Kurt Evans’s Black Dragon Takeout Is Finally Opening This Week

The sign above the door of the new Black Dragon Takeout. / Photograph by Victor Fiorillo

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. As another long, lazy summer winds down and Labor Day Weekend approaches, Philly’s restaurant industry is starting to show some signs of life again. So this week we’ve got no less than four openings (or re-openings) to talk about: one very sad closure, an update from Little Walter’s, news from Paffuto, Kouklet, and the Herr’s “Flavored by Philly” contest. So let’s get started, shall we?

Enter the Dragon

There are some people out there who have been waiting to hear this news for a long time: Black Dragon Takeout has just announced its opening date, and it’s two days from now.

Seriously. Doors open Thursday, August 29th. You might want to think about getting in line now.

For those of you less nerdy about this sort of thing (which, I admit, is probably most of you), Black Dragon is the new project from chef Kurt Evans (of Down North Pizza and elsewhere), who saw the generational flight of Chinese takeout operations from predominantly Black American neighborhoods, saw the food deserts they were leaving behind, and decided to do something about it.

And what he decided to do was collard green egg rolls, jerk chicken dumplings, oxtail lo mein, and General Roscoe’s Chicken — in other words, “nutritious, culturally significant dishes that celebrate Black culinary traditions, all while maintaining the beloved look and feel of Chinese takeout.”

The mural outside of Black Dragon Takeout. / Photograph by Victor Fiorillo

Which is wild, revolutionary, and super-cool all at the same time. I mean, I don’t usually just pull long quotes from the “About” sections of restaurant websites, but this one deserves to be read. Check it out:

“At Black Dragon Takeout, our mission extends beyond serving delicious food. We are dedicated to uplifting our community by prioritizing local hiring. We believe in providing meaningful employment opportunities to our neighbors and are particularly focused on offering second chances to those who have faced incarceration. By doing so, we aim to empower individuals and strengthen our community […] By reclaiming spaces once occupied by Chinese takeout restaurants, we aim to rebuild and enhance our communities. We strive to create a welcoming environment where customers can enjoy high-quality meals without the traditional barriers of Plexiglas windows. Our goal is to foster trust and build lasting relationships with our customers, ensuring that everyone feels valued and connected.

Black Dragon Takeout is more than just a restaurant; it is a movement to revive and celebrate our communities. Through our commitment to quality, cultural relevance, and community empowerment, we hope to make a lasting impact and become a beloved fixture in the neighborhoods we serve. Join us on this journey in the year of the dragon and experience the vibrant fusion of flavors and traditions that only Black Dragon Takeout can offer.”

There is not a single word of that I don’t like. And while I’m generally pretty suspicious of restaurants that come with manifestos, if you can’t see the power and the potential in Black American Chinese fusion cooking at a West Philly takeout spot opened over the bones of a former Chinese takeout spot (Golden Dragon), then you’ve just forgotten how to have fun in Hotcakesland. This kind of stuff is what I love about Philly’s food scene. Because Philly’s food scene is a place where there’s still just enough wiggle room for a chef like Evans with a concept like Black Dragon to raise some money, find a space, and give it a shot.

Anyway, this project has been in the works for a long time. He talked about it right here at Philly Mag more than a year ago, and now we’ve finally made it to opening day.

Black Dragon Takeout opens at noon on Thursday at 5260 Rodman Street. We’ll see y’all there.

Speaking of Things We’ve All Been Waiting For …

Photograph courtesy of La Baja

Do you guys remember back a few months ago when chef Dionicio Jiménez had, like, the busiest week of any week in the history of weeks? He got a four-star review from me for his restaurant, Cantina La Martina; then the mayor visited; then he announced that he was opening a second restaurant in Ambler called La Baja; then Jiménez and his partner at Cantina, Mariangeli Alicea Saez, got married. This all happened in the space of three days or something. It was nuts.

But it was also nearly six months ago. So that second restaurant? The news of it got a little bit lost in the sauce, so to speak. It’s understandable. There was a lot going on. But still, one of the best chefs in the city opening a new spot? It deserved more ink than it got.

The good news is, I can now let you know that La Baja finally has an opening date. And it’s soon! Jiménez and crew will be soft opening on August 30th at 9 North Main Street in Ambler, bringing their own take on the Mexican/Asian/Mediterranean flavors of the Mexican border. There’s a long tradition of Mediterranean ingredients being used (and grown) in the region because of their similar climates, and Asian cuisine has been a part of La Baja’s culture since the late 1860s, when large groups of Chinese (and later Japanese) immigrants moved to the region.

So, cocina de Frontera is what Jiménez is aiming for with La Baja. And he’ll be doing it with avocado and blue crab ravioli, whole roasted duck with baked plantains and bao buns, grilled octopus with black garlic and pineapple tatemando sorbet, and hibiscus-and-Mexican-chocolate-braised short rib over risotto. He’s not new to this kind of game. Ask anyone who had his red pozole ramen at Cantina, and they’ll tell you. But this menu is much more committed to the multicultural fusion angle and the stories of migration and re-settlement that food can tell.

La Baja will be BYO, but there’ll be a large selection of horchatas, agua frescas, and non-alcoholic spirits from Wallace Dry Goods. Hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays until 11 p.m., and Sundays, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. No brunch yet, but it’s coming.

As always, you’ll know more when I know more.

And Now, Some Bad News From the Burbs

María-José Hernández of Autana hosting a pop-up at Manatawny Still Works in August 2023. / Photograph by Mike Prince

La Baja opening? Definitely good news. Dionicio, Mariangeli, and their crew are gonna kill it, I’m sure. Nothing but blue skies and smiles.

But down the way in Ardmore, there’s some bad news. One of my favorite restaurants in town, Autana, shut down suddenly over the weekend. Apparently, there was a problem with the landlord, and while the Hernández family (who ran the place) weren’t planning on such a quick closure, that’s just how it went down.

And yes, I’m pissed. Autana did some of the best Venezuelan food around — and the hands-down best tres leches cake I’ve ever had. But I guess it isn’t all bad news because, the way it sounds right now, the family is essentially going back to its pandemic roots, picking up space in a ghost kitchen in the city, doing pop-ups and residencies, and looking for a brand-new spot to open in the city. And considering that I loved the place best when it was just a strange little mostly-takeout operation doing dinner service out of the old Ardmore Station Cafe kitchen in its off-hours, maybe this will be a good thing. A return to first principles and all that. That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway.

Over at the Inky, they’ve got the whole story of what went down and what’s coming next. I’m hoping for the best for the Hernández family. And as soon as I know where to find them (and those tres leches cakes) on a more permanent basis, I’ll let y’all know.

Celebrating Szczęśliwa Godzina at Little Walter’s

Pierogi ruskie from Little Walter’s / Photograph by Gab Bonghi

Look, I’m going to put this as simply as I can: If you haven’t already been to Little Walter’s, go now. Don’t wait. Don’t say you’ll think about it. Just go. You’ll thank me later.

Chef Michael Brenfleck’s charming, rustic, pierogi-loving Polish restaurant, Little Walter’s, just opened in June on Hagert Street in East Kensington, and it came out of the gate as one of those restaurants that was already so much better and so much more interesting than I think anyone (me included) thought it was going to be.

Part of that is a lack of Polish restaurants in town that straddle that line between grandma-coded and thoroughly contemporary. Part of it is America’s love of turning complex, international comfort foods (like pierogi, kielbasa, and pickles) into grill-ready, mass-produced convenience foods or the kind of shit you can throw in the microwave for 45 seconds during Eagles timeouts. But mostly it’s because Brenfleck (who has spent years cooking his way through some of the city’s best kitchens) took what could’ve been a stock, biographical, Eastern European immigrant comfort food menu and twisted it to a precisely calculated degree — just enough that all these foods we think we know arrive at the table in ways we’ve never conceived of them before. Sourdough rye smeared with lard. Pierogi stuffed with squash blossoms and napped with horseradish cream. Citywides made with Polish lager and a shot of zubrowska.

Anyway, Little Walter’s is good. But starting, well, now, it’s about to get even better.

For starters, Brenfleck is adding an extra night of service. The place is now open Monday nights for dinner.

And on Monday nights, he’s running a happy hour — Szczęśliwa Godzina in Polish — that goes all night long. Starting at 4 p.m. and running ’til they turn off the lights at 10 p.m., Little Walter’s is offering $9 pickle-juice martinis and Urbanistas (Citywides), select $5 beers and wines by the glass, $4 pickle popcorn dusted with aged cheddar and dill, and $6 pierogi ruskie, which is a killer deal. Get 10 of them, plus a couple beers, and you’re still probably coming in under the price of any fancy dinner a dozen blocks south.

So that’s Monday. For the rest of the week, Tuesday through Saturday, Little Walter’s is offering the same deal, but only from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Still, a man — a dedicated man — can eat a lot of pierogi and drink a lot of zubrowska in two hours.

Trust me. I know.

Now who wants some leftovers?

The Leftovers

Paffuto and Kouklet are collaborating on a Brazilian-themed takeout meal to celebrate the Eagles game in Brazil. / Photograph by Mike Prince

Okay, two more openings you need to know about.

First, it looks like the good folks behind Elixr Coffee have a new spot opening at the Food & Shops concourse at the airport. Which isn’t really huge news or anything — unless, of course, you’re at the airport and looking for a decent cup of coffee before your flight. At which point, finding a place like Elixr becomes very big news. Coffee, snacks, pastries from local bakeries — you know the drill.

Next, some good news for the vegetarians. It looks like Mama’s Vegetarian, which closed back in 2020, has come back to life at 18 South 20th Street.

Kinda.

It’s under new ownership. And the name is Mama’s Falafel now, not Mama’s Vegetarian. But the recipes are allegedly the same, and folks who’ve been subsisting on nothing but memories of Mama’s crispy, fried falafel are saying it’s almost as good as it used to be. The menu is very basic at the moment — falafel, sandwiches, sabich, fries — but it is also very new, and the official opening isn’t until Thursday. Right now, it’s just operating in a kind of soft-open mode, but worth a look if you find yourself in Rittenhouse and craving some falafel.

Looking for a way to properly celebrate the Eagles’ season opener? Well, it’s happening in São Paulo, Brazil, this year against the Packers on Friday, September 6th, so what better way to watch than at home, on your couch, with all your friends and a full-on Brazilian feast?

The guys from Paffuto — Jake Loffler, Daniel Griffiths, and Sam Kalkut — have teamed up with Mardhory Santos-Cepeda from Kouklet to offer a game day package of Brazilian-themed party food they’re calling “Feijoada Feast Eagles Gameday Brazilian Boxes.” Each box will contain two panzerotti, three sides, and one dessert — all Brazilian-themed and made with Brazilian ingredients. We’re talking smoked ham, sausage, and black bean panzerotti, hearts of palm and caramelized onion panzerotti, orange-fennel salad, braised collard greens, fried sweet plantains, and caipirinha sourdough doughnuts with lime crème and cachaça whipped cream to finish things off.

Each box is meant to feed two people, and you can order as many as you need. It’ll work like this: Starting August 26th (which means yesterday), Paffuto will be taking orders for the boxes. Orders can be placed until 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 4th, when Paffuto will shut off orders. Pickups will be available on Friday, September 6th, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Paffuto (1009 South 8th Street in Bella Vista). Each box will run you $45, and orders can be placed on Resy.

Finally, this week, in case you missed it, the Herr’s “Flavored by Philly” contest for this Year of Our Lord 2024 has finally come to a close. I first told you about this back in June, implored everyone to vote for Mom-Mom’s Pierogi-flavored potato chips, and then promptly forgot all about my plans for ballot-box stuffing and other decidedly undemocratic tactics for ensuring what I thought would be the very ironic (and funny) victory of a potato-flavored potato chip in this year’s running.

Well, guess what happened? Mom-Mom’s lost out to Romano’s Special Hot Stromboli flavor. Which is fine, I guess. Romano’s is a very deserving competitor and certainly has some history behind their entry — namely, 80 years in the business and a claim on actually inventing the stromboli itself. So I offer my humble congratulations to the victor and walk away from this experience with a newfound appreciation of democratic norms. Specifically, don’t forget to vote. Because next time, something far more important than a potato-flavored potato chip might be on the line.