Fishtown has been through changes over the past ten years, to put it mildly. The neighborhood has rapidly gentrified, with a ton of twenty- and thirty-something hipster types moving into what was previously a working-class Irish-American neighborhood. But it’s good to see that there are restaurants out there bridging the gulf. On a recent visit to Frankford Avenue’s Ida Mae’s Bruncherie, the crowd in the pint-size restaurant was nearly a 50-50 mix of older residents and newer residents. Owners Mary Kate and Feargus McCaughey opened a surprisingly traditional Irish cafe (Feargus is a native of Belfast) with some distinctly American (and urban) touches. Not only are soy butter and tofu scrambles on the menu, but huevos rancheros share space with a full Irish breakfast & a ploughman’s lunch—and classics like chipped beef on toast and BLTs. Prices are cheap too—the most expensive item on the brunch menu is a big, bad $8.50 breakfast burrito.
Ida Mae’s Bruncherie [MenuPages]
Green Party [MenuPages]
[Photo via Michael T. Regan/Philadelphia Citypaper]
