One of the many enjoyable things about my life these past few years is my wife attends a weeklong, traveling conference every summer. In years when conference leadership chooses a location that interests me, I chip in a few hundred bucks for plane tickets and tag along. It’s a great way to see unfamiliar parts of the U.S. without incurring the costs of hotel rooms, airport parking or car rentals, plus I don’t have to live without my wife for a week. In past years this conference took us to Burlington, Virginia; Reno, Nevada and San Antonio, Texas. This summer we were invited to Philadelphia, a city neither my wife nor I had visited before, so off we went!
We were excited to try Philly’s most famous foods and by golly, we did so in abundance. Of course we were obliged to experience a cheesesteak in situ; we acquired ours from Joe’s Steaks + Soda Shop. Equally good was the roast pork sandwich from Tommy DiNic’s, a standout in Reading Terminal Market. That space, pronounced “Redding” by native Philadelphians, is crowded with tourists and a wide variety of excellent eateries including terrific Salvadorian papusas at El Merkury and comforting sweet potato pies from Sweet T’s Bakery, both of which we recommend. I could’ve eaten nothing but Reading food all week and would probably have left town stuffed and happy, but that’s not how I roll. We also had the best Italian-American dinner of my life that night, the justly lauded “Sunday gravy” — an extravaganza of spaghetti in multiple-meat sauce — at Little Nonna’s. I can’t recommend that dish any more than I do.
On our second night in Philly, we caught one of the final performances of Life of Pi at the Academy of Music. It’s an adaptation of the popular Yann Martel novel, elevated by Taha Mandviwala’s energetic lead performance alongside intricate animal puppetry. The next morning, the last Sunday in July, we took in The Fantastic Four: First Steps before the conference meet-and-greet aboard the U.S.S. Moshulu, a four-masted cargo vessel docked at Penn’s Landing a few steps from our hotel.
the Kimmel Cultural Campus. No relation to Jimmy, by the way. I did check.
The conference started on Monday, which means my wife got a lot busier and I was now free to explore on my own. I had dinner that night at My Loup, a French bar and restaurant lauded by Bon Appetit, Eater and The New York Times. I chose the “Let Us Cook” omakase option and had a wonderful time, thanks in large part to my excellent server, Jillian.
Our hotel was only a short ferry ride from Camden, New Jersey, which made it easy to enjoy very good hummus at Zahav in Philly and still hit an Offspring concert in Camden that night. We also found time that week to experience a great deal of Philadelphia’s historical and cultural high points, from the Benjamin Franklin Museum to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. But I think my favorite Philly moment was a fun up the famous “Rocky steps” to browse the Philadelphia Museum of Art. My late father was a huge Sylvester Stallone fan, especially his Rocky Balboa persona, so it would’ve been disrespectful of me to sit that one out. But I do hope visitors to Philly won’t just run up those 72 steps, grab a photo and leave, because the museum itself boasts a wonderful collection. I spotted one of Van Gogh’s seven versions of “Sunflowers,” Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)” and my personal favorite, Renoir’s “The Great Bathers.”
To be honest, it was super hot and humid the week we were there, and the hotel air conditioning was seldom up to the task. Had that not been the case, we probably would’ve explored even more. As it was, we still had energy left at the end of the conference for a long weekend in Manhattan, the subject of my next journal entry. Philadelphia is a fun destination with plenty to see and eat, so if you get to go, please don’t focus solely on cheesesteaks. You can get those almost anywhere. Instead, go crazy in Reading Terminal Market and take the opportunity offered by America’s first capital city to delve into its (and our) complicated history. The same founding fathers who considered it “self-evident” that all men were created equal also, in large part, bought and sold other men. The Liberty Bell rang out over a nation cracked by centuries of systemic inequality. We must never confuse our nation’s lofty ideals with its ongoing, actual results. The gap between those two is where opportunity lies. For most of my life, the gap has been progressively narrowing. In recent times? Well, we shall see.
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