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A Grape Stomping, Endless Souping, & Chocolate Walking kind of Saturday
10.10.09 // Posted in Food & Drink, Lancaster, We Care
I’m currently in a struggle to decide which Saturday night event I will end up at this weekend. Even though I can’t go to all, maybe you can!
1. Moon Dancer Winery Festival
Blues, Wine, Pig Roast, Grape Stomping here:
OR
Donate $20, pick a bowl, eat all the delicious soup you would like, enjoy live music, take the bowl home with you and help feed hungry people
Foods donated by local restaurants:A Loaf of Bread, Bear Cork Catering, Carr’s Restaurant, Dosie Dough, Food Not Bombs, John J Jeffries, Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op, Prince Street Café, Senorita Burrita, This Little Piggy For tickets call Kevin at 717-509-7547 or email at kevin@klpottery.com From KLPottery
OR
Whatever the pleasure, the Lititz Chocolate Walk has attracted more than 9,000 chocolate lovers to Lititz since it’s inception in 2001. A “Chocolate for Charity” event, the Lititz Chocolate Walk brings together some of the regions most talented chefs and candy makers for a fun and unique way of raising money for local charities. From website
Good luck deciding.
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Time meanders through this town at it own stubborn pace. Nowhere is this more true than at P.J. Bar (240 West King Street), a glorious time capsule of a tavern that is probably downtown’s oldest and most overlooked drinking establishment. Pete is the owner, lone bartender, and acid-tongued wit who inherited the place in 1980 from his father, who operated it as Johnny’s Tavern since the 1950s. As Pete freely admits, things haven’t changed much since then. Except for the small t.v. and the erratically updated jukebox (Hank Williams, Aaron Neville, Avril Lavigne, Shakira, and a whole column of unidentified “Greek Music”), you’d be hard-pressed to prove that you’re in the twenty-first century as you down your $1.05 glass of PBR amongst a motley smattering of regulars who mutter things like “Whenever it rains, my body starts telling me the story of my life.” Endearingly odd landscape scenes line the side wall, painted in 1953 by an itinerant muralist for thirty-five dollars and all he could drink. According to Pete, the guy took two hours to finish all three. I haven’t asked him about the deer heads and porcelain clowns along the other wall yet.
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What’s better than Auntie Anne’s warm savory pretzels? How about eating them while watching marching bands, mimes on stilts, jugglers, and dancing elephants running down Queen Street…Auntie Anne’s is having a homecoming parade Tuesday, September 15, at 6:15 p.m. Location Starts at the Lancaster County Convention Center and continues up North Queen Street to the Auntie Anne’s Corporate Headquarters at 48-50 W. Chestnut St.What started as one farmer’s market stand has grown to over 1,000 stores in 43 states and 21 countries. Lancaster is home to the world’s largest hand-rolled soft pretzel company. Come out and watch the spectacle Tuesday night. Hopefully they’ll be giving away free treats.
P.S. - I made up the dancing elephants part. To learn more check out the Auntie Anne’s website.
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La Costena is a wonderful Peruvian restaurant located at 315 W. King Street. The atmosphere was great, the staff was charming, and the food was full of flavor. La Costena’s full menu and more information are available online here. You should probably eat lunch there today!
(I’m not sure what is in ‘Inca Kola: The Golden Kola,’ but it is awesome.)
(Bistec A La Parilla)
(Pollo A La Parilla)
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I passed a tomato plant growing out of the sidewalk on West King and had to photograph it. The concrete couldn’t stop this little guy.
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Captain Gus’ Steak Shop featured on NY Times Blog
09.03.09 // Posted in Food & Drink, Lancaster, On The Interweb
(Photo by Peter Meehan)Grassfed: A new NY Times blog by Peter Meehan featured Captain Gus’ Steak Shop in a post recently. He also shares very kind words about our city and all it has to offer.
“Introducing Grass Fed, a new column featuring the culinary ramblings of the food writer Peter Meehan, the co-author of the Momofuku cookbook with David Chang and an all-around good eater.
I did a poor job of getting off of stinky Manhattan island this summer, though there were a few blessed days where I made it as far away as eastern Pennsylvania.
One of those trips was to the charming metropolis of Lancaster, which was full of surprises. I was surprised at how charming it was. At how metropolitan it was. And I was very surprised to be introduced to a variation on the cheeseburger that I’d previously been in the dark about: the cheeseburger sub.” Read More Here…
Captain Gus’s Steak Shop is located at 600 West Orange Street, Lancaster, Pa.; (717) 392-9929
(Sent to us by Cliff Lewis)
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Torres Family Bakery
447 S. Prince St. Lancaster, PA 17603
Abierto 7 dias de 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Photo: (L) Jose and some delicious pastries (R) The bakery front, the name gets a little lost, but just go right on in!
This place is INCREDIBLE. I’m so happy it’s right down the street from where I work!
Jose Rivera, the bakery’s owner, was an accountant in Puerto Rico when he felt a calling to come to Lancaster. He says the Lord lead him to be the new owner of this bakery and His annointing is over it.
All I can say is, AMEN. This food has to be blessed. Especially the bread!
Jose told us that not only is this the only Puerto Rican Bakery in Lancaster, but people come from Harrisburg and Chambersburg just to bite into their bread.
My dear friend Evelyn informed me that Pan de Agua is a traditonal bread. Bakeries are a staple in Puerto Rico, and there are several in each town. Islanders eat bread with their coffee in the morning as well as sandwiches for lunch.
I might need to join that tradition.
Below: (L) Mango Ice! only 75 cents (R) Another satisfied customer
Below: (L) This is an AMAZING pork sandwich (Sandwich de Pernil) on toasty Puerto Rican bread (R) Kate with 1 sandwich, that’s only 1 order! For $7. I could NOT believe it.
Below: (L) My friend Evelyn’s favorite Puff Pastry with tropical fruit filling (R) And one of my favorite drinks, Coco Rico, a coconut soda
Location!
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Nestled on the west side of town in the area known as the 10th Ward, sits Crystal Park. This small neighborhood park was erected on the ruins of one of Lancaster’s oldest brewery, Rieker Star Brewery. During the late 1800’s to early 1900’s Reiker’s was producing more the 50,000 barrels of beer a year. However, by 1920 Lancaster and the rest of the nation were entering a new era…prohibition. All Brewery’s had their operations shut down by the government at this time, but Reikers wasn’t ready to quit.
During this time the Reiker family leased the control of the brewery in a shady deal with Mobsters reportedly from Reading, Pennsylvania. The Mobsters are said to have hired “sewer elves” (local little people) to run rubber brewery tubing North (East) up King Street to above Orange Street to a Garage. The 18″ access opening provided the only discreet way of transporting the beer from the Brewery to the distribution point. It has been said that the first batch of beer to reach the garage was lukewarm and was void of any alcohol. When the route of the hoses were traced back to the Reikers, it was discovered that a local laundry and cleaner was dumping their waste water down a sewer drain that ran parallel to the Reikers distribution line. The boiling hot water was actually boiling out the alcohol and providing the suds- deprived Lancasterians with a very undesirable brew.
After the Prohibition ended, 1933-1938; it was known by the trademarks the Penn Star Brewery and the Penn-Star Brewery Co. The Brewery officially closed it’s doors in 1938.
By 1941, the Massive six floor buildings were demolished, so that the efforts to win World War II could be aided by salvaging any materials that could be used. Eventually the land would be passed on to the park and the Market Saloon & Hotel, would become the now the Historic Blue Star Inn, which kept most of the original building insides and characteristics intact. When the building was demolished they found that, there was a brewery inside the brewery; that allowed the workers to brew without drawing attention.
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In my Baltimore neighborhood I spotted 3 enormous, abstracted black and white photographs on a raised plank in my neighbor’s yard. Looking closer I discovered a mini, man-made forest constructed out of recycled material as well. Who lives here and what is this place all about?
The house is called “Mirkwood Estates” and inside live 4 artists who collaborate on public art projects. The small plot of yard around the house is called the “Tinges Common” and is a dedicated space for vegetable gardening and public art installation. There was a lot of work involved in receiving permission and grants to renovate the plot because it had been an abandoned right-of-way passage for a newly built supermarket next to the house. When permission was finally granted to renovate it into an art space, the team named it in memory of the street (Tinges Lane) that was demolished during construction of the supermarket. The people who live here and make it happen are Jimmy Joe Roche, Pete Cullen, Colin Benjamin and Graham Coreil-Allen.
The group hosts gallery art, domestic happenings, experimental sound performances, and spoken word readings in the last week of each month in the dining room and living room of their house. For Lancaster hips who might be visiting Baltimore, the next Mirkwood Performance Space will be Thursday, August 27th at 7pm… and yes, there will be fresh veggies served up from the garden as refreshments. The photographs and man-made forest will stay up in the Tinges Common through the end of the month. Check out more here…
(images via Mirkwood Estates website)
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Enjoy dinner in Downtown Lancaster followed by a free movie in Binns Park. Binns Park is located on the 100 block of N. Queen Street in Downtown Lancaster. Movies begin promptly at 9 PM. Bring your chair or blanket! Popcorn, soda, water and cotton candy are available for sale.
WALL-E is awesome. I’ve never wanted to hug sharp metal as much as I did during this film. Its definitely enjoyable by children and adults alike. Thanks to the Mayor’s Office of Special Events for running this great event. Next week’s movie is ‘What About Bob.’
If you’ve never seen Wall-E. Check out the trailer below.