Playing loose versions of themselves, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reprise their hilariously fictionalized roles from TRISTAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY and reunite with acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom (24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE) for an acerbically witty, largely improvised ride through the English countryside. Tapped by The Observer to review fine restaurants throughout the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, Steve (Coogan) finds himself without a traveling companion after his girlfriend decides not to go at the last minute. After being turned down by everyone else he knows, Steve extends an invitation to Rob (Brydon), and together the pair attempt to navigate the winding back roads of rural England, impersonating popular celebrities such as Michael Caine, Woody Allen and Liam Neeson (among many others) and bickering along the way. Over the course of six different meals at six different restaurants, the ultimate odd couple tests the limits of their friendship, questioning what is most important to them and along the way discover the limits of what they are and are not willing to give up for fame.

The trailer…

So here's the deal: the screening is on June 14th at 7.30p at the Ritz East (125 S. 2nd Street). Leave a comment below, with your email in the proper field (don't worry, nobody will see your email except for us), about why you think the Brits are funny, or a funny Brit, or even somebody who does a funny impression of a Brit. We'll pick fifteen, yep, fifteen, winners at random and they'll be notified by email on Monday. The cutoff will be Sunday at 11.59p. Each winner will be able to bring a guest to the screening.

A note on the screening: while your name will be on the list, it is a fist come, first served event so you'll have to get there a little early to check in and get in line (or as NY Picky would say, "on line") to get a decent seat. Another note: they will be checking for any recording devices and that includes phones with cameras.

The Philadelphia Belle is a big, beautiful riverboat. It's the largest vessel of this type on the East Coast, accomodating groups of 20 to 1,000. (Check out floor plans and more here.) It's available for rental for special occasions. It also hosts regular cruises, including brunch, lunch and dinner options, sightseeing tours, and a midnight cruise. There is also a cruise only option. Prices range from $27.95 – $74.90 depending on day/time/food selections

Messy can't wait for the boat to get moving!

We were given some open bar wristbands for the evening so Messy started off trying one of the Philadelphia Belle's specialty cocktails. It was a mix of elderberry liquor and sparkling wine. Messy found it too sweet, but really, she should have known better. All of the drinks on the menu leaned towards the sweet and tropical. Picky knew better and ordered a standard Grey Goose and cranberry juice. He kept the night going with some Macallan 10 (the only single malt on board) neat and Messy kept the night going with vino.

Dinner cruises include entertainment. We enjoyed the classic covers from this group.

Starter plate was the Italian Market Sampler featuring roasted tomatoes, olives, dry sausage, fresh mozzarella and basil; roasted red pepper hummus with toasted pita; Philly cheesesteak spring roll with spicy ketchup

Lobster bisque with tarragon crème fraiche.

Duck Confit paired with mission fig compote, Roquefort cheese and micro-greens.

Center-cut filet of beef accompanied with roasted asparagus, potato gratin and finished with a red wine demi-glaze.

Rosemary and lemon roasted chicken breast served with asparagus, toasted Parmesan mashed potatoes and thyme-scented chicken jus.

Dinner desserts

While many people on our dinner tour stayed inside to enjoy the music and the bar, we took our drinks up to the observation deck and enjoyed the crisp March air.

Of course, there happened to be a sweet sixteen party going on inside. That was definitely not our scene. Two videos of the dancefloor action on the Belle from that evening.

Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time!

Pics from the evening in 1200px format

For March's taping, the duo (well, Marisa) cooked up some kale colcannon in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day. To go along with the colcannon, some beer braised sausage and shortbread cookies. Everything was cooked up in the new kitchen demonstration space downstairs at Foster's. The colcannon and sausage was delicious. It's a very interesting dish that sounds like a big mishmash of stuff, but it works! And how can you go wrong with shortbread cookies?

If you'd like, you can still make the trek up to 710 W. Girard Ave and buy the same spices from the source, but as of March 2009, Foster's is the exclusive retailer for Tiffin's goods outside of their orange walls. We love Foster's — Messy won a wafflemaker from them in a random drawing and we love that they feature our buddies at Fork You so frequently. However, we highly recommend getting some full meals from Tiffin itself — the malai kofta, in particular, is a must-try. Messy has never had any as good anywhere else in the world!

Tiffin
710 W Girard Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 922-1297
(215) 922-1567
Hours: Mon – Fri: 11:30am – 10pm, Sat – Sun: Noon – 10 pm

Foster's Urban Homeware
399 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 925-0950
(800) 734-8511
Hours: Mon -Sat: 10am – 8pm, Sun: Noon – 6pm

We got to see e at N. 3rd and got to, briefly, meet Alex of Le Petit Cochon. Alex's take is up here. But with Picky's lost contact, and resulting headache and disorientation, we had to grab our vouchers and go, missing all the breast-inspired treats. Yes, that was vouchers plural. We thought we were going to be sharing a Franklin Fountain dessert, but we got one each!

We knew the portions would be huge. We debated inviting friends to share. But, in the end, we decided to just pig out. Our server asked us how many spoons we wanted for each sundae. "Um. . .just one," replied an embarrassed Messy. The sundae is basically delicious vanilla ice cream with a slathering of strawberries and whipped cream. Huge. Simple. Yummy. Messy wanted a few more wafers, but made do with two. Messy could only eat half, but Picky was there to finish it all off. It should be noted that Picky had the unfair ice cream eating advantage having been raised in a family that owned a Carvel ice cream store growing up (he ate a ton of ice cream between the ages of 5 and 20). Here's the recipe for the Broken Hearts sundae straight from the Franklin Fountain website:

Broken Hearts

{recipe taken from The Dispenser's Formulary, 1910}

"…put a slice of BRICK VANILLA ice cream on a 6-inch plate. Cover the ice cream with fresh, sweetened, and slightly mashed strawberries, and over these put sweetened whipped cream; top off with two whole strawberries and serve with two nabisco wafers. Sells for 20 cents. {F. Varney}

The Brothers Berley have revived a wonderful dish (which sells for a bit more than 20¢ nowadays) and selflessly donated 50% of the proceeds garnered from people ordering that delectable sundae for a good cause. We're sad we missed the festivities surrounding the evening's events, but look forward to reading about them from everyone who made it out.

The full list of participating eateries can be found here and M&P will be at our favorite ice cream place in the city, Franklin Fountain eating up, what e called, "one sweet sundae" – we're psyched!

In addition to the various eateries around town and their marvelous creations, there's also going to be a launch party from 4p – 6p at N.3rd and movie at 9p at The Arbol Cafe.

Help spread the word and eat up!

The first thing we noticed was that Ariana has a very cozy atmosphere. The interior is small but not exactly cramped. There is a special no-shoes window table up front facing Chestnut Street, which appeared to seat six. The three of us had a cozy table in the back.

One of the best things about Ariana was the abudance of delicious free bread. We gobbled up so much of it neither one of us was able to completely finish our meal. We began with two different kinds of yummy sambosas, which was the highlight of the meal for Messy. When it came time to order our meals, Messy could hear her brother and sister's voices in her head raving about pumpkins, so she decided to try the pumpkin and yogurt sauce dish (Chalow Kadu, $12), even though she generally does not love anything in the squash family. The dish was tasty enough, but if you don't like pumpkins (and Messy can now confim — she doesn't) you won't particularly like this dish. It was a lot of pumpkin. Picky opted for the Lamb Corma – large cubes of lamb served with a heaping of basmati rice. All in all, this was a good hearty meal with hearty proportions. We don't know anything about Afghani food, but Ariana gave us a decent — if unspectacular — meal.

Messy ***
Picky ***

The final word: Hearty portions in a cozy atmosphere. A plus if you like pumpkins.

134 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3009
(215) 922-1535

The Wrap Shack is literally a shack located on Quarry Street, a little alley street a little bit north of historic Elefreths Alley (in between Race and Arch Streets). The interior of the shack (where all the cooking happens) is decorated with various color printouts of photos from around Philly hung up with donuts of blue tape. A line of Olde Philadelphia Sodas as well as your more widely available sodas adorn the left counter window. Behind the sodas is the large grill where all the goodness is prepared. There are a few tables outside, but the shack is primarily for take-out. The menu indicates that they also deliver and cater. This must be a killer lunch spot for the Olde City crowd, as the wraps are ready in under five minutes.

There are 36 different wrap choices listed on the menu, although we did notice that the printed menu is a little different from menu on the side of the shack (pictured at right). There are eight vegetarian wrap choices listed on the printed menu. One of those is explictly vegan, and the rest are easily vegan-ized. All wraps are available on either white or wheat and cost between $5 and $7, tax included. Aside from wraps, The Wrap Shack has Belgian waffles, salads, appetizers and oven baked potatoes, which come with your choice of three toppings for $3.75. There is an all day breakfast special which looks like a great deal for a hungry person – $6.50 for a Belgian waffle, two eggs and two slices of bacon. They also offer a nice variety of smoothies and milkshakes.

After much deliberation, Messy went with the Honey Mustard Medley ($5) which consists of zucchini, carrots, lettuce, tomato, onions, provolone and honey mustard. Messy expected it to be a cold wrap, but it was warm, wrapped in aluminum foil, and quite delicious. Unfortunately, Messy's lemonade was also warm – but our cheerful server, who was singing along with the radio, was very helpful providing ice, straw and a cup.

Picky had the Freeman ($6.50) which is chicken, bacon, cheddar, BBQ sauce and ranch. The wrap was good — nice and hot. The chicken was nicely chopped up except for one chunk which just happened to be especially hot. Everything was nicely mixed through without huge clumps of one ingredient dominating any part of the wrap. Picky's Olde Philadelphia root beer was flat, but at least it was cold.

All in all, we found The Wrap Shack to be a pretty charming place for a quick dinner on a summer night.

Messy ***
Picky ***

The final word: All the wraps you could ever want. In a shack.

146 N. 2nd St
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 925-1999

Mon-Fri: 9:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Sat: 11:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Sun: 11:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

We haven't tried any of the sodas yet, as we are always lured away by the ice cream. However, the phosphates — "electric sodas with a dash of citric acid" — seem quite tempting as well. Picky did have some root beer in an awesome root beer float once. [Why are good root beer floats so hard to find?] We have tried various ice cream flavors from the long list of choices, including Hydrox cookie [not Oreo!]; green tea; cherry vanilla; and cookie dough.

One of the greatest treats we ever had at Franklin Fountain was a waffle ice cream sandwich, which is made on a freshly made waffle – pressed right behind the counter – and two heaping scoops of the ice cream flavor of your choice, generously topped with hot fudge and whipped cream. It was absolutely delectible, and one order is definitely more than enough for two.

Another incredible creation is their Mt. Vesuvius, which consists of a "mountain" of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, topped with chocolate brownie pieces, hot fudge, whipped cream, and malt powder. Messy found it a little heavy on the malt. This one is definitely not for the feint of heart if you can't take a heaping of chocolate explosion.

On our most recent visit, Messy, being Messy, dropped her cone on the floor on the floor and a friendly server said, "Oh no! Did you drop your cone?" And replaced it, for free, immediately.

We love this place, and it's open till midnight on the weekends. It's really the only post movie, non-alcoholic treat place in Olde City. And Messy finds this mustachioed fellow to be a real treat as well.

This photo was taken in March of 2006.

Update with some cool info from their August 2007 newsletter:
An 'Earful' of Environmental Effort
Although we recycle everything possibly in house, we've rethought our paper & plastic goods and have come up with corn options we didn't know existed. That is, for those who haven't explored such worlds… companies like Fabri-Kal and other "green" companies use 100% corn to make our take-away 'what look like plastic/polystyrene' cups. It is amazing, exciting and next year-we'll have The Franklin Fountain logo printed on all corn cups (which have a 50-day compost date from the time it is trashed). We're also experimenting with corn-based 'plastic' spoons and straws for the same reasons. As one manufacturer asks, would you rather support an Arab oil sheik or a Mid-western corn farmer? In addition, we're also looking into having our ice cream containers pre-printed by an old Philadelphia oyster box maker.

Messy *****
Picky *****

The final word: A delicious timewarp.

Franklin Fountain
116 Market St
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 627-1899
Summer Hours:
Sun – Th: Noon – 11pm
Fri & Sat: Noon – Midnight

After wandering around Olde City on Easter Sunday when most of the restaurants that were open had hefty price-tags, were were hesitant to try Kisso at first. But we were also really hungry, and Messy was craving Japanese, so we figured we'd give ourselves a treat. To our pleasant surprise, Kisso is not super fancy: the inside is all rusty orange colored walls with no decorations save for one set of shelves displaying fancy sake bottles. (As far as we know, these bottles were for show only, as Kisso is BYOB). Everything is minimalist and clean (except for the carpet, which is kind of dingy). The space is quite intimate, with room for maybe 30 people or so. The sushi bar was manned by two chefs and a host and hostess who cheerfully greeted each new set of patrons.

The service was absolutely excellent. Our server refilled our water as soon as we got down to 3/4 of a cup. He kindly let us know that our sushi was ready and asked if Messy would prefer to finish her salad first. Speaking of Messy's avocado salad – it was awesome. Not only did it include a full sliced avocado, but it also had all kinds of other goodies like cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red peppers, carrots, asparagus, lettuce, and a piece of lemon, all topped with a delicous carrot-ginger dressing. Messy also enjoyed the veggie maki, which managed to fit in an inordinate number of fillings: avocado, cucumber, asparagus, tomato, lettuce, and at least two unidentifiable pickled vegetables. It was only five pieces, but they were large and filling. In fact, they were a little too large for Messy to comfortably eat in one bite. Messy also had the inari: tofu skins stuffed with rice, which were sweet enough to eat as dessert.

Picky is slowly branching out in his liking of Japanese fare which is normally relegated to California rolls. After our trip to Morimoto where Picky had his first spicy tuna roll, he's wanted to try another one. He ordered a spicy tuna roll, a California roll and a Philly roll. The Philly roll consists of crab strips, cucumber and cream cheese in an inside out roll, which makes for an odd taste and texture combination. Picky's food was brought out artfully, on a large black stoneware circular plate. The mini kettle holding the soy sauce was an elegant black stoneware piece as well.

Kisso is no Morimoto, but what is? Kisso wins out in it's intimate setting and if you snag a window seat on a nice Spring day as we did, you get a gorgeous view of cherry blossom trees. Neither of us are fans of slabs of raw fish on a hunk of rice so we can't tell you how their nigiri is, but rest assured that the maki we sampled were great.

Messy ****
Picky ***1/2

The final word: Japenese food that looks and tastes good, in a simple, welcoming atmosphere.

Kisso
205 N 4th St
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-922-1770
Lunch: Mon – Fri: Noon – 2.30pm, Sat & Sun closed
Dinner: Mon -Thu: 5pm – 10pm, Fri – Sat: 5pm – 11pm, Sun: 5p – 10p