I love livin’ in the city
First, sorry for the lack of anything lately.
Now that THAT is outta the way:
Yo, seriously, congrats to Philly. There is a reason I love this awful, smelly city and call it my home, a large part of that being the availability of diverse foods and drink. Oh, don’t believe me? Think we’re all pretzels and hoagies and arctic splash, or a delicious combo of the three??
Well suck it haters. Two reputable sources gave the city of brotherly love mad props for our thriving food “scene”, which I am really excited about.
First, Esquire magazine named us one of the Best U.S. cities for beer, which is entirely true. There is so much beer snobbery happening throughout this city that sometimes even I find myself saying things like “the hops aren’t overwhelming, but I prefer hefeweizen” like, on the reg. UGH. But hey, if I can get away with that and have 9 bartenders outta ten know what i’m talking about, I win.
And in even COOLER news- we have 16, that’s right, SIXTEEN nominations in the James Beard Foundations restaurant and Chef awards. Garces, Vetri, & Starr are kind of a given as semi-finalists seeing as though they “changed the game” or whatever in making dining out in Philly not only delicious, but fun and interesting as well. Zahav, F0nd, Barbuzzo, and Tria all get props as well.
(Okay truth be told in the “rising star chef of the year” category I’m not rooting for Lee Styer of FOND but for Kevin Gillespie of the Woodfire grill in Atlanta Georgia because 1) he’s from Georgia and 2) he was so gosh-darn likable on Top Chef)
I am really happy for and excited by the recognition our city and our (bangin’) food is getting, and have an overwhelming sense of pride. It’s sort of like seeing your kid at a recital or something, but instead of saying “that’s my little one!” I think ” I’ve eaten there! That pork was outstanding!”. I mean, obviously a great pulled pork sandwich is way more important than some kids recital but you get the idea.
