Philly Mag’s Most Memorable Bites of 2024

From left: Midnight Pasta; Honeysuckle Provision’s “High on the Hog” barbecue platter; and Bradford Pearson’s kiddo knocking back a talami from Majdal Bakery. / Photographs by Kerri Sitrin, Kae Lani Palmisano, and Bradford Pearson.

The end of the year is a time for reflection, and as 2024 comes to a close, we here at Philly Mag are looking back at some of our favorite meals. Not just the most impressive bites, you know, the elaborate dessert at the end of a bucket-list dinner or the simplicity of shaved artichokes at one of the city’s hottest new restaurants. But also the bites that punctuate special moments: the hoagie you get after giving birth, the spread of South Philly classics you share with all your neighbors for your birthday, the pasta-making class you attend with your work friends, the happy hour clam-and-pizza trend you start that unites an entire bar in Delco. These aren’t just the best bites of 2024. They’re the bites that have left a meaningful impression.

The “High on the Hog” barbecue platter served during the UNTITLED tasting menu at Honeysuckle Provisions. / Photograph by Kae Lani Palmisano

Kae Lani Palmisano, food editor

The meal I connected to the most this year — the one that continues to move me to tears just thinking about it — was this past summer’s UNTITLED tasting menu at Honeysuckle Provisions. (Funny enough, I accidentally shared this meal with Craig LaBan and Margaret Eby of the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as frequent Philly Mag contributor Regan Fletcher Stephens. It was unplanned! By sheer happenstance, we all made reservations on the same night. Philly is the smallest big city in the world!)

Now, Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate aren’t just chefs: they’re artists and storytellers on a mission to preserve and uplift African diasporic foodways, and the meal they prepared was as much about food as it was about social commentary. There was a beef tartare tinged black with squid ink served alongside a story about Clorindy, the first Black musical to hit Broadway, and the use of blackface in stage performances; an entire “High on the Hog” cookout featuring barbecue ribs coated in a tangy Carolina-style sauce and collard greens all served on a silver platter; and multiple references to trickster rabbits, including a “Br’er Rabbit” terrine (a nod to Uncle Remus’s folk tales) and a Kool-Aid cocktail named after Bugs Bunny’s classic catchphrase “What’s Up Doc.”

When my bill came tucked in an old cover of Jet magazine, I nearly lost it (I had to summon all of my willpower not to cry in front of Craig LaBan). This menu took me back to a hyper-specific time in my childhood when I lived with my mom’s family — the Black side of my family. My grandfather would cook one of the rabbits we raised in the backyard along with collard greens and succotash. Then, after dinner, he’d recite stories about Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox, my favorite of which was the one about the briar patch — the same story the Tates shared during our dinner.

A young Kae Lani Palmisano sharing a meal with her grandfather Claude Suggs. / Photograph courtesy of Kae Lani Palmisano

An unfortunate reality about my experience growing up as a mixed-race kid in the ’90s is that my white father completely rejected our heritage, including our food. After my mom and I moved in with my father, we were no longer allowed to eat soul food, and it ultimately stripped my mom and me of a big part of our identity. It’s an experience that many within marginalized communities can relate to, whether their food was ridiculed at the school lunch table or they didn’t have access to culturally relevant ingredients. So, to go to a restaurant that so eloquently celebrated a part of my culinary culture — a culture that I was taken away from and have been spending my adult years slowly reclaiming — and share that meal with some of the most prominent voices covering Philadelphia’s food scene was beyond healing for me.

Part of the privilege of being Philly Mag’s food editor (and the host of Check, Please! Philly on WHYY) is that I get to dine in our region’s best restaurants and share what makes them special with you. But the real reason I got into this business is because I genuinely feel joy when everyone’s uniqueness is celebrated on the plate. Honeysuckle is in the process of relocating to their new spot, a 95-seat restaurant just across the street from SOUTH Restaurant & Jazz Club on North Broad Street according to the Inquirer, and I cannot wait to see what they’ve got planned next.

Victor Fiorillo, senior reporter

I was recently at Broadway Bar & Grill in Delco for their happy hour and, of course, ordered the baked clams. When you’re done forking the baked clams out of the shells, you are left with a bunch of juice in the shells. Normally, the move is to dip their crusty bread in there to suck up the juices and eat the bread. Delish. But I had a genius idea. I ordered one of their 12-inch brick oven clams casino pizzas and dipped the slices into the juices. OMG. People at the bar saw what we were doing and soon followed suit with their own identical orders. Someone bought me a drink for giving them the idea. I felt like a food hero. If I were the restaurant, any time someone orders baked clams, I would suggest to them the pro tip of ordering the pizza for dipping. The pizzas are BOGO at happy hour, so you can’t really lose on this deal.

Features editor Bradford Pearson sharing the joy of Majdal Bakery’s talami with his seven-year-old. / Photograph by Bradford Pearson

Bradford Pearson, features editor

Every parent knows that the best feeling that comes from parenting is when you introduce your kid to something you love and then, miraculously, they like it too. This applies to pretty much everything, but from a straight convenience standpoint, it’s a nearly overwhelming feeling when it comes to food. Because, hey! My kid and I can eat the same thing and I don’t need to fret about finding something else for them. Hallelujah, world without end, amen, amen.

That came to mind earlier this year, when my seven-year-old wolfed down much of the Majdal Bakery talami I was hoping to eat for breakfast. The sweet, anise seed-studded bread is one of my favorite things from Kenan Rabah’s bakery, which just opened a brick-and-mortar in Queen Village after a few months of pop-ups around town. And now I get to order two.

Speaking of breakfast, there’s no better option in Philadelphia — nay, the world! he said, thumping his chest — than two pretzels, fresh out of the Center City Pretzel oven, slathered in Keller’s bran mustard. Center City Pretzel reopened in April after a fire shuttered the business for 18 months. Biting into a CCP pretzel a few days later, I finally understood Proust’s madeleine.

For my 40th birthday in November, I threw a house party. Seventy people, jammed into a Pennsport rowhouse in a way that felt vaguely irresponsible, or at least a fire code violation. The spread was a collection of the finest foods South Philly has to offer: Sarcone’s tomato pie, hoagies and antipasto from Farina Di Vita, and an Italian cream cake from Termini Bros. that was so heavy with rum that a vapor appeared when we opened the box. (OK, maybe just a spread of the finest Italian foods South Philly has to offer.)

But the centerpiece was a whole hog porchetta from Esposito’s, its snout and hooves displayed prominently to the dismay of the party’s sundry vegetarians and vegans. I cut thin slices for folks, but midway through the party (and all the way through the barrel-aged negronis I made), people just started ripping at it, grabbing hunks of pork as they passed the table. The party felt like something from the before times, before we all spent years inside, before this country grew so wary of its neighbors, before we all got so goddamn worried about everything. It just felt…fun. And when’s the last time you can say you actually had fun?

Some random dishes that I’m still thinking about:

• The shrimp cocktail at Meetinghouse
• The chawanmushi at Royal Sushi & Izakaya, which somehow made its way to my table even though I was just eating in the izakaya
• The asparagus-fennel danish at Mighty Bread
• The fried fluke sandwich at Royal Tavern, its crispy bits stretching to nearly cover my entire plate

How many Philly Mag editors does it take to make pasta? Three, apparently. / Photograph by Kerri Sitrin

Laura Swartz, deputy digital editor

My best bite of 2024 was also one of my best nights of 2024. Kae Lani Palmisano, Laura Brzyski, and I had a little Philly Mag girls’ night and attended a Midnight Pasta Co. party at BLDG39 @ The Arsenal. Did I know how to make pasta? No, I did not. But Natalia guided us through with Italian music and old-timey hand-crank dough antics (okay, that part was just us). After making piles of pasta with the rest of the class, a long candlelit table was revealed for us to sit family-style and enjoy our work. Except the Midnight Pasta team had transformed it into two incredible dishes — the creamy, squash-laden fettucine was my favorite — and added several courses for us to enjoy, each more delicious than the next. (I still think about the braised carrots.) I couldn’t have asked for a better meal or better company. And that’s what it’s all about, right?

From left: Meyer lemon gelée at Jean-Georges Philadelphia; gluten-free white claw pizza at Prunella; and Hamachi rice cracker at Pearl and Mary Oyster Bar. / Photographs by Kristen Schott

Kristen Schott, wedding editor

Meyer Lemon Gelée at Jean-Georges Philadelphia
Earlier this year, I had a bucket-list dinner at Jean-Georges Philadelphia, and the highlight of the six-course from the Land and Sea tasting menu was this delectable bite featuring fresh lemon gelée, crème fraiche, and golden osetra caviar. Salty, tart, silky, sweet—it checked all the boxes.

Gluten-Free Baller Classic at Middle Child
Yes, Middle Child offers GF focaccia (made by High Fidelity Bakery), and yes, it’s delicious, particularly on this baby featuring turkey, Duke’s mayo, sweet pickles, onion, and arugula.

Gluten-Free Avocado Toast at High Street Bakery
It’s a breakfast favorite, with High Street’s GF bread (its texture and taste are just as good as the “real” thing) piled with avo mash, crunchy radishes, and everything spice.

Forbidden Rice Bowl at P.S. & Co.
It’s hearty, filling, and loaded with good-for-you ingredients — all of which are plant-based and gluten-free. The bowl is layered with edamame, roasted mushrooms, kale, and peppers. Miso cashew cheese is sprinkled on top, and it’s typically finished with rawcho cheese and chimichurri sauce — I usually order it on the side, but you do you.

Hamachi Rice Cracker at Pearl and Mary Oyster Bar
Three of these perfectly fancy snacks—in a perfectly casual spot—are served in one order, with crunchy rice forming the base for Hamachi, scallions, and round of jalapeño (I think). The caviar on top might be my favorite flourish.

Gluten-Free White Claw pizza at Prunella
This is what I ate following the Philadelphia Marathon, made with gluten-free crust. There’s mozzarella, roasted garlic, and a spiral of basil. It hit the spot.