The Old Original Bookbinders

[Holly Moore]

Big news in Philadlephia today.  The Old Original Bookbinders, which has been around for something like 140 years, has closed down.  Owner John Taxin blamed both the lost of business travelers with their expense accounts since 9-11 and (probably more of a consideration) the declining physical plant and the cost of repairs and maintainance.

The general concensus in Philadelphia seems to be good ridance - the end of an "overated tourist trap - high prices, mediocre food."

Alas, I will miss the place.  It was expensive, yes, and if one orders wrong, the food is indeed mediocre.  But the Old Original Bookbinders, without question, served the best snapper soup - starting with the deep, rich veal stock.  Great fresh oysters too.  And the lobsters - half boiled, half broiled were as good as any and better than most.  Where people went wrong was straying from these Bookbinder's basics to fried or broiled fish which were never the reason to dine at Bookbinders.

A restaurant survives 10 years, it's an exception.  20 years, it's an institution.  140 years, it's a big chunk of Philadelphia history that will be greatly missed.

There is another Bookbinders in Philadelphia, 15th Street Bookbinders.  Good oysters and lobster, not as good snapper soup.  A novel boullibaise on Fridays.  It is owned by the original Bookbinder family.  Back in the 1930's the Old Original Bookbinders was willed to a charity which sold it to the Taxin family.  Shortly thereafter the Bookbinder family opened Bookbinders on 15th Street - confusing tourist and local alike.

Taxin is hoping someone with deep pockets will step in and join him to renovate the place to a city inn, rooms above and Bookbinders below.  Just might work.

[ahr]

Sorry to hear.  I have the fondest memories of the old place -- though none more recent than ten years' ago -- and the crackers, snapper soup, steamers (best ever!), and twice-cooked lobsters.

[ahr]

So who's going to report on the new Old Original Bookbinder's, risen from the dead? Based on this article, it sounds ominously dissimilar to the original.

[Andrew Fenton]

I don't know if I'll eat there, in the near future or later. But I've been walking past their sign for months now: it features a lobster wearing a crown (rakishly askew). It's kind of cute, and it occurs to me: lobsters are not cute animals. But if you put a crown on one, it's cute. Really, you can put a crown on just about anything, and it'll look cute. A cockroach? Ick. A cockroach with a little crown? Awwwwww.

No word yet on whether the 350 lobsters in their tanks will be wearing crowns, though.

[ahr]

Actually, lobsters and cockroaches are not all that phylogenetically distant. There's even something called a lobster roach, of which this is a picture of two mating.

Does the place look ready to open?

[Rich Pawlak]

I don't know if I'll eat there, in the near future or later.  But I've been walking past their sign for months now: it features a lobster wearing a crown (rakishly askew).  It's kind of cute, and it occurs to me: lobsters are not cute animals.  But if you put a crown on one, it's cute.  Really, you can put a crown on just about anything, and it'll look cute.  A cockroach?  Ick.  A cockroach with a little crown?  Awwwwww.

No word yet on whether the 350 lobsters in their tanks will be wearing crowns, though.

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David Cunningham, late of the Yardley Inn and with a sweet pedigree of NYC experience, is the new chef, and he should vastly upgrade the quality and presentation of the food. He is one VERY talented chef.

[herbacidal]

They had some kind of soft launch/private party last Wednesday.

Not sure about time lag between that and regular everyday opening.

[Rich Pawlak]

They had some kind of soft launch/private party last Wednesday.

Not sure about time lag between that and regular everyday opening.

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They opened on Monday the 21st

[Andrew Fenton]

So is the current restaurant

the new Old Original Bookbinders? or

the New Old Original Bookbinders?

I'm reminded of Spinal Tap, and how they started off as the Originals, only to discover that there was another band by that name, so they became the New Originals, only then the original Originals became the Regulars, and rather than revert to the Originals, they became known as the Thamesmen...

[ahr]

So...any evaluations yet, either first-person or in the press?

[Carolyn Tillie]

Never ate there but heard stories about it from my folks from years gone by...

I gotta say, though, that as far as canned soup goes, Bookbinder's was always pretty damned good -- besides, who else makes a decent canned Snapper Soup?

Hope the cans continue at least (probably already owned by another corporation, huh?).

[MarketStEl]

Hope the cans continue at least (probably already owned by another corporation, huh?).

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Yep. Bookbinders Foods is a subsidiary of Silver Spring Gardens, Inc., of Eau Claire, Wis. The company claims it is the world's largest grower and processor of horseradish; it sells horseradish, mustard and specialty sauces under its own label.

[Busboy]

I only ate at Bookbinder's once, but it was one of the great meals of my life, not so much for its quality, but for it's timing.

I'd been working on a broke presidential campaign in Iowa, Vermont and Pennsylvania since before Christmas. People weren't even getting paid their ten dollars a day, most money we could get hold of went for gas and beer, and besides, decent food is hard to find in rural Iowa and Vermont under any circumstances.

A friend of mine was in charge of getting the palm cards for the entire state printed up; something like 4 million rectangular bits of light cardboard listing our candidate and the delegates who were supporting them, so that voters would know which downballot levers to pull (at this point, candidates for convention delegate in Pennsylvania were not grouped or identified by the Presidential candidate they were supporting.

The cards came back with a pretty glaring typo, too late for a reprint. My buddy looked at the printer and said: "where I come from, this would be worth at least a dinner or two." Rather than risk losing a substantial payment, the printer took my buddy, his campaign flame, myself and a couple of other "road warriers" to dinner at Bookbinders.

After months of Big Macs, microwave burritoes, Sarah Lee pastries (another story entirely) and other dreck, I found myself facing a bucket of steamers and a lobster the size of a satellite dish, both of which I polished off with an unseemly alacrity. God, they were good.

Never got a chance to get back, but Bookbinders will always have a warm place in my culinary memory.

[philadining]

LaBan gives Bookbinder's a One-Bell "Hit or Miss" review in the June 12 Inky. It's a surprisingly upbeat, hopeful review for that rating, and represents an upgrade from his no-bell review of the Old Original. He even hints at a possible bump up to two-bells in the future.

Review should be on-line within a few days. He did have positive things to say about several offerings, but not what one might expect. Surprisingly, he didn't like the Snapper Soup, or the Lobster, or the Strawberry Shortcake, so according to him at least, the old reliables are not so reliable....

[runninwithscissors]

Bookbinders was one of the reasons I became interested in fine dining...back in '76 or so. Although I toughed thru 20 years of the electronic industry, I finally succumbed to culinary school, to fulfill my passion. Not sorry, but I _really_ wish more restaurants would offer benefits! Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in my second term of culinary school really changed my whole dream...

[KatieLoeb]

LaBan gives Bookbinder's a One-Bell "Hit or Miss" review in the June 12 Inky. It's a surprisingly upbeat, hopeful review for that rating, and represents an upgrade from his no-bell review of the Old Original.  He even hints at a possible bump up to two-bells in the future.

Review should be on-line within a few days.  He did have positive things to say about several offerings, but not what one might expect. Surprisingly, he didn't like the Snapper Soup, or the Lobster, or the Strawberry Shortcake, so according to him at least, the old reliables are not so reliable....

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Laban Review of Bookbinder's 6.12.05

He doesn't sound too impressed to me. But at least this review isn't like the scorched earth review from the Philadelphia Weekly HERE!

[Holly Moore]

Actually, despite the single bell, Laban had a lot of good things to say about Bookbinders.

I must say though that I always got a hit of super rich veal stock from Old Original's snapper soup and not the "the fragrant spices and citrus zest that should dance across sherry-splashed broth like an exotic trade wind" that Craig longs for.

And I might have to eat a few of my words about limiting one's order to fresh oysters, snapper soup and steamed/broiled lobster. Seems to be some other good cooking coming out of the kitchen.