Philadelphia.1

This weekend I went to Philadelphia to visit Sayers and Mr. Sayers. And had a ball--not in small part due to the fact that the visit was primarily comprised of a series of brunches.

Sayers takes her brunching seriously: immediately upon my arrival, we went to the #3 brunch spot in Philly: Honey's (full name: Honey's Sit-N-Eat), a Jewish/Southern restaurant. I had a Breakfast PoBoy Sandwich, for a couple of reasons: a) It is sort of like eggs benedict, without being eggs benedict exactly (it is bread with scrambled eggs and sausage and white sauce on top); and b) It is served with latke, which I'd never had before (plus, I was really needing to get away from home fries). The food was quite good, but I need to rave about the sausage: the sausage was amazing. I really need to start buying and eating good sausage. It makes all the difference. Of course, one of the people we were brunching with noticed the irony of all of the pig-based items on the menu; Mr. Sayers explained that that was the Southern part of the restaurant.


After we finished brunch (which ended up being quite late in the afternoon), we stopped in a building to check out a garden on top (that was closed for a wedding). In the process we passed a line of people and inquired about what the line was for. It was for rush tickets for the orchestra. Sayers and Mr. Sayers and I are none of us decision makers, so we ended up tossing a coin to decide what to do. It was heads and so we went to the orchestra. (Incidentally, Mr. Sayers mentioned that he picked out what college he went to based on a series of 200 coin tosses.)

The coin (actually it was a bus token) served us well. The orchestra was really lovely. It started with a piece by Ravel that I really liked (Sayers described it afterward as seeming like something from the Anne of Green Gables soundtrack, which explains why I liked it). Then there was some Vivaldi, which had been only recently discovered so this was the world premier. Next, there was a piece by a young composer who was from Philadelphia, Leshnoff. Usually I cringe through contemporary pieces, but this piece I liked. And it was commissioned by a couple for their children and grandchildren!

The last piece was by Strauss and it was autobiographical. According to the program notes, the composer described one section of the work: "'It's my wife I wanted to portray," Strauss wrote. 'She is very complex, very feminine, a little perverse, something of a flirt, never twice the same, every minute different from how she had been a minute before. At the beginning, the hero follows her, goes into the key in which she has just sung; but she always flies further away. Then at last he says: "No, I'm staying here." And she comes to him.'" It seemed a little self-absorbed to me and very German in its emphasis on the Hero. (The hall felt like the inside of a guitar [see picture above].)

Our Sunday brunch was at Morning Glory's, which, according to Sayers, is the #1 brunch spot in Philly. I'm happy to believe it. They boast homemade ketchup, for one thing (pictured to the left; it tasted like a mix between ketchup and pasta sauce, and since at one point in my life I ate pasta sauce straight out of the jar, well, let's just say, I wouldn't mind taking that ketchup home with me). In addition, there was a special of hipster waffles! (Whole-wheat waffles with granola and yogurt.) Sayers tried to order them, but they were out of granola, so they gave her a waffle on the side in addition to her meal. I think that this is the mark of a really good restaurant--when they are out of something, they really try to make it up to you. I also enjoy that this very hipster restaurant could make fun of itself and its customers by naming something, "hipster." (It seems to me to break the cardinal hipster rule--never admit that you are one.)

But wait till you hear what I ate: smoked bacon benedict! Yes, they did not sting-ily offer you only one interesting thing with your eggs benedict--there was bacon, there was asparagus and there was tomato. Plus the bread that it was built around was homemade bread with cheddar and chives, and it was quite easy to cut!

So basically it was a delicious weekend with unspeakably delightful company. And lots of walks. Perfect!


(picture, picture, picture)