Restaurants long gone...

[cinghiale]

Strolli's -- like eating in someone's home, w/fettucine Alfredo for something like $2.50

Palumbo's -- real old-school, w/all those photos of the "star" guests

Walt's -- for the ambience, really

Saigon -- pre-Vietnamese explosion, so "exotic" BITD

Frög & Commissary -- Thank you, Steve Poses

Il Gallo Nero

Fratelli Rago

If you could get food at the East Side Club, I'd nominate that, too.

Edited March 28, 2005 by cinghiale (log)

[deprofundis]

Magnolia Cafe, Charlie's Water Wheel

[wkl]

A recent loss.Tartine.

[jmbrightman]

There is a "sister" topic in the NJ forum, and seemed like a logical jumping point to PA.

Growing up in NE Philly, there was Paisan's Pizza, Jerry's Essen House, the Red Lion Diner and the Hardee's that is now Aldo's Pizzarama.

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you miss Hardee's? I miss Frank Clement's, in my opinion one of the best burgers in the city (good quality blue cheese and bacon as a topping, good crisp steak fries on the side). Also Jimmy's Milan on 19th St, for the veal parm and Milan salad. and Silveri's, home of the best wings, mozz sticks and onion rings ever.

Edited March 28, 2005 by jmbrightman (log)

[Holly Moore]

There is a "sister" topic in the NJ forum, and seemed like a logical jumping point to PA.

Growing up in NE Philly, there was Paisan's Pizza, Jerry's Essen House, the Red Lion Diner and the Hardee's that is now Aldo's Pizzarama.

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There's also a sister topic in the PA forum already. So to keep things tidy, we've merged the two.

[phungi]

Holly, you rock! Now, if you could only bring back Strolli's and the $4.95 top-of-the-menu Veal Parm!

Anyone recall H.A. Winston's, known for burgers and onion soup? Then again, some may think their demise was long overdue!

[Holly Moore]

...

Anyone recall H.A. Winston's, known for burgers and onion soup?  Then again, some may think their demise was long overdue!

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You mean the Winston's at 15th and Locust that got a Best of Philly for their onion soup. A month later a former employee revealed it was Lipton's.

[jmbrightman]

Pamplona, 12th and locust...

[Mummer]

You mean the Winston's at 15th and Locust that got a Best of Philly for their onion soup.  A month later a former employee revealed it was Lipton's.

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In the 70s, anybody's onion soup was "gourmet" if it had goopy melted cheese on the top.

What a crock!

[Mummer]

I had one of my first upscale meals in Philadelphia at Lautrec in Head House Square.

Later they expanded by adding Cafe Borgia, with live jazz, downstairs.

[katbert]

the south philly nifty fifty's b/c where else can I get fluorescent bright soda and crazy yum milkshakes without a car. The french fry potato shooter machine was cool too. Aww, milkshakes. And chocolate egg creams.

[Phil Ward]

Okay, There have been many places mentioned but what about Le Champignon near Head House and many of the off shoots it spurned? I think half the employees of this place at one time had restaurnats in and around the city.

I cut my young teeth on the food that Rene and the team turned out. Made me want to become a chef (10 years) and inspired me to read about wine (wine business for over 20 years) of all types.

Ahh fond memories and also many nights I forget.

Phil

[Holly Moore]

Almost forgot Gino's and the Gino's Giant. In their day, before McD's goliathed them with advertising, they were a great fast food restaurant - think McD's with a Pat's cheesesteak attitude.

[phungi]

I don't know if this will qualify as "greatly missed" but there was a restaurant called "The Open Hearth" which served fresh hot loaves of bread to your table... that was as good as it got for a kid being dragged out to dinner.

Mind you, it was no Heroburger, Gino's rectangular answer to the Whopper...

[Mummer]

When I moved here in the70s, Gino's featured the Sirloiner.

It was a fast food burger with width as well as diameter. A thick hamburger! What a concept!

Here's a Gino's fan site.

[phifly04]

I remember fondly The American Bistro on 420 in Morton,Delco.It,s where i did my externship fom TRS and it was one of the few bright spots in Delco,across fom the "original" WaWa and above the Tuxedo joint

[monavano]

The Open Hearth on the boulevard? That was my favorite! "From soup to nuts".

I remember the salads were always a wedge of iceberg lettuce with dressing on top, and I loved it. It turned into a Mexican restaurant and now is a CVS.

[DTBarton]

Wow, Gino's

My first job (started on my 16th birthday in 1976) was at a Gino's on Kirkwood highway near Newark, DE. Started out with the Kentucky fried chicken, a truly hot, strenuous job, both the cooking and the cleaning.

Did some french fry and grill work. I was there when they introduced the rectangular heroburger mentioned above. Never sold very well, people liked the sirloiner better. The mostly high school kids who worked the night shift had a lot of fun before and after closing time. You haven't lived until you've been involved in an after hours parking lot KFC fight (a warm piece of fried chicken makes quite a satisfying splat on a car window when hurled with some velocity). Hey, the leftovers are thrown away at the end of the night anyway. You were always in jeopardy of being "sauced" after closing time as well. The Russian dressing type stuff that went on the heroburgers was dispensed by a device that resembled a caulk gun. It could hurl a slug of pink goo quite a ways when properly wielded.

Gino's was pretty corporate by the time I started there. The same large company owned the local Gino's and Rustler steak house franchises. All the burgers came frozen in crates, as did the fries. Chicken did come in fresh. To make original KFC breading you mixed a 25 lb bag of flour with a premeasured bag of salt (about a pound, I think) and a pre mixed bag of spice blend (no ingredients listed on the bag). Then we cooked it on a gas range in individual pressure cookers that held 18 pieces of chicken. Why 18 pieces? Because KFC cuts their birds in to 9 pieces instead of 8, they cut three pieces out of the breast (2 ribs and one "kiel", the center piece, and very much requested by the KFC afficianados). We were the least busy Gino's in the Wilmington region, and therefore were the last to get the pressurized vats used to cook KFC now. You can make decent chicken with KFC equipment if you do it right. Lots of times when they're in a hurry, they don't heat the oil enough and don't brown the chicken long enought before putting the lid on the pressure cookers leading to hideously greasy mushy bird.

The grease rotation was pretty interesting. All shortening started out as 50 pound blocks in the french fry vats. After it got too dark to cook fries, it was filitered and put in the open (non-pressurized) vats used to cook crispy KFC. When it got too dark for crispy, filitered again and used to cook original KFC in the pressure cookers.

Finally, too dark for original (well used by that time) in to the grease barrel. A company came and dropped off empty grease barrels and removed the full ones, I guess to a soap factory or something.

I believe I started at the princely wage of $2.05 per hour.

[DTBarton]

Anyone frequent Walt's King of Crabs?  As I recall, the place was pretty ordinary, but it was always jammed.  Big pails o' mussels...

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I was browsing this thread to see if someone already mentioned Walt's. We used to really dig those mussels. Had really good fried oysters too. Nice fresh sub rolls to dunk in that mussel broth. I remember watching the guy cook the mussels in a huge pot. He added what appeared to be frightening amounts of chopped garlic and dry crushed red peppers but they came out great.

Also used to go to Oregon steaks late night after concerts and ball games. Couldn't find it last time I drove down Oregon.

[philadining]

Anyone frequent Walt's King of Crabs?  As I recall, the place was pretty ordinary, but it was always jammed.  Big pails o' mussels...

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I was browsing this thread to see if someone already mentioned Walt's. We used to really dig those mussels. Had really good fried oysters too. Nice fresh sub rolls to dunk in that mussel broth. I remember watching the guy cook the mussels in a huge pot. He added what appeared to be frightening amounts of chopped garlic and dry crushed red peppers but they came out great.

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Those bowls really did seem to have more garlic than mussels, but man was that a tasty concoction. I discovered to my horror that one's body emanated garlic from every pore for a couple days after a trip to Walt's but hey, friends understood. I liked the crabs too: simple, not overspiced. It was indeed a basic, no-frills crab joint, but that was just fine with me...

[18/10]

Greatly missed from the Poses' empire-Eden.

At least 3 locations (ardmore, center city, International house at Penn)

Good salads, burgers, stir-fry (remember when those were all the rage?)

Preferred the I-house location-for the huge outdoor seating area and because the managers and bartenders were quite "forgetful" about carding for alcohol-which for a minor at that time was a plus.

In hindsight I'm still amazed it was open for long-5+years?

A policy like now that in the Penn area would last about 15 minutes.

[DTBarton]

My brain's stuck in retro mode today.

Anyone remember a cheesesteak place called Mike and Carol's?

I was first taken in to south Philly for a cheesesteak by my friend Gary who had gone to Drexel and had a working knowledge of the area (he took me to Walt's the first time too).

Gary was quite the joker. He said "Come on, we're going to Pat's the king of steaks!

So we get down there in the maze created where Passayunk screws up all the intersections, find a place to ditch the car after passing Pat's with great fanfare from Gary. "There it is! The King of steaks!" We walk back towards Pat's and he keeps right on walking by.

What's up? (It wasn't whattup back in those simpler times). Gary says, "the only thing Pat's is good for is a landmark so you can find Mike and Carol's. Pat's steaks suck!"

Mike and Carol's was a shotgun hole in the wall that was about a block east of Pat's I think. I remember the slicer on the counter in there that was cutting the fresh rib eyes for the meat. Great steak, it seems to me, but perhaps rose colored by youth and nostalgia.

Been gone for years, probably 20 years gone.

[chowfun]

I ate at Le Bus when it was a bus, and they later opened a second bus called Le Bus Pizza. They made an awesome whole wheat crust. The Roost was another spot to get good pizza in University City. I used to get the whole wheat with asparagus.

There was a place called the Wurst House near Clark Park that made homemade corned beef. I think the store might have the same name in that location, but it is not the same owners and not the same food.

Does anyone remember the Happy Paradise in chinatown? Tommy Bong made the best hot and sour soup, steamed dumplings and dishes with pickled turnip greens.

[Holly Moore]

...

Does anyone remember the Happy Paradise in chinatown?  Tommy Bong made the best hot and sour soup, steamed dumplings and dishes with pickled turnip greens.

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I remember the place by its more popular name, "The Happy Pepsi Sign." It was fun.

[phungi]

Ye Olde Ale House, corner of Red Lion road and Roosevelt Boulevard... I know there are other locales, but this one had the train set...

And of course, who can forget Pavio's, corner of Bustleton and Byberry, perhaps not known for its culinary skills, but home to many a Wedding and Bar Mitzvah affair in the 1980's...