Tag Archives: restaurants

The Khyber Post-Mortem

I went to my fare share of shows at the Khy­ber while it last­ed. Was­n’t it great? The stretch they had was noth­ing short of amaz­ing now when I look back on some of the shows I saw there. Sure, there were your obscure psych rock artists like Ghost, city main­stays Bar­do Pond and the occa­sion­al top flight book­ing that was an absolute coup.

I saw the Decem­berists there in 2004, when they were plen­ty famous enough to play a big­ger venue, yet not so big that every­one and their broth­er was a fan. I caught Trad, Gras och Ste­nar there, too. My first glimpse of the Nation­al came there, too. They booked almost any­thing worth see­ing, until John­ny Bren­da’s came along and Sta­cie George stopped book­ing there and the city’s music scene moved north to Fishtown.

It was a beau­ti­ful mess of a place, sand­wiched between too many bad Old City spots to count.  Most of them came and went and now the Khy­ber has (sort of) gone, too. When I read that they intend to trans­form the dingy bar into a fan­cy Japan­ese eatery, I near­ly died laugh­ing. It was the sweati­est, smok­i­est club I’ve ever had the plea­sure of patron­iz­ing. Don’t get me wrong: Steve Simons has had suc­cess as a restau­ran­teur else­where in town, even if those spots are pret­ty unre­mark­able, but this is noth­ing short of using con­ceal­er to cov­er one of Old City’s most trea­sured blemishes.

I’m glad they had the good sense to run the venue into the ground for a good four years or so before doing this. Oth­er­wise I might have real­ly cared.

Food: It’s All Good in the ‘Hood

When Helen and I left our Mum­mer’s Row apart­ment for our house here on Let­ter­ly St. in Decem­ber 2006, it was a sad affair. We left behind a deli­cious world of Ital­ian bak­eries and restau­rants, as well as some great sand­wich­es, too, for a new neigh­bor­hood where the most obvi­ous food options were Jovan’s Place, a quaint Yugoslav restau­rant around the cor­ner, and Key Foods Piz­za across the street. It pains me to tell you that one evening we were so des­per­ate for din­ner we got take­out from — gasp — Apple­bee’s. It was prob­a­bly our culi­nary rock bottom.

But there was light at the end of the tun­nel. In the two years we’ve lived up here we’ve found some great food, whether it’s Mem­phis Tap­room around the cor­ner when we’re just look­ing for a quick bite and some­thing to drink, or Bistro Juliana for the delight­ful Ital­ian food we loved so much in our old neigh­bor­hood. But that’s not all! I recent­ly made an ear­ly morn­ing run to Czer­w’s on Tilton St. for sev­er­al pounds of smoked kiel­basa and fresh-made piero­gies. If there is a heav­en, I hope it smells like Czer­w’s. There’s great Mex­i­can at Las Cazue­las, or quick Mex­i­can at Taco Rien­do. We’ve even found some decent piz­za, hav­ing recent­ly tried San­tuc­ci’s upside-down square pie. Now we feel like we have more options than we ever did back in old Pennsport.

We’re not alone. Our neigh­bor­hood has recent­ly been a new focal point in local cui­sine, fea­tur­ing both new­com­ers and old. The amaz­ing Rick Nichols recent­ly ven­tured up Rich­mond St. in Port Rich­mond, high­light­ing all the won­de­ful Pol­ish food the neigh­bor­hood offers. Think that sounds deli­cious? Then you should spend a Sat­ur­day after­noon with him on his Edi­ble World Food Tour that’s being orga­nized by First Per­son Arts! (I’ll add that you should check out the oth­er New Wave Cafe up on Alleghe­ny Avenue for a few rounds of strong Pol­ish beer and more than your fair share of kiel­basa and pierogies.)

Metro con­trib­u­tor and Foo­booz writer Arthur Etchells also reps for our ‘hood in his recent arti­cle, “Riv­er Ward Steps Up.” He talks about some of the restau­rants I men­tioned above, as well as The Pick­led Heron, a restau­rant that will bring fin­er din­ing to Frank­ford Avenue lat­er this spring. They also hope to take part in Riv­er Ward Restau­rant Week! That’s real­ly excit­ing, espe­cial­ly since there was some spec­u­la­tion about whether or not they would still be open­ing as the econ­o­my took the plunge. I can’t wait to try their menu!

When our friends Rick and Grace recent­ly moved up to Let­ter­ly St. just two doors up the block, we assured them it was a great neigh­bor­hood that we’d been beta-test­ing for over two years. It’s a great area that blends old favorites like Jovan’s Place and Mem­phis Tap­room. We have Greens­grow Farms and Philadel­phia Brew­ing Com­pa­ny around the cor­ner, too! Now when you think of Port Fish­ing­ton, think food!