What's
New in...
PHILADELPHIA
by Rich Rubin
A slew of changes, including some hot new GLBT nightlife
options, fun cultural attractions, and exciting restaurants,
provides a fresh outlook on the City of Brotherly Love.
First, let’s check in. The big
news in 2010 is a major birthday: the tenth anniversary
of the chic and gay-friendly Loews Philadelphia Hotel
(1200 Market St. Tel: 215-231-7300. Doubles $169–$329.
www.loewshotels.com/philadelphia).
Located in the 1932 PFSF Building (one of the world’s
first modernist skyscrapers), Loews combines history
with modern hipness. Their restaurant has recently become
quite a go-to spot, with a wonderful menu that as its
name, Sole Food, indicates, concentrates on seafood.
Loews is always a good choice, and their package that
gives you VIP tickets for “Cleopatra: The Search
for the Last Queen of Egypt” at the Franklin
Institute (222 N. 20th St. Tel: 215-448-1200. www.fi.edu)
is a great deal. In other hotel-related news, the Hyatt
at the Bellevue (200 S. Broad St. Tel:
215-892-1234. Doubles $211–$299. www.philadelphia.bellevue.hyatt.com)
has added four fab packages. Entitled Amour, Balance,
Awaken, and Explore, they include everything from Champagne
and chocolate-covered strawberries to tickets to local
attractions, and dinner at their wonderful XIX Restaurant.
Both hotels are just steps from all the nightlife. If
you want to be near lovely Rittenhouse Square, (about
a ten-minute walk west of the gayborhood) Hotel Palomar
(117 S. 17th St. Tel: 215-563-5006. Doubles $197–$341.
www.hotelpalomar-philadelphia.com)
opened in late 2009 with a high-design look and green
certification. This Kimpton Hotel has a boutique style
that combines earthy hues with touches of color and
Art Deco details that mirror the building in which it’s
housed.
You’ll certainly want to take advantage
of the city’s restaurants, and it’s in this
area that most of the major new developments are occurring.
One of the most important new openings is Garces
Trading Company (1111 Locust St. Tel: 215-574-1099.
www.garcestradingcompany.com).
Located in the heart of the gayborhood, star chef Jose
Garces provides a BYOB café with wine boutique,
takeout cheese, charcuterie, pastries, and much more.
Iron Chef and James Beard Award winner Garces (already
a local celebrity for fabulous restaurants Amada, Tinto,
Chifa, Distrito, and Village Whiskey) is one of those
rare chefs with the golden touch: every establishment
he’s opened has been a winner.
GLBT favorite Valanni (1229 Spruce
St. Tel: 215-790-9494. www.valanni.com)
doubled its size at the end of 2008, and carries on
admirably, while former chef R. Evan Turney has moved
to the same company’s retro-fun Varga Bar
(941 Spruce St. Tel: 215-627-5200. www.vargabar.com).
Across the street from Varga Bar, the wonderful Greek
Cypriot spot Kanella (1001 Spruce St. Tel: 215-922-1773.
www.kanellarestaurant.com)
is now offering monthy cooking classes, so you can stop
by and learn to prepare everything from rabbit to vegetarian
cookery; or enjoy chef Kostantino Pitsillides’
wonderful cuisine without having to lift a finger (except
maybe to get the last morsel of your dolmades or fried
halloumi). The gayborhood branch of Tria (12th
and Spruce Sts. Tel: 215-629-9200. www.triacafe.com),
the city’s leading wine bar, is offering a fabulous
five-for-five happy hour, with two wines, two beers,
and cheese tasting for only $5 each. The knowledgeable
and friendly staff can steer you through the offerings
at this wine/cheese/beer café, which has another
branch near Rittenhouse Square (18th and Sansom Sts.
Tel: 215-972-TRIA).
Elsewhere, the legendary Le Bec-Fin
(1523 Walnut St. Tel: 215-567-1000. www.lebecfin.com)
sports a new, airier look, and the menu shows a similar
lightness without losing the fineness that puts it consistently
on everyone’s “Best in the US” list.
Modern Mexican restaurant Xochitl (408 S. 2nd
St. Tel: 215-238-7280. www.xochitlphilly.com)
is one of the city’s unheralded culinary treasures,
and the new chef concentrates on “small bites”
like trios of mini open-faced tacos and ceviches, washed
down with such creations as a blood orange/chile margarita.
Wonderful S&H Kebab House (611 E. Passyunk
Ave. Tel: 267-639-3214. www.kebabhouseonline.com)
opened last year and offers a fine Turkish cuisine that’s
much more elegant than the name indicates.
Want some help discovering the foodie
riches? Gay-owned City Food Tours (Tel: 800-979-3370.
www.cityfoodtours.com)
can give you a true taste of Philadelphia, whether it’s
the “Flavors of Philly” tour, on which you
sample such standards as cheesesteaks and soft pretzels,
or the “Northern Liberties” tour, their brand-new
voyage to this area just north of Center City that many
think will become the next gay mecca. One of my favorite
tours is the “Decadent Gourmet,” which combines
cheeses, teas, and chocolates, including a stop at the
Naked Chocolate Cafe (1317 Walnut St. Tel: 215-735-7310.
www.nakedchocolatecafe.com),
where you’re given a lesson in chocolate-making.
There’s an upcoming evening tour that features
cocktails, dinner entrées, and a private French
pastry tasting.
Other new activities include the revamped
Lights of Liberty attraction, unveiled this summer by
Historic Philadelphia (Tel: 215-629-4026. www.historicphiladelphia.org),
famous for tours of the city’s unique historical
points. The centerpiece will be the all-new Liberty
360, a 360-degree, 3-D experience, in which viewers
stand on a platform in the center of the room while
watching a high-tech, 360-degree floating cylinder screen,
fifty feet in diameter, eight feet in height, and consisting
of 16 million pixels. Who said history can’t step
into the future? Also debuting this summer is the Mural
Mile feature of the Mural Arts Program (Tel:
215-537-7676. www.muralarts.org),
the largest city-sponsored mural program in the country.
With downloadable podcasts, cell-phone tours, and walking
tours, visitors will get a new appreciation of the murals
(including the GLBT-themed one outside the William Way
Community Center).
As the city awaits the openings of the
National Jewish Museum and President’s House (both
scheduled for the fall) residents revel in the Late
Renoir exhibit, on through September at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art (26th St. and Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Tel: 215-763-8100. www.philamuseum.org).
Art lovers will also want to check out the wonderful
Artists’ House Gallery (57 N. 2nd St. Tel: 215-923-8440.
www.artistshousegallery.com)
in Old City, with a different selection each month of
the area’s best upcoming artists. Across the street,
the Vivant Art Collection (60 N. 2nd St. Tel:
215-922-6584. www.vivantartcollection.com)
specializes in Haitian art, also with selections from
throughout the Caribbean and Africa. One classic Philadelphia
event not to miss is First Fridays (www.visitphilly.com)
when Old City comes alive with extended gallery hours,
entertainment, and street artists.
Continued
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