MikNik

I've eaten once at the restaurant and once at the bar downstairs (which has more of a tapas-style menu). My dining partner kept muttering "I just know they're sneaking meat into this somewhere" under her breath last time we were there, because some of the dishes had a richness I woudn't usually associate with vegan food. Everything we tried was very good, the soups being particularly wonderful.

Cucina Forte has excellent gnocchi. (Also: although I've never been to Felicia's, some of my friends in South Philly swear that it's the gold standard for gnocchi.)

I do not know if you have a garden, but you can grow them. You need the roman zucchini. You can get seeds from Burpee, Martha Stewart, etc. Plant in spring with a squash ladder (or it will take over) and enjoy the blossoms all summer. Actually, we had a squash blossom souffle just the other night! ← Alas, my friend and I are both apartment dwellers. The image of roman zucchini blossoms entwined about my fire escape is enticing, though. (Coincidentally, she reported having bad stuffed squash blossoms at La Boheme over the weekend. I'm not sure why they were bad. Goat cheese was involved somehow.)

Does anybody know where to get squash blossoms in Philly? I mean to cook, not in a restaurant. A friend has a serious hankering for them, and she says that she can never find them, even at Reading Terminal Market. I'm pretty sure I saw some at DiBruno's palatial new digs, but I was wondering if there is any other place that carries them. Any recent sightings?

Okay, that shoots down that as a candidate. Perhaps the Chorus should try Hooters? Welcome to eGullet, MikNik. Several of your fellow choristers know me, mainly from the karaoke circuit. Is this a delurk or did you jump in with both feet on this topic? ← I'll be sure to suggest the Hooters outing at the next rehearsal. No doubt it would be very instructive.

"I know I wouldn't say to my friends, 'Let's pop over to the Irish Pub for a bite to eat!' on a whim, and--except, perhaps, on New Year's Day--I doubt I'd run into too many Irish Pub habitues chowing down at Bump." Just to be scrupulously fair to the Irish Pub: every Wednesday, the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus goes there after rehearsal. So at least once a week they get a gang of around 30 of Bump's target audience, and no one seems particularly out of sorts by our presence, and we can be pretty loudly and insistenty "gay." I imagine it may make a difference that we show up in such a huge group, though. (I'm talking about the one at 12th and Walnut--I've never been tot the one up by Rittenhouse, but it looks like a frat party on the weekends from the outside.)