Wine Bar

A group of Center City bar and restaurant owners has sued the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, seeking an end to the state's only wine boutique, inside Garces Trading Company, a restaurant-cafe at 1111 Locust St. The Washington Square West Civic Association and State Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) are backing the suit, filed Wednesday in Common Pleas Court. It accuses the LCB of creating a cozy relationship with one private business at the expense of others. An LCB spokeswoman said the board would not comment Friday because it had not been served with the complaint.

Move over cheesesteak. Parade.com's Blue Plate blogger Joanna Prisco loves the Panelle at Paesano's (901 Christian St., 215-922-2220). It's a Sicilian chickpea pancake with roasted tomatoes, pickled fennel, lettuce, onion and a sour cream-based sauce wrapped in a handmade flat bread. " . . . The kind of vegetarian creation that shouts 'Who cares!' when someone innocently asks 'Where's the beef?' " Prisco blogged. Next week's Crab Week at Fish (1708 Lombard St., 215-545-9600). Chef/owner Mike Stollenwerk will offer dishes featuring various crab varieties - snow, ling, blue and Dungeness - that also will be available by the piece, steamed and served with Old Bay butter.

Tuna sandwich, Take Two Jose Garces' dark, Basque-inspired Tinto wine bar has bulked up, adding a new dining room - and bulked up its offerings, too. There's now Sunday brunch. And a Bilbao Express lunch featuring soup or salad and a sandwich. The other day we sampled an exquisite truffled chestnut soup, studded with duck, mushroom hash and pistachio. (The crab-seafood chowder, on the other hand, was on the salty side.) But the take on a tuna sandwich - De Bonito - was the bomb, a tart-sweet tuna salad of marinated Spanish tuna and creme fraiche; red onion escabeche; and tangy, pickled anchovy.

Bio: 38; she's single, grew up in Media and now lives in Cochranville. What's new? The menu at Meritage Restaurant & Wine Bar (20th and Locust, 215-985-1922), where she is executive chef. Philly restaurant connections: Le Bec-Fin, Susanna Foo, Savona (her first chef gig). Starting out: At 22, as a server at the Village Porch in Springfield. Favorite ingredient: "Salt and pepper . . . I'm joking. I use a lot of citrus and a lot of zest. " On working with Georges Perrier: "A great experience.

In the saga that is the rise and fall and sort of reconsideration of main-street Manayunk, there has always been - steady as she goes - Jake's, turning 21, drinking age, next month. Getting carded, of course, has rarely been an issue at Jake's, a genteel bastion of arguably the best grilled calf's liver (with apple hash and port-marinated onions) in town, and crab cakes that, for years, have kept regulars loyally trooping back. No, Jake's has been for grown-ups: In a sea of increasingly down-market beer joints and "drink specials," on a strip that toward midnight gets fratty-er and boozier, it has catered to an older, more refined clientele, denizens of Chestnut Hill and the moneyed Main Line.

East Passyunk seems to tally the most votes as Philadelphia's nouveau Restaurant Row, but another unexpected competitor has emerged over the the last few years: Fairmount. Well-reviewed new restaurants such as La Calaca Feliz, Lemon Hill, and Hickory Lane, along with reenergized old stalwarts including McCrossen's Tavern, Bridgid's, Rembrandt's, and London Grill, have changed the dynamic of the neighborhood. A few blocks east on North Broad are Marc Vetri's Osteria and Alla Spina and Stephen Starr's Route 6, and there's another string of spots on Callowhill Street, including Doma, Sabrina's, and Kite and Key. Just last week Vetri signed a lease for a new pizzeria on Callowhill, and plans were recently announced for a combination grocery/cafe at 19th and Fairmount with former Garces Group chef Chad Williams cooking.

Jambalaya has given way to paella as Carmine's Creole Cafe is now Verdad (818 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, 610- 520-9100), a white-tablecloth Euro small-plate specialist with similarly sumptuous atmospherics (drapery, wrought-iron dividers). Chef Nick Farina of nearby Blush is managing partner and executive chef. He's working with owner Howard Taylor, whose former partner John Mims founded Carmine's. After a legal dustup, Mims moved out to Phoenixville, where he has a BYOB and pizzeria.

It's been a year since Paris Wine Bar (2303 Fairmount Ave., 215-978-4545) opened in Fairmount, and it's time to celebrate. From 7 p.m.-midnight Saturday, owners Terry Berch McNally and Chef Michael McNally will throw a masquerade party. Chef will debut a new blackboard menu of $5 small plates to complement one of the many Pennsylvania-produced wines served here. Stop the presses! Goldenberg's Peanut Chews needs a headline - 10 little words that describe the iconic candy and its Philadelphia roots.

Saturday, June 7 Plain & Fancy: A Taste of the Greater Delaware Valley , with proceeds benefiting the Cancer Center, and featuring food samples from some of the area's top restaurants, including Alma de Cuba, the Capital Grille, Continental Restaurant and Martini Bar, the Melting Pot, and Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, as well as a raffle and silent auction and a chance to tour the center's research laboratories. $35. 5-7:30 p.m. in the Fox Chase Cancer Center courtyard, 333 Cottman Avenue.