Year In Review: February

We’ll be looking back at the year in Foobooz. Next up is February, 2009.

News

• Rate Beer lists the top 50 beer bars in the world and Norristown’s Capone’s comes in at number 9.
• It was the favorite headline we came up with all year, “Oh Snap, Popp Cracks WineO”
• We’re still loving pho. In February we had two lists of favorite Vietnamese soups.
• This is Why You’re Fat blew up in February but who saw a book deal coming?
• February also featured one of our favorite posts of the year, the Union Trust vs. Del Frisco’s Openings Bash throwdown.
• Craig LaBan gives Butcher & Singer 3-bells but takes out the manager.
• We do a He Said, She Said feature regarding draft beer at Table 31 and we get results!
• Esquire names Kanella’s Breakfast Plate one of the 59 best breakfast places in America. And this was before they started offering brunch!

Dish of the Month

Thai Sausage at Chabaa Thai

Have kaffir lime leaves ever sung so clear a note from within a tube of pork? Have lemongrass and galangal ever joined so seamlessly in harmonic complement? If so, I want to know about it. This homemade beauty at MangoMoon — charred at the edges, yet impeccably moist inside — was the best sausage I have ever eaten. Of any kind. – Trey Popp, City Paper

Smackdown of the Month

“By night’s end, it was hard to avoid thinking that dinner at El Camino Real verged on fraud.” – Trey Popp at El Camino Real

Notable Openings

Chifa, Saute, Slate, Union Trust

Notable Closings

Cresheim Cottage Cafe, Mantra, Boathouse Row Bar, Chef’s Market