Philadelphia City Paper, February 27th, 2014 by Philadelphia City Paper

[ P H I L A D E L P H I A ]

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Feb. 27 - Mar. 5, 2014 #1500 |

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FOOD | Turning the Tables returns

THEATER | Fox says props to EgoPo ✚ MUSIC | Jason Vieaux nails it

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cpstaff We made this

Publisher Nancy Stuski Editor in Chief Lillian Swanson Senior Editor Patrick Rapa Arts & Culture Editor Mikala Jamison Digital Media Editor/Movies Editor Paulina Reso Food Editor Caroline Russock Senior Staff Writers Daniel Denvir, Emily Guendelsberger Staff Writer Ryan Briggs Copy Chief Carolyn Wyman Associate Web and Events Producer Carly Szkaradnik Contributors Sam Adams, Dotun Akintoye, A.D. Amorosi, Rodney Anonymous, Mary Armstrong, Meg Augustin, Bryan Bierman, Shaun Brady, Peter Burwasser, Mark Cofta, Alison Dell, Adam Erace, David Anthony Fox, Caitlin Goodman, K. Ross Hoffman, Deni Kasrel, Alli Katz, Gary M. Kramer, Drew Lazor, Gair “Dev 79” Marking, Robert McCormick, Andrew Milner, Annette Monnier, John Morrison, Michael Pelusi, Sameer Rao, Elliott Sharp, Marc Snitzer, Tom Tomorrow, John Vettese, Nikki Volpicelli, Brian Wilensky Editorial Interns Larry Miller, Maggie Grabmeier, Edward Newton, Robert Skvarla, Saffa Khan, Thomas O’Malley Production Director Michael Polimeno Editorial Art Director Allie Rossignol Advertising Art Director Evan M. Lopez Editorial Designers Brenna Adams, Jenni Betz Staff Photographer Neal Santos Contributing Photographers Jessica Kourkounis, Mark Stehle Contributing Illustrators Ryan Casey, Don Haring Jr., Joel Kimmel, Cameron K. Lewis, Thomas Pitilli, Matthew Smith Human Resources Ron Scully (ext. 210) Circulation Director Mark Burkert (ext. 239) Sales & Marketing Manager Katherine Siravo (ext. 251) Account Managers Colette Alexandre (ext. 250), Nick Cavanaugh (ext. 260), Amanda Gambier (ext. 228), Sharon MacWilliams (ext. 262), Megan Musser (ext. 215), Stephan Sitzai (ext. 258) Office Coordinator/Adult Advertising Sales Alexis Pierce (ext. 234) Founder & Editor Emeritus Bruce Schimmel

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contents Cover story, see p. 10

Naked City ...................................................................................7 A&E ...............................................................................................16 Movies.........................................................................................21 Agenda........................................................................................23 Food ..............................................................................................28 COVER ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN M. LOPEZ DESIGN BY ALLIE ROSSIGNOL

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naked

the thebellcurve

city

CP’s Quality-o-Life-o-Meter

[ 0]

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey says that an officer’s side job running a phone-sex operation is not against the department’s rules. “So, next time you call 311, please press one for municipal matters, and two for, you know,” says Ramsey. Then he makes a fist with his left hand and starts sliding his right index finger in and out of it for what everybody agrees is an excessively long time.

[ + 1]

Phillies minor league affiliate the Lehigh Valley IronPigs unveil new uniforms that are adorned with depictions of bacon. New merchandise will also soon be unveiled for the Clearwater LOLcatz and Lakewood Come at Me Bros.

[ + 1]

An after-school program is making the sport of squash popular among Philadelphia schoolchildren. “I say, next year we’ll start a fox-hunting club,” says Gray’s Ferry thirdgrader Wedgeworth P. Foppington III.

[ + 2]

[ - 2]

Chickie’s & Pete’s agrees to pay $6.8 million to its workers for labor violations that include improperly taking tips from servers. “I assume you accept CrabCoins™?” Pennsylvania state Sen. John Rafferty says SEPTA should buy PATCO. Yeah, or maybe the one that’s always clean, ontime and runs 24 hours should be doing the acquiring.

[ - 1]

Philadelphia ranks as one of the worst cities for saving money, according to website gobankingrates.com. Not just for the servers at Chickie’s & Pete’s, but for, like, the entire city.

[ + 2]

Councilman Jim Kenney says the renovation of Love Park should include an element for skateboarding. So, to recap: The revamped Love Park will include a fountain, a statue, a skate park, a food court, a parking facility, a sprayground, a velodrome, a gallows, a corn maze and an indigenous population of bunnies that always look cute and never poop.

This week’s total: +3 | Last week’s total: -2

EVAN M. LOPEZ

[ politics ]

TUG OF WAR Developer Ori Feibush has vowed to raise $2 million to win the 2nd District Council race. But his candidacy is already raising eyebrows. By Ryan Briggs

oint Breeze is about to become the epicenter of what may be the strangest, most expensive and, perhaps, the most dramatic City Council race Philadelphia has seen in a long time. The contest has already morphed into a referendum on gentrification, as pugnacious developer Ori Feibush bragged last week about plans to raise $2 million to defeat 2nd Council District incumbent Kenyatta Johnson, whom the challenger has tried to paint as a crony politician who holds back development. With the Democratic primary still more than a year away, Feibush’s early posturing was likely intended as a warning shot to Johnson, who has been viewed as a weak incumbent since his razorthin victory in 2011. But it also caught the attention of members of the city’s political circles, who say the young real-estate mogul’s candidacy could be undercut by political inexperience and potential ethical quandaries that stem from his business interests. Feibush, whose company, OCF Realty, has built and sold dozens of homes in Point Breeze, vigorously countered those characterizations. Let’s begin with the money — $2 million is a particularly large

number for a district Council race, where the average candidate typically drops about $100,000 to $200,000. To an untrained political observer, Feibush’s pledge to raise $2 million could seem like either brash ambition or a gambit to “buy” the election. But veteran political observers simply laughed. “I don’t know where you get to that number and I don’t know what you’d even do with that money,” said Adam Bonin, a local attorney who specializes in campaign finance law. “He’s telling political figures that he’s amateur.” Bonin says that the small number of voters in a City Council district (fewer than 17,000 of the approximate 150,000 residents in the 2nd District turned out for the last Council primary election) severely limits the amount of cash that’s useful in campaigns. Saturating neighborhoods with political advertising can backfire because “voters start to tune out” repeated messaging, he said. Another source familiar with City Council said that while he believed that Feibush would exhaust his donors’ generosity well before reaching his goal, $500,000 to $600,000 was generally considered to be the maximum amount that is useful for such a narrowly defined election. Others commented that making a bold announcement so early in a Council race was foolish because it riled opponents who view Feibush as the face of gentrification and gave more motivation to

It was an early warning shot.

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[ the naked city ]

[ a million stories ]

✚ BULLISH ON OWL TERRITORY Blackstone Development recently broke ground on construction near Temple University of a fourstory, 63-unit residential complex with 38 parking spots and a “bike garage” at 1325-37 N. 15th St. Developer Michael Petri, who is bullish about the Temple housing market, says this project will “cater to the discerning client,” including both students and “young professionals.” “The Temple market is rapidly changing and is no longer just for Temple students,” Petri said. “We’re seeing an increased interest from Temple graduates who are staying in the area.” Petri emphasized that his building would have “many luxurious features,” including balconies, a “large, elaborate” courtyard and on-site staff. “We will lease them, but they are being built as condos,” Petri wrote in an email. “If the

market continues at its current pace, there will be a demand for condos.” While Temple University has seen a major influx of student housing, many have speculated that the market will dwindle as a series of enormous, on-campus apartment projects reach completion. This could be the first new

development that targets potential home buyers and people seeking luxurious housing in this section of North Philadelphia. It’s unclear how residents of the historically low-income neighborhood will react to a crop of new “condos.” —Ryan Briggs

✚ KEYSTONE’S VAMPIRE SQUID The wealthiest Pennsylvanians have captured a growing share of the state’s income over the

past three decades, according to a new report from the liberal Keystone Research Center and Economic Policy Institute. “The levels of inequality we are seeing in Pennsylvania and across the country provide more proof that the economy is not working for the vast majority of people and has not for decades,” according to a statement by Mark Price, a study author at the Keystone Research Center. “It is unconscionable that most American families have shared in so little of the country’s prosperity over the last several decades.” In Pennsylvania, the wealthiest 1 percent captured 51.5 percent of all income growth between 1979 and 2011. By 2011, the top 1 percent controlled 17 percent of Pennsylvania’s wealth, up from 9.3 percent in 1979. The last few decades of deindustrialization and shrinking union power reversed a long era, inaugurated by the New Deal, which saw a decline in the top 1 percent’s share of income from 22 percent in 1928 to 9.3 percent in 1979. —Daniel Denvir

santosstream ➤ Candid photos taken by our staff photographer

BEST OF FRIENDS: Seeking warmth, Chicharron, a chihuahua, snuggles with Violet, a white pit bull, in this photo taken Feb. 19 in my home studio in Southwest Philly. Readers may recognize my dogs. Violet was on the cover of City Paper’s Summer Fun Guide last year and “Cheech” was the model for our 2013 Gift Guide. NEAL SANTOS

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✚ Tug of War

[ the naked city ]

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Johnson to focus on his own fundraising. Feibush was unfazed by all these points. “No one has ever gone to war complaining that they had too much ammunition,” he said, responding in an email. He added that his backers, who include a number of realtors and contractors with business in the 2nd District, were continuing to donate. The developer described himself as attempting to orchestrate an upset victory against established political interests by running a wildly unconventional campaign. Feibush said he would buy TV time and push for support among younger voters who typically ignore local races by opening “10 or 11 campaign offices” across the district, which includes about half of South Philly and nearly all of Southwest Philly. But a political hopeful’s ability to raise or spend a lot of money is ultimately less important than whether or not they can be a good, ethical candidate for office. Lawyers like Bonin, who has defended Council members in ethics hearings, aren’t so sure about Feibush. “I don’t see how he can remain a developer and sit on Council. Councilpeople have a great deal of sway over the developments that occur in their district,” said Bonin. “Whether it’s approving stuff that benefits him and his company, or screwing over opponents, there’s a lot of potential for real problems here.” Bonin cited councilmanic prerogative, the unwritten ability of council members to have final say over development in their district, and City Charter rules that prohibit city employees from profiting from city contracts as particularly thorny issues. When asked what he thought Feibush could do to present himself as an impartial candidate, Bonin took a long pause. “Sell [his] company to a disinterested third party,” he said. From a purely legal standpoint, Bonin is being strict. Although the city’s Board of Ethics declined to speculate on specific issues presented by Feibush’s candidacy, a board official indicated that the rules were clear for legislators with financial interests. “If something … requires Council action and that councilperson has a financial interest in it, he or she needs to recuse themselves,” said Michael Cooke, director of enforcement at the Ethics Board. “That’s what’s required by law.” Feibush responded that he would not only recuse himself, but also accept a host of other selfimposed restrictions. He promised OCF Realty would cease bidding on city-owned land, he would resign after serving a single, four-year term, and would voluntarily forgo councilmanic privilege. He said he believes these steps would actually make him more ethical than sitting councilpeople. “I believe that councilmanic privilege is an anachronism and should be abolished,” he wrote in an email. “As a councilman, I would not involve myself in the decision-making of who gets to purchase any city lots nor the zoning process of any

individual property.” Feibush also said he would refuse political donations from developers, if elected, and would take blocks of city-owned land to open auction. He criticized the recent transfer of public land to affordable housing developer Innova, whose president donated $1,000 to Johnson in October 2013, as a common practice for sitting council people. The councilman’s office called the accusation “baseless” and said the developer was selected out of a group of affordable housing agencies through an opening bidding process managed by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. However, Bonin and others say that even if the developer’s assurances sound like they exceed the baseline for ethical conduct, they were hardly reassuring. In fact,

Feibush would forgo councilmanic privilege. they raised even more questions about how effective a councilman Feibush could be if he were unable to use a power other pols take for granted. “Being a councilman is about all the issues that face the district, not just councilmanic prerogative,” he said. Another source close to Council said, even assuming Feibush had purely virtuous intentions, that it might be impossible to ever truly quell public skepticism. “When you’re a sitting city councilperson, you’re not on a level playing field with anyone. You have people who might normally oppose your [development] who will now be afraid to oppose you because you’re a councilman,” she said. “You have to pick. You either want to be a developer or you want to be a district councilperson.” (ryan.briggs@citypaper.net) C I T Y PA P E R . N E T | F E B R U A R Y 2 7 - M A R C H 5 , 2 0 1 4 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |

IS THE

DE A A defense lawyer for Philly mob boss Joe Ligambi told a jury that the local branch of the Cosa Nostra was a thing of the past. Was he right? By George Anastasia MOB BOSS JOE LIGAMBI is back in his stylish corner townhouse in Packer Park, the one with the black, front-door awning embossed with a bold, white letter “L.” The 74-year-old crime boss has also been spotted, on occasion, driving around South Philadelphia in a late-model black Cadillac sedan, his car of choice for years. But is the veteran wise guy in

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the driver’s seat when it comes to the local crime family? More important, does he — or anyone for that matter — want to be? History indicates that the job of Philly mob boss leads to a jail cell or a coffin. Of the six mob bosses who preceded Ligambi, two were brutally murdered and the other four ended up doing long prison terms. According to sources both in law enforcement and under-

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world circles, Ligambi has told anyone and everyone that he’s done; that he just wants to relax, spend summers in Longport and make trips to Florida when the weather gets too cold. It’s the smart thing to say. But does he mean it? That’s what everyone is wondering. “The problem for all these guys,” says Steve LaPenta, a retired law enforcement investigator who tracked the mob first as a mem-

UNDER ARREST: Anthony Nicodemo, 42, was arrested at his South Philly row home a half hour after a mob “hit” went down in December 2012.

MOB

D? ber of the Philadelphia Police Department and later as an investigator with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, “is that it’s not like the old days. The money just isn’t there. Used to be there might be 20 guys sharing a pie big enough for 40. Now, you got 20 guys trying to get a piece from a pie that’s only big enough for four or five.” Will everyone play nice and share? Or will someone get greedy? Greed in the underworld leads to violence. That hasn’t changed. That’s what everyone is watching for as South Philadelphia wise guys from two different generations find themselves back on the streets. Ligambi has had a foot in both camps and is perhaps the one mobster who can bridge the divide. But if he is stepping down,

then who will play that role? The mob, Cosa Nostra, the Mafia, is a shell of what it used to be. Once a dominant institution, it’s now a minor player in the Philadelphia underworld, where drug kingpins with big guns and even bigger wads of cash dominate; where Russians run sophisticated scams in ethnic enclaves in the Northeast; and where competition for the gambling dollar comes from legal casinos in the city, the suburbs and at the Jersey Shore. “The other thing,” says LaPenta, who retired several years ago but still tracks the local crime family from his retirement perch in Florida, “is leadership. Who wants to be in charge? And is it someone whose IQ is higher than room temperature?” Simply put, the best and the

brightest in the Italian-American community here and in most other cities have become doctors, lawyers and educators. Two generations into mainstream America and the mob is scraping the bottom of the gene pool. That’s one of the reasons it’s all come apart. Consider, for example, the most recent mob “hit,” a South Philadelphia shooting in December 2012 while Ligambi and six associates were on trial. Gino DiPietro was the victim.Anthony Nicodemo, a 42-year-old member of the Ligambi organization, was arrested 30 minutes after the mid-afternoon hit went down. Police found Nicodemo in his home, about five blocks from the murder scene. They tracked him there after a witness got the license tag of the SUV in which the

GOOD TIMES: From left, Ralph Abbruzzi, George Borgesi, the late Frank Gambino, Joey Merlino and Joe Ligambi.

shooter fled the scene.The vehicle, a black Honda Pilot, was parked in front of the row home, which was festooned with Christmas decorations. Inside the vehicle, according to investigative sources, was the gun authorities believe was used to blow DiPietro away. “It was one of the stupidest hits ever,” said a police investigator after Nicodemo was arrested. Nobody ever uses his own car to carry out a hit, he said.And nobody runs straight home afterward. Finally, who in his right mind keeps the murder weapon? Nicodemo is scheduled to go on trial in May. First, there will be a suppression-of-evidence hearing and if things don’t go his way there, “he’s buried,” said a law enforcement source familiar with the case. At that point, does he cut his losses and try to work a cooperating agreement? That’s been the pattern in the local crime family for the past 20 years. Then there was the obnoxious bravado of Damion Canalichio, who was convicted of racketeering conspiracy in the first Ligambi trial that ended last February. (The jury acquitted Ligambi of

five counts and hung on four others, leading to the second trial, which ended last month with one acquittal and a hung jury on three remaining counts. ) Canalichio was picked up on tape complaining about a South Philadelphia lowlife who was showing up at an after-hours club that Canalichio and mobster Marty Angelina owned. Canalichio called the guy “a fuckin’ junkie,” which may have been true. But it says a lot about the character and mentality of local mobsters when a guy like Canalichio, who has two prior convictions for dealing cocaine, has the balls to complain about a junkie. Nicodemo and Canalichio, both in their 40s, are the next generation of the South Philadelphia mob. In many ways they epitomize what has happened to a once secret and supposedly honorable society. In another time and place, legendary Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno could have been the CEO of a company, the president of a bank, a titan of industry. But as an Italian immigrant, >>> CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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TWO PALS: From left, George Borgesi and Damion Canalichio in a photo entered into evidence at trial. Canalichio was convicted of racketeering conspiracy while the jury hung on charges against Borgesi. He was acquitted in a second trial and set free.

certain doors were closed to him. He chose organized crime as a way out and rose to the top of his field. That’s not to justify or excuse what he did, but merely to offer an explanation. Bruno’s murder in March 1980 sent the Philadelphia mob into a tailspin from which it has never recovered. Society was changing. So was life in the ItalianAmerican community. And so was the mob. Omerta, the code of silence, is a thing of the past. Starting with Nick Caramandi and Tommy DelGiorno in the late 1980s through mob boss Ralph Natale and burly mob capo Ron Previte at the turn of the century, the Philadelphia crime family has had more members per capita who have become cooperating witnesses than any other Cosa Nostra family in America. Add to the mix sophisticated investigative techniques, everpresent electronic surveillance and a multi-pronged RICO law

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— that allows the feds to prosecute members for their roles in a criminal enterprise rather than for their participation in individual crimes — and you have an idea how the Justice Department has taken the family apart. In many ways, the local mob has been one of the most dysfunctional Mafia families in America. Call them the Simpsons of the underworld. So, is it any wonder that Ligambi, who has spent more than 12 years of his adult life behind bars, has had enough? He did 10 years for the murder of Frank “Frankie Flowers” D’Alfonso before the conviction was overturned in 1997. After his indictment in May 2011 on racketeering-conspiracy, gambling and loan-sharking charges, Ligambi was held without bail for more than two years while awaiting trial. While portrayed in some circles as a thuggish hit man who happened to be in the right place at the right time when he became

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boss 14 years ago, reality suggests otherwise. Ligambi had a relatively peaceful and, one would assume, lucrative run. He may be smart enough now to just walk away. In the past year, he has beaten the feds twice in a case that has landed 10 of his associates in jail.That case finally came to an end last month with prosecutors announcing they did not intend to try him a third time. It was a victory for the mob leader and his nephew and co-defendant George Borgesi, who was acquitted of a conspiracy charge. Borgesi, 50, who is also back on the street, remains a wild card for those watching where the mob may be headed. He was convicted of racketeering in 2001, along with “Skinny Joey” Merlino and five others. He and Merlino were each sentenced to 14 years in prison. Merlino, 51, has been living in Florida since his release from prison three years ago and insists he has no desire to return to South Philadelphia.

“The only things I miss are the Mummers on New Year’s Day and my family,” Merlino said in an interview last spring. By family he meant his mother, sister and other relatives, not the mob. Two other top Merlino associates who were also convicted in the 2001 case, Steven Mazzone and John Ciancaglini, are back in the old neighborhood. Law enforcement and underworld sources allege Ciancaglini controls mob gambling and loan-sharking in Delaware County, an area where Borgesi once held sway. Do they play nice and get along? Another key figure mentioned by anyone doing an analysis of the local mob is Phil Narducci, 52, a mob soldier who spent more than 20 years in jail after being convicted as part of the Scarfo organization in 1988. Sitting in the Deptford Mall during this past Christmas shopping season, Narducci pleasantly introduced himself and, during the course of a casual conversation, said he had no intention of going back to that life. But law enforcement sources say otherwise. Philip Leonetti, the Scarfo

underboss who became a key government witness, says that the “one guy to watch” is Narducci. “He’s a real gangster,” said Leonetti, who wrote a book, Mafia Prince, about his life and who is now living under a new identity in another part of the country. Leonetti believes that the guys from the Scarfo era who have come home, Narducci, his brother Frank, the Pungitore brothers, Joe Grande and several others, still view Merlino, and to a lesser degree Borgesi, as “punks” — wild kids who used the reputation of the Scarfo crime family to prosper in the underworld after Scarfo and his crew went to jail. Can they all co-exist today? Would they fall in line behind Ligambi, who was jailed in that same Scarfo trial and who later emerged as the “old head” in the Merlino organization? If it’s true that he wants to retire, then who’s the boss? Ligambi’s lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr., told the jury in Ligambi’s most recent trial that the Philadelphia branch of Cosa Nostra was a thing of the past, a hollow organization that had been dismantled by fed>>> CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

ON TRIAL: Nicky Scarfo Jr. , the son of jailed mob boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo, is on trial in federal court in Camden in connection with the secret takeover of a Texas mortgage company.

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eral prosecutions a decade earlier. If Ligambi were the boss, it was a title in name only, the lawyer argued.What’s more, Jacobs said, the feds had built a racketeering case against his client around a series of unrelated gambling and loan-sharking operations conducted not by members of an organized-crime family, but by independent operators who were out hustling a buck by taking bets on sports or by loaning cash at the traditional six-for-five rate. Whether Jacobs’ argument carried the day or whether the government’s case was lacking — one of the anonymous jurors told the Inquirer the prosecution’s witnesses were less than credible — is open to speculation. Jacobs’ premise, however, has some merit. “I tend to agree with the idea that the organization has been dismantled,” said Al DiGiacomo, a former Philadelphia Police captain who helped build the

case in the mid-1990s against mob boss John Stanfa and his organization. DiGiacomo, who now teaches at West Chester University, said that doesn’t mean there isn’t money to be made or wise guys out there trying to make it.“There are alternative forms of income. Look at the case against young Scarfo,” he said. Nicodemo S. Scarfo, the son of jailed mob boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo, is currently on trial in federal court in Camden. He and Elkins Park businessman and mob wannabe Salvatore Pelullo are charged with orchestrating the secret takeover of a Texas-based mortgage company in 2007.After getting control of the company, the government alleges, Scarfo, 48, and Pelullo, 45, siphoned $12 million from it. Their trial began as Ligambi’s second trial in federal court in Philadelphia was ending. While witnesses in the Ligambi trial

testified about $5,000 gambling debts and $25,000 extortionate loans — “penny-ante gambling charges,” said defense attorneys — federal prosecutors in Camden were detailing purchases of Bentleys ($217,000), yachts ($850,000) and lavish homes ($715,000) by Pelullo and Scarfo with money allegedly taken from FirstPlus Financial, the Texas mortgage company. In another room of the federal courthouse in Philadelphia,meanwhile, defense attorneys were negotiating a global plea deal for Joe Vito Mastronardo and a dozen co-defendants in a multimillion dollar bookmaking case. Mastronardo, according to the indictment against him, was taking action from clients who bet $20,000 to $50,000 on a single game. The feds tracked wire transfers of hundreds of thousands of dollars through foreign bank accounts. And they dug up over $1 million cash hidden in

BIG MONEY: Salvatore Pelullo, an Elkins Park businessman and mob wannabe, is accused of siphoning off $12 million from FirstPlus Financial mortgage company in 2007 along with Nicky Scarfo Jr. Prosecutors say the money was used to buy luxury cars, yachts and lavish homes.

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“THE JURIES WERE LOOKING FOR DEAD BODIES. AND THERE WEREN’T ANY.” PVC pipes that Mastronardo buried in the backyard of his Italianate mansion in the wealthy Meadowbrook section of Abington Township. Did I mention that Mastronardo happens to be the son-inlaw of the late law-and-order Police Commissioner and Mayor Frank L. Rizzo? DiGiacomo said the Scarfo and Mastronardo cases are examples of where the money is and where the mob, at least the few mobsters who have the smarts to pull it off, will go. He asks, almost rhetorically, about the high-end customers who once placed bets with Mastronardo. With him out of business, do we assume those businessmen-gamblers have simply stopped wagering? Not likely, says DiGiacomo. He said he believes the Ligambi trials “went belly up” because the juries were expecting a case that wasn’t there. “The juries were looking for dead bodies,” he said. “And there weren’t any.” That’s not to say that there aren’t bodies still to be accounted for. Three major murders that occurred during Ligambi’s watch remain unsolved — the hit on Ronnie Turchi in 1999, the gangland slaying of Raymond “Long John” Martorano in 2002 and the murder of John “Johnny Gongs” Casasanto in 2003. Authorities have names connected to those shootings and

bits and pieces of information upon which to build cases. What they need is what they had in the big racketeering trials that brought down Scarfo in the 1980s and Stanfa in the 1990s. They need someone who was there when the hit went down, someone who can take the witness stand and say, “I shot him (pick a victim) and he (pick a mob leader) told me to do it.” Unless prosecutors are able to get that kind of witness, it’s unlikely the feds will bring another racketeering case against the local mob. In that setting and in order to survive, what little remains of the Philadelphia branch of Cosa Nostra has to remain low-key and go back into the shadows. It has to embrace the old Angelo Bruno philosophy of making money, not headlines. It’s the only way it can remain in play and prosper in a multicultural underworld. But to do that, say both law enforcement and underworld sources, the mobsters on the street have to be smart and circumspect. And that, say those same sources, seems highly unlikely.

✚ George Anastasia, author of Blood and Honor, an inside look at the Scarfo mob family, reports on the Philadelphia underworld for Bigtrial.net. He can be contacted at ganastasia@verizon.net.

a&e

artsmusicmoviesmayhem

icepack By A.D. Amorosi

➤ GIVEN THE PACKED SHOWS at MilkBoy at 11th and Chestnut, the Brü German bierhaus that opened at 1318 Chestnut last year and this spring’s ribbon-cutting for the U-Bahn beer basement at 1320 Chestnut, Center City’s once-busiest (but more recently quite unbusy) strip is again showing vibrant signs of life. So, let’s take a moment to mourn one hot spot that added glitz (and, sometimes, tackiness) to the block, even when it was at its most lifeless: the recently-closed Armand’s at 1108 Chestnut, the classic disco/funk/hop record store whose clientele included any and every DJ worth his/her salt, as well as club entrepreneurs looking to rent turntables, strobe lights and those 360 degree Creative Motion rotators that made doing Special K and Ecstasy a spinny dancefloor treat. ➤ Speaking of Philly disco classics, look for our old friend DJ Robbie Tronco to take control every other Sunday at Lit UltraBar in No Libs starting March 2 with “bi at Sundown,” a night that’s either gay-friendly for straights or straight-friendly for gays. ➤ For well over a decade, there have been many suitors looking to change the Gallery and its tacky surrounding stores. Google will attest to the wealth of rumors (realized and otherwise) on the area that have appeared in this column. My money’s always on mid-range replicated fashion establishments, as opposed to tony upscale places. Word is that Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust agrees, and will more than likely focus on quick, disposable, youth-driven fashion stops and similarly themed food shops. Hey, does that mean Mario Batali’s Eataly culinary megamall, long discussed as a Gallery neighbor, is out of the question? ➤ This spring’s Record Store Day just got a little easier on the ear now that Columbia has announced that it has four unreleased Bruce Springsteen songs ready for 12-inch vinyl on April 26: “Hurry Up Sundown,” and three tunes once-destined for his new High Hopes album: “American Beauty,” “Mary Mary” and “Hey Blue Eyes.” ➤ Philadelphia drummer/entertainment writer/friend to the stars Bruce Klauber says he has doubts about the reasons for the cancellation behind Philly expatriate standup comic David Brenner’s March 1 show at the Broadway Theatre of Pitman, N.J. “The theater’s party line is that ‘David has a medical condition that needs to be addressed prior to him being able to entertain again,’” states Klauber. “While I don’t wish any entertainer to be unwell, I suspect that the cancellation — given that this is a week before the play date — may be due to that all-consuming illness: lack-of-ticket-sale-itis.” Dag. ➤ More ice at citypaper.net/nakedcity. (amorosi@citypaper.net) 16 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |

MISSION STATEMENT: “High-profile musicians have a responsibility to play new music that they really believe in,” says guitarist Jason Vieaux. GMD THREE

[ classical ]

NAILING IT Virtuoso guitarist Jason Vieaux looks back to look forward. By Sameer Rao he first thing you notice about Jason Vieaux, right arm outstretched for a handshake, are his fingernails. His hand is a manicured tiger claw. How does one go in without getting cut? Like Wolverine, can he retract them at a moment’s notice? These nails, these human plectrums, are the required tools of the trade for the career classical guitarist. Released in late January, Vieaux’s 13th record, Play (Azica), reads as a sort of “pop” record on which he tackles composers as varied as Andrés Segovia and Duke Ellington with grace, expressive intensity and flawless technical execution. “My 13th release is kind of a record that most guitarists make as their first one, to introduce themselves to the public, playing these really popular pieces. But when I started out, in the ’90s especially, record companies were looking to — you’d do a CD of a composer, so they could catalogue it at Borders and be found more easily,” says Vieaux. “Now, if you come up with a theme or a storyline, you can have various composers represented. So, high-profile musicians have a responsibility to play new music that they really believe in and promote composers making new music.” These sentiments echo what many within the classical world

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consider a given — that the form needs to evolve with new works — and Vieaux is well-poised to make that happen. The already skinny line between classicist orthodoxy and vanguard progressivism is thinned even further for the guitar, an instrument with some connections to pre-Christian culture that does not have the same presence in classical music as most other string instruments. “Even to this day, the guitar is an exotic instrument, more of an ancillary type of thing,” he says. Most of the repertoire grew in the 20th century, thanks to composers like Segovia. In spite of (or maybe because of) his chosen instrument’s minimized presence, Vieaux consistently attaches himself to genre-transcending projects. Last summer, he performed with a group of renowned Arab musicians working with West Phillybased Al-Bustan and LiveConnections to premiere Kantigas, a guitar-violin-percussion suite composed by Curtis colleague David Ludwig and based on Ladino (pre-1492 Judeo-Spanish) tradition. Future releases, he hopes, will travel through jazz and even hip-hop in a reconciliation of his long-standing interest in “groove-based” music. Vieaux’s longevity, it seems, will be determined by his commitment to pushing toward tradition while broadening its boundaries. (sameer@ciypaper.net)

His hand is a manicured tiger claw.

✚ Sat., March 8, 8 p.m., $24-$51, Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, 314

Linden Ave., Camden, N.J., 856-240-1503, symphonyinc.org.

[ ephemeral flights into dreamlike impressionism ] [ album reviews ]

➤ cibo matto | AMega-funky art-pop superheroes Cibo Matto are back and they’ve found a new place to dwell. Love — and ghosts — are in the air at Hotel Valentine (Chimera), a swingin’ hotel-themed musical setting with a fully equipped super-relaxed lounge, quasi-tropical tiki bar and bangin’ hip-hop/electro-funk nightclub. The album is creeping with paranormal activity, but Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori are no mere specters of their former selves: They’re just as fruity, funny, jazzy —K. Ross Hoffman and snazzy as ever.

➤ wild beasts | B+ It takes time to reveal itself, but Wild Beasts’ fourth album ultimately emerges as the plumpest, ripest fruit yet from England’s preeminent surrealist romantics. A less dramatic evolutionary step than its predecessors, Present Tense (Domino) retains the decadent viscosity, swooningly sinuous grooves and immaculate precision of 2011’s dark, lustful Smother, but adopts a brighter outlook and an —K. Ross Hoffman even lusher, more synth-swaddled palette.

flickpick

19102review

➤ sun kil moon | A

The review of Philadelphia books

Mark Kozelek’s music has always been poignant and personal, but he’s never cut a record as nakedly intimate or profoundly affecting as Sun Kil Moon’s Benji (Caldo Verde). A rambling cycle of plainspoken, minutely detailed recollections set atop spartan nylonstring fingerlings and rubbed-raw acoustic blues — touching on all varieties of death (of family members, acquaintances, celebrities; in freak accidents, mass murders, assisted suicides) — it stacks blithering mundanity alongside excruciating sentiment until the two become indistinguishable. —K. Ross Hoffman

➤ tinariwen | B+ Ibrahim Ag Alhabib has plugged his guitars back in, he’s traded TV on the Radio for the goddamn Chili Peppers, and when the part of Mali he and his band often call home finally capitulated to sectarian ruin, they traded the Sahara for Joshua Tree. But Emmaar (Anti) still has all Tinariwen’s quiet desert-caravan rumble. Phrases become chants, Alhabib’s growl undulates, groove abounds and — have mercy — they still play the blues. —Dotun Akintoye

[ movie review ]

THE WIND RISES [ A- ] A VAGUE TENSION permeates The Wind Rises, the final film directed by anima-

tion auteur and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. How could it not? Since debuting in Japan this summer, this semi-fictionalized biopic of Japanese aircraft engineer Jiro Horikoshi has been the subject of controversy. Western film festival audiences saw Miyazaki romanticizing the Japanese World War II machine, as Jiro designed the prototype of the fighter plane used in the attack on Pearl Harbor; Japanese right wingers took offense to Miyazaki’s pacifist lens in his depiction of their country’s fever for war in the 1930s and ’40s. These reactions, while not unreasonable, distract from the film’s essence — a hope-filled, wide-eyed portrait of a man who only wishes to build beautiful things. For Jiro (Joseph GordonLevitt), those beautiful things are airplanes. The Wind Rises follows Jiro through his childhood to his enrollment in engineering school in the wake of Japan’s Kanto earthquake, to his time working for an aircraft manufacturer and his romance with tuberculosis-stricken Naoko (Emily Blunt). While the film is a departure from Studio Ghibli’s fantasy-heavy back catalogue, Miyazaki’s visual shorthand is stronger than ever, striking a grounded biography with ephemeral flights into dreamlike impressionism, like when images of shattered aircraft machinery smolder at Jiro’s feet, hinting that Japan’s plunge into war is quickly approaching. The tale is handled with incredible poetic sensitivity and dulled sadness; we know how this story is going to end. But Jiro doesn’t. Near the film’s end, a roomful of engineers are mulling over his final blueprints, trying to find a way to make the plane lighter. Jiro earnestly suggests removing the guns. The entire room bursts into laughter. —Marc Snitzer

Those beautiful things are airplanes.

FLYING HIGH: The final film from anime master Hayao Miyazaki tells the story of a sensitive fighter-plane designer.

GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT ➤ WHEN PHILADELPHIA POLICE officerturned Food and Drug Administration agent Tony Chu politely turns down a meal, he’s not trying to be rude — eating can be a nightmare for him. Chu is one of three known cibopaths in the world, and has that classic #CibopathProblem where he learns the horrible details, histories and secrets of whatever he eats — including people. It’s a plot device that gives Chew Volume 1: Taster’s Choice, a collection of the first five Chew issues, its distinct flavor in the realm of pulp detective comics. Writer John Layman knows where the line into overt camp territory is drawn, and dips just far enough past it. Chew’s America is one where poultry sale and consumption is illegal under the guise of a killer bird flu. Chicken black markets have sprung up around the country, and Chu finds himself at the whim of the FDA, forced to eat his way through fingers, faces and other human remains to uncover potential government conspiracies. Chew is not an overtly pretty comic. Rob Guillory’s illustrations are angular, dizzying and nauseous — but it works in Chew’s grease-filmed world. Midway through the collection, Chu is given orders to arrest food critic Amelia Mintz in her newspaper’s office. When the terrorist group E.G.G. bursts in and demands the paper publish its manifesto at gunpoint, the critic reads her latest negative review aloud. They can’t stop vomiting. (Mintz is a saboscrivner — she can describe food to a point of inducing the taste in the listener.) In a gorgeously sickening half-page panel, Chu watches in awe, doused in moss-green puke. He’s in love. —Marc Snitzer

✚

Chew Volume 1: Taster’s Choice

John Layman and illustrator Rob Guillory (IMAGE COMICS, 2009, 128 PP)

✚ If you know of any really good books to review please email mikala@citypaper.net.

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31 South 42nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19104

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curtaincall

[ arts & entertainment ]

OBAMACARE EXPLAINED! CALL! LEARN HOW THE ACA AFFECTS YOU.

By David Anthony Fox

D AV I D C I M E T T A

THE WAY WOMEN SEE IT

â&#x17E;¤ EGOPO CLASSIC THEATER may be Philadelphiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most intellectually bracing company. Artistic director Lane Savadove builds seasons around specific playwrights and ideas, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve often left an EgoPo show and continued thinking about it for hours. Sometimes, the ideas work. Sometimes, they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. Both scenarios are on full display in The Lady From the Sea, directed here by Brenna Geffers. Lady, the second installment in EgoPoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s season devoted to Henrik Ibsen, is a typically bold choice, far less familiar than the handful of Ibsen plays that are regularly done. Audiences who know those more famous works â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A Dollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s House and Hedda Gabler, especially â&#x20AC;&#x201D; will find familiar themes here, notably Ibsenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trenchant explorations of how women can simultaneously be in the thrall of male power, and at the same time profoundly disappointed in how often these same males are diminished and disappointing. Yet Lady is very different from those naturalistic works. Here we have Ibsen the symbolist, painting a portrait of deepest psychological mystery. (Lady is the story of Ellida Wangel, a beautiful but troubled young woman torn between a prosaic marriage to the older Dr. Wangel, and a remembered love affair with a seaman. Throughout, Ellidaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fundamental identity is split between the earth and the sea.) The familiar territory of social reform is here also, to be sure, as Ibsen explores how the women of this world â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Ellida, and also Wangelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s young daughters, Bolette and Hilde â&#x20AC;&#x201D; can forge independent lives. But the tone is elliptical and ambiguous. Lady is generally thought to be a heavy drama, but at EgoPo, director Geffers lifts the lid off. The pace is brisk, the tone casually contemporary (itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sometimes at odds with a stiff, uncredited translation). The flip edge to some of the acting takes getting used to, but it pays dividends, notably in the scenes with Bolette (played by K. O. DelMarcelle) and Hilde (Lee Minora), who for once here seem like genuine young girls. Boletteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spirited discussion with her former tutor, Arnholm, works particularly well â&#x20AC;&#x201D; audi-

ences will be surprised and delighted at how modern the conversation feels. (Actor Ross Beschler as Arnholm is especially good, with a square-jawed earnestness that is just right.) There are other quirky directorial choices. The small but significant supporting role of Ballested, written as male, here is reassigned as female (played by actress Colleen Corcoran). Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not what Ibsen intended, and it does change the balance â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but in the plus column, it sharpens the sense that we are viewing this world the way women see it, and ultimately itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a change that works. Geffersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; most controversial change is likely to be the addition of a visual tableau that changes the focus of the play â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from Ellida to Hilde. Again, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not Ibsen, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clever, and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some justification for it. (The character of Hilde recurs in Ibsenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Master Builder, where, in fact, she has some of the same symbolic importance that Ellida has here.) The basic idea behind the set â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a gauzy gray world that is more fantasy than reality â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is also on point, though in the intimate Christ Church Neighborhood House, under toobright lighting, it lacks magic. Ultimately, though, Lady stands or falls on Ellida, one of the great female roles in modern drama. (Vanessa Redgrave was famous for it, and her febrile intensity is just what it needs.) Here, the lovely Genevieve Perrier â&#x20AC;&#x201D; petite, dark, feisty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; plays against type. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lively and charismatic, but too much of an earthy presence to suggest her secrets. In the end, this is a thought-provoking Lady, but one that fails to capture the playâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profound, enigmatic heart. (d_fox@citypaper.net) â&#x153;&#x161; Through March 2, $27-$35, EgoPo Classic Theater at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., 267-273-1414, egopo.org.

Holtzman Tax & Financial Planning 2001 Fairmount Ave. 215-235-0200

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nuevo Flamenco: The GalvĂĄn Legacyâ&#x20AC;? has been This project has been supported by The John S. supported by The Pew Center and James L. Knight Foundation. The John S. for Arts & Heritage. and James L. Knight Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arts program aims to engage and enrich Philadelphia through the arts.

DanceUP Dance/USA Philadelphia

Samuel S. Fels Fund

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about well-to-do singles who talk more than they think, and it’s spread thick with the calculated vulgarity required to make a David Mamet play cinematic. No one here’s attempting to rechisel the date-movie wheel, but this one’s only occasionally cheesy spirit begets some refreshing real-talk results. Fresh off a wild first encounter with new flame Joan (Regina Hall), motor-mouthed Bernie (Kevin Hart) introduces his best friend Danny (Michael Ealy) to Joan’s shy roommate, Debbie (Joy Bryant). Coupled off, the friends begin wrestling with the nuances of modern monogamy by juggling work, sex, jealousy and commitment in a group performance that’s thankfully a little more sweet than schmaltzy. The cast (and the R rating) should be credited for sidestepping many common rom-com traps, but at the end of the day they’re still stuck in a rom-com. —Drew Lazor (Wide release)

IN SECRET | D Émile Zola’s oft-adapted novel Thérèse Raquin returns to the screen with a bland new title befitting its dour, mopey approach. Actor-turned-director Charlie Stratton cut his teeth helming episodes of Everwood and Revenge, and brings to Zola’s story of lust, murder and remorse a low-simmering passion. The tale’s broad outline remains the same: After the death of her mother, Thérèse (Elizabeth Olsen) is handed over to her domineering aunt (Jessica Lange) and raised sharing a bed with her sickly cousin Camille (Harry Potter’s Tom Felton). Madame Raquin eventually decides to marry the children to one another. After the family moves to Paris, Thérèse is introduced to Camille’s boyhood friend

Laurent (Oscar Isaac) and the two begin an affair and commit a murder. Stratton develops Zola’s pointed misanthropy into a solemn trudge, set against the murkiest City of Lights in memory. Paris here is played by Eastern Europe, with candlelight flickering a sickly green that goes a long way toward explaining why, even in the throes of sexual ecstasy, everyone remains so unrelievedly miserable. —Shaun Brady (Ritz Five)

THE MONUMENTS MEN | CGeorge Clooney’s fifth directorial outing tells the true(-ish) story of the Monuments Men, a group of guys at the upper end of the greatest generation tasked with preserving and rescuing Europe’s prized art and architecture from the Nazis. Clooney-as-director struggles with the big question of whether saving Western civilization’s greatest masterpieces is worth the loss of even a single human life, which he usually solves by giving soaring monologues to Clooney-as-actor. As a filmmaker he seems uneasy about the dilemma, shifting from race-againsttime heroics to sudden polemics on man’s inhumanity to man. The result becomes an odd amalgam of the earnest propagandizing of Good Night, and Good Luck and the cornball retro humor of his forgotten ’20s football farce Leatherheads. Not even the well-chosen cast (which includes Bill Murray and John Goodman) can bridge that disconnect, leading to an unexpectedly aimless adventure. —Shaun Brady (Wide release)

OMAR | AThe Palestinian Oscar nominee for

best foreign language film has the title character (Adam Bakri) climbing over the Israeli separation wall to visit his romantic interest Nadia (Leem Lubany), her brother Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) and his other childhood friend Amjad (Samer Bisharat). Without much thought, the three men conspire to kill an Israeli soldier, and Amjad is the one to do the shooting. When Omar is captured and tortured by the Israelis, they give him an ultimatum: Find Tarek, whom they suspect of the killing, and turn him in; otherwise, prepare to endure a hellish life in jail. Omar agrees to be an informant, although he has no intention of keeping his promise. There are thrilling chase scenes, betrayals, double crosses and several twists that will have viewers recalibrating their sympathies for the characters. Director Hany AbuAssad’s minimalist style effectively pulls viewers into this absorbing story, and the strikingly handsome Bakri gives an exceptional performance in a complex role. —Gary M. Kramer (Ritz at the Bourse)

ROBOCOP | C Move beyond the expectation that José Padilha’s shiny new RoboCop should possess the same satirical sneer and sense of place present in Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 classic and you’ll see it for what it is: a shoot-’em-up that values style over socioeconomic substance. The victim of a car bombing organized by local mobsters, white-hat Detroit cop Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) becomes the prime candidate for a new initiative. To save his life, amoral robotics CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) hires a gifted doctor

INVITES YOU TO AN ADVANCE SCREENING OF

(Gary Oldman) to rebuild him into a badass crime-fighting hybrid. Padilha, the mind behind Brazil’s smash Elite Squad movies, presents action with more snap and innovation than many of his contemporaries, making the most of a big budget with set pieces and effects that highlight his hero’s most marketable abilities. He shouldn’t be faulted for simply existing in the shadow of Verhoeven’s timeless original — rather, it’s the carousel of flat performances, on both sides of the law, that develop the most drag. —Drew Lazor (Wide release)

✚ SPECIAL SCREENINGS INTERNATIONAL HOUSE 3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, ihousephilly.org. Camp 14: Total Control Zone (2012, Germany, 104 min.): A boy born inside a North Korean prison camp manages to escape in this doc. Thu., Feb. 27, 7 p.m., $9. Rafea: Solar Mama (2012, Denmark/U.S./ U.K., 75 min.): A doc about a poor Bedouin woman who receives a scholarship to become a solar engineer. Fri., Feb. 28, 7 p.m., $9. In the Shadow of the Sun (2012, U.K./Tanzania, 84 min.): A doc about the discrimination people with albinism experience in Tanzania. Sat., March 1, 5 p.m., $9. Born This Way (2012, Cameroon, 84 min.): This doc follows four homosexual men as they cope with Cameroon’s anti-gay laws. Sat., March 1, 8 p.m., $9. Flamenco Hoy (2013, Spain, 100 min.): A celebration of Spain’s national dance, shown as part of the Philadelphia Flamenco Festival. Mon., March 3, 7 p.m., $9. Women Film the War on Terror: The Oath

[ movie shorts ]

(2010, Yemen/U.S., 96 min.): The reflections of two men involved with AlQaida. Wed., March 5, 7 p.m., free.

PHILAMOCA 531 N. 12th St., 267-519-9651, philamoca.org. Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This is Stones Throw Records

(2014, U.S., 92 min.): A doc about the independent hip-hop label makes its Philadelphia premiere. Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf in attendance. Mon., March 3, 7 p.m., $12. The Youth Killer (1976, Japan, 132 min.): A young man kills his parents to keep them from separating him from his girlfriend. Wed., March 5, 7:30 p.m., free.

WOODMERE ART MUSEUM 9201 Germantown Ave., 215-2470476, woodmereartmuseum.org. Five Graves to Cairo (1943, U.S., 96 min.): In Billy Wilder’s WWII thriller, a Brit posing as a Nazi searches for Hitler’s secret fuel supply. Tue., March 4, 7:30 p.m., $5 suggested donation.

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f&d

foodanddrink

amusebouche By Adam Erace

FAST FINGERS WISHBONE | 4034 Walnut St., 215-921-3204, wishbonephilly.com. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 3 p.m.-10 p.m. Chicken, $8.95/pound; sandwiches, $7.50; pies, $4. ➤ WISHBONE IN WEST Philly fries chicken

— but don’t call it fried chicken. Technically, chicken fingers are fried chicken because they are (1) chicken and (2) fried. But Fried Chicken connotes something else, something very specific, something involving skin and bone, not stripped meat and pretzel crumbs. Which is what you’ll find at Wishbone, an haute cafeteria in the old Lee’s Hoagie House on a stretch of Walnut Street where University City and West Philly meet. Former Drexel culinary instructor Alan Segel, and his onetime pupil, Dave Clouser, opened Wishbone in October. This teacher/student duo is doing its best Walter White and Jesse Pinkman impression to get campus kids addicted to its product, “craft-fried chicken,” aka chicken fingers. Priced by the pound ($8.95 for eight to 10 tenders), the white- and dark-meat sticks start out as breasts and thighs. Segel and Clouser skin, debone, spin with a cider brine in a high-tech penetrating vacuum tumbler, batter in buttermilk, coat in Snyder’s of Hanover pretzel crumbs and fry in soybean oil. It’s a process that yields some pretty tasty chicken fingers. The white meat ones anyway; I found the thighs unpleasantly bouncy. They do a version of this process with wings, too, but they feel like the bridesmaid to the fingers’ bride. You can get your tenders solo, with dunks like ruddy barbecue and a pea-green pesto-Parm, or piled into a Hudson Bakery French roll with pickled veggies, cilantro and sriracha aioli (the bánh mì) or blue cheese and hot sauce (the Buffalo). Just don’t miss a scoop of the gooey, four-cheese mac with a topping of more pretzel crumbs. Segel does his French-pastry background proud with his hand-pies, making his own puff pastry dough — a laborious process —and filling the supremely flaky result with caramelized pineapple, coconut custard and lime curd (the pina colada), for example, or vanilla pastry cream and mashed rum-flambéed bananas (the bananas Foster). The hand pies are Wishbone’s sleeper hits. Equally mobile as chicken fingers, but a lot more addicting. (adam.erace@citypaper.net) 28 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |

HOT TOMATO: For Scott Schroeder, it all started with a sandwich. NEAL SANTOS

[ turning the tables ]

SCOTT AND THE TOMATO SANDWICH Why comfort food is chef Scott Schroeder’s comfort zone. By Caroline Russock ➤ EDITOR’S NOTE: In this new series, Turning the Tables, food editor Caroline Russock writes about what unfolds around the table when she invites some of the city’s best chefs to a meal in her South Philly home. The first meal I ate at the South Philadelphia Tap Room was a tomato sandwich, served at one of the bar’s outside tables on Mifflin Street on a very warm July night about three and a half years ago. Not long after that, I decided to move to Philly and buy a house in Newbold. Back then I didn’t know South Philly Tap Room/ American Sardine Bar chef Scott Schroeder, and I certainly knew nothing about his grandmother, Joanne, whom Schroeder used to visit in Kentucky in the summers when he was growing up. “My grandma, Joanne, is, like, a really mean woman,” Scott said. But she’s also the backwoods, Southern woman who introduced him to the tomato sandwich and, in turn, his career in the kitchen. “My favorite thing is my grandma’s tomato mayonnaise sand-

F E B R U A R Y 2 7 - M A R C H 5 , 2 0 1 4 | C I T Y PA P E R . N E T

wich because it was a turning point in how I thought about food, simple as it was,” he said. Scott shared the story of this life-changing tomato sandwich over dinner at my place (which is, incidentally, within stumbling distance of the Tap Room). And knowing him, I kept the menu simple: some chicken-liver pâté to start, lasagna Bolognese, a fennel-grapefruit salad and plenty of good wine. Scott recalls: “This happened over and over when I went down South. … My grandma would ask me, ‘What do you want for lunch today?’ And I’d say, ‘I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.’ And she’d say, ‘You’ve had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day since you’ve been here. Have you ever had a tomato and mayonnaise sandwich?’ And I’d say, ‘Eww! Why would I want a tomato and mayo sandwich?’ And because she was mean, that was it. You were either going to starve or eat this thing.” “But it was just, like, this gushy thing with salt and pepper on it and I bit into it and it was my favorite thing ever. I wanted this thing every day for the rest of my life. And it changed me,” he said. Growing up in Detroit, Scott was raised on Midwestern fare of the German, Polish and Hungarian sort. And of course, hot dogs were serious business. Schroeder’s grandfather grew up in Tennessee, but his greatgrandfather emigrated from Milan. And it was this very American >>> continued on adjacent page

[ food & drink ]

✚ Scott and the Tomato Sandwich <<< continued from previous page

I went down South and there would always be these new things to try. lineage that made Joanne, the mean grandma, wellversed in both biscuits and gravy and Sunday gravy. “Any time I went down South, there would always be these new things to try. My Uncle Jack would bring down tons of sliced mortadella. I grew up in an American Midwestern home. We had kielbasa. Everything opened up a little bit more with each visit.” Whether it was his grandmother’s dead-simple chicken and dumplings (secret ingredients: salt and pepper) or homegrown, windowsill-ripened tomatoes sliced and piled on Wonder Bread, with a little too much Miracle Whip (“There was a time in the ’80s when Miracle Whip pretty much replaces mayonnaise”), everything that comes out of Schroeder’s kitchens today comes from memory. “It could be something my grandma made me when I was 8,” he said. “It could be something that I had for lunch today in Chinatown. There’s something that I want in the taste that feels like my grandma made it, and I think that’s what comfort food is.” Scott has been sharing his singular take on comfort food with Newbold for the past five-and-a-half years at the Tap Room and more recently with the sandwich-centric American Sardine Bar in Point Breeze. Both menus live in a similar place — familiar dishes are elevated both by ingredients and the time Schroeder has spent cooking in Philadelphia since 1996, with stints at Brasserie Perrier, Matyson, Royal Tavern and Jones. Macaroni and cheese is fancied up with fontal cheese sauce, truffled pecorino and mushroom-mustard jam. Meatloaf made from Berks County pork is served with ricotta mashed potatoes at SPTR. At ASB, there are spaghetti sandwiches and sides of oyster-sauced roasted brussels sprouts sprinkled with pickled chiles. But with his two restaurants so close together, they’re creating something of a competition with each other. And Schroeder will be the first to say that Philadelphia doesn’t really need another mac and cheese and burger joint. Or another beer bar, for that matter. Next up on Schroeder’s agenda, with SPTR/ASB owner John Longacre, is a South Philly pizzeria with a focus on nontraditional (think stoner-food-inspired) pies and an affordable list of small-production natural wines. But even without any pizzaiolo experience on his resume, Scott isn’t concerned. “To me, being a good cook means being able to make the food taste like you imagine it. It’s kind of like with music; a good guitarist is someone who can hear something in his head and replicate it on his guitar. I think that’s the same thing as cooking.” It should probably be known that Schroeder dabbles in a bit of punk and country guitar, but when asked, he’ll tell you that he’s not that good. (caroline@citypaper.net) C I T Y PA P E R . N E T | F E B R U A R Y 2 7 - M A R C H 5 , 2 0 1 4 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |

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[ i love you, i hate you ] To place your FREE ad (100 word limit) ➤ email lovehate@citypaper.net A BITCH IS TIRED

DIDN’T COME HOME

I run fuckin circles around you....I am so damn tired don’t you understand that I am....I needed help and you got it for me...I fuckin’ appreciated that....what the fuck about alittle bit of money.... a bitch need money the fuck too...and as far as me doing everything else...don’t you think that I am doing what I need to do in order to pay my damn bills..if it wasn’t for the damn bills I would not have to be here looking in your damn faces...I am just so tired...I need a fucking rest....I can’t do everything...what else do you need me to fuckin do!!!

Hold on honey who the fuck do you think that you are and do you think that this is a fucking hotel or something, you need to get it straight I am not those girls that you were dating or that fat bitch that you was fucking, you are not going to have me leaving my front door open and you not show the fuck up. We have to have a talk, respect is due to a fucking dog! And I am not your dog, call me or something, you probably are not used to a woman like me but you will get used to it if you are gong

fucking luck from standing behind me! Stop doing that shit! I hate that shit!!!

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LONELY HEART!

ANGEL

I dont know i am a 42 year latino male and alot of people has said that i look really young for my age, that i can pass to be in the mid 20s im flatter. But at 42 and being single for a long time im started believe that thats it for me. That no one wants to be with me. See im not a very good looking guy some had said that i am but i dont believe them. I think they are just saying that to lift up my spirits. Anyway its been like this for me for like 5 years. Im starting to get scare time is ticking and im not getting any younger :(

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MOTHER’S NASTINESS I was minding my own business the other day coming home from a long day’s work and on the platform on the train...to my disbelief this woman was instructing her son to shit on the platform. I was like WTF is going on! How the hell can you tell him to shit like that in fucking public. I couldn’t believe that shit...I looked at this guy and he was like what the hell is she telling him to do in broad daylight! I was like... damn...what the hell...people are turning into animals. Who the fuck does shit like that...I can’t believe that people are doing that...If I see this woman again...I will mess around and slap her face off!

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NEED MONEY RIGHT?

COULD HAVE BEEN I am going to keep it all the way real with you: I have thought about you daily since I met you and I am completely salty about how LAME things worked out. As much as we enjoyed each other’s company, the least you could do is return my fucking text messages. I know that you aren’t doing shit with your time except hating your job, changing your Facebook picture and going to the gym, so why don’t you pick up the goddamn phone, BITCH?! Dude, you and I know you wouldn’t even have to play that hard. You are so fine I want to buy you a short set off the strength of your look. I would make you jerk salmon and mashed sweet potatoes. Don’t you want a home-cooked meal?! Ugh, I had such high hopes for you, with your fine, literate ass. But I guess I shouldn’t have put the cart before the horse. Too bad you’re not interested...we’d be so good together.

most clever person I have ever met and the conversation is never dry. Try not to worry so much because you are wonderful. You look wonderful. You smell wonderful, except for your breath sometimes, but I will still kiss you anyway stinker. Your life is in your own hands so don’t worry about being in control of it because you are. The decisions you make will lead you to where you belong and I highly doubt that will be a boring or unfulfilling place. I can’t wait for our awesome underwater pool party wedding! Love you always and forever.

to be with me! I don’t like that cause it don’t make any sense to keep going through this over and over again! Learn responsibility and learn your place!

you have....get your own stuff and try not to live off me..I hate you guys...I am not going to date for awhile...thanks to the dumb shit men!! You guys always wonder why women like sleeping with their girlfriends...this is fuckin why!!

DON’T STAND BEHIND ME I hate when I am in A.C. and someone stands behind me and watches while I play a fucking game! Why don’t you take your ass somewhere and sit the fuck down somewhere and or pull some money out of your damn pocket and put the shit in the damn machine and try your luck! I hate that shit and yes I do believe in luck and you’re stealing my

HOROSCOPE Today your horoscope said “You’re one of a kind. You think you can’t possibly be that unique, but you are. You’re seeing the world differently than anyone else is seeing it”. And it’s true. You are one of a kind. For that, and so many reasons more, I love you. I look up to you. You are perhaps the

A bunch of people I know go to work and believe that they are doing the right thing by their families and everything but then again. Most men go out after their hard day at work and cheat on their wives. I told you before I am not going to help you cheat on your wife...if you want to do that...you go ahead and do that shit...but I really don’t want to be involved with any of your games and non-sense. You left your underwear at my apartment. What the fuck am I supposed to do with that? I actually let my cat eat and take a shit on them. Then threw them away in the trash...I hope that you are happy now! I hate you and the next girl you come across I hope she has insurance on her property because you are still a thief!

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An adults-only improv show that will leave you laughing and thinking, “Did they just say that?”

LAST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH @ 10PM! The Playground @ The Adrienne 2030 Sansom Street

comedysportzphilly.com

215-687-3693 or check us out online!

www.facebook.com/theampshop

John Owner www.MovingHelp.com/BeAmazingJ

267-595-3230