PHLGuide
Where To Eat And Drink During A Snowstorm
photo credit: Leah Sprague
The first few snowstorms of the season are always great - when you’re hopped up on Hallmark Christmas movies and the sight of soft fluffy cold stuff makes you want to spin in circles with your mouth open and do snow angels in the middle of the deserted roads. But sometime around mid-January, the holiday spirit wears off, there’s an ever-present layer of black ice covering the sidewalk, and snow in the forecast just means your car will be stuck in its permanent winter spot for another week.
So whether it’s the first snowstorm of the year or the 50th, here are 10 places that’ll keep you from booking a one-way ticket to Southern California.
The Spots
photo credit: The Rittenhouse Hotel
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Everything about The Library Bar in The Rittenhouse Hotel screams winter. But in a good way, like one of those lavish castles from a Christmas movie that’s set in a non-existent, vaguely European-sounding country. There’s a fireplace, a bunch of books that we’re assuming haven’t been read in a very long time, and, most importantly, strong drinks to keep you warm.
The Dandelion is both a bright and colorful springtime restaurant where they serve afternoon tea on silver trays, and also a classic British pub filled with dark wood and pictures of the queen where you’ll want to spend as much of the winter as possible. After watching an entire marathon of Harry Potter movies and repeating the lines in your best British accent, sitting next to their fireplace with a pint and a burger is exactly where you want to be.
People who hate snow days clearly just haven’t celebrated a snow day correctly in the past. The objectively best way to do it is to head to McGillin’s, a huge beer hall in Center City, and fill up a long table with everyone else who was lucky enough to get off of work and lives within walking distance.
photo credit: GAB BONGHI
If the idea of drinking hot spiked cider around an outdoor bonfire sounds good to you, Frankford Hall is where you should wait out the next winter storm. Plus, you can take intermittent breaks for snowball fights in their courtyard, and when the snow gets to be too much, head indoors for a game of ping pong and a big soft pretzel with cheese dip.
photo credit: GAB BONGHI
Behind the unmarked door at Royal Sushi, it’s a different world. One where there are no real windows and, for all intents and purposes, no ice, snow or sleet. Just really good sushi and sake for you to focus your full attention on for a few hours, until you have to exit the blue door and face reality again.
There are a lot of bars and restaurants with fireplaces in Philly, but Devil’s Den, a beer bar in East Passyunk with some pretty good bar food, has a double-sided fireplace. This means that no matter where you choose to hang your snow-covered jacket and Lenny Kravitz-sized scarf, you’ll thaw pretty quickly.
Should the next snowstorm fall on a Wednesday or Sunday, head to Perla. Those are the nights when you can get their kamayan feast, which consists of piles of meat and vegetables heaped onto a banana leave that you eat with your hands. It might not be geographically located in the Philippines, but all flights are cancelled anyways, so this is your next best option.
Porta is the largest restaurant in the whole city, so instead of spending your day cooped up in your 600-square-foot apartment, go get some pizza here and spend the day bar hopping between their three separate bars without having to put your parka on to change locations.
Sure, there are some downsides to living New Orleans, but when it comes to snowstorms, they’re blessed. So the next time you ask Alexa for the forecast and she brightly tells you to expect a foot of the white stuff, go to South, order a po’ boy, watch their nightly live Jazz show, and pretend you’re far, far away from Philly.
You know what helps fight the feeling that your entire life is just a white wasteland that goes on forever? Moving somewhere in the middle of the Peruvian rainforest. Sadly, we imagine there are about the same number of cons as pros in this pipe dream, but Vista Peru has the next best thing: pisco sours. Spend the night hiding from the freezing temperatures outside and trying a few pisco cocktails, plus an entire menu of the best Peruvian food in the city.
