White Dog Cafe Glen Mills, PA

 White Dog Cafe is opening up its fourth location on Saturday 9/26 at the Shoppes at Brinton Lake in Glenn Mills, PA. The restaurant will e open at 4PM for dinner service. It'll house a large outdoor space with 104 seats, including 5 at an outdoor bar. Guests can dine under an illuminated pergola or sit in one of the 16 lounge seats by a water feature! Plenty of indoor space as well, with an additional 180 seats. If it's anything like the other White Dog locations, you know the food and service will be on point. Please see the press release below. 

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Local touches are everywhere. The bar area called the Den showcases a galley of 45 commissioned dog portraits by Jay McClellan, and there is space to add 15 additional paintings. Guests can purchase a painting to immortalize their favorite pup that will hang in the restaurant.  McClellan’s sentimental and decorative works also cover the walls at White Dog Cafe Haverford and White Dog University City. His paintings juxtapose bold colors with graphic patterns and have stunning unique designs. McClellan will give anyone that purchases a painting the original drawing (a $250 value) and the painting that hangs within White Dog Glen Mills will display a small brass plate with the dog’s name and hometown on the frame. McClellan is donating half of the fee for each of the paintings to Brandywine Valley SPCA and Alpha Bravo Canine. 

The restaurant is decked out to the K9s, the Garden Room has a brick floor, and hanging baskets with Edison bulbs. The room also has original prints of “best in show dogs” from the 1940s. The Living Room has handmade brass dog-shaped sconces on the walls, black marble tables, and a large working fireplace.

 

Michael Selser, former Executive Chef at White Dog Cafe Haverford will lead the kitchen at White Dog Glen Mills which will offer lunch, dinner, happy hour, and weekend brunch.

 

Known for the warm hospitality and creative, inspiring cuisine, the majority of ingredients at all White Dog Cafe locations are purchased from local farms, located no more than fifty miles from the restaurants.  White Dog Cafe offers seasonal menus featuring only the best ingredients from trusted farms, including pasture-fed animals, humanely treated livestock, and fish and seafood that is harvested through sustainable suppliers. Organic items are incorporated when possible from farms using sustainable farming practices. Wines are grown and produced from American vineyards and White Dog Cafe uses local craft beers and artisan distilled spirits.

 

White Dog Cafe, part of Fearless Restaurants, currently has locations in Haverford, Wayne, and in University City. The White Dog Cafe features local, seasonal, sustainable menus. Each location features warm and welcoming dog-inspired décor. White Dog Cafe founded in 1983 was a pioneer in the farm to table movement and continues to provide their local neighborhoods, and guests a unique dining experience.

 

White Dog Cafe Glen Mills is located at 949 Baltimore Pike, Glen Mills. For more information call 610-822-2100  and follow us on social media at www.facebook.com/whitedogglenmills https://www.instagram.com/whitedogglenmills/

Happy Valley Meat

With a mission to improve the lives of the people and animals that feed us, Happy Valley Meat works to source ethically-raised meat from family farmers. A small company based out of Brooklyn, NY, they work with PA family farmers like Smucker's Meats in Mt. Joy, PA to provide quality products to restaurants like Cadence, Wm. Mulherin's Sons, and Momofuku. 

In an effort to spread the word, Happy Valley Meat recently sent out a curated meat box filled with goodies like ground beef, LA-galbi cut short-ribs, meatballs, mushroom & beef sliders, and a 2lb cut of brisket. Heading into the weekend, I had to open up the Big Green Egg and attempt to smoke this smaller cut of brisket. With just 50/50 S+P seasoning, I took that beautiful brisket to 160F internal @ 250F dome with charcoal and pecan, wrapped in butcher paper, then bumped it up to 275F dome until it probed easily @ ~ 200F internal.

Pretty darn happy with how this turned out for such a small brisket cut and I know it has more to do with the quality of beef that Happy Valley sourced from a local family farm. If you're looking for a great gift idea or just want to check out a variety of cuts & grinds, head over to Happy Valley Meat. Better yet, if you want to get two free packs of ground beef, use promo code SHOPBELLYOFTHEPIG when making a purchase! 

FTC Disclaimer: Happy Valley Meat Co. provided a curated product box. Regardless, my opinions are mine alone and, therefore, unbiased.  

Rosalie Opening (Wayne, PA)

 On September 10, 2020, Fearless Restaurants will be opening up their latest spot with Rosalie in Wayne, PA. Owner Marty Grims & Executive Chef Merick Devine will be offering Italian comfort food and as with any Fearless Restaurants concept, the food will hit the spot and the design will be on point. Please see the press release below! 

Rosalie will open September 10, 2020, for dinner only and opens for lunch on Saturday, September 12, 2020. Devine said, “Our goal is to cook real, Italian, comfort food. Food that has a soul, that just makes you feel good to eat. I am perpetually fascinated by the hyper regionality of Italian Cuisine and we plan to celebrate that. From Sicilia to Friuli, we are going to hit it all.”

Rosalie is named for owner Marty Grims’ mother, a second-generation Italian immigrant. “The story of “Rosalie” is first and foremost about family.  It is about generations of many families that have come together to bring Rosalie to life. It is about the families that will dine with us, that we will nurture, and treat as if they are our own. The notion of family is reflected in everything we do. The origins of the name and food, the way we treat our guests, it is ALL about family,” explained Grims.

 

Rosalie features 60 seats in Sala Grande, the main dining room, 60 seats on the Portico, the porch, and for private events, there are 32 seats in the Salotto, 30 seats in the Sala Piccola, 100 in the Atrio, the Lobby Lounge for cocktails or 150 in the Sala Grande. Rosalie is also available for buyouts and can seat 200 reception style.

 

“If you’re not in Italy; you’re only limited by your imagination at Rosalie,” said Rosalie Designer Barbara Balongue of Balongue Design Inc. “Rosalie’s décor features wide plank European oak flooring, and backlit winery styled wine storage. The atmosphere is truly homey and openhearted. It’s special charm genuinely pays homage to the rustic Italian cuisine.”

 

The bar features a custom mural emulating the look of an old Italian street scene and trattoria styled booths in the bar dining area. All four of Rosalie’s dining rooms provide a uniquely intimate dining experience with their own personalities featuring vintage basket wrapped wine bottles, Polenta Paddles, vintage cutting boards, and ravioli rolling pins.

 

The outdoor porch, the Portico, has woven bistro chairs and marble top tables under lazy ceiling fans that transport guests to the seaside villages of Italy.

 

“Rosalie will offer an international wine list of 120 bottles with a focus on Italian wine, the beer list will be a combination of local craft and international favorites and there will be Italian inspired versions of classic cocktails,” according to Fearless Director of Beverage Len Boris.

 

Rosalie will be open Monday - Thursday 11am-9pm, Friday 11am-10pm, Saturday 10am -10pm and Sunday 10am- 9pm. Weekends feature an all-day menu following brunch at 2 pm. Rosalie will feature live music Fridays and Wednesdays from 5-9 pm, Saturday 5-9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am-2 pm.

 

The menu features housemade pasta and traditional stone-fired pizza as well as panini, antipasti, and entrees. Devine said, “The menu is pretty flexible in that guests can create their own experience as simple or as elaborate as they want. Want a few “stuzzichini” (traditional bar snacks/finger foods) and a glass of wine? We got you. Want to experience a more formal “Quattro Piatti” (traditional Italian four-course meal)? Well, we can do that too. We will source heavily from local farms and the menu will change frequently to reflect seasonality. We are not region-specific and instead plan to celebrate the eclecticism of Italian food by cooking from all the regions,” he added.

 

Before leading the kitchen at Rosalie, Devine served as the Executive Chef at White Dog Cafe in Wayne. Before joining Fearless Restaurants, he worked at Frasca Food and Wine in Colorado for over six years. While serving as Chef de Cuisine, Frasca was nominated twice for the prestigious James Beard “Outstanding Restaurant” award.

 

Devine said, “I don’t have a romantic story about sitting around my Italian Grandmas stove and watching her stare deeply into a pot of Ragu. That's not how my passion for Italian cooking started,” Devine said, “I wasn’t the guy who always knew he was destined to be a chef. I never even really liked to cook. But what I did like to do, was eat. I was very fortunate growing up that I had an amazing family that valued time together and always placed importance on it. It wasn’t until college that I started buying cookbooks instead of textbooks. I started skipping class to test new recipes and practice sharpening a knife. It was during this time that my career and path was ignited,” he added.

 

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY, Devine also served as chef de partie at Craft, Los Angeles. He developed his love and experience for pasta making while traveling throughout Italy working at an array of restaurants including the One Michelin Star La Subida in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.