About Last Night: Philly Cooks Week Tasting Tours

So last night marked the start of Philly Cooks Week, and we celebrated with our first three Tasting Tours–descending with the starving hordes on Midtown Village, North Broad and Rittenhouse Square to eat, drink, eat some more and even learn a few things along the way.

So what did you miss if you were not one of the lucky few to get in on these deals?

How ’bout making pizzas with Jeff Michaud and Marc Vetri then eating said pies around the Osteria kitchen table? Or slorking down oysters and prosecco at Route 6 (pictured above), learning how to turn two pounds of cheese, some tomato concasse and a tinkered-with blob of grocery store pizza dough into a proper Chicago-style deep-dish pie at Garces Trading Co. and hanging out in the kitchen at Le Bec Fin during service while brand-spankin’-new temporary chef Steve Eckherd makes freaky air-dried cauliflower and gnocchi?

We did all that and more. I had one of the more amazing glasses of sherry I’ve ever tasted at Jamonera last night (an Emilio Hidalgo Morenita cream sherry) paired with dusky Valdeon blue cheese, quince paste and hazelnuts (and that was only one of only four tasting courses served there), then skipped across 13th street with my companions in tow to eat fried chicken with hot sauce and excellent drop biscuits and drink beer with John Taus at The Corner, where we hung out for way longer than we were supposed to, talking shit about local restaurants and wondering what the other groups were up to.

Come to find, they were at Alla Spina, stuffing themselves with hot dogs, chicken wings and housemade soft pretzels and washing it all down with flights of beer. Or over at the Ranstead Room, drinking cocktails and learning all about Philadelphia Fish House Punch, which was apparently used to get the fishermen drunk all along the Schuylkil back in the good old days.

It was a good time. And we’re doing the same thing again tonight. And tomorrow night, too. Different places, different neighborhoods, but the same basic plan: eat, drink and be merry. All of which will culminate on Thursday with the big Philly Cooks main event at the old Strawbridges where we will eat all night and drink too much and get weird among a thousand or so of our closest friends.

Tickets for the Tasting Tours are all gone, but there are still some left for the big party on Thursday. You should get yours now if you haven’t already.

Here’s hoping we’ll see you all there.

Philly Cooks Big Event [Buy tickets here]