Regional Recipes
by Emily Kovach
Savona
Tucked into a historic building in Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, this creative Italian restaurant incorporates products from local farmers in their extensive menu of seafood crudo, pizzas, pastas, salads and grill-fired proteins. True Leaf Microgreens, 1732 Meats and R.L. Irwin mushrooms are among the kitchen’s squad of local purveyors. The bar also represents regional distilleries with selections from Boardroom Spirits and Brandywine Branch Distillers in many of the cocktails. Savona also boasts the largest wine cellar in the state, including locally made wines from Galen Glen Winery, Penns Woods Winery and Pinnacle Ridge Winery.
100 Old Gulph Road, Gulph Mills, Pa.
Cake Life Bake Shop
Baking aces Nima Etemadi and Lily Fischer recently moved their operation from Globe Dye Works to Fishtown’s bustling Frankford Avenue. In addition to creating custom special-occasion cakes, Cake Life Bake Shop is also a BYOB café for the neighborhood, offering all sorts of pastries, cakes by the slice, coffee and ready-made cakes to-go. In addition to classics like vanilla and German chocolate, the shop will stock a rotating selection of seasonal cake flavors such as the wintry Campfire Cocoa Cake, a chocolate cake with Swiss Miss whipped cream, chocolate ganache and housemade marshmallows. The duo buys produce and honey, honeycomb and bee pollen from nearby Riverwards Produce for use in some of their confection creations.
1306 Frankford Ave.
Lou Bird’s
A newcomer to the Graduate Hospital neighborhood, Chef Natalie Maronski has developed a seasonal menu enhanced with local products. Heavy cream for housemade butter comes from Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, and the buttermilk left over from the process gets whipped with horseradish and served with roasted potato and duck confit pierogi. It’s also used as the base for a buttermilk tart for dessert with tarragon, grapefruit and poppy seed. Microgreens are sourced from Blue Moon Acres, and local foragers on retainer “hunt” around Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, for maitakes and other wild mushrooms.
500 S. 20th St.
Biga
This relative newcomer to Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, boasts a nicely curated menu of on-trend Neapolitan-style pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven. Interesting salads and veggie sides such as buttermilk fried cauliflower sit alongside various pastas and heritage breed meat. The chef sources locally when possible: Birchrun Hills Farm blue cheese tops their baked gnocchi, Broad Wing Farm’s winter squash is part of the slow roasted pork dish, and Lancaster Farm Fresh apples are folded into a tasty dessert crostata. Other farm fresh ingredients top many of their pizzas, as well. Biga is taking their beverage program seriously as well. You’ll find a wide selection of well-organized craft beers on a list that even beer newbies will find helpful. Local breweries are definitely in the mix on the taps, in bottles and via growlers to-go. Tuesday nights, your glass growler is free with a fill up.
810 Glenbrook Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa.
