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Last Friday, I took a break from the glow of my computer screen to walk over to Love Park and check out the Philly Bike Share demonstrations that were taking place (you know, the ones we told you about). Upon arrival, I was greeted by a faux-kiosk, set up to look like it will when the bikes are in place around the city, as well as a number Philadelphians, just as curious about the possibility of bike sharing as I am.

What I learned has me quite excited. The way it will work is that those kiosks will be erected all over the city. You can either pre-register online or simply pay with a credit card when you decide you want to rent a bike. The first portion of the rental is free (they haven’t determined what the length of that free period will be) and then you’re charged small increments of money for any time beyond that initial period. You can return the bike to any kiosk with space when you’re done with it and the whole goal is to have people choosing to hop on a bike when they need to run a short, urban errand, instead of choosing a car.

The bike kiosks are operated by a company called Bcycle that has the technology of bike sharing down to a science. They have built-in sensors that tell them where the bikes are and if they’re in need of service. They’ve also constructed the bikes out of parts that are non-standard, so anyone who has ideas about stealing parts from them must have a very creatively constructed set of tools.

I’m looking forward to seeing them come to the city!

The following is an excerpt from a blog post by local restaurateur and caterer Steve Poses. This is one in a series of features he’s running on area farmers’ markets. To read the full text on his blog, click here.

Rittenhouse Square has a rhythm of the seasons and the days. This is the backdrop to Saturday’s Rittenhouse Square Farmers’ Market which both borrows from, and adds to the energy of the square. There is an abbreviated market on Tuesdays with shorter hours. The Farmers’ Market both benefits from and contributes to that rhythm and the success of the square.

The Rittenhouse Square Farmers’ Market is sponsored and managed by Farm to City, one of two principle organizers of Philadelphia’s neighborhood farmers’ markets. The market runs along Walnut Street adjacent to the square. Nineteenth Street is generally its end point. This year, as more stalls have been added — there are about 25 — the market wraps around on to 18th Street. Saturday hours are 9:30 AM to 3 PM, though on busy days by 3 PM pickens’ are slim. Tuesdays it runs from 10 AM to 1 PM.

At the top of the market at 19th Street is a large and comprehensive stand run by Rineer Family Farms of Lancaster. They also offer grass fed meat and poultry.

The Rittenhouse Square Farmers’ Market is the market I know best. I shop here nearly every Saturday. It is where I look forward to asparagus in the Spring, tomatoes and peaches in the summer and apples in the fall. It helps me know where I am in the world. While I worked on At Home, the Saturday farmers’ market provided a weekly jolt of seasonal inspiration.

Next door to Rineer is the Fahnestock Fruit Farm, one of two fruit specialty stands. These folks, from Lititz in Lancaster County, specialize in tomatoes, peaches and apples. That’s it.

Beechwood Orchards is the other fruit stand with a far wider selection of fruit and berries as well as some specialty produce on a side table.

Here are Beechwood’s Santa Rosa plums and Doughnut Peaches and Elephant Heart Plums. Don’t you just have a try a plum named for an elephant’s heart? Who even knew that there was an Elephant Heart plum?

In the foreground is something I first saw this year. They are variously called husk tomatoes or ground cherries. Under the husk, which you discard, are a little berry-like tomatoey fruit. I have tried them a few times and so far I’m not convinced they are anything but a novelty. But try for yourself.

Not many farmers’ markets have a dedicated mushroom grower. Kennett Square, about 45 minutes west of Philadelphia in Chester County is the “Mushroom Capital of the World.”

A recent discovery for me — and one of my favorite stands is Cherry Grove Farm. They produce world class cow’s milk cheeses in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Can the town that named Philadelphia Cream Cheese embrace a cheese as fine as their Toma Primavera? They also offer grass fed beef and lamb and certified Berkshire pork as well as organic eggs.

Click here to continue reading this post at Just in at Homegrown.

Steve Poses is founder of Frog Commissary. A local restaurateur, caterer and author, it’s his goal to increase home entertaining. Steve’s latest book, At Home by Steve Poses: A Caters Guide to Cooking and Entertaining, was released in 2009. It’s the inspiration for At Home Online, a website and blog designed to make home entertaining as easy as possible with tips, guides and recipes. Click here to subscribe to his e-newsletter. Steve can also be found on Twitter as @SPoses. Click here to follow him.

Oh yeah. Center City District Restaurant Week is back with a vengeance, including that fabulous $20*, three-course lunch option that they launched last Fall.

And of course, Restaurant Week also includes the traditional (and very delicious) three-course, $35* dinner option.

Just to recap, that means that your options are:

- Lunch (55+ restaurants): 3 courses, $20
- Dinner (100+ restaurants): 3 courses, $35

Also like last year, the event is spread over two weeks (with a one-day break on September 18):

- September 12-17, 2010
- September 19-24, 2010

Typical Restaurant Week menus include one appetizer, one entree and one dessert, though RW favorites Amada and Zahav are known to offer several small plates for each course. So do your research, make your list of favorites and book those tables!

Note: Restaurant Week is immensely popular, so we recommend making your reservations ASAP. Or we’ll beat you to it. We’re particularly excited that newly opened Barbuzzo is included in the deal!

*Tax, alcohol and gratuity not included. Make sure to treat your servers well, because for as much as we diners love the deals, they hate them.

More exciting news.

Just a few days after learning about Stephen Starr’s new restaurant opening this weekend at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, now comes word that Wolfgang Puck — the world-renowned master chef and restaurateur — will be coming to Philadelphia to open a new restaurant at the Kimmel Center.

It’s part of a plan to enliven the city’s central performing arts hub.

While the Kimmel Center’s old restaurant, Cadence, was located off street level on the Kimmel’s balcony level, Wolfgang Puck will develop an entirely new restaurant and it will be located on ground floor on the Spruce Street side of the Kimmel, where the gift shop is currently located.

The new restaurant won’t open until fall 2011, but Wolfgang Puck will begin consulting on the Kimmel’s catering offerings this fall, both in the former Cadence space and in the plaza cafe in the Kimmel’s lobby.

More from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Puck’s presence comes through an existing partnership with Restaurant Associates, the Kimmel’s current food-service vendor, which continues its relationship with the Kimmel and be a tenant in the Kimmel’s basement kitchen…

[Kimmel president Anne Ewers] said that the new restaurant, as yet unnamed, will be open for lunch and dinner, and open all the time, unlike Cadence, which was open only around Verizon Hall performance days and times.

The Kimmel Center will also be adding a new high-definition, digitally-animated, 7-foot x 7-foot video cube at the northeast corner of the building, at Broad and Spruce Streets.

Click here to read the full report from the Inquirer.

Kimmel Center to liven up its street look [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Mark your calendars, cocktail enthusiasts! On Monday, September 13 Art in the Age will be hosting a SNAP Cocktail Competition at Liberties Walk in Northern Liberties. Festivities begin at 7 p.m. sharp and will take place rain or shine.

Mixologists from fifteen area bars and restaurants (including Adsum, Valanni and Village Whiskey) will be shaking and stirring up the very best SNAP cocktails they can muster. SNAP is an 80 proof, certified organic spirit that is derived from pure cane sugar and features cinnamon, cloves, rooibos tea and fresh ginger.

The event will be judged by the City Paper’s Drew Lazor, Master Sommelier Melissa Monosoff and William Grant & Sons Portfiolio Ambassador, Charlotte Voisey. Cocktails will be judged on taste, originality and presentation. The event is open to the public and will also feature $5 SNAP and ROOT cocktails from Bar Ferdinand and El Camino.

If you plan on attending, please RSVP by emailing Stephanie at stephanie@artintheage.com.

Traditionally, many of our area museums close their doors to the public on Mondays. However, over the course of the last year, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has been bucking that trend on Mondays that happen to coincide with national holidays, in order to give people who are off from work an additional opportunity to enjoy the museum.

This Monday, September 6 is no exception. The PMA (both the main building and the Perelman) will be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday also happens to be the final day to see Late Renoir, the museum’s current special exhibition. It’s a gorgeous show that we highly recommend! To see a few preview pics from the exhibition, check out our post from June.

This Friday, September 3rd, Penn Environment will be hosting a free screening of the documentary Gasland at The Piazza at Schmidts. The film chronicles the increase of natural gas drilling in our state and the ways in which that extraction is effecting drinking water, the environment and the health of individuals who live in proximity to the drilling.

The event opens at 8 p.m. and the screening promptly at 9 p.m. If you plan on attending, please let the organizers know with your RSVP.

While you’re at The Piazza, makes sure to check out the Burter of the Week at PYT. It’s a Texas BBQ Burger made from grilled pork that’s topped with homemade spicy slaw and Texas BBQ sauce. Sounds pretty good to us!

Next Tuesday, September 7th, head on down to the more westerly end of South Street for the Pumpkin Market First Tuesday Community Festival. The event runs from 5:30-7:30 and is an opportunity to sample products made by a number of local producers, including Joe Coffee, Market Day Canele, Brad’s Raw Chips, Eat Sweet!, Bassetts Ice Cream, Amaranth Baking, Lore’s Chocolates and Mojo Munching.

Representatives from a number of other community organizations and green businesses will be there as well, including Teens 4 Good, Bennett Composting, the Sustainable Business Network and Grid Magazine. The Festival will take place in front of Pumpkin Market, which is located at 1610 South Street. If it rains, the event will be bumped to Thursday, September 9th.

For more about area food producers, farmers, brewers, bakers, wine makers and chefs who source locally, check out Philly Homegrown.

How old was Cleopatra when she died? What is the current capital of Egypt? Who recorded the #1 hit song “Walk Like an Egyptian?”
 
How much do you really know about Egypt and its legendary queen?
 
On Friday, September 10, put your Cleopatra knowledge to the test at “Quizzopatra” — a special night of Cleopatra-themed trivia, fun and revelry at the Franklin Institute.

Quizzo master Johnny Goodtimes will be host, challenging you with questions about Cleopatra, Marc Antony, the Bangles, and so much more.

The event will take place in the Fels Planetarium, where you’ll also get to see a ceiling show, before competing to win tickets to the blockbuster exhibition, Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt.

The evening is free with advance registration and features a cash bar — so mark your calendar and enjoy a Friday night celebration of Cleopatra’s partying.

Quizzo-Patra: Cleopatra-themed Quizzo hosted by Johnny Goodtimes
Date: Friday, September 10
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Fels Planetarium at The Franklin Institute
FREE with advance registration, please call 215-448-1254.
Cash bar available.

Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt [Visit Philly]

Last week we asked you to submit your photo with any of the Phanatic statues around town and you did not disappoint. We did our best to pick five winners, one of which is above (view the other four after the jump).

The statues have been removed from their locations and will be on display at “Phanatic Walk” at Citizens Bank Park beginning Friday, September 3rd through the end of the season. On Saturday, September 11th from noon to 4 p.m., the ballpark will open “Phanatic Walk” to fans — no game ticket necessary.

If you’re interested in the chance to own one of the Phanatic statues, the Phillies are currently holding an online auction where fans can bid on a few of the statues each week. Click here for the official auction page.

Thanks for being such great Phanatic fans and check out this week’s other four winners after the jump.

“Phanatic Around Town” Summer Promotion [Visit Philly]
Phanatic Around Town Auction [Phillies]

(more…)

Earlier this summer, local food lovers congregated at Pub & Kitchen for the first summer happy hour from The Food Trust. That gathering was such a success that they’ve decided to do it again. This time, the locavores (and the people who love them) will be gathering at London Grill (23rd and Fairmount Ave.) on Thursday, September 2nd (that’s this week!) from 6-8 p.m.

There’s no cover charge to attend and proceeds from the event will go to support our area farmers’ markets. And speaking of markets, make sure to come with a few extra bucks in your pocket – the Fairmount Market takes place during those hours and so in addition to tossing back a few with likeminded foodies, you can also pick up a few ingredients for your next meal.

The beginning of September means two things in my book: back to school (though that hasn’t applied to me in quite some time… I should really update my book) and the Live Arts & Philly Fringe Festivals!

Oh, and no more wearing white. But who really cares about that, anyway? Clearly the exciting point here is that the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is beginning this weekend.

That means that hoards of artists will take over the city for two weeks to perform upwards of 200 original productions that will run the gamut from theater to dance to music, comedy, puppetry, and even visual art installations. The majority of artists are Philly-based, but many hail from across the country and even around the globe.

The Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe are actually two separate festivals under one big umbrella.

Live Arts is a curated Festival, with high-profile companies specifically chosen to perform their shows. And Philly Fringe is something of a massive free-for-all, in which anyone with a spark of creativity and the passion to produce a show can hop on stage.

Both festivals host groundbreaking, exciting, and often completely unexpected works in venues all around the city.

The official website is a portal to everything you need. Check it out to find great shows — you can search by artist, genre, location, or even use the online matchmaker to find the perfect Live Arts show for you.

You can also get your surprisingly cheap tickets online, which are further discounted for anyone 25 and under (sweet!).

Also, there’s a handy iPhone App.

Oh, and I’d be remiss not to mention the Festival Bar in Northern Liberties, which springs to life on Friday night and will be open for the duration of the festival. This bar is like none other, featuring art installations, cabarets, dance parties, and rock bands along with the DJ’s. (Full Festival Bar schedule here.)

The Festivals comprise some of the most exciting arts events on Philly’s calendar. So get psyched, and stay tuned for some more info about selected shows.

2010 Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival
September 3rd – 18th
At all times, and all over the city!
www.livearts-fringe.org