Seafood and Beer Night – missed it last week? They are doing it again!

Wednesday August 4th and Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Each course paired with Belgian Beer

TRATTORIA TOTARO

First Course

Red or White Seafood Chowder

Full of shrimp, clams, crab and fish in a creamy broth or zesty tomato

Second Course

Soft Shell Caesar Salad: Soft shell crab sautéed in garlic, olive oil and butter, served over romaine lettuce with fresh ground black pepper and house made croutons, tossed in our cheesy Caesar dressing

Third Course

Seafood Sampler A sampling of fish cooked in parchment paper served over brown rice with grilled vegetables:

Flounder Porto – Sautéed spinach and lump crab meat baked between two flounder filets and topped with port wine reduction and cream sauce, and

Swordfish Putanesca – Sautéed capers, kalamata olives, fresh tomato, anchovy and white wine

or

Cioppino – Clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops and crab in a vegetable tomato broth

served over home made pasta

Fourth Course

Claire’s Chocolate Cake, CapoGiro Gelato or Creme Brule

$40.00 plus tax and gratuity

Call for reservations: 610-828-7050

Spampinato’s is The Italian sister restaurant to Conshohocken’s Spamps on 1st Avenue, just off of Fayette Street. The Spampinato family purchased the now defunct Viggiano’s about a year ago and not only created a more family friendly atmosphere, but dramatically improved the quality of the food.

Owner Mike Spampinato makes the delicious sauces and home made braciole fresh daily. In keeping with the family atmosphere, The Spampinato’s wanted to make their restaurant a place that families would feel at home by creating a more casual environment, thus encouraging parents with young children to dine here on a regular basis.

For the entire summer, children 10 and under eat free! In addition, there are nightly “Family Dinner” specials. The specials were created so that families could leave baseball practice, or the pool, come dressed as they are, and eat a healthy, delicious meal without spending a lot of money. A family can relax and enjoy a wonderful “home cooked” meal without the stress of making it themselves.

Each evening there is a different special entree and it is served with a family-style salad bowl for just $15 per person. Again, children 10 and under can order a child’s dinner for free! So, a family with multiple children can still eat for just $30.00! Spampinato’s also allows you to BYO even though there is a full bar available.

Sunday Night’s Special: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Here are the daily specials:

Sunday: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Monday: Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

Tuesday: Penne and Braciole

Wednesday: Chicken Parmesan

Thursday: Clams or Mussels over Pasta (Red or White)

On the weekends, there is an upgraded Family Dinner for just $25 per person:

Friday: Lobster Ravioli

Saturday: Veal Saltimbocca

To make reservations for Spampinato’s Family Dinners,  call 610-825-3151, or just stop in for dinner and they will find a table for you!

Tonight is Spaghetti and Meatballs!

Mangia!

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.

Sex and the City opens tonight!

The second installment of Sex and the City to hit the big screen should prove to bring lots of ladies out to the theaters this weekend. For most women, Sex and the City is synonymous with cocktail parties, so what better way to spend an evening with your girlfriends than at the movie’s opening  and attending a cocktail party at Manayunk’s sexiest bar!

Sex and the City Two is showing at UA Main Street 6 in Manayunk at the following times:

Show-times for tomorrow night:  3:50, 7:00 and 10:10

The After Party

MangoMoon

4161 Main Street, Manayunk

Thursday, May 27th

Begins at 5:00PM

$5 Coconut Mojitos

Specialty Appetizers

Thai Skewer Menu

$1 Grilled Mushrooms

$1 Tri-color Bell Peppers

$1 Grilled Pork

$1 Grilled Short Ribs

$1 Grilled Baby Octopus

$1 Grilled Chicken Satay

$2 Grilled Scallops

$1 Fried Taro

$2 Sai Klog (Central Style Sausage)

$1 Grilled Beef Meatballs

$1 Grilled Fish Meatballs

$2 Grilled Shrimp

$1 Chicken Livers

$1 Grilled Beef Satay

Cocktail Party will be located in the upstairs bar/lounge

Sex and the City Two Opens on Thursday

The Girls are back on the big screen this Thursday! Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda are partying and so should we!  Celebrate the opening of the movie the same way the girls would, with cocktails and sushi!

Spamp’s in Conshohocken

is hosting a Sex and the City Two Cocktail Party!

When: Thursday, May 27th

Time: All day and night

What: Sex and the City Two “Girl’s Night Out” Party

Come before the show for cocktails and return for the “after party,” featuring

Pear and Pomegranate Cosmopolitans for just $6

And Sushi! Lots and lots of sushi!

And we know Samantha lovessssssssss Sushi!

Samantha covered in sushi from Sex and the City The Movie

Sex and the City Two is playing nearby at The Regal Cinema

Showtimes: 12:00, 12:30, 1:00, 3:20, 3:50, 4:20, 6:45, 7:15, 7:45, 10:10

Tomorrow at Coyote Crossing in Conshohocken

Owners Carlos and Erin are hosting an afternoon of  Yoga and Margaritas!

The Garden at Coyote Crossing

Sunday, May 23rd

12:00 PM

Come gather with your yoga buddies for an afternoon of free food and drink specials to raise money for The National Brain Tumor Society. Also owners of Bikram Yoga Main Line, Carlos and Erin want to get people together for a good cause and for some good, clean fun!

Yoga Poses

Coyote Crossing

800 Spring Mill Avenue

Conshohocken, PA

For more information call 610-825-3000

Brian Pieri and Debbie Flocco

Tonight while The Londonbury held a happy hour at The StoneRose in Conshohocken, owned by Brian Pieri, pictured above, Debbie Flocco, co-chair of AMBUCS Restaurant Rally, was hard at work organizing this Sunday’s event, which raises money for  special athletics programs. The event proves to be quite the gastronomic extravaganza, including 20 local restaurants including Conshohocken’s newest hot spot, The StoneRose, as well as, the area’s best BYO, Blackfish, the popular Mexican Cantina Coyote Crossing, Spamps, The Boathouse and many others including the winner for the last two years, TrattoriaTotaro.

The event begins at noon with a continental breakfast at The Great American Pub. Shuttle buses then take diners from restaurant to restaurant sampling dishes throughout the day until 5PM. An after party will be held from 5PM – 7PM.

AMBUCS Restaurant Rally

Conshohocken

Sunday, May 16th

12-5PM

Tickets are $60 and may be purchased in advance

at Flocco’s Discount Shoes, 110 Fayette Street

610-828-6904 or 484-531-5829

Press

Happy Birthday to us!!!

One year ago a dream was realized. A website was launched that allowed diners to search for whatever they wanted to eat wherever they wanted to eat it. And if you were really lucky, the results from your search would return what you were actually looking for when you started! The Best of Food was born. Lots of hard work, research and many, many meals were eaten to determine the best places to recommend for each category on our website.

We could have never imagined when we set out on this journey the obstacles that we would need to overcome to provide what was our #1 priority ~ USER FRIENDLY, RELIABLE, UNBIASED, RESTAURANT REVIEWS.

A year later, we are OLDER, wiser, and hopefully, getting closer to reaching our goal. We are just weeks away, although 9 months off schedule, from launching our new updated site that will allow for a superior search which will allow for multi-tiered search, as was originally (cough) intended. We will have a slightly new look and lots of new features as well.

We are looking forward to our second year being twice as exciting as our 1st and hope you will come along with us and enjoy everything our local restaurants have to offer. We have seen so many new restaurants open in the past year and sadly have lost many also. If we all remember that our community relies on each other to thrive, and we support high quality,  good service, and local business, our community will flourish.

Thank you for supporting us in our first year!

Here is our official press release:

For Immediate Release:

The Best of Food.com celebrates its 1 year anniversary

Chris Visco and Susan Fedele

On May 12, 2009, The Best of Food.com, the Philadelphia area’s 1^st and only woman owned, comprehensive, unbiased search engine, focused on locally owned restaurants, made its debut. Since that time, owners Chris Visco and Susan Fedele, have focused on building a brand that continues to provide reliable recommendations to consumers, thus building lasting relationships with diners and restaurants.

Unlike other restaurant related websites, The Best of Food focuses on local businesses that offer high quality ingredients often from local farms, and merchants, while concentrating on providing diners with the exact elements of the dining experience which they are looking for in a restaurant. This is accomplished through an extensive database offering the diner search features of over 160 options, which is unprecedented on similar local sites.

The most unique feature of the site continues to be the free Concierge Service which assists diners in making reservations and booking events and parties at area restaurants. This is an extremely valuable service for out of town visitors.

For more information, Contact The Best of Food 267-615-4519

Cinco de Mayo!!!

Risa Vetri Ferman

On Wednesday, May 5th, from 5PM -8PM, Spamps in Conshohocken welcomes Montgomery County District Attorney, Risa Vetri Ferman  behind their bar! Mrs. Ferman, a long time advocate for justice and and protecting the community,  also co-founded Mission Kids in March of 2008, a non-profit organization for abused children in Montgomery County.

This Cinco de Mayo, she will be pouring Margaritas and popping bottle caps off $3.50 Corona and Corona Lights to raise money for The Janie Carbo Fund. Janie was born with one of the rarest diseases seen at CHOP in over 200 years called M.I.D.A.S. A portion of proceeds will go to support finding a cure for this terrible disease. PLEASE COME OUT AND SUPPORT THIS AMAZING CAUSE!

Because this is a FOOD site, we have to give a shout out to the fact that beyond all of Mrs. Ferman’s own personal accolades, YES, she is in fact, Marc Vetri’s sister! ( That’s our shameless call out to foodies from the Philadelphia area to get your butts here to support this cause too!)

Since I have already gone there, I will also add that Risa, going cas now, is a close, personal friend of our family. Her professional support of my father and personal support during the last 6 months as our family has suffered not one, but two personal loses, is unmeasurable.  A mother herself, she is an amazing woman who continues to give of herself to those in need. We hope our friends and family can find the time to come out, for even one drink, in support of this event….

The Event

Spamps

Wednesday, May 5th

5PM -8PM

Proceeds support The Janie Carbo Fund

“All American” Theme

Men’s Night

At Spamp’s

Wednesday, April 21st

7 course Dinner – $20pp

Includes:

• Ribs
• Lobster Mac and Cheese
• Clams
• Corn
• Much, Much more….

For reservations call

610-825-4155