Day 2 & 3: Honey's Sit & Eat, Dmitri's, and Parc

DAY 2

~BREAKFAST/BRUNCH~

HONEY'S SIT & EAT

800 North Fourth Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 925-1150

 On Saturday morning Jackie and I went to Honey's Sit and Eat.  There was another brunch/breakfast place similar to this (the name of which escapes my mind at the moment) that we were going back and forth on.  The other place had a cream cheese stuffed french toast that was just calling my name but decided on Honey's based on it's coziness.  

The wait wasn't too bad.  We were expecting at least an hour wait because Jackie had just been there with her cousins and they had to wait for an hour and a half or some insane amount of time.  The wait was maybe 15 minutes.  In the meantime we went next door to a small flower shop and looked around.  

Very cute. Lots of random stuff I didn't even know existed for plants..

I saw Peonies everywhere I went in Philly.  I wonder if it's the city's official flower.  Hhmm.. just Googled it and no city flower but the state's official flower is the Mountain Laurel.  Anyway.. I digress...

Inside was super small... well, small considering how popular the place seemed to be.  Do you remember in the movie Valentine's Day when Anne Hathaway's character went on the date with the guy on Valentine's Day and they got seated so close to the other tables that were almost touching?  Well, we sat like that.  We sat right smack in the middle of 2 parties: one pair of older ladies on my left eating the most boring looking salads and a family on the right who ordered so much food Jackie and I couldn't help but stare every time a plate of food came out.  Well, we were probably staring because we were so hungry.. which is probably why we ended up ordering 2 of the dishes we saw them eat.

The restaurant had a very comforting and old fashioned vibe that I really liked.  Everything down to the small salt and pepper shakers in mini canning jars.  Soooo freaking cute.

As I looked around I noticed this sign up above the counter area.

At first I read it as, "Forget the Menu, Eat More Ice Cream."  I turned to Jackie and told her my discovery.  She laughed and agreed.  But upon further inspection I read, "Forget the Meat, Eat More Ice Cream."  I turned to Jackie and corrected my mistake.  She laughed, and agreed more emphatically.  After taking a photo of the sign I looked at it zoomed in.  It turns out it said, "Forget the HEAT, Eat More Ice Cream."  Hhmmm.. I think I liked it best as, "Forget the MEAT, Eat More Ice Cream."  But that's just me.

When the waiter finally made it to our table to take our orders (we seriously must have waited a good 25 minutes) I ordered the Eggs Benedict and Jacki ordered the basic breakfast plate, which I can't remember the name of, that came with eggs, toast, and potatoes.  We also ordered some blueberry pancakes.

 

Eggs Benedict

Blueberry Pancakes

Yeah... it was good.  I mean... FRIKIN good.  I think I could have eaten 2 of those.  Jackie kept raving about the blueberry compote that they have on each of the tables and yeah, that was good too.

After stuffing our faces with all the yummy food, I looked up and debated whether I should get dessert.  I was staring at it the entire time we were there.  I had to do it.  But instead of eating it there I decided to take it to go and eat it later after I digested just a tad.  By a tad it seems I meant 10 minutes because that's the amount of time it took us to get back to Jackie's place.  Luckily, her roommate and friend was over so I was more than happy to share the cake with them.  

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

I don't know what the 8 pieces of blueberries were about but it was really moist and delicious.  Maple in cream cheese icing... I might have to jack the idea.

It was pretty damn good.  

~DINNER~

DMITRI'S

944 N 2nd Street

Philadelphia, PA 19123

Neighborhood: Northern Liberties

(215) 592-4550

After visiting Standard Tap and being forced to eat somewhere else because of the hour and a half wait we ended up at Dmitri's.  I thought Honey's was small, nope.  This place was almost quite literally a hole in the wall.  A nice hole, but a hole nonetheless.  There was a group of us (about 5) for dinner and they sat us pretty immediately.   Unfortunately, this was the only restaurant I don't have photos for.  I know... how could I?  Well, I didn't want to create a scene for the other people we were with so I put it aside.  

Bad idea.  It turns out one of the BEST dishes I had in Philly was at Dmitri's.  We ordered a bunch of stuff.. which, I can't remember the names of.  I thought I'd be able to look it up online but they only have a Yelp site.  So oh well.  I'll just leave this review at: THE MEATBALLS WERE SPECTACULAR.  So buttery... and delicious.  Great place.  I really enjoyed it a lot.

DAY 3

~LUNCH~
PARC
227 South 18th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 545-2262
 

Day 3 was a Sunday.  After Jackie and I went to church and started walking back it was about 3.  The church had provided some pizza for a meeting so we were not quite full.  We wanted something more so we walked around for places.  On 18th street, where Parc is located, Jackie had mentioned all the swanky people who want to show off how rich they are by eating out in the outside tables.  

She was actually not wanting to eat at Parc but I was feeling a bit lazy... and was intrigued by the place so I convinced her to eat there.  Even for 3PM there were a lot of people.  Over a 40 minute wait and no room at the bar.  We hovered around until someone left.  It turns out there were a couple of stools open off to the right side that we didn't see.

The place was very cool.  I have no idea what France looks like (it was a French restaurant) but I imagine it would look something like Parc.  The staff were all wearing coats that reminded me of what servers would wear back in the 20's.  Since we had already eaten a little before we stuck to something small.

It had been a while since we ate some sort of a vegetable so we got a salad, I got the French Onion Soup (I read it was really good), and Jackie got a yogurt.

Cranberry Bread

Their bread was good.  I think it could have been a little warmer but it wasn't you run of the mill dinner rolls.  We had barely made a dent in the bread when our food came out.  I guess it was really easy.

I didn't bother with dressing but it felt really nice to eat some good ol' raw vegetables.  It was actually a little bitter but considering I didn't eat it with dressing... I didn't care too much.

French Onion Soup

Holy globs of cheese Batman, that was good.  Jackie took a photo of me as I was getting ready to dig in.  Little children, please avert your eyes.

Scary I know.  Now you know what I look like when I eat.

Yogurt

There was so much fruit on top it actually made it really hard to eat the yogurt underneath it.  Most people probably like to eat a bite of fruit AND yogurt but the construction of it and the deepness of the bowl really made it hard.  By the time Jackie got to the bottom, she discovered some preserve like substance that was sitting down there all the time.  The yogurt felt and almost tasted like sour cream.  But it was thick and delicious.  

As we were waiting for some room at the bar we saw some waiters carry around macarons so we decided to order them for dessert.  Oddly enough, it wasn't on the menu.  

I'm not even going to try and recollect what the flavors of these were.  You can tell how unimpressed I was with the macarons.  It was foolish to think that a French place could actually do macarons correctly.  Nope, sorry.  Bouchon still has the rein in the macaron kingdom if you ask me.