South Street is Getting a New Dumpling Automat

Specialty dumplings / Photograph by Daniel Kwak

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome to another thrilling week of the Foobooz food news roundup. We’ve got kind of a quiet week ahead — not surprising with the holidays fast approaching — but it wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t bring you at least a little good news. So, like a jolly, grease-spattered Santa, I bring you tidings of great joy because, guess what?

There’s a New Dumpling Automat

You read that right: A dumpling automat is opening on December 20th at 308 South Street. I really hope doesn’t suck because I love automats and I love dumplings, so I’m super-excited and don’t want to end up disappointed if this whole thing ends up being terrible.

Anyway, the dumpling automat in question is Brooklyn Dumpling Shop — a franchised mini-chain with 8 locations in the East Village, Queens, Hoboken, Austin, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina but, oddly, none in Brooklyn. It’s an operation that serves dumplings (naturally) in little cups, plus dumpling soup, dumpling bowls with rice, fries, edamame and dessert dumplings. There’s probably more, and they seem to go with some regional flavors, too, so you can pretty much guarantee that there’ll be cheesesteak dumplings on the board here. The whole process works like an Amazon locker — you order online or from a kiosk, show up at the location, scan a bar code, and your little automat door full of dumplings pops open. It advertises itself proudly as being “Zero-contact, zero human interaction” which, on the one hand, is a little standoffish, I guess. But on the other? We’re talking automatic dumplings, man. Who wouldn’t want that?

Rather than leaning into the sleek, contactless, future-y, walk-in dumpling vending machine aspect of the place, it’s going for more of a Horn & Hardart feel which plays into their pitch of being a new automat operating in the city where automats were invented.

The new Brooklyn Dumpling Shop will be open every day — 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays, and then 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Am I a little bit concerned with how the last call crowds on South Street might treat an automatic dumpling machine? A little. But we’ll see how it goes.

Moving on…

Philly Has A Bacon Restaurant Now

The Bacon Brisket Sandwich at Bake’n Bacon | Photograph by Morgan Burns Photography

True, for a while there Philly had a bacon-focused food truck. It was called Bake’n Bacon and was run by partners Justin Coleman and Kelvin Alexander.

But as of last week, we now have Bake’n Bacon — the actual, physical restaurant — 2,500 square feet, 80-some seats, and right on the corner of 11th and Ellsworth in South Philly where, once upon a time, Devil’s Den used to do its thing.

But where DD was all dim lights, exposed brick and craft beers, BB is neon and bubble lights and fat chicken sandwiches with thick-cut bacon, bacon-infused BBQ sauce, cheese and onion rings all smashed together between two slices of local brioche. It is a marvel of a sandwich. And while, if asked, I would’ve absolutely told you that the whole everything-with-bacon craze of a few years back had finally burned itself out, just writing that sentence made me hungry, so maybe I would have been wrong.

Owner and Chef Justin Coleman in front of the new Bake’n Bacon restaurant / Photograph by Morgan Burns Photography

As a matter of fact, I know I’d be wrong. Bake’n Bacon has banked heavy on the timeless appeal of sizzling, thick-cut, applewood-smoked pork products since first rolling out the truck back in 2019. It has brought bacon grilled cheese sandwiches, bacon and brisket fries, bacon mac-and-cheese and bacon burnt ends to wherever such things were most needed. In doing so, Coleman and Alexander have become living embodiments of that idiom: Pick one thing and do it well. The thing they chose is bacon. And now, with this new, brightened-up and graffiti-spattered non-portable Bake’n Bacon, they’ve got a full kitchen, bar and dining room with which to push their pork obsession even further.

The partners soft-opened the joint last Thursday as a BYO (they’re just waiting on their liquor license). The plan is to have a grand opening this coming Thursday (December 14th) at 5 p.m., followed by regular public services Wednesday through Sunday nights. For the moment, Coleman, Anderson and their Bake’n Bacon crew are doing dinners only — which is a reasonable way to break in a new space and a new team. But there are already plans for brunch, cocktails, a private events space and, according to the good folks over at Eater, a potential bacon beer collaboration with Evil Genius.

So I guess there really is no such thing as too much bacon.

Now how about some leftovers…

The Leftovers

A slice of Basque cheesecake / Photograph by KC Tinan

The crew at Oloroso are making Basque cheesecakes for the holidays. These things have had a permanent spot on the dessert menu forever, but those are only slices. These are whole cakes, offered in one of three varieties (saffron-apricot and candied pistachio, tart cherry and pretzel crumble or a gluten-free version of the cherry-and-pretzel version), prepped for takeout and available now through January 10th.

Yes, they’re a little pricy — around $90 and up per cheesecake. But if you’re looking to bring a showstopper dessert to a family gathering or just dying for a little Basque flavor over the holidays, this is very good news for you. Pre-orders are open now.

Chef Yun Fuentes’ lechon roast dinner / Photograph by Gab Bonghi

Speaking of holiday takeout, over at Bolo, Yun Fuentes is offering a “Sunday Roast Lechon Dinner” for those who don’t want to cook at all this Christmas. He’s offering a quarter of a whole roasted pig — enough to feed 10 people, easy — plus arroz con gandules, sweet plantains and a sour-orange mojo. That’s $200. He’s also got a less costly option: whole roasted chickens to feed three or four people, same sides as above, for $75.

Cut-off for pre-orders is Thursday, December 21st at noon, and pickup is on Christmas Eve, from noon to 4 p.m. You can order either version of the dinner by sending an email to events@bolophl.com.

Latkes from Dock Street South / Photograph courtesy of Dock Street Brewing Company

In keeping with the theme, Dock Street South in Point Breeze is serving Hanukkah latkes in the taproom from now until December 15th. Homemade latkes, homemade applesauce, non-homemade sour cream — everything you need. Plus beer. Sounds like an excellent way to celebrate the holiday to me.

In case you missed it last week, there was a big ol’ food world kerfuffle over so-called “Wellness Fees” being charged by certain restaurants in town. Our own man in the thick of it, Victor Fiorillo, filed not one, not two, but three stories on the matter over the course of just a handful of days. The TL;DR is that several restaurants were adding a three- to five-percent “wellness” or “employee” fee to customers’ checks. If you read the trilogy together, they’re like a weird epic — covering the complete life-cycle (from discovery to outrage to cancellation), of a single bad idea in the restaurant industry.

If you’re interested in how it all played out, you should really check it out.

And finally this week, if you’re planning on heading down to the Philly Punk Rock Flea Market this weekend (and if you’re not, maybe you should be), the crew from Korea Taqueria will be there, feeding the masses. On Saturday, they’ll be covering the daytime market (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), but on Friday, they’ll be there feeding the crowds for the Night Market (4 p.m. to 10 p.m.). So if you haven’t had a chance to get out to Grays Ferry to try the bulgogi birria at Korea Taqueria’s brick-and-mortar location, maybe you can make it to the 23rd Street Armory at 22 South 23rd Street for the Flea Market. KT started its life as a food cart, so it’s kinda cool to see owners Alex Sherack and Rene Lopez getting back to their roots.