FYI Philly previews Center City Restaurant Week, Fringe Festival and Philly Unity Cup
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Host TaRhonda Thomas visits some of Center City's top spots for Restaurant Week, checks out the return of the Fringe Festival and much more.
Center City District Restaurant Week
More than 70 Philadelphia dining destinations are participating in Center City Restaurant Week from September 12-24.
The special event offers a 3-course, $40 prix fixe menu for dinner and a 2-course $25 meal at participating spots for lunch.
Each restaurant will be offering a version of cocktails and wine pairings at an additional cost.
Spice Finch will be featuring the Mediterranean menu the Rittenhouse restaurant is known for, with dishes like cheese borekas, chili chicken kababs and steamed clams with house-made merguez sausage.
Caribou Cafe has participated since it opened in 2003, the same year restaurant week started. The French cuisine is authentic, reminiscent of chef and owner Olivier Desaintmartin's childhood in France.
And Samuel's is a new space blending the feel of a diner, a delicatessen, and hip hangout with an array of choices for lunch and dinner, such as fried chicken or build your own chicken salad sandwich.
Restaurant Week is also the launching point for "Dinner and a Show", where participating theaters offer a 10 percent discount on show tickets if you dine at a participating restaurant. That deal runs through the end of the year.
You can also find parking discounts at participating parking lots with deals as low as $9 for Restaurant Week.
Center City District Restaurant Week | Facebook | Instagram
Spice Finch | Facebook | Instagram
220 South 17th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Caribou Cafe | Facebook | Instagram
1126 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
1523 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Chinese mooncakes shine bright at Hong Kong Bakery, A La Mousse
Chinese culture has many celebrations based on the Lunar calendar, causing some holidays to fall on a different date each year.
Sept. 10 marks the 'Mid-Autumn Festival, and the obligatory 'mooncakes'.
On the day, families join together and share small round cakes at a time when the moon is at its fullest and brightest.
The cakes can be found at most Asian bakeries and are typically filled with beans or lotus seed paste, although more flavors and shapes are also being used.
The harvest celebration commemorates family unity, and has been practiced for thousands of years.
See below for some bakeries that make or carry mooncakes.
A La Mousse | Facebook | Instagram
A La Mousse Narberth
920 Montgomery Avenue, Narberth, PA 19072
610-664-6888
A La Mousse Chinatown
145 N. 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-238-9100
A La Mousse South Street
1622 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146
215-546-3888
Hong Kong Bakery | Instagram
917 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-925-1288
K.C.'s Pastries | Instagram
109 N. 10th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-238-8808
Chung May Food Market
1017 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-625-8883
International Bakery
232 N. 10th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-627-5831
Checking out Raising Cane's Chicken, Auntie Anne's flavored beer
Oktoberfest has come early at Evil Genius Beer Company with the launch of a brew in collaboration with Auntie Anne's pretzels.
It's called "Is butter a carb?" And it is the first attempt by Evil Genius to make a lager for distribution. So owner Luke Bowen reached out to Auntie Anne's to make it a delicious success.
The beer is brewed with Auntie Anne's Pretzels and, when you drink it, it pairs perfectly with a pretzel making it "the best of both worlds."
When Raising Cane's cut the ribbon on its newest store near Temple University, it felt more like a college football game with fans running through a pep-rally style human tunnel for a taste of the famous fried chicken fingers.
Radnor-raised Jason Hurle is what Raising Cane calls a caniac. He arrived at 4 a.m., a full five hours before the restaurant opened its doors to ensure that he was among the first 20 customers and thus winner of a free weekly Raising Cane's meal for a year.
Jason was first in line and, while the senior music major is "elated," he's also a little bit scared. "It might be motivation enough for me to actually sign up for the gym," he said with a laugh.
Raising Cane's opened its first Philadelphia location in University City in May and plans three more restaurants in the region by year's end.
Evil Genius Beer Company | Facebook | Instagram
1727 N. Front St., Philadelphia
215-425-6820
Raising Cane's | Facebook | Instagram
1717 N 12th St Unit D, Philadelphia, Pa. 19122
267-691-5054
Philadelphia Fringe Festival is back for 26th season
The 26th annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival kicks off Sept. 8 with about 200 shows, the vast majority of which are from independent local artists.
R.T. Bowersox, who you may recognize from the long-running "In the Kitchen with Bob" on QVC is staging Fresh Ink Shorts at Plays and Players with his wife, Melody.
It's a series of 11 miniature plays, some as short as a minute, stitched together through lighting and music.
The Fringe is known for experimental works. It's a platform for artists to try anything and for audience members, for a small or no fee, to come-as President and Producing Director, Nick Stuccio puts it-with the widest open mind possible.
And while independent local artists are the bedrock of the festival, there are eight curated shows in this year's Fringe.
There's a twist on karaoke called "Spokaoke" where audience members recite a famous speech from history.
A play called "Speech" takes a satirical stab at cancel culture.
"The Path of Pins or the Path of the Needles", set at Germantown's Rigby Mansion, is a dark fairy tale from Philadelphia-based and Fringe perennial favorite, Pig Iron Theater.
Pig Iron partnered with West Coast filmmaker, Josephine Decker, who has directed such films as "Shirley" starring Elizabeth Moss, to create a highly immersive piece with audience members becoming pregnant dreamers trying to fend off a witch who's trying to steal their baby.
It's a create-your-own-adventure kind of experience with audience members navigating scene by scene what they decide to see. There are more than 200 possibilities of the show
"An Untitled Love", a dance piece with dialogue by Kyle Abraham's A.I.M, is a story about Black love with music by D'Angelo. Philadelphia-born and raised Donovan Reed is one of 10 dancers in the show and it is his very first Fringe.
In founding the Fringe in 1996, Nick Stuccio based it on the Edinburgh Fringe. Twenty-six years later, the festival is famous for turning crazy places into performance spaces all over the city.
The festival's year-round headquarters, FringeArts, becomes a performance hub during Fringe and this year there are three other hubs as well, with as many as 30 artists in each hub staging multiple works daily.
This year's festival runs Sept. 8-Oct. 2.
On opening night, there's a party at FringeArts starting at 10pm with a live band and karaoke.
2022 Philadelphia Fringe Festival | Full Performance Schedule |Facebook |Instagram
215-413-1318
September 8-October 2
FringeArts
140 N. Columbus Blvd.(at Race St.), Philadelphia, Pa. 19106
International Unity Cup celebrates the diversity of soccer
Philadelphia's International Unity Cup brings together 48 teams representing 48 different nations across the world for a World Cup-style soccer tournament using Philadelphia's parks.
The event runs through Oct. 8th with the championship match being played at Lincoln Financial Field and streamed on 6abc.
The Unity Cup provides an opportunity for Philadelphia's diverse communities to come together around the world's most popular sport.
Philadelphia International Unity Cup | Facebook | Instagram
Backward Flag Brewing is an ode to veterans
Torie Fisher opened Backward Flag Brewing in 2015.
She used all her retirement money to fund Backward Flag Brewing Company, just outside Long Beach Island.
The space has become a haven for veterans and members of the service industry who have supported Torie and she has repaid the favor.
The walls are decorated with hundreds of patches from visitors who served, representing a range of industries from prosecutors to foreign governments to Torie's own Hooligans patch from her military days.
Her uniform hangs on the wall alongside her wife's uniform, who is currently active in the military.
The beer menu appeals to all beer lovers, with stouts and IPAs named mostly with military monikers but some just for fun.
Backward Flag Brewing Co. | Facebook | Instagram
699 Challenger Way, Forked River, NJ 08731
'Festival O' brings film festival, productions to Opera Philly stage
Opera Philadelphia's 'Festival O' is back on stage for the first time since 2019.
The 12-day festival lineup blends traditional opera with contemporary stories.
It's also the debut 'Opera on Film,' featuring screenings of more than 30 cinematic operas.
The festival includes three opera productions and many performances in between.
The Academy of Music is hosting a lesser known version of Rossini's 'Otello'.
You can catch Toshio Hosokawa's 'The Raven' at the Miller Theater.
David T. Little's world premiere of 'Black Lodge' is a surrealist work that's part film screening, part rock opera concert.
Opera Philadelphia partnered with Conshohocken Brewing Company to debut the 'Hopera' Philadelphia Hazy IPA.
Festival O runs from Sept. 21-Oct. 2.
Opera Philadelphia | Facebook | Instagram
SHOW EXTRAS
Free Events this fall at the Commonwealth Plaza inside the Kimmel Center
In the Plaza | Facebook | Instagram
300 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Wednesday, Sept. 14 in Rittenhouse Square
Ball on the Square | Facebook | Instagram
Souderton Art Jam | Facebook | Instagram
Wile Ave, Souderton, PA 18964, USA
Saturday, Sept. 24
