52nd Street

[GregD]

Anybody here eat on the Strip, 52nd Street from Market to Spruce? Aside from Big George's, any other recommendations? Any preferences among the different West Indian places there?

[KatieLoeb]

Anybody here eat on the Strip, 52nd Street from Market to Spruce? Aside from Big George's, any other recommendations? Any preferences among the different West Indian places there?

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[herbacidal]

I've been to Big George's. Thought it was just okay.

Can't remember specific foods though.

[Furious Flav-or]

I think there's a Jamaican place called Sunday Best that I got jerk chicken, fish with brown rice, and curried goat from a few times back in my decidedly dodgy and dangerous professional days of working in West Philly. If I remember, it's north of Market on the right side of 52nd St.

Big George's makes a few dishes rather well. Probably the two best things there are the turkey wings and the short ribs. They don't have a great corn bread supplier though, but the dinner rolls are out of this world. Avoid the ribs—they're nasty at best.

[marinade]

I was trolling out there a couple of weeks ago in the West Indies grocery stores looking for a spice called “Grains of Paradise” for a recipe I was working on (no luck on the source). As I was heading north on 52nd street around 9:30 I spotted a food truck with a smoker on a boat trailer. I double-parked and ask the two guys wassup with that and when? They told me ribs and chicken and around noon. I headed home and passed a storefront with signage that screamed “Mr. Delicious BBQ”. Hey great! With Dwight’s and Zekes close by, and DeBreauxs on the other side of the Mann I figured I was in the ‘cue epicenter.

I did get back to the truck and the deal with these guys is that the truck has no name and all they do is chicken and ribs, only two sides are collards and potato salad. When I got there at about noon the ribs weren’t up there but they had a steady parade of inquiring customers. I sat with them on a couple of milk cases and chewed some bull about smoking and rubs till the ribs were ready.

I asked them about “Mr. Delicious” and they chortled and said “He ain’t delicious anymore…his ass is in jail”. I said I hoped he likes cafeteria food now and that seemed to break them up. Now about the ribs. Essentially grilled over briquette charcoal with not much smoked flavor and on the chewy side. They’re grilled hood down Had the hot BBQ sauce and it was a decent catsup base. Potato salad was good.

I’m glad someone started a thread on 52nd street; I think it’s the city’s Kasbah. The strip jumps with music and food.

Edited July 26, 2004 by marinade (log)

[Greg Salisbury]

Since 52d St is just a hop, skip and a few blown stop signs from Rx, I'll give you my rundown:

Big George's is no longer really Big George's; it is owned and operated by Miss Shirley, who used to own Sassy's Stuffin a few years back on 49th/Catherine. Anyway, the food is much, much better. Defintitely your best soul food option in West Philly. Brown Sugar is a Jamaican bakery/ cafe. Never had anything bad there, and I find it to be far superior to the Golden Krust a few blocks down. On Baltimore, west of 52 is a really good BBQ joint, don't remember the name, calling it no-frills would be an overstatement, but the ribs, while parboiled, are still meaty/smoky.