Holly Moore

A slice from Lorenzo's on South Street. Soft pretzels from any vendor with access to a rest room (TV investigative reports have done little to stimulate the soft pretzel business). A scoop of most anything from Capogiro. Sidewalk kielbasa from vendors who steam the bun. Frozen lemonade from La Colombe. A barbecue beef and veal sandwich from the good George's in the Italian Market - the one a couple of store fronts south of Christian, a cheese cannoli from Isgro's.

Through specials or otherwise, is Cochon adjusting its menu for balmy summer evenings? The pics on this thread are excruciatingly tempting, but the menu from their website seems targeted to all seasons but summer.

People don't already get that the Reading Terminal Market is a "venue for purchasing food for home?" Such uncomprehending market-goers will likely never survive a trip to the market in the first place, having been culled from the species seconds after failing to grasp that a "Don't Walk" sign means don't walk. Recently there has been a speculation about the mystery Tony Luke's cheesesteak franchisee's relationship with the board that initially led to the board kicking out Rick's Steaks. One wonders if this might be a peremptory move by the market so, down the road, they can say, "See, we were never really wanted to put a cheesesteak place in Rick's space." After all, the winners get to write the history.

Based on Philadelphia and Alexandria experiences, their burgers could be so much better and probably once were, back before they became a chain.

Me thinks you are being a bit harsh on Crystal. I've found them to be every bit as tasty as White Castle. Perhaps you were not sufficiently hungover. Most Crystal Burgers come my way when the stars align in the chemotherapy room at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville and I am there on the same day as a woman who sends her husband out for lunch. He returns with a few bags packed with neatly aligned boxes of Crystal burgers. He works his way about the room handing them out to all takers. The only issue being that one Crystal burger is merely enough to whet one's appetite and there are rarely any leftovers once he has made his rounds. (Not to worry about the chemotherapy locale - I have been dealing with my idiosyncrasy since 1994 and have been soaking in Avastin every two weeks at Sarah Cannon since 2004 with great success. No need to discuss it here though I am certain that Avastin has far few sider effects than the dayglo green Hand Grenades flowing through Daniel's system.)

My favorite cheesesteak is built by Steve's Prince of Steaks in the Northeast - 7200 Bustleton Avenue at St. Vincent. That's about 20 - 30 minutes by car from Center City - which, depending on your transport options and available time, may or may not be doable. Good steaks closer to Center City - Johnny Hot's on Delaware Avenue (Columbus Blvd), the aforementioned John's Roast Pork, and Tony Luke's on Oregon Ave.

Philly Style?

Great start on the write-up. Thanks. Do you drink the Hand Grenades or use them to light your way down a darkened alley. They look greener than those chemical doohickies one snaps to produce green light at concerts. I'm in New Orleans for a week in August so will likely be following in your footsteps. Eat well and prosper.

← Maybe Hell's Kitchen will do the same - give Ramsey a bunch of teens to mess with. We can watch Ramsey tear asunder their self esteem - scarring the kids for life. Fox TV - you owe me a development fee.

What maitre'd is not an actor?

Who knows what the fries were like fresh out of the fryer 20 minutes or more before they arrived at your room, most likely covered to permit the contained steam to wilt any crispness that time, alone, hadn't destroyed.

Agree. I believe their OJ is squeezed to order. There are no signs or anything. You have to know about it to order it.

It starts off as a slurry but quickly melts into the best lemonade I've had in the city - maybe the best I've had anywhere.

Sang Kee's pork wonton is very good, but my favorite is the House Special wonton from Charle's Plaza.

It is always sad when a business fails. At the same time, great to see the Mink family back at the helm. Now, if they will only tear down Liberty Place and bring back Mole Street. And Dewey's at the corner of 17th and Market.

I saw the part about the insurance company covering some of the $700,000 lawyers' fees. Didn't make much sense. Kind of like me going to my insurance company and saying, "Sure that guy rear-ended me, but I don't want to complicate his life. Even though we could make him cover the damage, would you mind paying instead?" And the insurance company agreed. What a nice insurance company. Wonder what that will do to next year's insurance cost. Speaking of not making sense: Picking up $700,000 in lawyers fees sure is humane. What a nice Board of Directors. Of course it doesn't say much for their fiduciary responsibilities. Blowing off $700,000 of the market's funds. Might there be some other reason the Board of Directors was so darn generous? Maybe so the case would not go to trial where there are all those pesky swear-to-tell-the-truth requirements. Wonder if the subject of the mysterious Tony Luke Jr. franchisee would have come up? If only a year ago the RTM Board had been so kindhearted. Would have saved everyone a lot of money.

From Bob's excellent summary The RTM Board is swallowing the legal fees.

$700,000 in legal fees? $700,000 in legal fees!!! Just to change tenants? The new tenant will not be paying any more than what Rick's Steaks would have paid for the same space. Forget what I said about merely ousting the Reading Terminal Market Board of Directors. They should be tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Have they no shame? Have they no fiscal responsibility? Something ain't right here. I'm real curious about the person taking over the space and how he/she jumped to the head of the line. Even more curious about who was supposed to have taken over the space had everything gone as initially intended by the RTM Board when they made the decision not to renew the Rick's Steaks lease.

Main Line Prime could be another option. Hard to tell from their one page web site, but here's their phone number: 610.645.9500

It would be interesting to know exactly who that prospective franchisee was. I'm also curious as to how he knew that the Rick's Steaks space was to become available. Evidently the prospective (wannabe perhaps) Tony Luke's franchisee approached the market board rather than as I think was previously communicated - that the board/management initiated contact with Tony Luke. If nothing else, said franchisee had a wondrous, psychic-like, view of the future. Amazing, at least, for those who believe that a stage psychic does it all on his own, without the help of a hidden ally. Edited to add - From an Iquirer article cited earlier in this thread: If the board initiated the contact, as Chairman Dunston is quoted as stating, how could they not be talking to Tony Luke? So how does one initiate contact with the Tony Luke organization and end up talking with a franchisee and not someone representing Tony Luke Jr.? Just one more of the contradictory statements on behalf of the RTM board/management. It is going to be a very informative trial.

Though other vendors might object to the competition, I suspect a place that simply fries up fresh cut, twice fried, non-shoestring french fries would thrive. Re barbecue - perhaps an opportunity for Jack McDavid to serve Philadelphians the same bbq he is smoking up at bbq festivals around the country. Some top notch Chicago style caramel corn would hit the spot too.

Happy endings are nice. Perhaps the frequent contributors to this thread should gather at James and continue the discussion there. Wonder how long we will have to wait for a reservation.

Fair enough, if a critic defines his mission as reviewing both good and bad restaurants and then choses not to write about a bad experience only because the restaurant owner is a friend or as a favor to a PR type, or whatever. (This is probably not the topic to suggest that negative reviews serve mainly as fodder for building readership/circulation and for tossing raw meat to the gastronomical equivalent of those gawkers whom slow down at car wrecks in the hope of glimpsing blood and gore.) I do take exception if you maintain that criticism, to be valid - to "matter:", must include both good and bad reviews. One can provide meaningful criticism while choosing only to spend one's column inches on positive experiences - pointing readers to restaurants that the critic believes readers will enjoy.

If you will be offering prepared foods, I think what you need is called finished goods insurance. A side issue, but you might also need to get a state department of agriculture license. When my restaurant ran a concession at the Philadelphia Zoo, the PA Dept. of Agriculture dropped in one day to inspect our kitchen, telling us that a city health department license was not sufficient for off premise sales.

Honesty and integrity (personal or journalistic) have nothing to do with electing not to write about negative experiences. Honesty and integrity only come into play when one decides to lie about a negative experience, saying it was a good experience.