Awesomeness Alert: Duck Fat Potato Chips at the Franklin

Update: the food has changed at the Franklin, now supervised by the folks at Supper, there's a wider variety, but sadly, no more duck fat chips... 

We tend to shorthand the real name of this place, just calling it The Franklin, but just to be clear: no, we don't mean the Franklin Fountain ice cream parlor, we're talking about the cocktail bar named the Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company.

You could be excused for confusing the retro design of both places, and the and fashion sense of their respective employees, but their products are pretty different. Although... I wouldn't be opposed to seeing what would happen if they joined forces...

The real reason to come to the Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company is for the cocktails. In what has become a pleasingly creative cocktail scene here in Philly, The Franklin can probably still be considered the top spot in town, although spirited competition is being provided by Village Whiskey, Chick's, Southwark and APO, as well as the bars at Noble, Oyster House and a few others.

All of these places have strong points, and I might prefer any of them at any given moment, but the Franklin has the largest original cocktail list, an impressive collection of spirits, and consistent talent behind the stick. Not only are the bartenders extremely knowledgeable, but the servers are too: in fact most times your servers are the bartenders, they tend to cycle out from behind the bar onto the floor, so you can get the same advice and personal attention out at a table as you can sitting at the tiny bar. There are many very interesting cocktails on the menu, but even better, this crew has a seemingly limitless repertoire of recipes old and new, so don't be reluctant to have them make you something not on the list. They're good with the classics, and perhaps even better coming up with something surprising and new based on your likes and dislikes, maybe even your mood at the moment.

Strangely, the excellent cocktails aren't the reason I'm posting an Awesomeness Alert. When the bar first opened, we were chronically longing for salty snacks, in fact there was no food at all. There's still not much, but now you can actually get a respectable cheese plate, some crazy-spicy nuts, or the subject of this alert: Duck-fat fried potato chips.

Potatoes, salt, duck fat. What could be bad about that? Oh, right, the duck fat french fries a couple blocks west at Whiskey Village are weirdly disappointing, unless buried under shortribs and cheese. But I'm happy to report that these potato chips are everything you wished WV's french fries were: perfectly crisp, assertively salty, and shrouded with a mysterious cloud of duck-fueled richness. They're also dangerously addictive. So, I'm sorry for telling you about them: your fat and salt intake levels are very likely going to spike in the near future.

$5 for a few ounces of chips might seem extreme, but you'll think it's worth it, and probably order another bowl, even though your cardiologist would probably recommend stopping at one. They're pretty great on their own, and somehow they make the drinks taste even better. Not that we really needed any encouragement to drink more at the Franklin...

The Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company
112 South 18th St (between Sansom and Chestnut)
http://thefranklinbar.com/

Things you didn't know you wanted to eat pt. 1 - Duck Tongues

We've learned to trust Ken at Ken's Seafood, and often don't even bother with a menu there, we just tell him the kind of thing we're in the mood for, and ask for suggestions.

Recently, we told him we were in the mood for something batter-dipped and deep-fried, and I have to admit that we were all surprised when he said "Duck Tongue." I'd seen them on the cold appetizer cart at Chung King Garden, but hadn't gotten around to trying them, nor had ever heard of them prepared this way, so this was going to be a new experience.

As it turns out, we liked them a lot. There's not a whole lot of meat on a duck tongue, and what there is has a slightly fatty, gelatinous texture, but when it's encased in perfectly-fried batter, the combo is very pleasing. To be fair, I think our table was evenly split about how good they were, but two of us really loved them. Someone likened them to the very tip of a chicken wing, where there's just a little bit of meat, more fat and skin and crunchy coating. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a matter of perspective.

There is a weird thing about duck tongues: they have a piece of cartilage going right down the middle that's inedible, so the crunchy treat needs to be eaten with a little care, and that little boney spine needs to be gingerly extracted from one's mouth, so this might not be a great food on the occasions that pulling bones from one's mouth wouldn't be considered polite.

On our previous visit, the same request resulted in a plate of frog. We were remembering the amazing Geoduck Clam bellies that he recommended a while back, and how good they were, especially how great the batter was. But we didn't feel like going big and getting the Geoduck sashimi this time, so we asked for something else. The frog is actually quite tasty, but each little nugget is filled with a bunch of tiny bones, making it a little tedious to eat. I'm sure one can get used to it, but we couldn't help feeling that the payoff just wasn't worth all that effort. And I couldn't get the Monty Python skit out of my mind - sure, they were talking about chocolates, but the line "Well, if we took the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?" kept echoing in my head. So although it was in fact pretty good, we might not be revisiting the deep-fried frog for a while... at least not the chopped-up bodies. Legs?, we'll eat frog legs any day.

Any disappointment in the frog was quickly overshadowed by the vegetable we ordered. Back when Ken worked at Xiao Guan he'd recommended a dish of Chinese Broccoli with Sausage, and we decided we needed that again. This version was even more decadently pork-filled, seemingly half its volume was sweet, salty Chinese sausage. There's a great interplay between the bitter greens and the sweet fattiness of the sausage, it's a perfect combination. And, oh, OK, we're suckers for anything with Chinese Sausage...



The fresh seafood is just outstanding here at Ken's, we love the whole steamed fish, the eel in XO sauce, the fresh scallops with garlic, or XO, or black bean sauce. My dining companions go pretty crazy for the live shrimp, salt-baked is apparently the way to go when they're small. But it's funny, at this seafood-centric restaurant, we end up ordering plenty of things from the land, and are rarely disappointed.

(read earlier review>>)

Ken's Seafood Restaurant
1004 Race St
Philadelphia, PA
215-351-7811