Another quick little trip to Philly. Actually, it was only a single night. I headed down to see my brother, my mom and grandmother. Of course, we hit up the usual Rouge lunch but we have already talked about that. Today, I want to tell you about a single food at a single meal we had down in the Illadelph. I am talking about an appetizer at Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse (111 S 17^th st.).

The food was great. We had steaks, pastas, sides, you name it. The room was nice. Everything made it seem like we were at the perfect restaurant to be with family. The service was a impressive as well. All these things are well and great but again, it all came back to a single appetizer. I am only talking about the cheesesteak spring rolls. That’s right, cheesesteak spring rolls. Wow.

It’s exactly what you think it is. A cheesesteak in a thin shell then fried.  It’s served with fired onions, spicy ketchup and spicy mayo sauce. Amazing. It’s hot, spicy, sweet, crunchy, greasy, you name it. It had it all. It was one of those surprises where when my brother and I each took our first we looked at each other, stopped chewing and smiled. I want to stress that the rest of the food was great, this just seemed to be on my mind the day after our stop.

The basement of the restaurant was a club that my brother didn’t have the best things to say about. In this neighborhood there are plenty of good drinking establishments to follow the spring rolls to head to one of those.

https://foursquare.com/v/davios-northern-italian-steakhouse/43713c00f964a520fb291fe3

This post is different from most, I am going to talk about a few places in one post this time.

This past weekend I headed down to Philly with Wife and Wrigley to meet my parents and my brother for his 21st birthday.  We met at our family favorite and always popular on a nice day, Rouge (205 S. 18th street near Locust).  There are small tables out side a la Paris with most people sitting on the same side of the table, again a la Paris.  They do allow dogs so we had the dog with us.  The staff is always very nice including a bartender who seems to remember me despite only being in Philly a couple times a year.  I always seem to gravitate towards drinking too many martinis there.  The food is a no brainer.  The burger is a must. Its a good size and comes with Gruyere and caramelized onions.  Can’t miss.

We then always meet for the required predinner drink at LaCroix (210 W. Rittenhouse Square between Walnut and Locust, second floor of The Rittenhouse).  Again, I stick to martinis here as well.  Its a really convenient to get here since my family always stays at the Rittenhouse, maybe my favorite hotel in the world.  We didn’t stay long but I did learn from a few people down there that they have an expensive but worth it brunch there.

From there it was off to Butcher & Singer (1500 Walnut at S 15th. st).  The decor was incredible.  The hash browns were even more incredible.   They have quite a mixologist on staff as well, though we opted for a nice bottle of red with this meal.

After dinner we headed over to Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. (112 S. 18th st near Chestnut). Esquire wrote this places up as one of the best bars in America and you can see why.  It has a speakeasy vibe all the way down to the bartneders outifts and they make one mean Manhattan.  The vibe was very cool and the drinks were great.  I really look forward to getting back here again soon… I barely remember leaving…

Rouge

https://foursquare.com/venue/4185

LaCroix

https://foursquare.com/venue/83740

Butcher & Singer

https://foursquare.com/venue/41260

Franklin Mortgage & Investmant Co.

More or less the view from out table.

https://foursquare.com/venue/69151