#7 - Omega Pizza - Sam's synopsis

The very first thing you should notice about Omega (and its very best quality) is the fantastic beer selection for a small local pizza shop.  For those of you who don't live in Philly, the liquor laws here are insanely outdated and there's no dedicated packie where you can pick up booze - its either the beer distributor to get large quantities or the local delis and pizza places where you can get six packs (side note: if you don't know what a packie is, you're obviously not from the greatest state in the US).  Philadelphia is dumb.

This name is ridiculous

Sandya and I split a mixed six pack (my choices: Southern Tier Eurotrash Pilz, Ommegang Three Philosphers, Dogfish Head Aprihop) over a large veggie pizza.  There is no pizza menu, unless they do a really good hiding job, so we just asked for a large pizza with veggies on it and they put on what they had.  The veggie assortment was spot on - spinach, broccoli, onions, tomato, green peppers - and the veggies themselves were really fresh looking and tasting.  The pizza itself was better than I was expecting.  Every time I hear someone talking about Omega's, it's always about how awful the food is, so I was expecting something that was barely edible.  What I got instead was a pretty decent pizza that wasn't overly greasy, had a nice proportion of cheese to toppings, but was a little bland - we added a lot of salt/garlic salt to it.  The crust was also pretty boring, but just the right thickness.  It wasn't a spectacular pizza, but it wasn't horrendous either.  I had my leftover slice for lunch the next day, and it held its own. That's been the trend so far, everywhere we've gone has been pretty mediocre save Ants Pants.  Let's hope for something exciting to happen soon.

that's a pretty good looking pizza, amirite?

Quite the beer selection, quite the atmosphere

Now onto the more exciting portion of our dining - the atmosphere. Omega has a similar vibe to the local pizza place I used to go to after middle school - the pizza's not the best but everyone goes there to hang out.  I saw a strange array of people walk through, including a very sassy grade schooler, an older couple who probably could have been on an episode of Sick, Sad World from Daria, and two dudes who I swear were the Philly version of Jay and Silent Bob.  At one point people in the neighborhood marching for Take Back the Night came by protesting.  There was a group of bandana dog hipsters drinking Bud Light, and a homeless guy asking for money to buy milk and cereal who refused to take a slice of pizza from me.  Lots of dudes who had obviously just come from working out buying beer, and even a few people that we knew.  This place is a hot spot for interesting neighborhood folks, so if you ever want to people watch, come grab a beer, a slice of pizza and sit down for 20 minutes.  You won't be disappointed.

Sal's Omega Pizza (does anyone call it that?)
2145 South St  
Philadelphia, PA 19146

(215) 985-2989

#6 - L2 - Sam's very brief synopsis and a few things to look forward to in the near future!

Now that summer is fast approaching (although the weather might disagree with that half of the time), Sandya and I will obviously be slacking off more than we already do, since everyone knows that while summer is pegged as a productive time for graduate students because there are no classes, no undergrads, no seminars and aaalllll that time to do research, we have much more important things to occupy our time with, including but not limited to: Center City Sips, general day drinking, playing tennis, summer blockbuster movies (Into Darkness amirite?), general debauchery, and of course updating our blog!

So basically what I'm trying to say with that really long-winded sentence up there is that you should expect more frequent updates from us, now that all our crazy personal business has calmed down and the season of procrastination is upon us. 

Another exciting event to look forward to is an interactive map of all the spots we've visited and where we're headed next!  We're currently in the planning stages and looking into how to make our ideas a reality, so hopefully within the next few months we'll unveil a new exciting feature to our blog.

Speaking of more fun exciting events, you have hopefully read our very first guest blog for L2.  This is something that we want to continue for the occasional saunter, so if you are interested in guest blogging let us know - we love having company.

And finally, one final event to look forward to is Sam and Sandy's Seven Day Saunter, where we go to seven restaurants in seven days - should be an epic event happening some time in June or July, so stay tuned!  Lots of exciting things to look forward to this summer!

Evan did such a great job with his review, that I'm just going to post a few pictures to summarize my time at L2 - but I agree, good company makes any experience worth it.

I rather enjoyed my chicken pot pie - it was filling and made for lunch the next day

old timey portraits. I think they were in the bathroom but they may have been hanging on the wall next to us

yep, someone was embarrassed about bringing a box of tampons to the restaurant (hint: it wasn't me)

Sandya and I just got back from Omega Pizza tonight, so expect a review by the end of the weekend for that.

#6 - L2 Restaurant & Bar - Guest Blogger Evan's synopsis

Sam and Sandy saunter with guests! Hi all, we are honored to be the first guest bloggers on Sam and Sandy’s Saunter Down South Street. This time, our intrepid duo invited one or two friends to come partake in their meal and wound up with three extra’s including, Sandy’s brother and girlfriend, as well as my brother-in-law from NY.  Our port of call this particular evening was L2 Restaurant & Bar, which is an establishment in need of Robert Irvine for all of you Food Network fans out there because those mediocre reviews on Yelp! are indeed warranted.

Upon entering L2 at around 7pm, we walked in from a beautiful sunset to near total darkness. This might have been the dim lighting or the heavy drapery treatments throughout the establishment. However, we were promptly seated (or at least I assume we were as we were a few minutes late per usual!) at the only large table on the first floor of the building. Once seated, I had a prime view of the bar where I discovered the shelving in the bar looked like an actual earthquake hit it.

That earthquake hit bar. Slanty.

For an appetizer, I had the shu mai, which was actually pretty good. The appetizer portions were small, so we had to order a few for a table of our size, but they were all pretty delicious. The fried zucchini was a bit oily, likely because the oil in the pan was not hot enough when they threw the zucchini in. Note for all of you at home users, the oil should be hot and ready to go, otherwise the zucchini will just absorb the oil! Zucchini is also filled with water so it’s a good idea to pat down the zucchini with a paper towel or with a little flour before breading it. However, the folks at L2 did manage to keep the breading on at least, and the dipping sauce was actually pretty dynamite.

Zucchini. So this is where the parmesan went. 

Shu mai dynamite

For the entrée course, I had the Pasta Mikie which is billed as penne pasta with rose sauce and prosciutto. Though it took about nine years for the food to arrive, mine was delicious. The penne were cooked to a perfect al dente, the tomato based sauce was good (though tasted like it came from a can, which is probably did. Not hard to make your own sauce!) and the prosciutto was a nice bit of crunch and salt which the dish needed. The dish needed even more prosciutto in my opinion, and less of it mixed in. When you are trying to give texture to a dish with crispy elements and then bury the crispy elements in a sauce laden dish, what you actually wind up with is a soggy element. Still, the dish was not bad for the $12.00 and I left full and satisfied. My husband was not quite so lucky. He ordered the Chicken Parmesan, which he thought was a safe choice. Not so, dear reader! It was literally a frozen, pre-breaded chicken cutlet that had been deep fried and then drowned in a sauce with mozzarella cheese on top (which everyone does, but no one stops to realize that Chicken Parmesan is supposed to be made with Parmesan cheese. You know, like it says in the name of the dish.) It was bland, tasteless and they can do better with fresher ingredients that would likely save them on overhead and attract more customers.

Marilyn Monroe
Sorry, I (Sandy) didn't have a photo of Evan or Zach's entree.

Lastly, I had a gin and tonic, which was not bad, but didn’t blow my socks off either.

On technical merit, I would have to give L2 Restaurant & Bar a lukewarm review and maybe 2.75/5 stars. However as any diner knows, even the worst dining experience can be made whole if shared with the right people and while L2 Restaurant & Bar was lacking in some key elements, the conversation and friendship shared were absolutely delicious. We hope to saunter with Sam and Sandy again in the very near future!

L2 Restaurant & Bar

2201 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19146

215-732-7878