Parc

WE'RE NOT sure if Ed Rendell describes all his friends as "stunning," but he did use the term yesterday about Peruvian-born beauty Lucia Zapatero, with whom he was spotted brunching Saturday at Parc on Rittenhouse Square. Zapatero, 33, is director of marketing for Knowledge@Wharton , an online business-analysis journal of Penn's Wharton School of Business, and we're told she and Rendell, 67, have recently begun seeing each other. Reached by phone yesterday, Rendell insisted that the pair were only "good friends.

Talk about a deluge. In an instant - the time it took Donovan Preddy, 30, and his micro-goateed pal to gulp down their old-fashioneds at the back of the zinc bar at Parc - the scene at Philadelphia's newest and most buzzed-about restaurant was transformed from a cafe on the square to a cafe on the banks of the Seine. With five inches of water coursing southward down 18th Street - drenched greeters huddled beneath the front awning, sidewalk diners fleeing inside, guarding their half-finished plates of duck confit - it was, perhaps, time to reflect.

On a Tuesday evening, it can be subdued in the understated bistros and cafes that lay claim to the corners south of South Street where the western edge of Queen Village gives way to Bella Vista. But on one Tuesday last week, not all of them were in character. At tiny Salt and Pepper, at Sixth and Fitzwater, for one, the doors were wide open and health experts from as far away as Oslo were sipping a lovely BYO zinfandel and taking hacks at cheeses set out on the counter. One of the cafe's regulars, Henry Glick, had reserved the entire (20-plus-seat)

Tidying of the East Passyunk area - where cleanup was suspended nearly two years ago after the fall of former state Sen. Vince Fumo - began again Monday under a new civic group. Fumo's Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, lavishly funded then plundered by Fumo, spent most of the funds remaining after Fumo went to jail on legal fees to defend its board of directors, said Sam Sherman Jr., director of Citizens Alliance's successor, the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corp. What's left is rental income from 14 properties, all storefronts and apartments that Citizens Alliance owned debt-free, leaving PARC a budget of about $450,000.

Bistrot La Minette 623 S. 6th St 215-925-8000 www.bistrotlaminette.com Parc 227 S. 18th St. 215-545-2262 Vintage 129 S. 13th St. 215-922-3095 www.vintage-philadelphia.com Zinc 246 S. 11th St. 215-351-9901 www.zincbarphilly.com  

BEST WISHES to former NBC 10 anchor Vince DeMentri , who suffered a severe concussion and a broken nose in a Friday night car accident on I-95. DeMentri was traveling on I-95 South just above the Cottman Avenue exit during heavy rain when, he says, a car cut him off and he swerved into an SUV whose driver had jammed on her brakes. DeMentri was treated and released early Saturday from a local hospital and says he believes that his Audi has been totaled and that nobody else was injured in the accident.

Three days into its world premiere on Rittenhouse Square last week, Parc, the French bistro, was still four deep at the zinc bar, awash in first-wave beautiful people, at work on its sea legs. "Table 406?" the waiter inquired of owner Stephen Starr, approaching his curbside table with bowls of what looked to be trout amandine. "No," Starr said. He'd been chatting with a guest, studiously ignoring a cutting board - already served - heaped with country pate, salami, prosciutto and mustard: " This is Table 407. Table 406 is behind me. " Behind him, stretching half a block north on 18th Street, and almost as far around the corner on Locust, the cafe tables under crenelated awnings lent a distinctively - persuasively - Parisian mood to the place.

The Philadelphia Area Religious Coterie thinks it's high time to add another g-word to the usual October list of ghost, ghoul and goblin, and that g-word is gospel. Composed of radio announcers, record promoters and retailers, the three- year-old organization declared this month Gospel Music Month in the city and came up with a slate of activities in celebration. "We know that June is Black Music Month, but gospel music is not recognized as much as the secular side - such as jazz and R&B - during that time," said PARC first vice president Linda Timmons, who spins gospel on WHAT-AM every Sunday from 6 a.m. to noon.

The Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a nonprofit group nurtured, extravagantly funded and later plundered by former state Sen. Vince Fumo, will play a continuing role in South Philadelphia under a new name, the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation (PARC). Paul R. Levy, a conservator appointed by Commonwealth Court 13 months ago to oversee the organization, briefed reporters yesterday on a new structure and more limited role for the nonprofit. It will continue to own and manage 14 properties, using rental income and an endowment of about $2 million to fund sidewalk cleaning and related maintenance in the area bounded by Broad, McKean, Federal and 9th streets.

EAGLES DEFENSIVE TACKLE Trevor Laws will get an on-camera cooking lesson from "Iron Chef" Jose Garces in a couple of weeks at Amada (217 Chestnut). Laws loves the Garces spot and loves to cook. The cooking lesson will be taped by the Eagles Television Network and aired on the Linc's big screen during home games.   OUT AND ABOUT *  Robert De Niro went for escargot and a salad while dining outside at Parc on Rittenhouse Square Monday. The actor is in town shooting "The Silver Linings Playbook," co-starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence . Sunday night actress Carla Gugino , in town to promote "The Mighty Macs," ate at Parc.

Bistrot La Minette 623 S. 6th St 215-925-8000 www.bistrotlaminette.com Parc 227 S. 18th St. 215-545-2262 Vintage 129 S. 13th St. 215-922-3095 www.vintage-philadelphia.com Zinc 246 S. 11th St. 215-351-9901 www.zincbarphilly.com  

WE'RE NOT sure if Ed Rendell describes all his friends as "stunning," but he did use the term yesterday about Peruvian-born beauty Lucia Zapatero, with whom he was spotted brunching Saturday at Parc on Rittenhouse Square. Zapatero, 33, is director of marketing for Knowledge@Wharton , an online business-analysis journal of Penn's Wharton School of Business, and we're told she and Rendell, 67, have recently begun seeing each other. Reached by phone yesterday, Rendell insisted that the pair were only "good friends.

BEST WISHES to former NBC 10 anchor Vince DeMentri , who suffered a severe concussion and a broken nose in a Friday night car accident on I-95. DeMentri was traveling on I-95 South just above the Cottman Avenue exit during heavy rain when, he says, a car cut him off and he swerved into an SUV whose driver had jammed on her brakes. DeMentri was treated and released early Saturday from a local hospital and says he believes that his Audi has been totaled and that nobody else was injured in the accident.

M ARIA SHRIVER didn't indicate anything was amiss in her marriage to Arnold Schwarzenegger when she thanked East Falls' Harry Jay Katz , an old friend, for sending the couple a bottle of vinegar that his wife, Debra Renee Cruz , made for their 25th anniversary on April 26. Katz, who befriended Shriver in the 1970s when she worked for KYW-TV, attended the couple's wedding in Hyannis, Mass. "Thanks for thinking of us and sending wishes on our special day," Shriver wrote in a letter.

Tidying of the East Passyunk area - where cleanup was suspended nearly two years ago after the fall of former state Sen. Vince Fumo - began again Monday under a new civic group. Fumo's Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, lavishly funded then plundered by Fumo, spent most of the funds remaining after Fumo went to jail on legal fees to defend its board of directors, said Sam Sherman Jr., director of Citizens Alliance's successor, the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corp. What's left is rental income from 14 properties, all storefronts and apartments that Citizens Alliance owned debt-free, leaving PARC a budget of about $450,000.

The Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a nonprofit group nurtured, extravagantly funded and later plundered by former state Sen. Vince Fumo, will play a continuing role in South Philadelphia under a new name, the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation (PARC). Paul R. Levy, a conservator appointed by Commonwealth Court 13 months ago to oversee the organization, briefed reporters yesterday on a new structure and more limited role for the nonprofit. It will continue to own and manage 14 properties, using rental income and an endowment of about $2 million to fund sidewalk cleaning and related maintenance in the area bounded by Broad, McKean, Federal and 9th streets.

PENN VALLEY native siblings Sonia and Amit Bhalla are working on NBC's new comedy "Outsourced," which premieres at 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Sonia, first assistant director on the show, which takes place in a call center in India, graduated from Harriton High in 1987 and was the second assistant director under "Up in the Air" director Jason Reitman. She's also worked with Paul Thomas Anderson , M. Night Shyamalan and Ron Howard . Amit, a writer for "Outsourced," was graduated from Harriton in 1998, Michigan in 2002 and USC's Peter Stark Producing Program.

It was dinner as usual last Tuesday at Parc on Rittenhouse Square. The crowd at the bar was chattering mightily into the tin ceiling. A slender blond woman wearing a long-sleeve white-and-green knit and ripped jeans walked in with an older blond woman in a black dress. Isn't that . . .? Yes, Reese Witherspoon, and her mother, Betty. Such scenes are playing out all over town lately: The Legally Blonde star with beau Jake Gyllenhaal shopping at Whole Foods in Wynnewood.