Philadelphia is fresh on my mind having spent 5 days there recently. I tagged along with my wife on an educators conference. I can sum it up in one sentence, “I enjoyed my time in Philadelphia, but it’s not a place I will visit again on purpose.” I’ll cover the good, the bad and the ugly below.
Cheesesteaks-perhaps the most overrated reason to visit Philadelphia is the cheesesteaks. We were recommended at least a half dozen or more different places from friends from Pat’s to Geno’s to Steve’s to Ishkabibble’s and several others. To be fair, we weren’t able to have cheesesteaks at any of the recommended places, but did have no fewer than 3 while we were there. Meh. There was just steak and cheese, steak, cheese, and onions and green peppers. There was one that added bacon, one with fried onions, red peppers and bacon. I’m just going to say that while they were good, there’s nothing that stood out to me that I don’t think I could find close to home.
Reading Terminal Market-Reading Terminal Market was a big ‘Nope’ from me. I did manage to buy some fresh flowers one day, but both times I was in the market, it was a) incredibly crowded and b) mainly just food trucks. I mean, they weren’t food trucks, they were food stalls, but everything was jam-packed and would have benefitted from a bigger space or lower tenancy. For someone who doesn’t love crowds it was overwhelming and I didn’t stay long either time. It wasn’t all food, but it was a majority restaurant and food vendors and nothing that really stood out to me.
Homeless-My home town has a downtown homeless population as well so I’m somewhat used to it, but they are everywhere in Philly. Some will panhandle, some don’t have all their marbles, and some are just sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. It was striking to me that there were quite a number of street sweepers, and city officials around town trying to keep it clean, but barely put a dent. I wouldn’t say it was a dirty city, but it wasn’t particularly well kept either. I certainly don’t have a magic cure for this, but it was prevalent everywhere we went.
Breweries-We walked a good way out of our way North of the Convention Center to get to Love City Brewing on a recommendation from a friend and it was decent, but not worth the walk. There are a number of great breweries in and around Philly and sampled a number during our stay, but didn’t really get a good local craft brew vibe from the city. In particular Iron Hill Brewery which is kind of a bigger craft brewer and has locations all over the East Coast was very well kept, the brews were great and the service was excellent. McGillin’s mentioned below has it’s brews done by Troeg’s which is another great craft brewer in Pennsylvania. The craft brews from the area were great and was just sad that we couldn’t make it to more of them.
Restaurants-My favorite by far was McGillin’s Olde Ale House, the oldest pub in Philly. It was a proper pub and not too crowded most of the time, but the weekends it definitely showed out and we wandered across the street to Bru Craft & Wurst which had a great selection of brews and was not the wurst place I’ve been to.
We had some Chinese in China Town, and went to Bank and Bourbon for some pre-dinner cocktails. David Lynch, director of Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, and the 1980s Dune once lived in the China Town district and the reputation earned it the name “The Eraserhood.” One night we ended up at Chris’s Jazz Cafe and had some drinks while listening to a great jazz quintet. I enjoyed the dining and entertainment options in Philly the most.
Lodging-We stayed in the Sonder Witherspoon a few blocks from the Convention Center and had our own little apartment which was great for not eating out a ton and surprisingly affordable. Check in and out, all entrance and door codes were done remotely, so we didn’t really have a need to talk with anyone on staff while we were there, but they were available and helpful. The best part of the Sonder was that it didn’t have any old school cable or satellite channels. They had a Roku where I was able to sign in and watch the Masters from the comfort of our room. Trader Joe’s and Target were both in walking distance and snagged a few groceries so we didn’t eat out for every meal. I was pleasantly surprised that regular groceries were similarly priced to my more suburban home.
History and Culture-I’m not a big museum or tourism guy. There’s only so much slow-walking and staring I can do before I’m asking about lunch, dinner, or some kind of activity or entertainment. For that reason, I did not make an effort to get to any of the museums of which Philly has an ample supply. We did the hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Philly and got to quickly see a number of attractions but did not feel compelled to explore the more touristy, line-waity places on the map.
I personally loved learning about Mural Arts in Philadelphia and enjoyed seeing the incredible range of art projects across the city. There’s a lot of history to take in from Philadelphia and a lot of founding fathers sites and statues to see. What I had thought to be the Liberty Bell turned out to be the Bicentennial Bell, a gift to the US from the late Queen Elizabeth II. The architecture in the city is amazing and varied, a great study for anyone who is fascinated by buildings and bridges.
I was able to tour the Convention Center once with my wife for her presentation and I swear we walked over a mile and didn’t see but a fraction of it. In my opinion, something that large should not be allowed to exist. It easily occupies 4 city blocks with 1,000,000 square feet of space, and for security reasons there is only one entrance, but several thousand doors all around the center, but no re-entrance unless you can catch the eye of one of hundreds of attendants and security inside the center.
You could spend days touring museums and looking at historical landmarks in Philly and still find things to do. It’s always hard to spend a few days in one place and make a judgment about its character, but for me the City of Brotherly Love was missing something. Maybe it was that it lacked some central unity that tied it all together. It felt both prosperous and old and dilapidated at the same time. To me it felt like Philadelphia didn’t know who it was and was struggling to reinvent itself.
