MarketStEl

What he said. Indeed, I think I asked the same thing upthread. That's one phat logo. I'd second TPO's recommendation to remove "dining car" from the logo, as it implies a larger menu than you plan to offer. Even though the logo is very classy, I don't think that "Burger Joint" would be demeaning at all. In fact, I kinda like the juxtaposition. And as I said to you in a pm, I do hope that someday you will be able to move up to a real vintage dining car with menu to match. The Airstream is a good start, though. You've put a lot of thought into this business. I hope you're mobbed on opening day.

I wonder. After all, the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a liquor control regime as restrictive as Montgomery County's, and that hasn't kept Wegmans, Trader Joe's, Costco and other retailers that sell alcohol elsewhere from opening here. And I'm pretty sure that Montgomery County, Pa., is at least as affluent as Montgomery County, Md. The one Wegmans currently open in the Philadelphia area is in the former.

The spectre of urban planning rears its ugly head in the middle of a decent meal! I think this is a big issue for affluent suburbs just about everywhere now: The people who are needed to make them work can't afford to live in or near them, thus adding to our clogged roads and rising tempers. May I suggest tossing this out on PLANetizen?

Like the rest of me, I'm probably now a bit schizoid in the kitchen. I try to do the full mise-en-place treatment most of the time. But I also now approach recipes much like this: --Read the recipe and note the ingredients required. --Assemble the jars containing the spices; chop, slice or otherwise make ready all other ingredients. --Shake or sprinkle dry spices into liquid ingredients as I please. --Taste as I cook. Do I need therapy?

Hey, Magus, beautiful food porn on your profile page. Just curious: Why "Number 9 Eatery"? And you can certainly continue to call it "soda"--just don't use that word on your signage. If "pop" sticks in your craw, use "soft drinks". Edited to add: And exactly where in the Midwest are you? --Sandy, Kansas City native

It took me two visits, but I was able to answer that question. Their cheesesteak is merely excellent, but that's only because their roast pork Italian is sublime. Standing on its own, TL's cheesteak is head and shoulders above the usual must-eat steaks people recommend. And it too comes in an Italiano version, with the same accoutrements as the roast pork.

Tacconelli's is still all that and a bag of chips. You will have to reserve your crust ahead of time, though. I hope Pop finds a suitable protege/helper soon. I can also tout a pretty good newcomer: NYPD Pizza (11th and Walnut), one of this year's Philadelphia magazine "Best of Philly" winners (this year, they named one winner per county). This place turns out the best thin, crisp crust in town (well, second best after Tacconelli's, but NYPD's is actually thinner). Their toppings are almost the equal of the crust, and they have good specialty combinations. Beware ordering take-out, though: the pizza will steam in the box and the crust will lose most of its crunch. It's still worth eating even in that degraded state, but you don't get the total package of joy.

It makes me wonder whether there isn't something about Chili's that makes it an exception to the chain restaurant rule. I've generally had solid, good, enjoyable meals at the two Chili's I've eaten at near me (one of them 2.5 blocks N and one block W of me, the other out by the Penn campus). I wonder if another reason chain restaurants are dropping like flies out your way, Ronnie, may have to do with the visitor/resident ratio. Yes, the chains mainly cater to suburb-dwellers who are looking for something predictable and consistent--or something that they heard about on TV; most indie restaurants can't afford to advertise on TV, not even on cable--but they also seem to be going after similar patrons in the middle of our big cities. In those cases, visitors probably outnumber residents, though I cannot be completely sure about this, having also eaten at Maggiano's Little Italy in the same block as the Center City Chili's. (Said Maggiano's is directly across 12th Street from the Reading Terminal Market. Coincidence?) Philadelphia does not lack for good Italian restaurants, either. Yet within five minutes' walk of my residence are both the aforementioned Maggiano's and an Olive Garden. I'm not completely down on chain restaurants, as you can see after reading the essay that introduced me to both the readers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and eGullet. I'd rather the visitors ate at these places when they came to town than not eat--or come to town--at all. Perhaps, as you suggested earlier, despite the congestion that makes going out to eat a chore (pity you can't walk there) and the other aggravations, your fellow suburbanites have gotten better educated about good food, as you suggested at the start of the thread? Which brings me back to that observation/question about Chili's.

The Empire Theater is still standing at 14th and Main. The entire block to its northeast has been leveled and is now a parking lot. (I remember shopping at a furniture store in that block, Duff and Repp.) Looks like the Broadway Deli is still in business, across Broadway from the coffee plant (Google Earth will mark dining establishments on its satellite photos if you click the checkbox "Dining").

I was riding in someone's car through the northwestern suburbs of Philly one Saturday night when I heard that song on "A Prairie Home Companion." Only the singers used the term "tuna casserole" in the refrain. It was for three voices, SAB, and the one line I remember was in the refrain: ''...all covered with cheeeese (bass line: "...all covered with Velveeta cheese")." Casseroles were not a mainstay of my growing-up years. Beyond macaroni and cheese, come to think of it, I can't recall casseroles as a feature of any meal served by a black family I've known of--and certainly not the infamous Green Bean Casserole. Unless, that is, you're talking about black families who know something about Creole cooking, in which case you will encounter jambalaya--which is a casserole, after all, and one that requires no thickened sauce--somewhere along the way. But I've learned how to make them. Count me as the 3,957th vote in favor of "Start with a basic white sauce and you can't go wrong." Except, of course, when you're making jambalaya. But that "hamberger casserole" that has uncooked rice as an ingredient? The canned tomatoes are not drained before adding to the dish, right? Otherwise, where's the liquid for the rice to absorb?

Cream of Poblano Soup? Obviously, this variety must come only from Campbell's plant in Paris, Texas. Trade you for a can of Pepper Pot and a joint mention in the "Mass-Produced Rarities" topic? I'd love to try that variety. Anyplace to get it online? Hometown Favorites, maybe?

As you describe it, I believe most places up here call that a "pizza steak." In such cases, the default cheese is Provolone rather than Whiz or American. BTW, John DeBella is still on the air, but he's no longer the unquestioned king of rock radio. Howard Stern knocked him off his perch several years ago.

Closest ethnic food truck to PHL? How long is your layover? The closest neighborhoods to Philadelphia International Airport are Eastwick (what's left of it) and whatever the area around the stadiums is called (Packer Park comes to mind, but I think that's east of the stadiums). Neither, AFAICT, are known for having interesting ethnic food trucks. You'd probably have to hop a cab to University City to get to the closest good ethnic food truck. Unless you had three or more hours' layover, doing this would put you at risk of missing your connecting flight. You may just have to settle for the eateries in the airport shopping concourse, which are better than they were as recently as 10 years below.

Followup: This thread inspired me to make some open-faced tuna melts yesterday. Bread: Stroehmann white, toasted. (Note to self: Buy rye bread on next trip to store. Aside to my fellow Heartland native about patty melts: ISTR that these were always served on rye bread, and I think the same applied for tuna melts.) I then buttered the bottom of each slice. Tuna spread: Not quite minimalist this time. Tuna, mayo, lemon juice, Old Bay, onion powder--I had no onions available to chop and not enough time to mix in dehydrated minced onion before cooking. Cheese: Some Finlandia Baby Muenster that I ordered from igourmet.com. Result: Not bad, if I say so myself. Photos: None.

OK, I'll be back In Kansas City for 2 weeks very soon. I'll have a tuna melt there and see if I'm still right. ← Hi! Let me know. My recollection was that tuna melts in Kansas City were also closed-faced, and that's how I make them to this day--even though Wikipedia tells me that I'm making a variant on a grilled cheese sandwich. As for what goes into the tuna salad/spread, most of the time, I'm a minimalist. Just give me the tuna mixed with mayo, seasoned with Old Bay. But I have been known to add minced onion from time to time, and the capers sound like they'd make a good mix-in. I believe that on the whole, pickle relish improves just about anything, but I've never cottoned to it in tuna salad.

A crown cap is a metal cap that is crimped onto the mouth of the bottle; unlike the screw caps that are more common today, it takes a bottle opener to remove it. (12-ounce beer bottles are also sealed with these caps, but many of them now use a version that has a screw-thread-like groove incorporated into the crimps so that it can be twisted off.) The crown cap is so called because it resembles a crown when placed top down. Philadelphia's Crown Cork and Seal was--and I believe is still--one of the biggest manufacturers of these types of bottle caps.

Frank's Red Hot sauce is great splashed on cottage cheese. (That's one of my weird comfort-food combos.) Texas Pete also works. Trappey's Red Devil isn't quite the same. Tabasco is all wrong here.

I call it the Smack-me (rather than Acme) because the help is usually so rude. ← I've seen an even ruder alteration graffitied on the sign at the entrance to the Haddonfield store. It consisted of one additional letter up front--the 23rd one in the alphabet.

It's certainly no longer a second-rate tourist trap. As for the waterfront, I'm not sure I can say it's first rate yet, but I know something the city keeps trying to do that I don't think is needed to make it first rate. You can find out what that is by picking up a copy of Friday's Inquirer and turning to the Metro Commentary page.

What is Wundra?

You really must check out the Reading Terminal Market sometime. WFM can't hold a candle to it either. And Iovine's organic produce is cheaper. (Iovine's is the biggest, busiest and best of the RTM's produce vendors.)

I must have a twisted mind. I read Gaius' post, referred to his avatar, and thought, "Chile Serrano de Bergerac." Anyway, if I were a food, I'd probably be a grilled cheese sandwich. Kinda crusty, but when I'm all buttered up and warmed up, I just melt. On second thought, make that a Monte Cristo sandwich, for I'm also a bit of a ham.

Do you shop at the same Whole Foods Market I do? I think that basket is called the "under $3 section" at the South Street store. The sign attached to it reads "Afraid of commitment? Try these--everything is under $3." I've sampled some pretty tasty stuff from this basket. I still prefer foraging at DiBruno's, though. Bought some very good tomme from Georgia there a few weeks ago.

I dunno, but mebbe if you could get someone to set up an honest-to-God public market along the lines of Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, or even the Italian Market, you'd be better off. Wait. Isn't that what the Eastern Market is all about?

Funny thing is, my grandmother used nothing but Hellman's, but I'm not as particular about mayonnaise as she, my roommate or a bunch of other people are. I have tried Whole Foods' budget brand (365) and found it both too lemony and too runny, though, but that aside, I'll eat just about any other brand. I will allow as to how Hellman's has a better consistency and flavor than most other brands I've used. I should probably try Mrs. Dash, especially since my partner must watch his sodium intake, which in turn means I have to keep my hands off the Season-All when cooking. Reading further posts in this thread, I see that we have defined "convenience products" broadly. I can't imagine making my own sriracha, either, and I now put that on lots of different things. I have mentioned elsewhere that my partner absolutely loves Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni, so there's usually some of that on hand. And yes, I do make my own version of this dish, but it doesn't taste the same. I must not be using the right chemicals. I do keep canned refried beans (Goya) around when I'm on a Mexican kick too. I find making these just a bit of a hassle if I'm pressed for time. (I happen not to be now.)