What Is Philly Missing?

Philadelphia tourism blog uwishunu has a new post up today about the beauty of Ludwig’s, the beer hall place on Sansom Street.

It is my duty as a journalist to report: Ludwig’s has been closed since earlier this month. Kirsten Henri writes that if all goes right, it should open sometime in March as Time, with 20 beers on tap and a focus on brown liquors. It’s owned by the same people who do Vintage, which is encouraging.

Time to Say Ta to Ludwig’s [Foobooz]
What is Your Life Missing? Beer Bongs & Mussels [uwishunu]

Actually Eating Good In The Neighborhood

The Illadelph points to a Philadelphia Business Journal story last week that should let all Philadelphians breathe a sigh of relief: Chain restaurants are largely avoiding Center City.

While Center City does have some chain restaurants, particularly steak houses, most of the big casual dining chains have swarmed to the suburbs. To the point, the nation’s two largest owners of casual dining restaurants — Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando and OSI Restaurant Partners LLC of Tampa, Fla. — have a combined 48 restaurants in the eight-county Philadelphia market, but only three are in Center City.

Yeah, there are some chains, but there is a difference between, say, Morton’s and the Olive Garden. Even Fado and Fox & Hound are on a different level than the Big Four (Applebee’s, the Olive Garden, T.G.I. Friday’s and Chili’s — did I miss anything?).

Anyway, apparently we have old people (who have enough money to eat at nice places or are grizzled enough to hate chain restaurants) and young people (who would rather drink at McGlinchey’s on the cheap) but not enough suburbanites. Imagine that, not enough suburbanites in the city! (But who’s living in all these condos?)

“Center City has a strong residential population,” some consulting firm president told the PBJ. “It’s mostly young and old, but not the middle, which is the market for casual dining.”

Somebody remind me when I’m 40 if I want to go to Applebee’s all the time that I’m a big sellout or whatever.

Tastes of Center City denizens prove, thankfully, to be far too refined for the likes of artless national chain restaurants [The Illadelph]
Chain restaurants expand in the suburbs, not in city [PBJ]

A Weird, Weird Philadelphia

Dan Gross reports today the co-owner of Cavanaugh’s River Deck and two employees were arrested Wednesday night for beating up the DJ at the bar.

Apparently, during DJ Cuervo’s set, he said he was going to Zee Bar afterward. This enraged the owner, who allegedly called him a spic (even though he’s black and Irish) and chased him out of the bar, then beat him up. Somehow, this made DJ Cuervo retire from deejaying. Also, the ex-DJ is really upset about a Myspace bulletin offering drink specials on Cuervo and free flip flops.

Oh, yeah, and the other co-owner of Cavanaugh’s River Deck was arrested on Sunday. But, still, the biggest story in Gross’ column today is this:

“Weird” Al Yankovic shopped the new Target on City Avenue yesterday morning.

Dan Gross | 3 charged in DJ’s beating [Daily News]

Mayor Finally Introduced To His Police Commissioner

It may have taken a triple homicide at a bar — and a bunch of shootings over the weekend — but Mayor John Street met with Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson for a brainstorming session! This marks the first time the mayor has met Johnson, and the two were said to get along pretty well.

And, apparently their solution is to ban alcohol or something.

A couple of recent shooting incidents drew special attention during the meeting with Mayor John Street: “I am really concerned about bars and the proliferation of shootings and violence that are taking place in bars. We had another triple shooting in a bar over the weekend. We had a triple homicide in a bar the weekend before that.”

Hey, the mayor’s doing something, everybody! Gather around, this is about as common as a full solar eclipse or the installation of a new pope.

Mayor Meets With Phila. Police Brass To Address City Crisis [KYW 1060]

Preservationists Worry About Famous Inn Tons Of People Died Trying To Get To

The historic — and by “historic” I mean “old” — Perkiomen Bridge Hotel is up for sale, and since even the seller says it’s probably just best to tear it down and use it for the land, history buffs are worried about the fate of the 300+ year old hotel.

The inn, built in 1689, used to be a stop on the Philadelphia-to-Reading carriage line. But the Philly-to-Reading line has fallen into disuse in recent years and SEPTA is even thinking of eliminating it its upcoming budget cuts. And so the Perkiomen Bridge Hotel has been a sports bar, an upscale restaurant and an abandoned hotel in recent years.

But why is the hotel historic? Duh, it was the Brownies 23 East of its day!

Construction of the stone bridge that gave the inn its name began in 1797 - too many people had drowned attempting to ford the creek. By that time, the hotel had been vibrant for 100 years, and it would remain so for many more. In 1899, the proprietor was cited for unruly crowds engaged in “shouting, whooping, pounding of drums, using profane language and drunkenness.”

Ahh, yes, the old great tradition of going to a bar and getting plastered by banging on giant drums.

History buffs fear for old hotel’s fate [Inquirer]

Brew Pups!

I have a new favorite lawmaker. (Read: I finally found a lawmaker I like.)

He’s State Senator Ken Jacobson of Washington:

State Senator Ken Jacobsen is introducing a bill that would allow Fido into pubs.

The brew pups would have to be leashed and well behaved. The Seattle Democrat says he got the idea after sitting in a popular bar and seeing cold, shivering dogs forced to wait outside for their owners.

All together now: Awwwwwwww…

Update: Related: Druid’s Keep in Northern Liberties.

Photo by hendrix designworks

Fun With Photo Backgrounds

Today’s Metro contains a page 2 story about Eagles fans in New Orleans for Saturday’s game against the Saints. The story runs with this photo.

Oh, I always forget how to do these things. Are these the kinds of things with Goofus and Gallant? No no, wait. It’s like a “find what’s different in these photos” except with only one photo and just something funny in the background. Now how do I direct you to find that?

Sigh. Just join me after the jump.

More »

Half Hour Left To Legally Cough In Bars

Hey, everybody, you can smoke for another 35 minutes or so! Yes, the dreaded smoking ban goes back into effect for real this time, but the Inquirer’s Patrick Kerkstra writes the ban won’t be enforced until this afternoon.

The original ban went into effect on Sept. 15, pretty much immediately after John Street signed it, after approximately a 200-year battle to enact one. Nobody really enforced anything, though, and everyone continued to smoke inside bars on Christian Street or wherever.

Then, in December, council passed an even more confusing smoking ban that upped the percentage of food restaurants could sell to remain smoke-free to 20 percent but banned smoking outside in outdoor cafes. That law repealed the old smoking ban but goes into effect today, just in time for temperatures to drop into the 40s!

The Inky’s Kerkstra interviews a few bartenders, including Flip Hassell, who is opposed to the smoking ban.

“It’s part of being a bartender. There’s drinking, there’s smoking, you have to throw guys out. It’s part of the job.”

Just wait until the throw-guys-out ban gets passed later this year.

Smoking ban back - for real this time [Inquirer]
Archives; Smoking Ban

Reason #14 To Love Philadelphia: Doc Watson’s

Shuttered since a March 2005 police raid, Doc Watson’s Pub has a new — well, the old — owner, a fresh coat of paint and finally re-opened for business yesterday.

The owner is 74-year-old Barry Sandrow, who owned and ran the bar from 1971 to 1997. (He sold it to Daniel Flynn but retained ownership of the building.) He says it’s going to be different than the underage drinking palace it had been before its closing last year.

And, hey, you know what they say: You can never have enough drinking spots within blocks of my apartment. Well, that’s what I say, at least.

Twenty-One, I Presume? [PW]

Kildare’s Demon Spawn To Spread, Blob-Like, Across Eastern U.S.

If there was a non-Starr Philadelphia-area restaurant that you’d expect to be come a chain, you’d probably guess that one of the cheesesteak joints would be farming out to sell our city’s most famous artery-clogging concoction to unsuspecting citizens of other cities.

That may still happen, but there’s another place that’s growing up and expatriating from our area: Kildare’s.

The brainchild of chiropractor Dave Magrogan, Kildare’s currently has five locations in the region, having opened a Headhouse Square restaurant last January. With already thriving operations in King of Prussia, Media, West Chester and Manayunk, Magrogran has decided to make his future undertakings even more ambitious.

“At the end of September, we’re opening up a new concept called Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House,” boasts the doc himself. “It’s an authentic 1920s, 1930s Northeastern oyster house—something you might find in Baltimore or Boston.”

Located in West Chester, the raw bar and eatery will be outfitted with antique lighting, signage, furniture and raised-wood paneling. A Manayunk Doc’s is in the works and a Philadelphia proper location is being planned, but that doesn’t seem to be getting in the way of Kildare’s continued expansion. Magrogran has expressed a desire to open up 45 new locations spanning the I-95 corridor over the next five years.

“We’re going to go up to Boston and we’re going to go down towards North Carolina and Virginia,” says Magrogan. “We’ll expand at the rate the economy and real estate allow us to.”

And just what do we love about Kildare’s?

If you had to single out just one factor that is priming Kildare’s to be to Irish cuisine what P.F. Chang’s is to Asian faire, a focus on details would probably be it. From the chefs trained in Ireland and imported Irish furniture to the brown soda bread that’s brought out before every meal and the U2 playing in the bar, there is no doubt a concerted effort is being made to give the illusion of the old country.

“I’m Irish and I was familiar with going to Ireland and being in the pubs,” explains Magrogan. “I thought that was something the consumer here would appreciate. I thought they would appreciate drinking their beer and eating their food in a real authentic atmosphere, not a pretend one.”

We can only expect that Doc’s will be more of the same U2, Irish Car Bombs — there’s a special on teh 17th at Kildare’s! — and other authentic fare. Frankly, we’re speechless. Godspeed, Kildare’s (and Doc’s). Godspeed, indeed.

The Irish Way [Play Philly]