The origin was simple. Jeremy Sanchez and Marc Levy, along with some friends wanted to head out to a different bar instead of the usual 12 Steps Down. After some quick online searches and reading reviews, there wasn’t anywhere to see pictures of the different bars. All the sites were full of ads or cluttered with randomness.

So TheJawn.com was born. So appropriately named for anything/everything Philly. I love it.

They came up with the idea to create a simple site just for Philly bars and restaurants with clear photos and information. (Later to be expanded to include any type of business.)
(more…)

Love camping? Live in Philadelphia? Then you might want to check out this Kickstarter, launched by a group of Philadelphia-based camping lovers, notably product designers Ben Ashpole and Jay Olman.

Meet the Pocket Grill, the world’s most compact, full-size camping grill that can, as you can imagine, fit right in your pocket. And just like most cookware you’d take on a camping trip, this little guy is made out of stainless steel.

Their goal is a lofty one, set at $40,000. But with the sort of perks these guys are dishing out, I can definitely see them reaching it. Donate a mere $40, and you’ll get a grill in the mail when they go into production. Kick in an extra $10, and they’ll throw in a cookbook made just for the Pocket Grill.

So! Hit up the Kickstarter, check out their official website, and follow them on Twitter for updates regarding the product. Best of luck, guys!

The Pocket Grill
www.kck.st/qrLcLq
www.pocketgrill.com

The planets must be aligning. It’s quite rare that so many things I enjoy, appreciate or even adore come together just like this.

Our friends over at Drink Philly are celebrating their one-year anniversary on First Friday this week. They’re celebrating this momentous occasion by helping raise money for my very favorite locally-based, nationally-recognized nonprofit charity, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. The icing on this cake of awesomeness? They’ll have some food from Khyber Pass Pub and cocktails from Philadelphia Distilling Co.

I can’t wait to eat way too much bacon grease popcorn from KPP while enjoying fantastic local art and music at the office of one of my favorite local sites. Please stop on by, support a good cause and enjoy FREE food, cocktails, art, music and FUN.

Drink Philly’s One-Year Anniversary First Friday & Fundraiser
5-9pm on Friday, August 5
239 Chestnut St. 2nd Floor. Unit B
Philadelphia, PA 19106
www.drinkphilly.com

The excitement over the final installment of Harry and friends has begun to settle down and Pottermore won’t be fully online until October, so what’s a die-hard Harry Potter aficionado to do?

Answer: make some Sugar Mice and wash them down with a glass of refreshing Pumpkin Juice.

Dinah Bucholz, a Philly resident, has something to get you through this trying time. She’s followed up her popular Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook with The Unofficial Harry Potter Sweet Shoppe Kit.

The kit comes with pretty bags for your sweets, candy molds and mini broom sticks for lollipops, as well as a recipe book filled with recipes for treats from Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. There’s a fantastic section in the beginning that teaches you how to temper chocolate, which came in handy when I tested out the candy molds.

I really liked that most recipes included a brief intro to remind the cook where exactly the treat appeared in the book. It was fun to read through and remember when Hagrid bought Harry a giant ice cream cone during his first trip to Diagon Alley, or that Fred once gave Ron an Acid Drop that actually burned a hole in Ron’s tongue.

The instructions are easy enough to follow, but be warned – it’s suggested for ages 8 and up and a lot of the recipes require candy thermometers or ice cream makers.

Want to win a copy? Just leave a comment about your favorite Harry Potter character. We’ll select one of you at random sometime next week. Oh, and the publisher was nice enough to let us print the recipe for Acid Drops here – let us know if you make them! (more…)

Alright, you guys know the deal. Dock Street Brewery screens movies on Tuesday, you go there, enjoy tasty brews and delicious pizzas. Got it? Good.

Over the next three weeks, Dock Street will be screening Dazed & Confused, Riding Giants and the classic 80′s flick, Stand By Me. Check out the schedule below.

• July 26th: Dazed and Confused

• August 2nd: Riding Giants

• August 9th: Stand By Me

During the screenings, select beers will be discounted, and you can score $1 off small pizzas / $2 off select large pies. Movies start at 8:30pm, show up early to get your seat.

Dock Street
701 S. 50th Street (19143)
(215) 726-2337
www.dockstreetbeer.com

The Vendy Awards began as a fundraiser for the Street Vendor Project, a non-profit that ensures vendors have legal representation and advocates to immigrant vendors. For the past seven years, the awards have rallied together some of the finest food trucks in NYC to duke out their sidewalk culinary prowess on Governors Island. In recent years, there’s been a growing number of vendors and attendees who’d make the 100mi trek up to the five boroughs, until now.

This year we were delighted to have our very own Vendy Awards, judged by our own local all-star judges. We spent the afternoon in the Piazza at Schimdt’s enjoying wonderful food from Guapos Tacos, Cucina Zapata (Winner: People’s Choice), GiGi and Big R Soul Food (Winner: 2011 Vendy Cup) and others while hanging out with some of Philly’s finest. Important to note that our Philly Vendy Awards benefited The Food Trust, a local non-profit that committed to ensuring that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food.

Check out our photos from the event and keep your eyes peeled around this time next summer for this super-fun event benefiting a good cause.

Some delicious noms from Nicole Yates’ Polish Goodness

So the Philadelphia Geek Awards are on their way, and we’re pretty damn excited. Apparently, a lot of other folks are psyched too, and we’ve brought them on as sponsors.

I’d like to welcome on LiveNation and Nicole Yates of Polish Goodness (last week’s Geek of the Week), to the sponsor pool for the Philadelphia Geek Awards.

LiveNation will be helping us print some really lovely programs for the awards ceremony, while Nicole Yates will join National Mechanics and DrinkPhilly during the cocktail hour. She’ll be dishing out her famous pierogis, which you’ve likely snacked on at PYT, to hungry guests.

So. Go ahead and get even more excited about the awards. And if you’re interested in being a sponsor, drop us a line! Join us!

Philadelphia Geek Awards
Friday, August 19th, 2011
www.phillygeekawards.com

Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 299-1009
www.ansp.org

Photo by Danya Henninger

Today’s Geek of the Week column features Collin Flatt, who a lot of you might know from his food writing here in Philadelphia. From Phoodie to the Feast, you’ve surely read his blogs about tasty noms. Read on to learn about how he got into food writing, his massive video game collection (MASSIVE), and his favorite haunts for food and drink.

Let’s start off with you telling me about yourself. People might know you best for your former involvement with Phoodie and presently with The Feast. How did you get into the food scene and blogging about it?

I am a food obsessed individual, like most young Philadelphians, but I just happened to get obsessed a little ahead of the curve. My mom was a bad cook (love you, moms), and because of this, I wasn’t exposed to great vittles when I was little and have no allegiance to her gravy or casseroles, like most food folks I know.

What this did, though, was provide my palate with an early education on odd flavor combinations, and food that was inexplicably out of balance. She made meatloaf that was covered in Rice Krispies, and her Chicken a la King is legendary for it’s bonding properties. Obviously it has scarred me for life. Because of those experiences, I searched out food from cultures all around the world, and made it my mission to be a better cook than she was.

I started writing about wine first, and it spread into food journaling, and then beer as well. Hobbies become your job if you decide to spend more time on them than what you’re paid to do.

(more…)

Are you a female who’s into gadgets, technology, video gaming, programming, or any other kind of tech-geek related stuff? Are you looking to connect with other girls who share your passion – and possibly plot world domination?

Look no further – Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia is here to bring you together with other like-minded ladies. GGD has monthly happy hours, the next of which will be this Thursday, June 30th, at 6pm at Varga Bar.

GGD is also host to quarterly dinners, the first of which was back in April, and had Maggie Avener of the Prometheus Radio Project give a talk on making technical topics more accessible to less geeky audiences. The next dinner will be held in late July or early August. For now, dinners are for women only. Sorry, fellas!

Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia was started by Tristin Hightower, a longtime member of several groups in which she is usually the only female present (who isn’t someone else’s significant other). She wanted to start a group in which women could talk with other women and feel safe discussing their passions. So far, the attendance has been stellar, and the feedback has been positive and enthusiastic.

For more information, or to get more involved with the group, check out their website.

Girl Geek Dinners
www.girlgeekdinners.com

This week, we talk to Nicole Yates of Polish Goodness. She’s the talent behind the delicious pierogies that can be found at beloved geek hangout PYT, as well as a wealth of other places around the city.

How did you get started with Polish Goodness and what else do you do?

The road to pierogies is a wild one for me really. I had gotten canned from my last IT job and after looking for work, realized there was nothing out there. I began thinking about how my mom would make pierogies and give them as holiday gifts — people would FREAK OUT over them. After canvassing interest on Facebook, I learned how to make them and took off from there.

What were you doing in IT?

I’ve done pretty much everything aside from databases (which I consider to be the work of the devil). I’ve taught computer science in two different local grade schools, I’ve worked at four different college in various levels of support and even ran a computer basics night class for adults. Being a computer tech is a lot like being a car mechanic: people never entirely trust you, they either have no idea what you are talking about or they consider themselves the expert and you then become a liar.

So, after my last job, I am done with all of that. I’ll fix stuff for relatives, neighbors and friends but now I make pierogies and write.

(more…)

It’s the start of the summer season and we’d like to kick it off with a $50 gift card giveaway from our friends over at SeamlessWeb.

Do whatever you want with it. Order a few pies from Geekadelphia favorite, Rustica Pizza. Get an absurd amount of wings from Manny Brown’s. Maybe order up some delicious sides from Phoebe’s Bar-B-Q. Whatever.

How can you enter? Easy. Leave a comment with what you’re looking forward to eating this weekend for your chance to win a $50 SeamlessWeb gift card. Simple as that.

UPDATE: Thanks for playing last weekend folks! We’ve chosen our winner.

(more…)

As a native of Atlantic County and a 7 year Philadelphia transplant, I am beyond pleased to learn that the local Philly startup, DrinkPhilly is covering their bases for weekend vacationers with the launch of DrinkJerseyShore.com.

After turning 21 in Philadelphia, the nation’s beer capital and living next to The Foodery, I lamented my first trip back toward the beach that summer, upon discovering the average swig in my hometown was Corona. Many bars supplied a laundry list of crappy domestic light beers — all significantly overpriced. This left me appalled… since when does being on the beach have to equate with terrible taste?

(more…)