Daphne at the bar serves up Reedy’s immense roast beef sandwich.
It’s an unprepossessing red-brick pub with striped awnings at the corner of Frankford and Arendell Avenue in the city’s Torresdale section. Driving by Reedy’s Tavern, you might not expect it to be much more than a local shot-and-a-beer joint.
Guess again. If you crave unfussy but delicious, well-prepared food, Reedy’s short, simple menu won’t disappoint. The dinner menu features blackened salmon steak, pork chops, and traditional fish and chips. But if you’re looking for rib-sticking bar food, you’ll find offerings like Irish spring rolls (details below), crispy battered fish bits, and a killer roast beef sandwich (also described below).
Guinness and many of the standard domestic brews are on tap, but the place is also known for its wide selection of craft beers. Many more are also available by the bottle.
What really makes Reedy’s so appealing is its atmosphere. It’s a blend of Irish kitsch—from the “Cead Mile Failte” mirror proclaiming the availability of Jamesons to the Phillies shamrock banner over the bar—with an easy-going neighborhood vibe. Reedy’s is dark and cozy, which most of us appreciate in our favorite locals. Simple wooden tables and benches line the wall opposite the long, well-worn bar. The exposed red brick theme continues inside.
Like many bars, Reedy’s appeals to the sports-minded as well, with four extra-large screens showing a Phillies game. (And after the Phillies lost, we watched the USA mens’ soccer team squaring off against the team from El Salvador in a gold cup game.)
The Bogside Rogues and friends were playing their hearts out in a green-walled corner of Reedy’s on the Sunday I dropped by. You can hear live music there—though not always Irish.
The place’s most recent claim to fame is Playboy’s Miss August: former waitress Val Keil, who dropped by the tavern to sign autographs a few nights before I checked in. “She’s a pretty girl,” owner John Reedy told me, “and a nice girl, too.”
If she worked at Reedy’s, there’s no doubt of that.
If you’re going, here’s the intel:
The Special: At Reedy’s, it’s their roast beef sandwich, says owner John Reedy. Customers don’t seem to be able to get enough of them. Make sure you come hungry. This mouthwatering monster, juicy slices of prime beef adorned with bubbly melted cheese on a seeded roll, is approximately the size of a Cadillac Escalade. It’s $9.99 with a pint of beer.
Also On the Menu: Reedy’s had a bunch of really great stuff on the blackboard on the day I was there. Specialties of the day include Irish spring rolls, stuffed with corned beef and shredded cabbage, with dipping sauce; cheddar fries, made with sharp Irish cheddar, Dogfish law, and dusted with Cajun seasoning; Jameson pulled pork; and Guinness stew. There’s lots more on the everyday menu.
On Tap: Reedy’s has an astonishing variety of designer brews to complement the Guinness and domestics (Coors Lite and Bud, for example). When I visited, Reedy’s was serving up pints of Allagash Tripel, Schuylkill Punch Raspberry Ale, and Goose Island Summertime.
By the Bottle or Can: Again, Reedy’s was amazing. Wells Banana Bread Beer, Chimay, Old Speckled Hen, Boddington’s, and Slyfox Seamus.
The Clientele: No question about it, says John Reedy, his tavern is a neighborhood haunt. (You don’t have to live in Torresdale to go there, of course.)
Extras: DJ Pat every Friday night at 9, occasional live music.
Where: 9245 Frankford Ave, Philadelphia.
On the Web: http://www.reedystavern.com
Call: (215) 338-9677
The folks at Tex Mex Connection, a popular eatery in North Wales known for its tasty Southwestern fare, is no stranger to “spirit dinners”—special prix fixe meals pairing food with liquor tastings. They’ve hosted very popular tequila dinners several times.
They’re about to try something a little different—teaming up the spicy heat of chipotle and poblano with the peaty smoke of Irish whiskey and malt.
The restaurant’s first-ever Irish Whiskey Dinner—it’s on for April 18th—will pair dishes such as posole stew with red chile accent and chipotle mustard marinated salmon fillet, with four classic Irish spirits: Kilbeggan, Connemara Irish Malt, Greenore, and Tyrconnel.
It’s not such a stretch, says Tex Mex Connection General Manager Kevin Gross. “The format is not unfamiliar to us,” he says. “It was more just a question of persuading people we could do it with whiskey, and not just tequila.”
The original plan was to do a bourbon tasting, but those plans fell through. Serendipitously, Ruth Dunne, a brand ambassador for Cooley Distillery, which owns the four whiskey brands, was available to host an Irish themed dinner. Gross thought: Why not?
Dunne, he says, will probably wow people with the force of her personality. “She’s adorable. She really plays the part—you expect her to start dancing. Everything about her screams Ireland.”
Once the restaurant had committed to the tasting dinner, the kitchen responded with a mouth-watering four-course meal, marrying influences from both cultures. For example, marmalade whiskey glazed European chicken breast with chorizo apple cornbread stuffing and braised greens, and Irish cheddar, smoked bacon and caramelized onion quesadilla.
Gross was sure the kitchen would be up to the task.
“We have some very talented chefs,” he says. “You don’t need to go full-bore Irish with the food. It’s more pairing the food notes with the notes of the whiskeys.”
If you’re prepared to check your preconceptions about food at the door, Tex Mex Connections is still taking reservations. They’re at 201 East Walnut Street in North Wales. Phone number: 215-699-9552.
Deborah Streeter-Davitt
QVC introduced the world to the Diamonique. On Wednesday, March 13, at 5 p.m., the iconic West Chester-based cable shopping channel will introduce another gem: Deborah Streeter-Davitt’s priceless MacDougall’s Irish Victory Cakes.
Buttery, moist and rich, the bundt-shaped Irish Victory Cakes are a popular item at Celtic fairs, including the recent Mid-Winter Scottish & Irish Music Festival. You can also find them in small markets, or purchase them online. The recipe is a secret, handed down through the generations from Streeter-Davitt’s great-grandfather James MacDowell from Belfast. Cakes come in a wide variety of flavors, from just plain butter to tempting little items chock full of chocolate, butterscotch, or marshmallow—and all of them spiked with just a wee bit of whisky.
Demand for Victory Cakes peaks around St. Patrick’s Day, when Streeter-Davitt and a small workforce of friends and relatives band together for marathon baking sessions in a rented kitchen at Paoli Presbyterian Church. There, they turn out nearly a thousand four-inch “minis,” about 150 eight-inch “petite” cakes, and 20 or so of the aptly named 10-inch “mighty” cakes.
It’s a killer production schedule, but with a high-visibility spot on QVC, this St. Paddy’s Day is going to be challenging. And probably equal parts rewarding.
“St. Paddy’s is our Superbowl,” Streeter-Davitt says. “Production gears up over 300 percent to fulfill corporate gifts, inventory in the lovely shops, restaurants and farmers markets that carry our product, and our increased website orders.”
For the QVC campaign, the so-called “head caketress” has partnered with a team of bakers from the Reading area to produce cakes in much larger numbers. Streeter-Davitt says great-grandad’s recipe will remain unchanged, using locally-produced butter, eggs, chocolate and other fresh ingredients.
Streeter-Davitt concocted a new career as a baker a few years ago following a layoff from her job in the financial services industry. Ironically, a connection she made in her old job led to her upcoming QVC debut.
“When I was working in corporate America,” Streeter-Davitt says, “I met this amazing entrepreneur at an area diner. I saw her again shortly after I launched MacDougall’s Irish Victory Cakes, and told her about my new venture. She asked me for a sample and loved it, and through her incredible contacts and savvy she got a MacDougall cake in front of the buyers at QVC’”
Acceptance by the very particular QVC was nothing like a sure thing. Thousands of items are pitched to the QVC producers, but in the end MacDougall’s cakes made the cut—an outcome Streeter-Davitt attributes to the luck of the Irish—with more than a little help from her old corporate colleague. “This amazing lady was on our side. The buyers loved the MacDougall cake and our story, and here we are … on QVC!”
The story is as rich as the cake. “The recipe is my great-granddad’s gold medal-winning butter pound cake from Ireland,” says Streeter-Davitt. “He baked and beautifully decorated cakes for the rich and famous and royalty of the British Isles. Great-granddad sacrificed his fame and accolade to fulfill his dream of bringing his clan to the United States, where he worked in obscurity for his American sponsor in a tiny bakery in Syracuse, N.Y.”
Great-granddad’s cake, Streeter-Davitt says, is all about family, love and perseverance.
Judging by the incredible success of MacDougall’s Irish Victory Cakes, the tradition lives on.
QVC introduced the world to the Diamonique. On Wednesday, March 13, at 5 p.m., the iconic West Chester-based cable shopping channel will introduce another gem: Deborah Streeter-Davitt’s priceless MacDougall’s Irish Victory Cakes.
Buttery, moist and rich, the bundt-shaped Irish Victory Cakes are a popular item at Celtic fairs, including the recent Mid-Winter Scottish & Irish Music Festival. You can also find them in small markets, or purchase them online. The recipe is a secret, handed down through the generations from Streeter-Davitt’s great-grandfather James MacDowell from Belfast. Cakes come in a wide variety of flavors, from just plain butter to tempting little items chock full of chocolate, butterscotch, or marshmallow—and all of them spiked with just a wee bit of whisky.
Demand for Victory Cakes peaks around St. Patrick’s Day, when Streeter-Davitt and a small workforce of friends and relatives band together for marathon baking sessions in a rented kitchen at Paoli Presbyterian Church. There, they turn out nearly a thousand four-inch “minis,” about 150 eight-inch “petite” cakes, and 20 or so of the aptly named 10-inch “mighty” cakes.
It’s a killer production schedule, but with a high-visibility spot on QVC, this St. Paddy’s Day is going to be challenging. And probably equal parts rewarding.
“St. Paddy’s is our Superbowl,” Streeter-Davitt says. “Production gears up over 300 percent to fulfill corporate gifts, inventory in the lovely shops, restaurants and farmers markets that carry our product, and our increased website orders.”
For the QVC campaign, the so-called “head caketress” has partnered with a team of bakers from the Reading area to produce cakes in much larger numbers. Streeter-Davitt says great-grandad’s recipe will remain unchanged, using locally-produced butter, eggs, chocolate and other fresh ingredients.
Streeter-Davitt concocted a new career as a baker a few years ago following a layoff from her job in the financial services industry. Ironically, a connection she made in her old job led to her upcoming QVC debut.
“When I was working in corporate America,” Streeter-Davitt says, “I met this amazing entrepreneur at an area diner. I saw her again shortly after I launched MacDougall’s Irish Victory Cakes, and told her about my new venture. She asked me for a sample and loved it, and through her incredible contacts and savvy she got a MacDougall cake in front of the buyers at QVC’”
Acceptance by the very particular QVC was nothing like a sure thing. Thousands of items are pitched to the QVC producers, but in the end MacDougall’s cakes made the cut—an outcome Streeter-Davitt attributes to the luck of the Irish—with more than a little help from her old corporate colleague. “This amazing lady was on our side. The buyers loved the MacDougall cake and our story, and here we are … on QVC!”
The story is as rich as the cake. “The recipe is my great-granddad’s gold medal-winning butter pound cake from Ireland,” says Streeter-Davitt. “He baked and beautifully decorated cakes for the rich and famous and royalty of the British Isles. Great-granddad sacrificed his fame and accolade to fulfill his dream of bringing his clan to the United States, where he worked in obscurity for his American sponsor in a tiny bakery in Syracuse, N.Y.”
Great-granddad’s cake, Streeter-Davitt says, is all about family, love and perseverance.
Judging by the incredible success of MacDougall’s Irish Victory Cakes, the tradition lives on.
Chris Mullins, Jr.
The city’s oldest continuously operating bar is now officially the best, according to the location-based social networking site Foursquare. Not that this is the first time McGillin’s has been singled out for honors from local and national media—far from it—but it is the first time the GPS-based social networking site chose the 150-year-old-plus Drury Street tavern to top the “best bars” list, as determined by the site’s registered users.
The longtime Irish watering hole ranked 9.6 out of 10 points, based on “check-ins” by users.
Media praise never gets old, says owner Chris Mullins, Jr. On the contrary, he laughs, it just reaffirms his career choice. “Running a bar is an exhausting but thrilling profession to be in. You can’t do it unless you love it. It’s in my blood. I’m thrilled by it every day.”
Watch our interview with Chris, above.
Fado Irish Pub, 1500 Locust Street, scored a 9.0 for best beer. Fado also scored a 9.0 under “best pub.” O’Neal’s, 611 South Third, tapped in with an 8.9 score; The Bards, 2013 Walnut Street, pulled an 8.8.
/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/magnersham-229×300.jpg” alt=”Magner’s Glazed Ham” width=”229″ height=”300″ /> Magner’s Glazed Ham
You can probably tell that cookbook author Margaret Johnson is one of our favorite people. We’ve asked her for recipes many times, and she has come across with some tasty dishes every time. One of the reasons we go to her so often is that her recipes come right from the source: the cooks, chefs and bakers of Ireland.
To read Johnson’s cookbooks, you might think that this retired New England schoolteacher had been traveling to Ireland since she was knee-high to a butterfly, but in fact she didn’t make her first journey until she was 40. The trip, back in 1984, was a birthday present from her husband.
Johnson grew up in an Irish family, and her grandparents—her mother’s parents in particular, who came from Kerry—never forgot their roots. “That’s all they ever talked about, was the old country,” Johnson says, though she didn’t take it seriously as she might have.
She started to pay more attention later on in life, when she pursued a Ph.D. in English. “I took three or four doctrinal seminars in Irish literature. That was the turning point. I became obsessed.”
The trip to Ireland, on the other hand, was a revelation. “That was kind of like the jumping off point,” Johnson says. “After that, I kept looking for ways to reconnect. I thought about what I could do to keep this connection, and the answer was food.”
Nine cookbooks and more than 60 trips to Ireland later, Johnson has made that connection, and then some. Each book is part food, part travelogue, lavishly illustrated with photos, many of them her own. Her most recent cookbook (which we’ve mentioned before) is “Flavors of Ireland,” published by Ambassador International. Like all of her cookbooks, “Flavors of Ireland” draws on the relationships she has established and nurtured with Ireland’s top culinary artists.
When asked why so many cooks are so willing to share their recipes, Johnson explains: “I am a good correspondent. If I meet someone who has an inkling of an interest in contributing a recipe, I always keep in touch with that person.”
Of course, Johnson doesn’t develop those relationships with the sole intention of getting Ireland’s cooks to part with their recipes. Warm, lasting friendships have developed and blossomed over the years.
With frequent trips back to Ireland and the opportunity to spend each trip savoring the best food Ireland has to offer, you might say that Johnson’s one-time interest and now full-time passion seems like a dream job. She agrees.
“Without question, it really does. People ask, ‘Did you plan it this way?’ and I say, no, not really. I’ve always been a cook, always had an interest in food, and always had a passion for Ireland. I’ve just kept at it.”
Stay tuned for Johnson’s next cookbook, the “Christmas Flavors of Ireland,” coming out in mid-summer.
In the meantime, Johnson offers these two recipes sure to be big hits at your New Year’s dinner party. They’re from from Flavors of Ireland © 2012 Margaret M. Johnson.
MAGNER’S GLAZED HAM
Ingredients
One butt half (6 lb.), bone-in, fully cooked ham
12-15 whole cloves
2 cups Magner’s Irish Cider
4 tablespoons pineapple juice
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon of Lakeshire French Mustard or a similar brand
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Score the ham in a diamond pattern, and stud with the cloves
- In a small bowl, combine the cider and pineapple juice. Place the ham, cut side down, on a rack in a large roasting pan. Pour the cider mixture over the top. Loosely cover the ham with foil, and bake for 1-½ hours.
- In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and mustard. Mix 3-4 tablespoons of the cooking liquid with mustard mixture, and spoon it over the ham.
- Continue to cook, uncovered, basting frequently, for 30-40 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees F. when inserted into the thickest part of the ham. Remove the ham to a platter or cutting board. Cover with foil, and let stand for 10-15 minutes or longer.
- To serve, cut the ham into slices.
KNAPPOGUE CASTLE LEMON CHEESECAKE
Ingredients
Filling
1 3-oz. package of lemon-flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 8-oz package of cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
Zest of two lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
1 8-oz container of plain yogurt
Fresh berries for serving (optional)
Crust
8 tablespoons salted Irish butter, melted
3 cups digestive biscuits or graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the butter, biscuit crumbs, and sugar. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to firm the crust.
- In a small bowl, dissolve the gelatin in the water. Let cool until thick, but not set.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice with a mixer on high until smooth. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whip the cream with an electric mixer on high until stiff peaks form. Pour in the gelatin mixture and continue to mix until well blended. Fold in the yogurt and then fold in the cream cheese mixture. Pour over the crust, cover and refrigerate overnight, or until set.
- To serve, release the side of the pan, and cut the cake into slices. Top with fresh berries, if desired.
For additional info about Margaret Johnson and her many cookbooks and recipes, please visit her website, http://www.irishcook.com
And check out our related links for many more recipes from Margaret Johnson.
