Wednesday, May 29, 2013

La Colombe, Di Bruno's, Village Whiskey, Dogfish beer, and Rittenhouse Square

Sorry for a food post on Philadelphia but I have just returned from attending my son's graduation so you get what I get I guess.

Anyway, if you do find yourself in the City of Brotherly Love's Center City area let me make these suggestions.

Coffee: the best cup of coffee, espresso, or cappucchino in town, or on the eastern seaboard is La Colombe. I say this for many reasons, the first being, of course, an honest cup of hot coffee. But equally, it's a real place, real baristas, real wood chairs on a hardwood floor.

La Colombe keep things simple because they try to do one thing well: coffee, and they haven't turned the store into a retail gift shop that also sells coffee (Yes, that's you Starbucks), and they sell croissants from a local baker who cares about doing croissants well. As a friend of mine said, "at La Colombe, the coffee comes first, the customer second."

There's no menu, no chalkboard, just get in line and order your standard coffee drink of choice and all God's chillen' are happy. Cash only.

http://www.lacolombe.com/

La Colombe

Di Bruno's
I love this place. They have some of the best sandwiches in town. And cheese, and fish, and desserts.
http://www.dibruno.com/

Di Bruno's

Reading Terminal Market
Want the best pulled pork sandwich in Philadelphia? DiNic's.
http://readingterminalmarket.org/

Village Whiskey
Maybe the best 8 oz. hamburger money can buy. Made from grass fed beef. The bun is perfect and the Duck fat french fries aren't bad either.
http://villagewhiskey.com/

And while I'm at it a little love for the Rittenhouse Plaza-Warwick hotel. Old-fashioned hotel service. Great newly-renovated rooms, friendly staff, and reasonable rates for the location. Rittenhouse Square is the only place to stay if you the love the hum of the city.
http://www.radisson.com/philadelphia-hotel-pa-19103-6179/paphily

The Wall Street Journal agrees, by the way: Rittenhouse

View of Curtis Institute of Music from my favorite bench in Rittenhouse Square

Last thing. If you get to the beach: Don't forget Dolle's Salt Water Taffy and and DogFish Beer from the original pub in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Late Spring at the Beach

5 comments:

John said...

Forwarding to my Philly friends now.

John said...

That didn't take long. First feedback: you forgot the pretzels and cheesesteaks.

Francis Shivone said...

John, he's right. So little time so much good food.

The one thing I did not get is a DiCostanzas cheesesteak just south of PHL in Chester.

Honestly, like any high traffic tourist area there's a lot of bad food, too.

I forgot you had friends up there. Craft beer lovers, I believe, and the corner market stores are filled with hundreds of possibilities. Craft beer everywhere up there.

RJG said...

I love the Reading Terminal Market. It's nirvana for folks like me.

I haven't been to Philly since 2008, and I didn't know as much about craft beers as I do now. For example, my first Victory beer came on that visit. And yet you can get that in the grocery stores here in DFW nowadays. I'd love to get back up that way again and try as many as possible :-)

- RJG

Francis Shivone said...

RJG -- thanks, I lived about 6 blocks from the Reading Market, it was a regular Saturday stop for us for produce, fish, etc.

I bought my boys 6 bottles of Victory while we were there this visit. I reminded them that back in the day I could buy a 6 pack of Nat Light for what one of the bottles cost.