New York Magazine (disclosure: kind of our parent company) has a piece up on their site about winter travel. One of the little itineraries that they’ve come up with is for a quick jaunt down to Philly (“Two nights + Iron Chef tasting menu + Colombe coffee = $320 for a two-nighter”). It actually sounds like a fun, if just-scratching-the-service trip, and of course we’re on board with the Distrito recommendation.
Here’s what they have to say:
Philly’s reputation as a cheaper version of New York is well deserved, and not just because of its cut-rate artists’ lofts and liberal BYOB policies. The city’s cheap-dining scene has also gotten awfully New York–y lately. In July, Iron Chef winner Jose Garces opened Distrito, where nothing runs more than $16, and even a three-course chef’s tasting menu of flatiron-steak tacos only costs $40 (grg-mgmt.com/distritorestaurant.com). The Japanese meat-on-a-stick trend just arrived, too; Yakitori Boy does $1 yakitori skewers on Tuesdays (yakitoriboy-japas.com). And Philadelphia Java Company (215-928-1811)—serving La Colombe coffee and Middle Eastern snacks—might as well be on St. Marks Place.
It’s sort of annoying to be the one city on the list that gets described in the context of New York, but c’est la vie, or something? Overall, props to NYMag for picking out Distrito, pointing to the awesome BYOB-ness of Philadelphia dining, and for making it an itinerary more about food than those for any of the other cities.
“Sample Another City: The best of what is new, artsy, and delicious in competing concrete jungles.” [NYMag]
