This might sound crazy but Clark St. Dog has an ELITE Italian Combo. Thoughts in the comment. (I've gotten it twice in the last couple weeks so these two pictures are from two different days)
Some photos from a mini bar crawl I did around Lakeview East to a few of my favorite bars. I’m a history nut so I’ll comment below with my thoughts/history of the bars.
I already posted a bunch of this love in the main Philly reddit page and someone suggested I post the food portion here. Especially since the food scene was such a big part of why I enjoyed this trip.
I’m sure this isn’t a surprise to you folks but I gotta say it, you guys crush Chicago with the sandwich scene.
I feel like Philly food and Chicago food share a core specialty and it happens to line up exactly with what I love.
I feel like both cities specialize in Blue Collar delicacies and there’s nothing I love more than that.
And this is where my Chicago friends might give me the Benedict Arnold treatment, and maybe they’d be right to do so, but I gotta let the truth fly and you guys crush us in the sandwich game.
First off, the Philly Cheesesteak, in my opinion, is the undisputed king of the blue-collar delicacy game. It CRUSHES all competitors. It the perfect sandwich and that’s that. The Italian Beef doesn’t stand a chance.
Now that being said, I do love an Italian Beef. Johnnies Beef is something special and I’ll always love it. But it ain’t no Philly Cheesesteak.
And roast pork is amazing, I loved the kick on it, I think the Italian Beef can compete with it. Both are great in their own way.
But the real surprise Philly win for me was the Italian. Ricci’s Hoagies smokes anything I’ve had in Italian sandwich game in Chicago and it’s not only the meats… it’s the BREAD! The seeded bread I got consistently through this trip is something special and we need more of it in my life.
I’ll share some thoughts on the foods I had during my trip in the comments but man, your food scene is amazing!
What up Philly folks. Seems like there’s two Philly reddits so I’m not sure where to post my love fest about your city but I figure I’ll just post to both but holy hell, I had the greatest time exploring your city for a couple of days and I had no idea how much I was going to fall in love with you city!
Maybe this list will help another traveler. Or maybe you folks will tell me what I missed since I’m already planning on coming back at the end of August.
I’m an architecture and art nerd that’s obsessed with dive bars and great blue collar food and Philly sure has it all. And I make these travel doc videos so I’ve been heading around the US lately and Philly is wildly underrated and easily one of my favorite cities in the US.
I don’t understand how no one told up to this point how amazing Philly is but I’m now going to be that person telling everyone how amazing of a city you have.
I’ll post a breakdown of everything I saw in the comments that made me fall in love with Philly from the food, to the bars, to all the amazing sites!