Best of Philly 2012

Philadelphia Magaznie puts together an ambition list every year called "Best of Philly." In a number of different categories, the magazine tries to describe not only the best food, but shopping, nightlife, and basically every facet of city life.

So that's a cool idea.  But I took issue with a few of the winners.  Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I'm certainly over critical.  I guess that's why I'm writing this right now.  I'm submitting a few of my own revisions.  They certainly have more categories than I could every attempt on my own.  But still...please comment:

Best Raman
Philadelphia Mag: Nom Nom Ramen
My Pick: Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House:  New location makes slurping these delicious (and cheap!) noodles even better.

Best Whiskey List
Philadelphia Mag: Village Whiskey
My Pick: JRs Place:  Sure, Garces has a great restaurant.  But JRs, despite the strange location and atmoshopere, simply has more whiskey.  And it's cheaper to boot.

Best Breakfast
Philadelphia Mag: Fitzwater Cafe: Not sure how this place won. There are at least a handful doing better breakfast.
My Pick: Carmen's Country Kitchen:  I know I'm biased towards Carmen's.  But I love the idea of this place: two sweet options, two savory. Local, fresh ingredients.  A friendly staff that always asks your name when you come inside.  Maybe Carmen's isn't the best breakfast, but it's certainly my favorite.

Best Beer Shop
Philadelphia Mag: Bottle shop at Local 44
My Pick: Go to New Jersey: I know this is for Philadelphia, but seriously, the prices on 6 packs and to go beer here are so expensive, it's just a joke.  Really for the best beer in the city, Bella Vista has the best selection but highest prices as well.  Global or Bell's are the best distributors in the city.

Food Truck
Philadelphia Mag: Pitruco Pizza: Sure, they're good, and a brick oven in a truck is a cool idea.  But when food trucks hit $8-9, it's just not the best option in that price range
My Pick: Honests Tom's wins for food, and Rival Bros wins for drink:  Both of these truck focus on one thing, and do that one thing immensely well.

Best Coffee Shop
Philadelphia Mag: Ultimo
My Pick: Oneshot Coffee: Both are excellent and this is more a matter of preference, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better looking coffee shop than the renovated Oneshot. The food and coffee is great as well.

Best Cocktail Bar
Philadelphia Magazine: Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company: This is probably the winner that prompted me to write this whole list.  Over the last few years, I've witnessed Franklin take a nose dive in terms of quality and service.  Everything that made it cool, the speakeasy feel, slick service, no sign out front, etc have all been abandoned to welcome in the masses.
My pick: I haven't been to Hop Sing Laundromat yet, but I'm sure it's better than Franklin.  For a speakeasy feel, Ranstead Room offers up great cocktails as well, and succeeds where Franklin fails.

Best Chicken Wings
Philadelphia Magazine: Jug Handle Inn
My Pick: I will soon be making a trip to the Jug Handle Inn.  But they standard they will have to live up to is Moriarty's.  Because those are the best wings in the city proper.  (Hottest goes to Monks, or possibly Ortliebs.)

Best Gastropub
Philadelphia Magazine: Alla Spina: No doubt this is a great place.  But it also only added a burger a number of days ago.  Excellent restaurant, sure.  Gastropub?  You're stretching the definition.
My Pick: Kraftwork: Great food, excellent beer list, rotating on both fronts. Late night happy hour, outdoor seating, and overall just a lot of things to life.  PS, it's a gastropub.

I could keep going, but I digress.  There's a lot of great food and drink in this city, and every business mentioned here should be proud. There's also a handful of other places that are just a notch below the best.  I'm really glad to live here.  And it looks like my food to do list just grew again.

Best of: Condiment

I know, maybe doesn't seem like a sexy category for my intermittent "Best of" posts. But when you get the perfect sauce that compliments your food, it completes the meal. And a few places are taking their sauce concoctions to the next level. I have a lot of favorites, so I'm going tomention three, instead of just one.

Honorable mention: Eulogy's "Bat out of Hell" wing sauce. This is a great sauce that uses chili paste that's sold alongside sriracha. The wing sauce is a perfect combination of tangy, sweet, and hot. I love that it's unique and made in house. They didn't try and emulate other wings that you can get anywhere else, but really strove to create a new taste, and they did so with great success.

Runner up: Duck sauce at Tamarind. While dining there recently, I had the spring rolls with a side of this wonderful sauce. It blows the stuff you get out of the packets away. It's perfectly tangy, light enough to let the flavor of the spring come through. I like duck sauce in general, but this is really stepping up the game.

First Place: Mustard aioli made with Yard's Porter at Kraftwork. This is by far the best condiment I've had at a restaurant, and probably hands down. The most amazing part is that I don't really like mustard all that much, making my raving about Kraftwork's sauce even more impressive. The kitchen dishes out little bowls of this with the burger and fries, and I can't get enough. I'd buy it in a second if they put it in a jar. I'm generally on the Kraftwork bandwagon, but even if I wasn't, the mustard is reason enough to visit.

Dang, all that just made my hungry. What are your favorites?

Best Of Philly: Chicken Wings

I don't need to write too much, because my best of Philly chicken wings write up is likely to be a repeat of my previous entry on Moriarty's. I won't focus on the less than finer points of this establishment and get right to the wings. They're nearly perfect. For my taste, the sauce is spot on. It's spicy, but not over done. It has the classic buffalo flavor. I want to taste it right now just thinking about it. For size, these wings are great. There aren't many places that serve up full wings, and Moriaty's serves up large, full wings. They're cooked just right, with a crispy skin and tender meat underneath. No breading. And any chicken wing is incomplete without celery and blue cheese on the side. Again, Moriaty's doesn't fail. I don't love this place, but the delicious wings make me a regular customer. These are truly the best wings I've found in Philly.

Best of Philly: Bartender

In an effort to bring more content to my blog, I'm going to start a "best of" category. I'd like to do this weekly, but the amount of research required, along with the relatively low priority of this blog compared to other things going on in my life, will inevitably lead me to fall behind.

To start, I'd like to mention my favorite bartender: Dave from Eulogy. He's usually working the lunch shift during the week when I'm lucky enough to make it down there. He's friendly, attentive, and on top of his job as a server. It almost seems that everyone is a regular.

He has a great deal of beer knowledge without coming off as condescending. He is able to give great beer recommendations, and I've had some excellent beers served by him. Too bad I usually go for the most expensive beers.

He's also started his own website, which I'll take an opportunity to plug: sketchjobs.com.

Bottom Line: I really enjoy going to Eulogy, and Dave just makes the experience that much better. I recommend visiting and asking him for some beer selections, and then seeing where the day takes you.