Food & Drink

Judy Ni – Sharing Love Through Food and Mentoring

March 16, 2021 Activist, Food & Drink 38:07

Judy Ni is of Taiwanese decent. She started out in the corporate world, but decided to follow food obsession and enter the restaurant world. Starting at the bottom, Judy worked her way to the top at fine dining establishments in the New York City and Philadelphia area. After some years in Philly at Farm & Fisherman, Judy and her husband decided to go back to her family roots and open a casual Taiwanese restaurant in Philly. They call it Baology, it’s at 18th and JFK and it’s receiving rave reviews.

Judy is also a driving force behind the non-profit Hospitality Together which seeks to create a supportive eco-system to help underserved young adults and training the next generation of Philly chefs at the same time.

LINKS:
Baology: www/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

Alex Tewfik – Inside Philly’s Food & Drink Scene

October 19, 2020 Food & Drink, Writers 49:47

Alex Tewfik is a restaurant veteran, who loves both restaurants and writing. He currently covers the Philly restaurant and drink scene for Philly Mag. He joins us to talk about his perspective and experiences in an industry that’s struggling to survive.

Ambience was always a major factor into the success of most restaurants. We discuss how restaurants are adapting now that most ambience consists of outdoor seating on a picnic table. Convenience and quality takeout has almost surpassed ambience. Alex touches on his fears that only restaurants with deep pockets will survive the pandemic. In a worst case scenario, only chains would survive.

Alex talked about his lessening expectations when he goes out for food. He is actively conscious that people are risking their lives to serve food. Expecting service at the levels before the pandemic just seems unreasonable.

What changes does Alex think remain in Philadelphia? Will streeteries continue? Does the PLCB allow to-go cocktails to continue? Will the restaurant model remain a tip-based industry for servers? Is Alex dining indoors these days?

In a hysterical Blunt Round, Alex details an injury suffered while performing a drunk dance move.

LINK:
Alex Tewfik: Instagram/Philly MagD

NIKKI ALLEN POE – Pot, Police, and Sandwiches

June 12, 2020 Activist, Food & Drink, Politics 40:37

Nikki Allen Poe is a local activist and sandwich shop owner. He recently made headlines when he refused to send sandwiches during the Philly protests and later declared that he would not service police officers in uniform.

Poe is also Philly’s leading cannabis activist and played a pivotal role in Philly’s decriminalization of cannabis. 

We discuss the reaction to Poe’s business decision, his thoughts on the current protests in town, and how he is helping the cause.

We also talked about his previous campaign for City Council and the future of Philly’s government.

LINKS:

Poe on Twitter/Poe’s Sandwich Joint

Joe Gunn – Co-Owner of Pistola’s Empire

May 11, 2020 Food & Drink 00:36:48

Joe Gunn owns Jose Pistola’s, Sancho Pistola’s, and Pistolas Del Sur. He’s also one of the funniest people in the area. He joined us for Bluntcast #12.

Joe Gunn went from bartender at Fergie’s to successful restaurateur now owning three restaurants across Philly with locations in Fishtown, Center City, and South Philadelphia.

He’s also one of the driving forces behind Philly’s annual Beer Week.

Joe talks with us about his transition from bartender to bar owner, hiring and firing people, and dropping out of college. Fergie is an influential figure in Joe’s life and talk about what he learned from Fergie about being a boss. We also discuss what it was like having three prosperous locations suddenly shutting down all at once while he was away at Disney.

We talk about the eventual Philly re-opening and what the future looks like for the local bar scene.

You’ll laugh. You might cry. It’s better than cats.

Stay safe and enjoy.

LINKS:

Jose Pistola’s/Sancho Pistola’s/Pistolas Del Sur

Full Length YouTube of the Live Interview

Dirty Frank’s: The Bar, The Myth, The Legend

November 15, 2019 Entertainment, Food & Drink, History 55:51
There are few bars in Philadelphia that are as universally beloved as Dirty Frank’s. Located on the corner of 13th and Pine since 1933, it is a veritable Philadelphia institution. No-one understands that better than current co-owner Jody Sweitzer, who has worked at Frank’s since 1992 and owned it for the eight years. We talked to Jody about how she landed in Philadelphia, how the bar got its name, and why her bartenders are all women. We also had a chance to talk to some Dirty Franks regulars like Cheetah, one of the fastest bike messengers in town, Eric who first came to Dirty Frank’s while on acid, and Three Finger Bill, who has worked the door for over 20 years. It’s a great look at a historic bar renowned for its characters, and some of the characters themselves. 
 
Sweitzer and her business partner Brad Pierce took it over in 2011, joining a storied lineage. They are only the 5th owners the spot has ever had, made more remarkable when you consider that it opened over 85 years ago. According to legend, it opened the month BEFORE Prohibition ended. That outlaw spirit lives on today. As Philly scribe Drew Lazor described so perfectly in a 2018 Vice article:

Even when Dirty Frank’s changes, Dirty Frank’s doesn’t. Stuck in its ways in the most reverential sense of the phrase, it’s a seam in time, providing safe passage to an older, odder Philadelphia. A gleaming oasis of weird in a town beset by 21st-century slickening, it’s always made people its primary business, no matter who those people are.

 

In truth, Frank’s has always had a “type,” but the profile was not built using banal criteria like sex, race, religion, education or income. It instead takes a shine to individuals who can’t be neatly filed into the natural order, and don’t wish to be—a “crossroads for errant individualists,” as the Philadelphia Inquirer put it in 1982. Curious conversationalists tend to do well.

Hope you’ll give it a listen. It’s an important part of Philly history, and Jody’s passion for the place is palpable. She is not someone who takes her job lightly. If you enjoy it, do us a major solid and give it 5 stars on itunes. If you want us to be in your debt forever, leave a positive review. Cheers! 
 
LINKS:
Dirty Frank’s: Facebook/Instagram
Dirty Frank's owner, Jody, doing post-show shot with Greg and Johnny
Dirty Frank's regulars and podcast guests Eric (left) and Cheetah (right)

Ange Branca – Bringing Malaysian Food and Tradition to South Philly

October 7, 2019 Food & Drink 44:34

This Episode we sit with Ange Branca owner-chef of Sate Kampar on East Passyunk. Ange tells her story of growing up in a small village in Malaysia and coming to the states to pursue a career in business. Unable to find any authentic Mayalsian restaurants in the area and growing disinterested in the corporate world, Ange decided to drop out, gather a bunch of family recipes, and open a traditional Malaysian restaurant in South Philly. It wasn’t easy at first. Ange had to educate Philly on Malaysian traditions such as sharing the meat portions and not the rice bowls and that not all rice dishes come with chop sticks. Apparently some folks are really adamant using chopsticks for any cuisine remotely Asian.

Philly Mag considers Sate Kampar a top 50 Philly restaurant. Previous Philly Blunt guest, Inquirer writer Craig LaBan said of Sate Kampar: There are a few places in the city where crossing the threshold is like traveling across the globe. Saté Kampar is one, transporting on the ambrosia of Malaysian skewered meats sizzling over coals. In 2017 Sate Kampar was a James Beard Semifinalist for best new restaurant in the country.

Reef was unable to make this recording so another The Philly Blunt alum, Fergie, sat in as a guest host since Ange selected his pub, Fergie’s as the location for this episode.

LINKS:

Sate Kampar: Instagram
Fergies: www/Instagram

Jonny Mac – He left it all for a truck and some beans.

August 26, 2019 Food & Drink 43:23

What do you do if you’re a chef and you open a restaurant that is named Best in Philly and your burger wins Best of Philly? You bail out and open a coffee truck, obviously. That’s exactly what Jonny Mac did. He’s the co-founder of Rival Bros Coffee and he’s our guest on this episode.

Jonny Mac stumbled into a job in the restaurant business. A little bit of luck and the perfect timing landed him in one of the best restaurants in Philadelphia, working as a bus boy. He worked his way into the kitchen and the rest is history. He travelled the world for his culinary training, opened his own short-lived spot, then helped to open Pub and Kitchen, which was named Best Bar in Philly and Best Burger.

Then, he suddenly decided to scratch an itch he had for some time and left it all to open a coffee truck in LOVE PARK. The truck was called Rival Bros. Coffee and it has since grown into three brick-and-mortar cafes around Philly.

We returned to Grace Tavern for this interview as Jonny has always been a fan of place and its owner, the legendary Fergie.

LINKS:
Rival Bros. Coffee
Grace Tavern

TOM KEHOE – The Man Behind Yards, Philly’s Most Successful Brewery

May 13, 2019 Business, Food & Drink 35:15

When one thinks of the face of Philly beer, Tom Kehoe’s large, happy, face usually comes to mind. He’s the owner and face of Yards Brewing Company, Philadelphia largest brewery.

A Haddonfield native, Tom started brewing beers with a hot-plate in his dorm room at Western Maryland University—now known as McDaniel College. While in college, he started volunteering and then working at a local brewery. Upon graduation, he moved to Philly’s Manayunk neighborhood and started brewing Yards beers out of his garage.

The rest is history.

Yards now has a 70,000-square-foot facility at 5th & Spring Garden containing a tasting room, brewery, canning line, and private event room. They currently produce over 100,000 barrels of beer each year. And, they have the Brew Unto Others campaign in which they donate three tractor trailers of beer each year to local non-profits to help support their fundraising events.

Tom sat with us at the Yards tasting room, of course. Reef couldn’t make this episode as he’s currently on tour throughout Europe. We discussed the early days of Yards, bringing new products to market, how Philly can make things easier for businesses starting up, Yuengling, and Tom’s early acting career.

This episode’s Philly Blunt segment has listener questions, including one from Philly Mag’s Victor Fiorillo and one from 97.5 Fanatic Morning Show producer Jamie Lynch. In the Blunt, we find out Tom’s finishing move while being a college wrestler and a most surprising song that he’d like played if he was in a movie and kicked in a door during the scene.

Links:

Yards Brewing Company: www/FB/Instagram/Twitter

Han Chiang: Philly’s Most Outrageous Restaurant Owner Talks Being Bullied, Mob Boss Ambitions, and Going to Strip Clubs with the Wu-Tang.

April 1, 2019 Food & Drink, Inspiration 40:02

He may be Philadelphia’s most notorious chef. Legend has it that he’s yelled at customers for ordering dishes such as Sweet and Sour Chicken, and even kicked out diners. He came to the US from Taiwan at the age of 13. As the only Asian in his school, he was often bullied. He’s lived in his restaurants, gone three years without a day off, and somehow became friends with the Wu Tang Clan. He’s got restaurants in Philly and New York, has aspirations to open 100 restaurants and to be a mob boss. He is Han Chiang. 

At age 26, Han Chiang had nothing going for him; he was a college dropout with no steady job or job prospects, and he was spending most days getting high on his mom’s couch. At a friend’s wedding, he realized that if he wanted to have a decent life, he needed to go all in on something. Problem was, he didn’t know much. But he felt like the Philly Chinese restaurants were serving the same boring stuff on repeat, and he thought that a restaurant that served authentic Chinese dishes could succeed. He borrowed some money and opened Han Dynasty in Exton, and after that one found some success he moved on to Royersford, Philadelphia, and eventually New York City. We talked to him about the difference between diners in the city and the suburbs (“The suburbs locations are generally less spicy than the city”), about what drives him (“I’m not in the business to make money. Not really.”), and his favorite Wu Tang Clan memory. (“When Raekwon took me to a strip club for my birthday.”) It’s a remarkable story that’s both universal and uniquely Philadelphian. 

Han Dynasty/Facebook

Danya Henninger: Billy Penn, Beers, and the Future of the Press

February 4, 2019 Authors, Food & Drink 34:27

Danya Henninger is a rarity. She’s from NYC, but considers herself a Philadelphian. She dropped out of an Ivy League university. And, more importantly, she holds a position that few women in the news industry attain—Editor-in-Chief. Danya is the Editor-in-Chief of the Philly news site BillyPenn.com.

Billy Penn is unique in the way it delivers news. They have a staff of full-time reporters that work on original and fascinating news stories affecting all regions of Philly, but they also curate and share stories from social media and other news outlets that they believe are important for their readers. This novel approach to presenting news to readers and Danya’s extensive history of writing about Philly made her an obvious choice for an episode of The Philly Blunt.

Danya arrived in Philadelphia in 2008 and has taken the city by storm. She started out doing food and drink writing. She went on to win a Pen & Pencil local news award for her freelance reporting. She then became culture editor at Billy Penn before becoming the Editor-in-Chief.

We sat with Danya at Brauhaus Schmitz on South Street. She told us about her beginnings in New York City, her short-lived time at Brown University, and how she considers herself a true Philadelphian. Danya is also working with a coalition of Philly news agencies to put forth a more collaborative effort in investigating stories pertinent to Philly and in delivering these stories to all segments of Philadelphia’s population.

Our interview with Danya also contains one of the better Philly Blunt segments to date. For her last meal, she picks a Philly Pizza joint. Which one? You’ll have to listen to find out.

LINKS:
Danya Henninger: Twitter/Instagram
Billy Penn (Twitter/Facebook/Instagram)
Brauhaus Schmitz: Twitter/Facebook/Instagram