Philadelphia’s bi-annual restaurant week has been extended for a second week. The devastating economy is most likely the cause behind the second week of discounted dinners. For $35 at participating restaurants, diners can get a minimum of three courses.
Restaurant week runs until February 6th, for a list of participating restaurants and menus click here.
Hurry up, reservations fill up fast.
For all those Eagles fans looking to drown their Super Bowl sorrows in a good beer, Philadelphia might be the best place to do it.
The New York Times recently heralded the city’s brewery scene. Brewing beer is nothing new here, one of Williams Penn’s first actions when he got to town was to build a brewery. The trend has continued and Philadelphia held its first beer week last year.
For the full list of local breweries the NYT’s recommends click here.
Philly has been named as the fifth most walkable city in the United States.
It’s so exciting that they made up the word “walkable” (at least, according to Microsoft Word). Nice, isn’t it? At least it gives us something good to brag about.
At one point, we were fat. And apparently still, we’re ugly, as The Temple News reported. And now, we can walk places.
Check out this link to see where your Philadelphia neighborhood ranks. Or, go here for the overall rankings, and see how San Francisco, New York, Boston and Chicago beat us.
Tradition is important to Philadelphia sports fans. After 100 consecutive seasons without a championship title, some are meant to be broken. But certainly not all.
That’s why Philadelphians may get sentimental over the Spectrum, the oldest and smallest sports arena in South Philadelphia that has since been overshadowed by the Wachovia Center, Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park.
“This will be the final year of the Spectrum,” Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider announced this morning.
The Temple News reported in January that plans for the possible demolition of the Spectrum to make way for an entertainment complex were in talks. The talks have now materialized into reality.
The Spectrum, host to many concerts and shows, will be a lost home to its sports teams, the Philadelphia Kixx, the Phantoms and, ocassionally, the Soul, who are preparing for their championship game Saturday. They played their most recent game in front of a nearly sold-out crowd at the Spectrum.
No word on the future of the soon-to-be homeless teams. Rumors originally said the Phantoms could move to Camden or Atlantic City.
The Flyers and 76ers called the building home from 1967 to 1996 before moving to the Wachovia Center. The Flyers won their first Stanley Cup there in 1974, and the Sixers hosted many playoff and finals games inside, also.
Comcast-Spectacor said many “surprise” events are planned for the final year of the Spectrum, including Sixers and Flyers home games and returning concert players.
This will likely be the final demolition at the sports complex for at least a few years, as the oldest building, the Wachovia Center, is only 12 years old. Veterans Stadium, home to the Eagles and Phillies, was imploded in 2003.
A bright yet subtle change may be soon coming to the Philadelphia skyline. But as with most additions to Center City, controversy is high.
Two Liberty Place, what is now the third-tallest building in Philadelphia, dwarfed by its big brother One Liberty Place and the new Comcast Center, may soon be donned with 11-foot high illuminated letters over the 38th and 39th floors advertising a new tenant, Unisys Corps.
However, other tenants – the ones who are in the process of moving into the luxury condos in the same building – are not too thrilled.
The condo owners are afraid the red lighting will reflect into their living rooms and hurt the overall value of their condos. The city, on the other hand, supports the act, saying it will show the world that Philadelphia is the place to be for a corporate home.
Let a tenant in the Empire State Building try to pull off something like this, one homeowner said.
As an AP reporter notes, the Liberty Place towers like to break tradition. When constructed, One Liberty Place broke the unwritten “Gentlemen’s Agreement” when built in 1987, which ‘said’ no building should be built higher than William Penn’s statue atop City Hall.
Oops.
Photo courtesy philly.com.
Ready to take that walk into the real world later this month? You might want to stick around The City of Brotherly Love as it was just named the best city for new grads by Careerbuilder.
Of course, no positive article about Philly can be written without an asinine comparison to New York:
“Philadelphia is pretty livable for people my age,” says Hyde, a Florida native who moved to the city at 22 after completing his undergrad degree in Pittsburgh. “It’s a lifestyle like New York’s, but much more affordable. People here can bunk up together like in Brooklyn if they want, but real estate is a lot less expensive than in New York.”
And even if that whole “jobs” thing isn’t enough, our young sports teams, the Sixers and the Flyers, are in the playoffs. Philadelphia also has some of the cheapest rent prices around, and has been pretty immune to that pesky subprime thing.
As we mentioned earlier, Philadelphia is considering a bike sharing program. You can be part of that process today at City Hall, 2 p.m., 4th floor council chambers. City Council will hold hearings on the proposed program.
More information: Bike Share Philadelphia
At the Philadelphia Public School 4×400-meter relay, a young runner saw the face of God. It was a familiar face, with a warm smile and a hint of Jell-O on his breath.
“I still couldn’t believe it was him,” Gibson said. “When I looked up, I thought it was God. But then I said, ‘Whoa, that’s Bill Cosby.'”
Tonight at 11:30 p.m., good God do you have to watch The Colbert Report.
On Comedy Central, Stephen Colbert begins his appearances in Philadelphia, the first of four episodes to be filmed at the University of Pennsylvania’s Zellerbach Theatre.
Tonight’s guests include our Mayor Michael Nutter, huge news. John Legend is scheduled to sing the national anthem.
Meanwhile the show has been talking crap on Philly all week, including the supposed Philadelphia Tuxedo.
As reported by The Temple News, the Philadelphia region last week unveiled a text message-alert system that can warn those who sign up for the service of impending emergencies or direct them on evacuating.
Similar to the system set up by Temple.
To get you in the mood for the potential dangers, check out the below incredibly relevant video.. don’t worry it is just a dramatization.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgBIQ9WYo-M 350 292]
