New Years Eve in Philadelphia

We went up to Philly for New Years this December and ended up staying outside of center city in western Philadelphia which worked out very well as we were 10 minutes from downtown and 15 minutes from the Tower Theater.


Day 1: December 30, 2010. After making a quick stop at the Foodery we headed to happy hour at the Devil's Den (1/2 price beers and apps!) Kevin got a pint of the 2009 Troegs' Mad Elf, raw oysters with a dipping sauce made from a Monk's Cafe sour ale and I got Philly tap water, edamame and potato wedges with a spicy aioli. Really great bar, had a nice wood fire going.

For dinner we went to Osteria in downtown Philadelphia and had an AMAZING meal, we liked the food so much we took a parma pizza to go and ate it for breakfast the next day. Kevin thought it was really cool that they had sour ales on the menu, even some from Russian River.


Day 2: December 31, 2010 After reading some Philadelphia travel related message boards we found a great recommendation for lunch that was within walking distance to the Franklin Institute, The Rose Tattoo Cafe. Outside it was nothing to write home about, almost sketchy looking but once you got inside it was really beautiful. I had the brisket sandwich and Kevin had the crab au gratin. Both were delicious.

Next, we walked to the Franklin Institute, a hands-on, interactive science museum. It was really cool, but we kept thinking about how great it would be to bring Jack there in a couple of years.

After walking around the museum for a few hours and catching a show at the planetarium we went back to the hotel for a short nap. After we got ready for the evening, we headed to Upper Darby and found a dive bar to have dinner in before the show...fried goodness... mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers and hamburgers. Then it was off to the Tower Theater for the Disco Biscuits show!

This was the latest I've stayed up since becoming pregnant, 3:30am! The show was awesome, we got to see their old drummer Dr. Sammy Altman play with the band since Allen was still in the hospital. Here is the set list for those that care:

Set 1: Mirrors¹, Strobelights and Martinis¹ > Pimp Blue Rikkis¹ > Strobelights and Martinis¹ >Orch Theme¹ > Portal To An Empty Head^1 2Set 2: Vassillios³ > Little Shimmy In A Conga Line^3 4, Nughuffer^3 5 > Helicopters³ > Bernstein And Chasnoff^3 6 > Helicopters³Set 3: Mindless Dribble³ > Crickets^3 7 > House Dog Party Favor³Encore: Hope³³with Sam Altman on drums⁵with countdown and "Biscuits are Coming Home" jam; unfinished⁴ending only¹with Johnny Raab (BioDiesel) on drums²with Chris Michetti (RAQ) on guitar⁶inverted⁷middle section only
Day 3: January 1, 2011 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  New Years cheese steak from Dalessandro's mmmmmmm