The Bayou’s Joe Abruzzo says Wed., Aug. 27 is the day for Cactus Bar and Restaurant, a 75-seat Southwestern spot nearing completion at 4243 Main Street in Manayunk.

The interior, which is done up with exposed brick and restored hardwood floors, features three levels. Downstairs has dinner and banquette seating and a 30-foot, 23-stool granite bar; up the steps, there’s balcony dinner seating and a third-floor area for private parties.

Around 60 tequilas behind the bar, with margarita and house cocktail lists.

Abruzzo’s chef partner, Joe Jowett, is doing trusty Mexi standards (nachos, fajitas, quesadillas) with some Tex-Mex twists (pulled pork with sweet mashed carrots, barbecue shrimp with spicy butter in a white wine sauce). They’ll serve food until 2 a.m. Check out the full menu here.

The Unusual Times, the plucky lifestyle arm of our favorite gin distiller, is giving away a theremin prize pack.

In our never ending appreciation for all things unusual, we are proud to announce that TheUnusualTimes.net is giving away a Moog™ Etherwave® Theremin exploration kit, which includes everything you need to play the unusualist of
instruments. Invented by Léon Theremin in 1919, the Theremin allows the
player to control two radio frequency oscillators via hand position
around two antennae. One of the oscillators controls frequency, and the
other volume. The electrical signals of the instrument are amplified
through an amplifier.

Drawing is Sept. 10.

This is what came up on our stock photo service when we tried to find an image of Léon Theremin’s masterwork:

Instead, follow the jump for a video of Keller Williams theremin-izing in San Francisco.

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Photo | Drew Lazor

Privé (246 Market St.), the 150-seat Mediterranean tapas restaurant from cousins Nick and Billy Lavdas and chef Peter Karapanagiotis, is set to open on or around Monday, Aug. 25. (We first mentioned it here.)

Details, a menu preview and more photos after the jump.

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Marty Grims says that the second location of his Du Jour Gourmet Market, on the ground floor of the Symphony House at Broad and Pine, will almost definitely open this Friday., Aug. 22. (The original’s in Haverford.)

Follow the jump to download the breakfast and dinner menus. (They’re also doing lunch.)

What are we most intrigued by? Dinner menu, small plates column: FOIE GRAS PB&J — foie gras mousse served on toasted brioche with huckleberry jam and plum ginger caramel.

Foie is back, kids!

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Food Network

“You come from the City of Brotherly Love. SO WILL YOU BE READY FOR THE HOSTILITY OF KITCHEN STADIUM?“

So went the splendidly silly introductory warning from Iron Chef America’s Chairman on last night’s all-new episode. (Why does no one ever talk about how he’s the dude from Only the Strong?) He was addressing none other than our very own Jose Garces, who met Bobby Flay head to head in a Kitchen Stadium battle (secret ingredient: melon) with a frigid twist: Each course had to feature a frozen element.

Recap and thoughts after the jump.

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We first told you about David Katz’s upcoming Mémé (and its killer Ralph Steadman logo) here and here.

Now, we have even more info to share. Jump please.

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Gene and Amy Giuffi’s Cochon (801 E. Passyunk Ave., 215-923-7675, cochonbyob.com) has started serving Sunday brunch weekly from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“Everything is typically decadent, per Gene’s philosophy,” says Amy.

“Dude, I can finally go to Cochon,” says Kelly White, CP’s favorite vegetarian scribe. “Unless they put bacon in their waffles.”

Find out if they do after the jump.*

* (They don’t.)

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Jim Horwat

Had an e-mail chat with artist Jim Horwat, creator of the Cheesteak prints we hipped you to a few weeks back. He was kind enough to answer our questions, and send some much nicer-looking versions of the prints.

Do you have plans to continue this series?
Yes, there’s definitely solid plans to continue with new prints in the
“Philadelphia Personification Experiment”. The big three cheesesteak prints
were my first venture with this last fall and the response to these has
been nothing short of encouraging.

What do you plan to caricature next?
The Trocadero Theatre and Tattooed Moms are next in line. I feel they
are sacred to the Philadelphia experience and the buildings themselves
have so much character. For many people these places trigger fantastic
memories. (When I was a teenager the Troc was seriously my Mecca.)

What drew you to depict the cheesesteak places?
This whole idea actually germinated from a visit I had last summer to
Detroit. My pop-culture brain was stuck there on the movie “Robocop” —
abandoned factories, scrap metal and chemical plants everywhere. It was
a little bit depressing, but on the flipside Philly is so different. It
has “Rocky” and cheesesteaks… and these make you feel good! I am
gracious to live here because I know Philly is a great city.

Do you have a favorite cheesesteak in the city?
I think the whole cheesesteak thing here is really more about the unique atmosphere/experience and that is why they are all rightly successful. That being said, my personal favorite is Pats.

We’re also quite fond of Horwat’s Fightin Phils piece. He tells us to keep our eyes open for another sports-related piece in the not-too-distant future.

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phillymarketcafe.blogspot.com

Every Tuesday Wednesday, we poke around the food blog world to see what’s simmering.

- Philly Market Cafe welcomes new CP food critic David Snyder and shares an alternative use for our fine publication.

- Foodaphilia has the details on the fourth installment of the Philly Food Blogger Meet-Up and Potluck.

- Uncle Jimmy offers some tips on making homemade baked tortilla chips, which taste way better than restaurant offerings that “taste like the terrible rancid low-grade reused crap-ass stanky old oil that they were fried in.”

- Finding Philly writes a love letter to Sansom Street’s Home Sweet Homebrew.

- Kelly White thinks that grumpy falafel man at 20th and Market is misunderstood, kinda.

- David McDuff reaches a blogging zenith with his 300th post. Congrats!

- Philadining has started an awesome new blog series called “Things you didn’t know you wanted to eat.” Part 1: Duck tongues!

Photo | Drew Lazor

We dropped by the brand-new Pumpkin Market on Aug. 9, its first full day in business, to check out the wares.

More photos after the jump. Further details in this week’s Feeding Frenzy.

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Rit