Stuff to do in Philly?

[Tractorr]

I agree. But, in my field, it's sometimes unavoidable. They find (or are mandated to) me.

Well sure, and thanks for helping to keep people safe and hopefully help some people turn their lives around, but anywhere will look bad if we only look at the negative aspects.

 

[jmercer91]

Hit up south street! Get jims steaks. Done

 

[Tractorr]

Hit up south street! Get jims steaks. Done

+1 Jim's Steaks, it is another of the cheesesteak meccas but it hasn't been turned into a tourist trap. You actually get a correctly cooked cheesesteak there.

 

[afzoomie67]

I live right by there..and we just do stuff.

 

[JehuJava]

Pats and Genos are tourist traps with, IMO, the worst cheesesteaks in the city. They're only good at 2am when you get out of the bar and they're still open. And then they're only mediocre. Any pizza place will make a better cheesesteak.

 

[mongo2]

Philly history stuff

Reading Terminal

Museum of Art...you can do the "Rocky" steps and have someone take your picture in front of the statue of Rocky Balboa...very touristy.

Society Hill Loan (my favorite pawn shop).

 

[Tractorr]

Everybody, keeps mentioning the Museum of Art steps...well you could you know...go in the museum. It is pretty amazing. The only art museum I have ever seen that was better in the USA is the Met.

 

[JehuJava]

Society Hill Loan (my favorite pawn shop).

This IS a good pawn shop.

Is 5th street music still open in the north by Lazerne? That was a good music shop for bass back in the day.

There's also 8th street music and bass specialties. Catch a show at the troc!

 

[Tractorr]

This IS a good pawn shop.

Is 5th street music still open in the north by Lazerne? That was a good music shop for bass back in the day.

There's also 8th street music and bass specialties. Catch a show at the troc!

I went in that pawn shop and they had a nice selection of fairly decent quality basses (as I remember a couple of Warwicks, Spectors, and Fenders). At the time I was looking to buy and the basses were on some hooks fairly high up to were I didn't feel comfortable taking them down (I didn't want to pay for a bass I might smash). After standing there looking at them for about 5 minutes, moving them slightly to try and see the price, looking in the workers direction who were having a non-work conversation I finally left. If a place can't be bothered to ask me if I need help I won't shop there, but they did have a small but good selection (no idea about the prices).

I am fairly certain those other two shops are closed. Philly is in really bad shape when it comes to music stores. There is Bluebond which has a nice selection (for the space), helpful workers, does good setup work, decent prices, but it is small and they can only keep so much stuff in stock (what they tend to have is good quality stuff but don't expect much in the way of bass amps).

A new place just opened down the street from me. I give it a year tops. The guy is a musician and probably could tell that we needed another music store in town, but he has no idea how to run a music store. I don't either, but I know you need more than 3 kinds of bass strings and 5 kinds of guitar strings. I know that when you only have 5 basses and maybe 15 guitars you don't need 2 large conga sets. Oh and no pedals at all, not even a tuner pedal. I hope this was just because he just opened but I am not holding my breath.

Unfortunately, other than a few specialty stores (violin store, accoustic guitar store, accordian store?!) there aren't any other music shops. There isn't even a big box store those are over in Cherry Hill or up in King of Prussia.

 

[Eric Perry]

Everybody, keeps mentioning the Museum of Art steps...well you could you know...go in the museum...

 

[warnergt]

...Any pizza place will make a better cheesesteak.

I don't want to get this thread onto a tangent but I have to say
that I agree with this statement. In my opinion, Pat's and Geno's
(and Jim's) don't make classic Philly cheesesteaks but just
about every other joint in Philly does.

A classic cheesesteak isn't made with Cheez Whiz in three seconds.
Even the original Pat agreed (however, he said that it should
have provolone cheese -- I might have to disagree again).
A real Philly cheesesteak is made on a grill where American
cheese is placed on top of the meat and the the Amoroso roll
is placed on top of that.

Don't get me wrong. I love Pat's, Geno's and Jim's steaks.
They taste great but I don't consider them genuine classic
Philly cheesesteaks. They are shops set up to output their
sandwiches as fast as possible for the crowds that flock there.
Some (not naming names) even offer a bogus selection of
toppings because they obviously don't care. It's all about
the money.

And everybody should experience Pat's, Geno's and Jim's
at least once in their life.

 

[JehuJava]

I don't want to get this thread onto a tangent but I have to say
that I agree with this statement. In my opinion, Pat's and Geno's
(and Jim's) don't make classic Philly cheesesteaks but just
about every other joint in Philly does.

A classic cheesesteak isn't made with Cheez Whiz in three seconds.
Even the original Pat agreed (however, he said that it should
have provolone cheese -- I might have to disagree again).
A real Philly cheesesteak is made on a grill where American
cheese is placed on top of the meat and the the Amoroso roll
is placed on top of that.

Don't get me wrong. I love Pat's, Geno's and Jim's steaks.
They taste great but I don't consider them genuine classic
Philly cheesesteaks. They are shops set up to output their
sandwiches as fast as possible for the crowds that flock there.
Some (not naming names) even offer a bogus selection of
toppings because they obviously don't care. It's all about
the money.

And everybody should experience Pat's, Geno's and Jim's
at least once in their life.

Yay!

 

[JehuJava]

And since we're on a tangent...the cheese definitely goes on top of the meat while it's still on the grill. Then the roll goes on top and the spatula flips the whole thing over. Cheese is never on the top.

If you're lucky, the grill guy will play you beats with the spatulas while he cooks yer steak!!

 

[warnergt]

Cheese is never on the top.

Absolutely. Either Pat's or Geno's does this (I forget which).
One puts the Cheez Whiz on the roll; the other puts it on top of
the meat already in the roll.

 

[Dave W]

Everybody, keeps mentioning the Museum of Art steps...well you could you know...go in the museum. It is pretty amazing. The only art museum I have ever seen that was better in the USA is the Met.

Nonsense. The steps are where it's at

I agree, it's a very good museum. I enjoyed the tiny Rodin museum as well.

My favorite stuff in Philly is the historic district though. I like just walking around and seeing all of the old buildings and learning the history.

 

[Epidrake]

I love Philly.
My favorite cheese steak place is called Sonny's.
I found it by asking locals where they eat. They slice real meat in front of you and cook it on a grill.
You must go to the museum and the Eastern State Penitentiary.

 

[Tractorr]

Nonsense. The steps are where it's at

I agree, it's a very good museum. I enjoyed the tiny Rodin museum as well.

My favorite stuff in Philly is the historic district though. I like just walking around and seeing all of the old buildings and learning the history.

Yeah I love the Rodin Museum as well. My favorite part is the big piece, I believe entitled Inferno, right outside the front door.

One of the main problems with Philly is there are beautiful old buildings and streets all over the city. Pretty much every time I go for a walk I see something I have never noticed before. One of the best pieces of advice is always remember to look up because architecture doesn't only happen near the ground. This is especially true out in West Philadelphia. There are buildings that have beautiful sculptures near the roof, but these buildings are often boarded up at ground level and much of West Philly is kind of sketchy (minus University City which most people rarely refer to as West Philly anymore).

 

[circuitspore]

Okay, so far I've hit up Reading Terminal (awesome), wandered south street (interesting) and had a cheesesteak at Jim's ('wit whiz' and onions). Unfortunately my boss booked a hotel right by the airport so getting back and forth from the city is a pain. Plus I've been working a tradeshow and all. Wednesday is my free day though, so I'm gonna try to pack in as much as possible.

 

[Tractorr]

Okay, so far I've hit up Reading Terminal (awesome), wandered south street (interesting) and had a cheesesteak at Jim's ('wit whiz' and onions). Unfortunately my boss booked a hotel right by the airport so getting back and forth from the city is a pain. Plus I've been working a tradeshow and all. Wednesday is my free day though, so I'm gonna try to pack in as much as possible.

You're lucky you weren't at Reading Terminal during the Flower Show like the first time I went there. Now mind you this is coming from a guy who gone to punk and metal shows his whole life, it was terrifying. There were old ladies everywhere and they were just fine pushing right through you, they didn't care what happened to you. I was literally pulled down the aisles by backpack. Otherwise Reading Terminal is pretty cool.

 

[MJ5150]

For your Wednesday, I suggest you drive to Pittsburgh for the day. Time to try a real sandwich from Primanti Brothers. Unfortunately, the Pirates are in San Diego, so you'll miss the best baseball team in PA right now (wow, haven't said that in a long time).

Oh, obligatory so no one thinks I am serious about the drive. Or am I?

-Mike