Day Trip to Philly
The crew of The Sweet Life Bakery took another day trip to Philly a couple of weeks ago to spend our tip fund. Thanks again to everyone who put their change (or more!) into the jar. And to recap, we used the funds from our tip jar not only for fun, but for learning as well.
A guest of ours, Bob from Napa Auto Parts on Landis Ave, had been telling us about an excellent crab shack called DiNardos. We all love crabs, so I went onto their website to do a little research and it looked like a winner to me. Bonus points for dinner on Monday evening because it’s all-you-can-eat crab night every Monday night.
Since we were going into Philly, we also thought we’d check out some pastry shops and bread shops, and so I Googled a few places to visit and mapped them out on my blackberry. We also were told about a cheese shop (we LOVE cheese) on Chestnut called DiBruno Brothers that we wanted to see. But first, we’d start the day off at the Mütter Museum… the museum at medial oddities that is housed at the Philadelphia Physicians College.
On the day of our planned trip, we met at the bakery for quick coffees. It was raining and dreary out, so we packed umbrellas and ponchos and headed to the big city. We arrived at a parking lot behind the Mütter and Ariana skillfully wedged her car between a mini-van and a sedan. The three of us were hungry and since it was raining, we didn’t want to walk too far. Fortunately, we happened upon a pizza joint and went inside.
The pizza place wasn’t too busy, I imagine the rain was keeping folks away, and so we ordered a margarita pizza and water and waited for it to come to the table. After eating the saucy pie, we headed over to the Mütter. It was a wonderful day for a visit to a museum, and we spent the next several hours wondering through the interesting and sometimes creepy exhibits at the Mütter.
By the time we left, the rain had slowed to a sputter and so we took the opportunity to walk down Chestnut. There’s nothing like walking in the big city, so interesting and exhilarating. We found Swis Haus bakery, which would have looked at home in a European village, and sat inside while we ate tiramisu, almond pear tart, crumb-topped cheesecake, and a simple and very tasty woopie pie.
After leaving Swiss Haus, we walked to a nearby bread bakery called Le Bus, and grabbed an almond croissant and a loaf of black olive bread to try the following day. The rain started coming down again so we quickly found DiBruno Brothers at 1730 Chestnut Street.
We walked in and I immediately knew that I had found a special place. DiBruno Brothers was stocked full of all the great foods that I love… cheeses, breads, coffee, pastries, meats, prepared foods, and pastas! I thought I had died and gone to heaven! The first place we went was to the cheese counter, where hundreds of cheeses were laid out like a paints on a painters palette. We were somewhat hungry, so we thought that we’d get a loaf of bread and eat it with cheese.
I told the cheesemonger that we were there to eat, so I asked him for direction. I think that he appreciated the challenge and the opportunity to sell some cheeses that he liked. We thought perhaps we’d get three or four cheeses, so he picked out a variety of different textures and flavors. Before we decided to purchase the cheeses he suggested, he gave us each a little sample to see what we thought. Since the cheeses were on the expensive side, it was great to be able to try them first (and good cheese costs good money!). After picking out a soft Italian brie, a fresh goat cheese from California, an English blue, and a hard cave-aged Gruyere, we grabbed a loaf of fresh ciabatta and sat at the front of the store and ate. It was lovely.
After walking around a bit, and being stranded for a while in Barnes and Noble because of the weather (not a bad place to be stuck!), we took a cab to DiNardo’s Famous Crabs. We arrived at the restaurant at 312 Race Street ready to devour some crabs. DiNardo’s gets their crabs fresh every day from the Gulf of Mexico, where blue crabs are always in season due to the warm water temperatures. Monday is ‘all you can eat’ day, so the four of us prepared ourselves with a pitcher of cold beer on the table and plastic bibs around our necks. The steaming crabs began to arrive on big platters, piled on top of each other and coated in a special seasoning. These crabs were not cleaned, which we were not used to, but the placemats that sat in front of us showed us the way. It took a little getting used to, but we figured it out pretty quickly and ate many crabs before the night was done!
Because we used our tip jar money, we each paid special attention to the food and the service everywhere we went. Everywhere we visited, even the museum and bookstore, offered an opportunity for learning. Thank you to all who left change in the tip jar for giving us the opportunity to learn and eat in Philly!
