Icepack

Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.

by A.D. Amorosi

There's either dark spirits out to get Rittenhouse Row, or just some careless ones. Vango, Denim, Byblos and such got hit last weekend with more dumb-headed, questionable L&I violations than you could shake a martini at. And Striped Bass closed. Sure Stephen Starr will turn it into a gilded '40s supper club, Butcher & Singer, in early Autumn and God knows it'll be swank. He's also doing a Frenchie thing called Parc at 18th and Locust in July and turning my neighborhood's Broad Street Diner at Broad and Ellsworth into something swell (yet unnamed) for 2009. Nearly 18 years to the day since Neil Stein opened the stunning Striped and made Bob Phillips' metal fish part of Philly's new couture existence. Ahh Neil, I hope you got a last drink (a Diet Coke!) before the big doors shuttered. It was a nice ride.

► Remember my music booking feature weeks ago? Questions arose and I'm here to answer 'em: Yes, Adam Spivak is still an Electric Factory man and head of operations at LiveNation Philly. No, Village Green-ie Joe Lekkas ain't cheatin' on his wife. He's married (Didn't he get the Jordan almonds I sent for a wedding gift?) and the guy we thought was Joe hanging around the blog-gals of Girl About Town (phillygirlabouttown.com) was one of the dudes from Lekkas' old gig at Heyday. Man, I could've used that drama.

► Now that Lynn and Nick Michalopoulos had their baby — the self-released Smile Broadcast Tattoos — they're ready to set the kid in front of the television and get back to the family business — Bebek — at the Fire on June 28.

► Starting July 1 Institute of Contemporary Art will offer free admission to the public for the first time in its history. Blame Glenn R. Fuhrman, ICA Overseer and Wharton alum for underwriting admissions at ICA for the next five years.

► Shannon McMahon's L-Cast label took a break — just a year — to recharge its batteries. Now it's back with new CDs from the hard-not-too-hard-tho-core Last Barbarians, the synth-peppy Alternative Outfit (To The Moon's Chris Sulit's project) and a new compilation of its acts of mass destruction. L Cast will celebrate its resurgence July 1 at the Balcony with The March Hare, Plastron, Jon Kinsella and other destruction-ists in tow.

► You're Django-ing baby: Guitarist Barry Warhoftig and violinist Mark Campiglia's swinging Hot Club of Philly hit Rembrandt's on June 26. Once you go Parisian jazz you'll never go back.

► WHOWHATWHERE: Carly Simon wowed WXPN's Free-at-Noon folks at World Café Live. For one thing she had a "frog in her throat" and sounded great. For another, the show ended with her son Ben and Eric Bazilian on stage joining her for CSNY's "Ohio." Supposedly Simon had a stalker in the audience that WCL security man, Troy Hughes caught and had arrested. Not only did Alex's Lemonade Stand raise $150,000+ at Osteria's Third Annual Great Chefs Event-in-a-tent (not counting $17,000 each that two auction-loving peeps spent to get chefs Phil Roy, Marc Vetri and Jeff Michaud for a private dinner). It got Top Chef host Tom Colicchio who made a nice pulled pork while speaking to me for last week's Clog. I ain't saying this in a prison kinda way, but Colicchio's cute. Did he always know he was telegenic? "Nooo," he says. "I turned Bravo down a few times." But once that network got hold of a BBC doc on the chef's Craft restaurant, they made him offers he couldn't refuse. "I got tired of going to food expos and book signings where Mario Batali and Bobby Flay were signing 200 and I'd be signing 10. It wasn't because they had better books."

► Live Arts/Philly Fringe (hey new coordinator John Emory of West Philly Badmaster Records fame) and the Monday Night Club start their fifth annual networking/performing events June 30, the ones where Fringers do works in progress from their upcoming shows.

► Needles Jones' Hard Liquor Theater returns to host at the Troc's Balcony with special guests Hymn for Her. The "Her" is Maggi from Maggi, Pierce & E.J. , whose snuggly literate, weirdly soulful acoustic debut CD Year of the Golden Pig takes its back-cover cues from Chinatown traditional art works. Golden Pig has a release show June 28, at Angler Movement Art Center on Montgomery Ave.

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

► Naked Chocolate Café just bought a second sweet spot on S. 18th Street behind United Plaza that'll open in October. Tom Block will unveil a cuckoo-for-cocoa mezzanine, too.

► Paine's Park Project is having a benefit June 28 to build the skate-park that the city, City Council and former Mayor John Street gave skaters 2.5 acres for in 2003. Ex-CP contributor Adam Wallacavage, Shepard Fairey, Broadzilla, Yah Mos Def and Andrew Jeffrey Wright all will pitch in for the benefit at the Naval Yard to make sure the wheels are greased (painesparkproject.org).

► After wrapping episodes of The Office and the lead in Sex Drive (out Oct. 10) Philly's pick-to-click child actor Charlie McDermott got a starring gig in ABC's Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas under director Tommy "West Wing" Schlamme.

► If you go to this weekend's opening of "Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose" — The Philadelphia Museum of Art's first new exhibit since the passing of its late great director/CEO Anne d'Harnoncourt — throw a penny in the Museum fountain. Make a good art wish.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)