3025 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA
Pita BLT...$8
You'd think a place named World Café Live would have a global-inspired menu, right? Um, not really. Sorry, but just like hamburgers and pizza, hummus, chicken panini, and quesadillas are totally assimilated and no longer qualify as international. Ah well, a food critic can dream...
I ordered the Pita BLT for two reasons:
1. It was cheap
2. I realized I had not eaten any bacon since March, which struck me as a problem that needed to be immediately remedied.
I got enough food to feed me, the bartender, and the guy sitting next to me.
It was a good sandwich. The things that were supposed to be crispy were crispy (bacon and lettuce), and the things that were supposed to soft were soft (pita bread and tomato.) Thank you. The basil mayo single-handedly turned the sandwich from cliché to somewhat interesting. It definitely tasted as if it had been prepared with fresh basil, not dried powdered basil, at which I sneer (can't help it, I was raised by a five-star chef). However, the fries were so overdone they bordered on burnt. And what's more, they completely lacked salt which in my opinionated opinion is a shame. What is the point of grease without salt? Like Sandy and Danny, they go together. Forever.
I ate upstairs, which has a clean and open vibe, along with big windows that overlook the Schuylkill and a good deal of traffic. Service was as friendly as your average McDonald's, which is to say, not very. At any other club I probably would have been pleased, because how much goodness can one really expect for $8?
But since World Café Live is a nationally recognized music venue, with its own syndicated radio show for god's sake, I had hoped for something exceptional and was a little disappointed when I didn't get it. -JR
3025 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA
Eggplant Fries...$7
From the edge of my awareness I caught a glimpse of paper on the dimly lit tables of the venue. My vision tripped over the words of what turned out to be a menu with only the vaguest of interest, expecting nothing more than standard bar fare. I had long ago ceased to be impressed by chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks, and so I fully anticipated putting the menu back down and forgetting that it even existed. With a palpable intake of breath I stopped reading as I happened upon what would be my first foray into the food of World Café Live..... Eggplant Fries with horseradish-ranch dipping sauce. I jabbed the page with my finger to alert my companion for the evening of my find, and we discussed our options. Choices bounced back and forth between us, because where there is eggplant there is always great room for failure. Then there was the fact that seven dollars is a hefty price to pay for fries, regardless what they are made of. However, the shiver in my stomach (part hunger, part excited fetus) would not be denied; and I figured you could dip a truck tire in ranch and it would probably still taste pretty good. So we placed our order with the strange looking waitress in clogs, and proceeded to wait....and wait some more. Eventually she reappeared from the darkness, setting a small basket between the two place settings and fading again into the black. My cohort and I each timidly picked up a small piece, bracing ourselves for the massive let down. Mid-chew, we looked at each other and grunted approval with a smile. The fries were crispy enough to live up to their name, without losing the texture that makes eggplant the slightly awkward vegetable it is, and the ranch added just the right touch of awesome. We fell upon what remained with the haste of starving wolverines. In less than half the time it had taken to reach us from the kitchen, we reduced the small pile to a few crumbs and an overturned, empty dip cup. Leaning back in my chair, I settled in to watch the headlining act with a glutted sigh. I grinned to myself all evening, full of good food and even better music. World Café Live made my night, and I will return.... -SH
