Well well well... do we have a surprise for you! One year ago today (SD = 1 day) we completed our saunter down South Street, and as I opened Blogger to write this post, I realized I have a completely unfinished post on my feelingz about the end and that's about it. So basically, we haven't written much in the past year, even though we did make a stop at Bahn Mi and Bottles with the intent of a new update to appease the masses. But, as some of you may or may not know, our partnership has continued as I have been using my expert driving abilities to teach Sandya how to drive and park a car. I am happy to report that Sandya has not crashed my car and will be taking her driving test relatively soon. But I digress. During one of our lessons, I floated the idea of hitting up a restaurant or two to celebrate our 1-year anniversary, and thus today's reviews were born.
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| The former Bridget Foy's |
So here we are again, back in familiar territory. I miss our blog, and seeing as we are now at stop #99, we will certainly have to go to at least one more restaurant to hit #100. And walking along South Street, a lot has changed. Red Poke Express is where OCF Coffeehouse was once located. Bridget Foy's was destroyed in a devastating fire. Many restaurants we visited have changed, and many new ones have popped up. And this is just in the Front to ~8th Street span. South Street truly is a reflection of the ever-changing tastes of Philadelphia. But I digress again.
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| Back at it! |
We decided to go to as many new places as possible in one go, so we split one poke bowl and one order of poutine. First stop, Red Poke Express. Poke, in my mind, is a relatively new food fad in the city and is described as a raw fish salad hailing from Hawaii. As a fan of sushi and ceviche, I had a feeling I would enjoy this. We ordered the Red Poke bowl, which consisted of tuna, red onion, seaweed, edamame, avocado, green onion, sesame seeds, and shoyu sauce. An excellent choice - all around nice consistency and a great umami flavor. That's right, I used a fancy food term. This blog has really matured in its time off. After commenting that we sat at the exact same table we did when the building was OCF Coffeehouse, we sauntered on over to Smoke's Poutinerie, which also seems to be a new food fad in the city. We are just trying to stay hip and current with the times, guys.
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| Fun fact: I used to live in Canada! |
A few weeks ago I walked by this place, very late at night, on a quest for the one and only slice from Lorenzo's, and I considered going in to get some fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds. I ended up continuing down the street for what I set out for, but if I had gone in, I wouldn't have been disappointed. Poutine is the perfect drunk person food, full of salty delicious carbs and cheese (not unlike pizza). We ordered the classic poutine, and it was exactly that - salty, delicious carbs smothered in cheese curds. There were several additional options to choose from in case you want to be a bit more adventurous, but sometimes you can't pass up good ol' gravy and cheese curds on fries. I think my only complaint would be that it was a little too salty. And this is coming from the person who claims popcorn is her favorite food, mainly because it's a vehicle for salt. So it's a lot. But I think that's why it's doubly good as a drunk food - it's got electrolytes (what plants crave!). I also very much enjoyed the decor of this place, decidedly very Canadian and with lots of phrases and images to make you giggle.
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You can see the Coin Store
lurking in the background.. |
This takes us to La Bella Dolce Italia. But, before we get there, let me tell you about the mysterious Honey Love Juice that appeared on our map. When Sandya and I were trying to decide where to go, she did a quick search of South Street in Google Maps to look up new places. Honey Love Juice popped up and we both immediately honed in on it, because how can you not go to a place called Honey Love Juice. Turns out Honey Love Juice is (not surprisingly) non-existent. It supposedly exists at the corner of where Supper used to be, but I don't think it's a "coming soon" location either. I think someone confused it with Sip-N-Glo, probably my least favorite stop on our entire saunter behind DELIcious Bites (fuck you and your mile high prosciutto sandwich DELIcious Bites. And fuck you Sip-N-Glo with your terrible overpriced health drinks and pseudo-science BS).
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| Dat moon tho |
Not deterred by this, we took a nice stroll in the brilliant moonlight to La Bella Dolce Italia. It was closing in about 30 min, but we still were able to grab an Italian (see: extra thick and sweet) hot chocolate with whipped cream and sit and contemplate why there's a store just called COINS on South Street. This used to be Evil Eye Cafe, so yet another turnover in our time since visiting. The barista was very friendly and nice and didn't make us feel unwelcome even though she was getting ready to close up. The hot chocolate was decadent but too sweet, even for the girl who eats ice cream for breakfast sometimes. It must have been a day of extremes for me.
In any case, all three locations are nice additions to the more touristy end of South Street, providing niche (poke and poutine are pretty eclectic food choices) and essential (small coffee shop to stop into for a quick bite or a hot beverage) spots for those doing their own sauntering down South Street.
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