Manayunk

[stephenc]

and people go to south street to see and be seen and to shop, not as a dining destination.

Let's see: Azafran, NEXT, Beau Monde, Dark Horse... Django, for crying out loud.

Just sayin', is all.

Latest Dish, Pad Thai, Fez, Ava

South Street has actually gotten BETTER as a dining locale over the years.

[stephenc]

Manayunk still has a bit of a Bohemian feel to it, while South Street looks like a teeming mass of graffiti....

Manayunk is where ex frat boys and sorority girls go to live out their twenties.

South street may look like a teeming mass of graffiti, but at least it's "teeming," with people, businesses, people just "hanging out", whatever. It's a good vibe, and I'll always jump to defend the much-maligned street.

If South street simply looks like a teeming mass of graffiti, then Camden Town in London may actually be a teeming mass of graffiti. No one really says anything about Camden Town though.

[menton1]

Manayunk is where ex frat boys and sorority girls go to live out their twenties.

I guess I prefer that vibe to Body-piercing; but it's all a matter of personal taste, that's what makes horse races...

As far as restaurants in Manayunk, there are several:

Grasshopper (already discussed)

Le Bus (Breakfast or Lunch, I don't consider it a real chain, too small)

Thomas'

Sonoma

Jake's

Bourbon Blue (Great oysters)

Il Tartufo (above average Italian)

Kansas City Prime (pricey)

I think the predictions of Manayunk's demise are a bit premature. And it is quite a different world from South Street! (IMHO)

[Andrew Fenton]

Il Tartufo (above average Italian)

Thread hijack:

Isn't Tartufo owned by the same folks that own Tiramisu (on, um, South St)? I'd be curious to hear a comparison: in my experience, Tiramisu is pretty expensive and only okay food. But they're the only place in town (of which I'm aware) that has fried artichokes regularly. We'll sometimes just sit at the bar and drink and eat artichokes.

[stephenc]

I think KC Prime is closed.

[Derek Lee]

Yes, KC Prime closed a few months ago. And now it's a Kildare's, a local Irish-y pub type chain.

[Rich Pawlak]

Il Tartufo (above average Italian)

Thread hijack:

Isn't Tartufo owned by the same folks that own Tiramisu (on, um, South St)? I'd be curious to hear a comparison: in my experience, Tiramisu is pretty expensive and only okay food. But they're the only place in town (of which I'm aware) that has fried artichokes regularly. We'll sometimes just sit at the bar and drink and eat artichokes.

Tartufo is owned by Albert Delbello, who owns Il Portico and Tira Misu

Kansas City Prime closed a while back, and has become another Kildare's Irish Pub, another outpost of a local chain.

[Greg Salisbury]

Le Bus no longer qualifies as a chain, even a local one: David Braverman sold it a while back. New owners were able to retain the name "Le Bus," but had to remove "good food" from the title.

[mrbigjas]

all the le buses, or just the one in manayunk?

who owns it now?

[MysticMilt]

Bumping this to add some sad info that I consider to be further indication of Manayunk's steady decline: Pacific Rim, my all-time favorite exotic knickknacks store, is closing. Bruce (the owner) is retiring, and while I'm selfishly excited about getting all sorts of neat things on major, major discount this weekend, there's no getting around the fact that it's the end of an era.

Bruce was awesome: an entertainingly cranky, aging hippie who traveled the globe finding all sorts of interesting art, jewelry and decorative pieces. He could have marked up his stuff a lot more than he did, but he didn't, which meant that I could get really cool things like a Balinese shadow puppet for close to twenty bucks. Also, his newsletters were always a treat, as they were filled with his rambling but fascinating stories of his travels abroad.

It's a shame, and I'm really going to miss his store.

[shacke]

Bumping this to add some sad info that I consider to be further indication of Manayunk's steady decline: Pacific Rim, my all-time favorite exotic knickknacks store, is closing. Bruce (the owner) is retiring, and while I'm selfishly excited about getting all sorts of neat things on major, major discount this weekend, there's no getting around the fact that it's the end of an era.

Bruce was awesome: an entertainingly cranky, aging hippie who traveled the globe finding all sorts of interesting art, jewelry and decorative pieces. He could have marked up his stuff a lot more than he did, but he didn't, which meant that I could get really cool things like a Balinese shadow puppet for close to twenty bucks. Also, his newsletters were always a treat, as they were filled with his rambling but fascinating stories of his travels abroad.

It's a shame, and I'm really going to miss his store.

←

Thanks for bumping the thread. I didnt know Le Bus was sold. I had boycotted it for years because of Braverman's background (think Tom cruise and aliens). I will now happily return.

I was recently at Jake's and must lament that that place is still quite good but the area really has dwindled into despair.

Evan

[philadining]

Sorry to hear about Pacific Rim, I'll especially miss the newsletters which were primarily accounts of what a disaster his last trip to wherever was, how much he got ripped-off, and for god's sake will somebody buy some of these wooden tulips?!?!

But back to food: it's interesting, I never think to go to Manayunk to eat anymore, it just never enters my mind. I'm sure there's still some good places there, but it's not a destination. I had brunch at LeBus within the last year, and it was good, but it was a back-up to some other place that we intended to go.

I guess it's a cyclical thing, a neighborhood booms, it becomes such a pain to deal with the crowds that people stop going, or the next "cool" neighborhood draws attention away. But I really do need to get back to Jake's, I haven't been there in eons.

[deprofundis]

I don't think anybody mentioned this, but some time ago city council enacted a 5 year moratorium on new restaurants in Manayunk. I believe it's expired by now, but you can imagine that it had to slow down Manayunk's boom quite a bit.

[herbacidal]

The opening of Bourbon Blue was the end of the moratorium.

Personally, I think the moratorium was the wrong way to deal with the growth.

[MysticMilt]

Augh! Big, thoughtful and well-written post foiled by not being logged in. Curses.

Anyway, the gist of what I had said is this: We went down to M'yunk last night, although it was impossible to tell if the somewhat empty streets were due to the decline of the neighborhood or just because it was raining. Kildare's was hopping, but remembering that that was what replaced KC Prime just might have made me sneer at it as we walked by.

Dinner was at Le Bus. To start, Derek had their most excellent vegetarian chili, which has been a favorite for the both of us for several years now. We also shared the tasty (albeit generic) calamari. For the main course Derek had the cheeseburger, which he proclaimed was slightly better than Monk's since it wasn't served on a palate-shreadingly crusty roll. I had the grilled chicken in a garlic and herb sauce with mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. The sauce was thicker than I thought it would be when I ordered it (like duck sauce, but not sticky), but it was still quite good. Mashed potatoes were fine, straight-up mashed potatoes, and the broccoli was cooked a little bit mushier than I prefer. We skipped dessert there in favor of Ben & Jerry's. All in all, the meal was good. Nothing inspiring or outstanding, but enjoyable, decent fare to be had on a soggy evening. And, to be fair, we both ordered safe, so safe is what we were served.

As for Pacific Rim: they still have quite a bit of stuff left, and according to the girl at the register, the entire storage area under the store is filled with merchandise. Almost everything in the store is 75% off, and the jewelry is 60% off. The two biggest items, both size- and price-wise, we got were a big carved frame mirror with little shutters in front of the mirror for $49, and Derek got a gorgeous didgeridoo (!) for $35. We got lots of other little things, many of which will make great Christmas gifts, and none of them were more than $20. There are tons of phenomenal deals to be had -- philadining, those blasted tulips are going for $0.75 now! -- if you're into Eastern art and knick-knacks. It was terribly depressing to see all those big LIQUIDATION!!! signs everywhere, though. I am really, really going to miss Bruce and his store.

[Tim Dolan]

I used to work at Le Bus and it was pretty solid while I was there. It's now owned by a woman named Winnie, can't remember her last name, but she was David Braverman's right hand man. Now he was a weird dude. He'd come in a whip himself some crazy salad, not say a word to anyone and then disappear. He always looked a day past a good shower and shave too.

On a completely different topic, why is it that nobody ever talks about Bella Trattoria right next door to Le Bus? IMHO it's a really nice Italian place that is very fairly priced. It started out as a BYO but now they have a license. Give it a shot next time you're in town.

[MysticMilt]

Tim, glad to hear that Bella Trattoria is worth a stop. We walked by there on the way to Le Bus and were darned near pulled off the path by the overwhelming scent of garlic. Any particular item(s) on the menu that you'd recommend above all others?

Edited June 6, 2005 by MysticMilt (log)

[Tim Dolan]

Mystic those were the good old garlic knots that you were smelling. They keep them (or used to, at least) up next to the salad kitchen, which you will see straight ahead when you walk in. They're little baked knots of dough smothered in garlic and olive oil. And that's just the bread that they bring to the table. Ask for them warm, they're great. On the actually menu though, all of the salads are nice and fresh. They also serve a number of pizzas that will knock the doors off of any local place you can find. Unfortunately I can't remember what else was on the menu because when I went our waitress pointed out that one of their specials that evening was a 12oz filet wrapped in proscuitto, which was all that my carnivorous self needed to hear. My girlfriend had angel hair pasta with shrimp and crab meat and said that she loved it. But all the guys in the kitchen were born and raised in Italy and came to the states in the past 10-15 years, so if you're looking for authentic Italian, look no furhter.

[webhill]

(like I said, I'm reading back, catching up, and so on... )

As it happens, I have been to Manayunk twice in the past week or ten days. This is SO atypical for me, it's not even funny. My husband and I used to try new restaurants and hit old favorites all the time, but man, these kids, they suck the life out of me sometimes (not that i'd trade them in for anything!). But I can offer some commentary.

So. First stop: Chabaa Thai. We'd heard good things from our neighbors about it, and decided in honor of our having selected a new au pair from Thailand (she says she cooks!), we'd give it a try. It was just us plus the baby - and she was sleeping when we got there. As we walked in, I was a little concerned that it might not be a good place for a baby - the downstairs had that silk-throw-pillow black-furniture cocktail-hour vibe. But they took us directly upstairs to a nicely outfitted dining area which was much more relaxed. There was some very nice photography hanging on the walls, as well as some really cool lighting. My husband immediately commented that it was sweltering in there, though - I had honestly not really noticed. The baby was still sleeping so she didn't seem to care either. We hadn't been sitting there for more than two or three minutes when the server came over and asked "uh, is it just me, or is it really hot in here?" Ok, ok, I conceded the point to my husband. It was hot in there. They turned up (or down?) the upstairs a/c immediately, while we perused the menu.

The menu is online, so I won't go into detail about what's on it. We had the thai spring rolls (which to me were more like vietnamese summer rolls, not thai, but in any case I liked them very much, very fresh and light), the tom yum with shrimp "medium spicy" - which was, in fact, moderately spicy. Looking back, I'd have ordered it spicier, but I've been (ahem) burned in thai restaurants before - usually when they say "a little spicy," they mean "blistering your tongue." Not so Chabaa Thai. When they say medium, well, it's medium. I mean, I'm someone who will pick and eat jalapenos out of her garden, and cook with her home-grown habaneros, so I'm not anti-spicy by any stretch. In any case, the soup was very good, with a perfect amount of sour for me.

Then for entrees we got the green curry with shrimp, and the pad thai with chicken. The pad thai is kind of our benchmark dish for thai restaurants - I've found that if they screw that up, it's not generally worth coming back. They didn't screw it up. It was very full-flavored, with a variety of herbal notes coming through. The green curry - let me back up. When I ordered it, the server asked me if I'd had green curry before. "Yes, I've had a whole rainbow of curries before," I replied. He told me he just wanted to make sure I understood you could NOT order the dish "not spicy," because the green is from the chiles. I said I understood and was more than happy with that, I wouldn't dream of trying to order it not spicy. When it came, it was in my opinion not really that spicy. Now I never SAID I wanted spicy in particular but I'd have thought it was obvious. It was about the same level of spicy to slightly less spicy than the soup. I had expected it to be spicier, by default. Oh well. He did offer to bring me some extra chile for it but at that point I wasn't interested. The flavor was very good, especially some kind of purple root vegetable cut with some kind of pinking-shear type blade which I could not identify.

We didn't stay for dessert, despite the mango sticky rice making eyes at me from the menu. We headed to Ben and Jerry's instead ;). Oh, and I had a thai iced coffee too, before we left. The baby woke up and the three of us enjoyed our walk over to B&Js and a leisurely stroll back to the car (which we'd parked on the street!).

But I promised you two restaurants. Friday night we hit an old favorite - Il Tartufo. We sat at an outside table so we could leave the (again sleeping) baby in the stroller without being in someone's way. I had never sat on a sidewalk in Manayunk before - I like it! We ordered - ooh, I think it was a valpolicella but don't hold me to it, and started scarfing down their matzah like it was going out of style. The food was very good as usual there. We split a special - asparagus salad, with some kind of cheese I don't remember, arugula, and a lovely vinaigrette, and we split an order of the vegetable risotto which I know is salty there, but I love salty, and it's not a very heavy creamy risotto which I wouldn't have been able to stomach on a balmy summer night, but more springy and light. Then I had a special - striped bass in a spicy white wine marinara sauce with a couple of shrimp and something else that I don't remember (which was very good! I'm not usually into striped bass so much, but I was in a fishy mood and thought I'd give it a whirl). My husband had his "usual" there - the name of which escapes me. It's some kind of chicken thing that they do which he loves. We finished the meal with the tiramisu, which the server couldn't classify as being either more cakelike or more puddinglike when I asked which it was :). After it arrived I decided it was definitely more cakelike, but I could understand the confusion because it was definitely a very WET tiramisu. I found it perfect but boy, I was sloshed by then :)

The funny thing was that while we sat there, we saw some people who had been at the thai place come into the restaurant and sit down. Also, the guy who was our server at the thai place walked past us while we were sitting there, and smiled at us. So that was kind of funny. When we were done we walked over to the Manayunk Design Group gallery (either next door or one storefront over, I don't recall) and checked out the Joe Barker show. We ended up buying a watercolor of Rittenhouse Square to add to our "Philadelphia scenes" artwork collection :)

So, you know, I know a lot of people think Manayunk is dead, but for a couple of married-with-kids, don't-get-back-to-the-city-much suburbanites, it's doing damn well lately. But that may be just me, I don't know.

OK, I'll shut up now. I don't want to overwhelm those of you who aren't used to me yet.

-h.