanley Cup Finals, I did not get pictures of everything, and not everything that was tasty, photographed well, so since the pictures might take away from the taste, I chose not to post some.

The food from Baggataway Tavern looked amazing as did the pizzas from Pasta Via! Andrew Totaro, from Totaro’s on Hector Street, not to be confused with Trattoria Totaro, which is on Spring Mill Avenue was upstairs, as was Pepperoncini. Gypsy Saloon served a lobster mac and cheese dish which, again I did not think would photograph well. Other participants that I missed, or were not in attendance are (in not particular order):

Spring Mill Cafe

Fayette Street Grille

The Great American Pub

Stella Blu

Guppy’s

Spampinato’s

Theresa’s

Menus for restaurant week are $20 -$35 pp depending on the restaurant and can be found by clicking The Restaurant Week Link.

The Front Window at StoneRose  Conshohocken

It is the first Spring Season for The StoneRose Restaurant in Conshohocken and the front window is officially open!

Unlike most restaurants in this suburban town, The StoneRose has an advantage with this massive full front window. It opens up to provide an open air feeling not found in many places outside of Old City. The closest place, other than actually eating outside, is located in Mt Airy at The Wine Thief. Good Luck getting into either restaurant on a busy Friday or Saturday night as the two restaurants are the hottest restaurants to open outside of Center City in 2009.

Both restaurants are small, owned by attractive young men, or in the case of the Wine Thief, an attractive young couple, however, the owner Chris Simpson, is usually front and center!  Both restaurants use local ingredients and cater to a hip crowd, albeit on the younger, yet more mature side of young. Also similar to the two, is the focus on good wines, although StoneRose is equally passionate about a strong assortment of great local brews as well.

Interior of Wine Thief Bistro Mt Airy

The looks are completely different, yet both offer comfortable, relaxed atmospheres, and each restaurant employs chefs who are passionate about good food, and good service. This spring and summer the big draw beyond all of the above will be the wonderful, warm breeze of fresh air flowing through their dining rooms. Get there early on beautiful days to get a seat by the window.

• The StoneRose is open for lunch 7 days a week in Conshohocken

• The Wine Thief opens at 4PM, 5 days a week (closed on Tuesdays) and open for brunch on Sunday at 11AM in Mt Airy.

A corner bar in your town U.S.A.

Remember the corner bar? The place that people would hang with friends to watch the big games, meet to catch up after work for a drink, and grab a bite to eat. There was always a happy hour on Friday. Everyone knew everyone else. Sure, it was dark, and maybe not the trendiest place in town, but it was usually inexpensive and you knew the menu inside and out. The server knew your name and they knew what you were drinking without you ordering it.

Wait – was that me, or was it my dad? Did that bar exist for me, or did I see it on television? Was that my father’s corner bar? Did you ever have a corner bar? I’ve been in corner bars, but I wasn’t 30 something then. I may not even be incline to discuss how old I was then, if you catch my not so discreet drift! Yet, there were so many bars in the town I grew up in, at the time.

It was not that long ago that people went out to watch games together in “the corner bars.” What has become of the neighborhood camaraderie? Where did everyone go? They are not in the local spots, that is for sure. In search of some neighborhood “flavor,” some friends and I set out in search of the best hidden treasure in the Philadelphia area over the past few Sundays. The results were not only disappointing, but downright depressing.

Our neighborhood bars are empty.

From Ambler to Bala, from Manayunk to Roxborough, from Fairmount to Fishtown, from Center City to West Philly; our neighborhood bars are empty. Our Eagles are playing and the bars are empty. The first week, the weather was nice, so we thought that people wanted to be outside. The next week, we thought the problem was that the small places, without The NFL Ticket, were empty because they were unappealing to football fans.

Then, we finally found some corner bars that had all of the games and they were still empty, however, they didn’t have any real food to write home about. That scenario did not last very long because eventually a bar came along that had food and they were showing all of the games. So, what conclusion can we draw from this? Have we simply outgrown the old fashioned bar?

Are we really ONLY interested in the newest, hottest, trendiest, biggest, next thing to come down the pike?

They are still packing them in at the largest sports bars in town. The prices there are not less. The food is not better at all of them. Yes, some have good food, but that isn’t the draw for all of them. Our neighborhood bars cannot continue to thrive serving 10-15 patrons on a Sunday afternoon. Does anyone care?

It’s Going to be a Good Time Tonight at MaGerk’s!

Happy Hour 5PM- 7PM $1.50 Yuengling, Coors & Bud Light drafts, $5 Martinis, $4 house wines, $5 Crushes

8PM – 10PM $2 Bud and Bud Light Specials

10PM The Bare Knuckle Boxers take the Stage

MaGerk’s Voted Best Cheese Steaks in the area by The Best of Food.com