So A Horse Walks Into A Philly Bar....
When Nick, KB & Donnie asked me to join a three-part series in Philadelphia for Rediscovering America, I assumed they had inside info about my impending firing and wanted to grant me a Make-A-Wish type trip. A fan of the series, my favorite part is the characters they meet along the way, and Philadelphia is a character factory stuck in overdrive. I couldn't say "YES" fast enough.
I love showing people things that I think they'll think is neat, and when I nail it there's few better feelings. Remember that old lady in The Wedding Singer who plops meatballs in Robbie Hart's hands and is like, "...now take a bite so I can watch you enjoy - that's my favorite part!!!!"? That's me. I was practically giddy putting parts of the itinerary together. Very weird!
All that's to say, the first 2/3 of the Rediscovering: Philly episodes are out now. Give 'em a watch and meet characters like:
-Drunk man who followed KB & I around Graffiti Pier at 10am on a weekday and kept getting borderline-scary mad at us for saying the wrong things about what we think art is but wouldn't stop asking us what we think art is and we ended up not being able to show him in the video at all anyway because he was afraid his girlfriend would see it or something so he backed out on the release form no never mind
-Chef Adam Diltz, owner of the restaurant Elwood, who grew up Pennsylvania Dutch & makes 1800s Philly classics like Turtle Soup served via giant turtle (and, not shown - crispy, venison scrapple cubes impaled on deer antlers)
-Alexander, the Philadelphian who ate 40 rotisserie chickens in 40 days for no reason and told us that before the chickens he made himself eat a giant - and I mean GIANT - carrot every day for a while out what seemed like sheer masochism
-Pro skater Joey Marrone & SkatePhilly's Pat Heid who showed us around the new (but also old and beloved) Muni Building skate plaza
-Betsy Ross (bitch)
-Musician Kurt Vile's brothers, Paul and Sam - AKA Jelloman and Vilebred
-Cowboys (not the kind Eagles fans hate)
-A group of men who love wearing sequins and playing banjo
-Sassy Ben Franklins, one of whom is going through a tough divorce (not me, already did that)
The list goes on but you get the idea.
It was cool seeing behind the scenes of one of my favorite shows with some of my favorite people here at Barstool, and I was blown away by the work their whole production team puts into it, and how much they're able to jam into a few days.
I also felt lucky to spend some real time in Philadelphia again. I'm from the 'burbs and worked/partied in the city a solid amount in my younger years (God bless Center City Sips), but when I go back home these days it's with two young kids and we bee-line to either the Jersey shore or my parents 55+ nearly an hour away. I think the last solo stints I had in Philly were on my lunch breaks from the convention center nearly a decade ago.
During the breaks we had this time I was able to squeeze in a fantastic dinner at Banshee on South Street followed by night caps at Jet Wine Bar and Bob & Barbara's, roam the stalls & stuff my face at Reading Terminal Market (where there was a scrapple-sculpture carving contest going on), walk Rittenhouse Square and the splash pad path & people-watch outside City Hall, etc…
My favorite moment of all was actually for the show taping at Ray's Happy Birthday Bar. It's shown in episode 2, but we invited everyone we encountered in the previous days to the '250th Birthday Party', and it wound up being the perfect mishmash of all things Philadelphia. Vilebred genuinely rocked, the Mummers strutted, Ben Franklin ripped cigs and chopped it up (until he eventually stormed off), old friends showed up, and the Urban Cowboys from Fletcher Street Riding Club took people on horseback rides to Pat's & Geno's and back. It felt like a fever dream. I was in heaven. Then I got to go back to my hotel room super buzzed and eat the 3-pack of melted peanutbutter Tastykakes I found in my pocket.
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The third episode is out next week and finds us in North Jersey where we get into a full on battle with actual muskets (some of us have the flash burn remnants on our necks to prove it) and Revolutionary War enthusiasts who take this sort of thing VERY seriously.
If you have the time, check the episodes out and give Wonton's page a follow if you haven't already. If you don't, I'm fixing my bayonet.
