Regional specialties can be so cruel. How can New York have at least 3 reasonable bagel options per block, yet Philly is such a bagel wasteland?
Here are the places I know of that sell bagels in Center City: South Street Philly Bagels (which I always thought was just called Hot Bagels), Manhattan Bagels and Breugger’s Bagels. There’s also the Bagel Factory on Walnut Steet, but they aren’t open on weekends, which makes them nothing but a cruel tease. Hot Bagels is my go-to Center City option, but they only have 3 seats, and it’s far enough from my home that, at best, they’re Lukewarm Bagels by the time I get to eat them.
And so, though it is vaguely embarrassing to admit it, my actual bagel place of choice is in the suburbs, land of plenty. Delancey Street Bagels has it all in spades — plenty of seating, plenty of parking, and plenty of everything on my everything bagel. And they virtually never run out of my chosen flavors, even when I get there an hour before closing.
And it’s more than just bagels and cream cheese, folks. Want a sandwich? Just look for the words “melted marinated string cheese” on their menu. I prefer the white pizza bagel (shown above), but Meng would trek out there multiple times a week for the tuna melt. The bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant is so tasty, you won’t even notice it’s turkey bacon. They even have a nice selection of muffins and cookies, in case you walk in half-starved, and you cannot wait another 3 minutes for your bagel (not that I would know anything about that.) I also hear that they have very good coffee (which I really would not know anything about, but I trust that Jenn is not trying to trick you or me.)
If Delancey Street opened a Center City location, it would change my whole weekend structure. Do you have a favorite bagel place in Philly? You can tell me. I promise I won’t buy the last everything bagel out from under you.
Back in my 13th and Locust days, the Tenth Street Pourhouse was one of my favorite brunch spots. Since I have begun railing against the hour-long-brunch-wait, I thought I would stop by one of my old haunts to see how it was doing.
I had a disappointing experience at my last favorite pancake place, which has put me on the hunt for a new favorite pancake. Cybélè has told me that Aunt Jemima mix could stop that hunt at my own front door, but I am dubious of my pancake-making skills. The Pourhouse’s entry was solid, but I found myself using Jane’s A/B/C method. (Cut pieces, which are then rated A, B or C, from most to least number of blueberries. A gets eaten first, then B…. you get the idea.) A truly superlative pancake should not require rating. Next time, I’d go back for my old standby, biscuits and gravy.
The Jefferson, on the other hand….
The Jefferson is the Pourhouse’s turkey, bacon, tomato, cheese masterpiece. It may not look like much in that picture, but my sisters and I have been known to order 3 of them at a meal, because no one wants to share it. Has it stood the test of time? You bet! If you live or work in the vicinity of 10th and Locust, and you have not had the Jefferson, go over and get one today.
The Tenth Street Pourhouse is open 7 days a week for breakfast and lunch. At about 1:30 when I walked up, there was no wait, but your mileage may vary.
Tenth Street Pourhouse 262 S 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19107 (215) 922-5626
Ah, Dock Street! You were one of the first “real” restaurants I visited in my college days, so how fitting that you have now moved out to West Philly. After your many ups and downs, my favorite parts of the menu of my youth have been restored.
I ordered the sampler, so I can tell it to you straight… their beers just don’t do it for me. On tap that evening was their Royal Bohemian Pilsner, Centennial IPA, Hop Garden Double IPA, Man Full of Trouble Porter, Rye IPA and Sudan Grass (a naturally gluten-free beer.) My favorite: the Sudan Grass. If you’re into hoppy, Dock Street has some great choices. I am not. Their beer is, and always has been, secondary in my book.
Their trio fries, on the other hand, were spot-on. I have always considered the basket of white potatoes, sweet potatoes and leeks the signature dish at Dock Street. When they pulled it from the menu way back in the day (chasing a more “upscale” menu, as I recall), I would still request it back every time I went in. Today, they are just as good as I remembered. Nobody does a fried leek like Dock Street.
Dock Street’s menu has salads, sandwiches, appetizers and entrees, but everyone seemed to be ordering pizzas made in their wood-fired oven. In honor of the old days, I ordered one found on their classic menu, the flammenkuche (caramelized onions, guryere, creme fraiche and bacon.) bda got pepperoni, which was a good pairing. The sweetness of the onions was a nice contrast for the spicy, meaty pepperoni. They have a classic American thin crust, pleasantly doughy, and tasty enough that I ate the ends…. at least until I realized that we had way too much food on the table.
If you haven’t been to Dock Street since the days when it was in the now-Public House location, the atmosphere is totally different. It’s a much more relaxed, noisy place, with concrete floors and wooden chairs. When they served my water in a plastic cup, it was perfectly in keeping with their new style. You can still buy a pint glass to take home, and the pillars are plastered with their old bottle labels (a tiny walk down memory lane unto themselves), but the mammoth, plush operation of 18th St. has been stripped away. The focus here is food and beer, and, given the crowd on a drizzly Wednesday night, that seems to be suiting them just fine.
Dock Street Brewery 701 S 50th St Philadelphia, PA 19143-1689 (215) 726-2337
Tuesday was the first night of the 2009 First Person Arts Festival, and they kicked things off with a bang (and a traffic-stoppingly large crowd wandering across Broad Street.) Art Etchells, editor of Foobooz, organized a Center City burger tour, hitting the old, new, celebrated and unusual burgers on offer these days.
First stop was Good Dog, which did a slider version of their famous Roquefort cheese-stuffed burger, topped with caramelized onions (as a slider, the cheese was on top, not inside.) Art noted we began the tour here as it was one of the first noted gastropub burgers in the city, kicking off the burger renaissance that seemed to come to a head this summer.
Served with Philly Brewing Company Pale Ale or a Troegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale, our group of 35 was chatting and sharing stories before we moved on to stop two.
Barclay Prime was the celebrated option of the evening. They grind their dry-aged New York Strip steaks, with a little blend of other cuts, to make their pub menu burgers (no, they weren’t the Kobe sliders from the dinner menu.) It was served with a Stoudts Scarlet Lady Ale in their lovely, comfy bar.
Noble Cookery provided the most unusual burger topper of the evening — a slice of roasted beet, alongside a Troegs HopBack Amber Ale. I also got to meet that most unusual of creatures…. a Philly Foodie reader in the wild (who I hope will someday become a commenter!)
Last stop was the new entrant, and my personal favorite, Pub & Kitchen. We were greeted by a tray of oysters and cans of Sly Fox Pils and Lagers to enjoy while we waited for our burgers and heaping bowls of fries. Their Windsor burger is served with house-made bacon, lettuce and tomato, but it’s the slice of pickled onion that makes the whole experience for me. After 4 earlier sliders, I still managed to make room for an extra “half Windsor” slider.
It turns out, the secret of a truly tasty burger is the secret of all truly tasty things: fat. All of the burgers we tried this evening (except for Barclay Prime, which went unrevealed) were an 80/20 blend. Yeah, that’s 80% meat, 20% fat. But I’m sure we managed to walk it all off in our 3+ hour roam of the burger world of Philadelphia.
[Pub & Kitchen chef Jonny Mac, Foobooz Editor Art Etchells, and the tastiest burger of the evening, the half Windsor.]
First Person Arts Festival continues its celebration of the narrative tradition through Thursday, November 8th. Check out their schedule for events that strike your fancy. (I also hear a rumor that E from Foodaphilia is stocking the festival speakeasy with her famous whoopie pies. So don’t miss those, either!)
Barclay Prime 237 S 18th St Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 732-7560
Good Dog Bar 224 S 15th St Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 985-9600
Noble Cookery 2025 Sansom St Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 568-7000
Pub & Kitchen 1946 Lombard St Philadelphia, PA 19146 (215) 545-0350
Are french fries my favorite food? Perhaps. Are friteries my favorite specialty food shop? Yes. My heart jumps when I see a sign for one. I will make special trips for them. So I was very, very excited when I heard European Republic was opening in Old City.
Paper cones of twice-fried belgian-style fries…. need I say more? Well then, how about this — they’re open late! They’re open until at least 10 every night of the week, and until 2 AM on Friday and Saturday nights.
They sell other stuff. I didn’t try any of it. I was there for one thing, and one thing only — a big heap of fries. And they did not disappoint. They put the fries in for their second fry when you order them, so you always get a hot, crispy batch. They had a good mix of the smaller, crispier bits, and the longer, more potato-y fries.
You get one dipping sauce with a regular, two with a large, and three with a triple. We tried the roasted garlic, european and peanut sauces, though we actually ended up with a large order, not a triple.
When you get 3 sauces, you want some flavor variety. Both the roasted garlic and european were mayonnaise-based, and they were very tasty (though fairly similar.) I really wanted to like the peanut sauce. Alas, I did not. It was too vinegary, and I was looking for a classic satay sauce. They have 20 flavors of dipping sauce, though, so get out there and find your own dream combination for lunch, dinner, or a late night snack!
European Republic 213 Chestnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 627-5500
What a difference 22 cents makes! When I had the $6.95 burger special at Butcher and Singer, they were practically beating people away from the door. Union Trust’s $7.17 lunch special has a tasty, tasty burger, plus two other options for your non-red-meat-loving friends, and there were plenty of seats available today when Niki and I walked in.
To me, this was a better burger than Butcher and Singer. It was juicy, without getting to the point where I could no longer put it down on the plate for fear of completely soaking the bun. It was thick, to the point that I looked at it to see if it was a double patty. And it was really good meat! When it was a little redder in the center than I usually like a burger, I was savoring the flavor and texture, instead of being put off by the mushiness that I usually find in a thick, rare patty.
It’s served with onion jam and a tomato compote (and a pickle, which I removed), so you get all the flavors of tomatoes and onions, without adding all their inconvenient slideyness. Even with a tall patty, reducing those items to spreads meant the burger was still manageable enough to fit in my mouth without unhinging my jaw. It’s served with American cheese, but you can upgrade to provolone or cheddar for a little more.
(Am I whetting your appetite for burgers? Then come with me Tuesday, November 3rd on the First Person Arts Burger Cruise! We’ll be tasting burgers and beers at 4 of Philadelphia Magazine’s best burger spots - Pub and Kitchen, Barclay Prime, Noble Cookery and Good Dog - led by Foobooz mastermind Art Etchells. My pal Marc over at Burgatory has even negotiated you a $5 discount, so hop aboard!)
The other lunch specials are fish and chips, and a crispy duck salad. And they serve cute little pretzel sticks as one of their bread options. We didn’t have the duck salad, but I would definitely go back to try it.
Union Trust is also a beautiful space, with a soaring ceiling, and walls rimmed with cozy velvet-lined booths. So splurge that 22 cents, give Five Guys the day off, and sink your teeth into a superior burger experience.
Union Trust Steakhouse 717 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 925-6000
