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Posted by foodzings | 23 Mar 2008 | appetizers, beer, brewpub, philadelphia | 0 Comments

I continued this lazy Easter Weekend with a quick stop in Old City at Triumph Brewing Company. This place is a local chain, and I’d been to the one in Princeton years ago. I didn’t remember it very much. I guess it wasn’t that memorable!

The spot in old city is surprisingly big. The downstairs has a big bar that takes up the whole right side, there are a good number of tables alongside the bar. On the other side are a bunch of booths. There are several large sections that are “lounges”. And upstairs there’s even more dining and a small bar. There have many large tables to accommodate large parties.

The place looks pretty cool… lots of clean lines, dark woods, some mod decor. It wasn’t very crowded (which was nice!) and when we first got there, it was pretty chill, and they were playing some classic rock on the speakers at a decent volume.

We sat in the lounge area which had tables on wheels that looked like a surfboard. There were some barcelona-esque style chairs with retro fabric, which looked cool, but didn’t really make for the best seating. It was nice to be tucked away from the general bar noise and crowd.

We didn’t eat dinner, but pecked on some appetizers: edamame with maldon salt and lime, calimari, and crab cakes with shitake and asparagus. The edamame were good, if not a bit too overloaded with the salt. They also could have been cooked a wee bit more. The calimari was ok, certain bites were a bit too spicy. The crab cakes were good, especially with the asparagus.

We tried the honey wheat, amber beer, and schwarzbier. The honey wheat smelled funny, but it was alright. The amber was pretty good, and the schwarzbier was my favorite of the night. The service was pretty good, they were attentive and quick to get rid of used plates. As the night progressed, the music changed and got about twice as loud. Also, more people showed up so it got even more noisy. That was a sign for me to skidaddle. Old City is not really my scene (but then what is really?) but it’s not a bad spot. If it’s crowded and loud it would be just as terrible as any of the other spots, but earlier on in the evening, it was fairly nice and relaxed and casual. It’s all about the company anyway… and watching your friends get drunk. That’s fun any time and anywhere!

Posted by foodzings | 02 Sep 2007 | beer, gastropub, philadelphia | 0 Comments

This will be my shameless plugs post. Chock full of em. On saturday night I went to a grand opening party for Indyhall. It’s a cool coworking spot where people can drop in and work, or not work, or hang out. There are no rules. I have to shamlessly plug them because they fed me. And I appreciate that from anybody. Delicious hoagies from Primo’s, fruit plate, veggie plate, some cheese and things, hawaiian punch, beer, champagne. All great stuff. Also, I’d never seen so many iPhones in one room in my life. It was surreal.

Afterwards, BarDiver.com pseudo hosted a pub crawl through Old City. First stop was Sugar Mom’s. Sugar Mom’s at 7:30 on a saturday night, pretty much dead. They are having some $2 specials daily for Philly Fringe. This girl appreciates a beer bargain. Next stop was Lucy’s. It sucked. I only remember being there a bazillion years ago. I felt like I was at a bad frat party. Ugh. The Khyber was supposed to be next, but we skipped that for the final destination, National Mechanics. You remember this place. It’s the one with the big columns and steps on 3rd. It’s probably been a dozen different joints in the past 20 years. I remember in high school it was Revival. The last time I was there (several years ago) it was two incarnations ago. I remember that last time. Multiple floors of dancing. I met a Sixer. No more 2 floors. Just one floor. Lots of wood. Check out these adorable pint glasses they use with pictures of Philly icons. Mr. Cosby below. Rocky below that.

By this point, we were hungry. Although the hoagies did fill the emptiness in my gut for awhile, some more vittles needed to be had. We had a little crew going with new friends from the indyhall party. They ordered some calimari and some nachos. The calimari were good. Cooked well, not too chewy, decent sauce. I didn’t really get to try many of the nachos. They were fine too. They used strange beans, not enough salsa. But the chips were good.

After more random wandering and we ended up getting a slice at Soho Pizza. They have a real brick oven and all. I had a slice of sausage and it was delicious at 1:30 in the morning. Late night pizza does a body good.

Posted by foodzings | 02 May 2007 | beer, gastropub, philadelphia, seafood | 0 Comments

On saturday night I went to one of my favorite places to see live music – the North Star. Don’t worry, I’m not going to start blogging about bands or live shows I go to see. I’ll only mention that I’ve never eaten there, yet. Since we were in the Art Museum area we decided to grab a bite to eat. Bridgid’s was suggested, and I wholeheartedly agreed, as I’d heard nothing but good things about it.

First we drove around for way too long looking for a place to park. After many rounds around the block, we found a HUGE spot about 5 steps away. It was stupendous. Bridgid’s is a cute little Euro style joint with a great selection of Belgian beers. We had some hefeweisen, which is a German wheat beer, and probably my favorite next to white beers like Hoegaarden or Blue Moon. I hadn’t really eaten all day, and within a few sips, I was seriously feeling it. Yes, I’m an extreme lightweight.

I ordered the Beer Battered Brotola, which is a white fish similar to cod. Two good sized pieces of the fish came on a tomato based sauce, with a bit of salad, green beans, and rice. I loved every bite of it. The fish was cooked great and the sauce was perfect for it. The rice was good, the green beans were good, and so was the salad. M ordered the Cajun Tilapia, which was basically just a blackened fish dish. Hers came with the same sides, and she liked hers as well. Bridgid’s also gives you rolls and lovely softened butter. All in all, it was a great and unexpected meal.

Now the reason I’m a bad food blogger is that I totally forgot my camera. It’s unlike me, because now my camera lives in my purse. But alas, I forgot it. I did take pictures with my crappy-ass camera phone, but now I can’t get to the pictures. I can’t email them to myself, I can’t send them to anyone else, and I can’t download them. They’re stuck in Motorola camera phone purgatory forever…. unless I figure something out later on. So let’s hope I do in the future and I can share my crappy phone pics with you. But if you can’t wait, then head over to Bridgid’s yourself! Even E from Foodaphilia just went there again and loved it, it’s her favorite in the Art Museum area!