South Philly butcher shop Heavy Metal Sausage Co. indefinitely paused its after-hours Italian dinners last weekfollowing a failed health inspection that ordered the shop to removeall indoor seating. Co-owners Patrick Alfiero andMelissa Pellegrino say the resulting loss of revenuecould close the business.
An inspector with Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health ordered the shop to remove itseightseats and cease all food prep in the basement on Aug. 21. The inspection found Heavy Metal’s setup did not align with the restaurant’s plan review, a document detailing operating procedures that all restaurants must submit to the health department in order to receive a food license.
Among the three-hour inspection’s other findings: flies, mouse dropping, and unauthorized kitchen equipment, plus evidence that Heavy Metal was canning foods and dry-aging meat without an FDA-mandated food safety plan.
The most consequential violation on the report, however, is that “the food facility does not have a handwash sink conveniently located in the customer dining area” because “access to the toilet room is located through the kitchen.”
The location of Heavy Metal’s bathroom renders the space unsuitable for indoor dining, according to the health department. The recent determination — which came four years into Heavy Metal’s run as a hybrid butcher-restaurant — could cost Heavy Metal thousands of dollars in renovations and lost revenue, Pellegrino said.
Alfiero and Pellegrino opened Heavy Metal Sausage Co. at 1527 W. Porter St.in 2022. By day, it’s a deli where Alfiero uses local ingredients and artisanal cured meats to create hearty, inventive sandwiches. By night Thursday through Sunday, the 500-square-foot space transforms into an intimate trattoria. Tables are pressed against deli cases and seats are tucked into empty corners, lending a vaguely illicit, punk-rock aura to what’s otherwise a traditional prix fixe meal.
The$98 dinners are also a moneymaker, accounting for well over half of Heavy Metal’s revenue, Pellegrino said. Without them, the duo have already had to lay off a cook and a server.
“When the [health inspector] asked if we could stop dinner, I told him we might not be here in six weeks to be reinspected,” Alfiero said. “I was just like, ‘How are we going to survive this?’”
Heavy Metal Sausage Co. chef/co-owner Patrick Alfiero prepares the antipasto course during the trattoria dinner on Nov. 17, 2022.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Same setup, new violation
Pellegrino and Alfiero told The Inquirer that they were blindsided by the findings in August’s health inspection. Heavy Metal has never hidden how it operates.
The couple started offering the after-hours dinners just six months after opening as a way to offset the costs of running a niche butcher shop, which has never been profitable.
A copy of the business’ plan review, reviewed by The Inquirer last week, shows that some form of indoor seating has been always accounted for. It also showsthat the deli’s bathroom is accessible to customers via a hallway that runs parallel to the kitchen.
The issue is brand-new despite Heavy Metal’s layout remaining static for months, according to a review of city records. The business has had an active food preparation and serving license since 2022. Heavy Metal has also passed all previous health inspections, including one in April 2026, whose report makes no mention of unauthorized seating, kitchen equipment, or food prep. It also doesn’t touch on sink or bathroom access.
Heavy Metal Sausage Co. chef/co-owner Patrick Alfiero preps food before a trattoria dinner on Nov. 17, 2022.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Health inspections are considered “snapshots in time” that may not necessarily be indicative of day-to-day operations, department spokesperson Jason Brooks said over email. During Heavy Metal Sausage’s prior inspections, inspectors only noted a basement storage space, “indicating that no food prep activities were taking place there — at that time,” Brooks wrote.
“In April, our inspector did not observe any seating for indoor dining. Inspectors are investigating what they can physically observe and document during the inspection,” he wrote. “During this most recent inspection, our inspector observed, in real time, food preparation in an unapproved space and unapproved indoor dining. For this, the food business was cited for violations of its approved plan.”
Pellegrino disputes the idea that Heavy Metal’s seating is a new development. “We were inspected four months ago, and we have done absolutely nothing different in those four months,” Pellegrino said. “Not a single thing has changed.”
The deli’s inspection comes amid other notablehealth department shutdowns.
The front window is reflected in the top of the meat case inside of the Heavy Metal Sausage Co., 1527 W. Porter St. in Philadelphia, on Aug. 9, 2024.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Last week, Victory Brewing Co.’s three-level taproom on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was ordered to temporarily cease operations after an inspector documented 26 health code violations that included live roaches, mice, and flies. And in mid-August, the health department failed Stargazy over “two unapproved countertop deep fryers without adequate mechanical ventilation,” a violation that has forced the East Passyunk Avenue restaurant to stop serving fish and chips.
How can Heavy Metal fix this?
Since Heavy Metal’s violations didn’t pose an imminent health hazard, the restaurant is allowed to remain open without indoor dining, Brooks confirmed.
The butcher and deli counters are still open during normal daytime hours (11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday) for takeout only. Pellegrino and Afiero said they’ve addressed most of the violations by creating the required food safety plans and limiting the basement to storage only.
The only hitch: What to do about the sink?
Heavy Metal Sausage Co. co-owner Melissa Pellegrino (left) greets diners Jeannette Armstrong (center) and Liz Rissover as chef/owner Patrick Alfiero prepares meals in the kitchen during the trattoria dinner on Nov. 17, 2022.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Heavy Metal must submit a new plan of review to the health department for approval. If the plan is approved and the restaurant passes reinspection, Brooks said, they will be allowed to restart indoor dining.
But to do so, Pellegrino said the health department recommended Heavy Metal install a customers-only sink at the front of the restaurant, a change that would require a separate, weeks-long permitting process and a contractor. When Pellegrino asked the health department if she could add curtains or room dividers to more clearly separate the bathroom hallway from the kitchen — which she considers a more cost-effective solution — she said they didn’t respond.
“All of these things take time and money,” Pellegrino said, “and we will have to make a calculus of what’s worth doing.”
Dominic Sessa (left) as Anthony Bourdain with Leo Woodall as a renegade cook in “Tony.”A24
In the film, Sessa portrays a 19-year-old Bourdain in the summer of 1973, when he found himself in Provincetown, Mass., desperate to get his would-be wife, Nancy Putkoski (Emilia Jones), to fall in love with him after losing out on a writing fellowship. A tough-yet-kind chef (Anthony Banderas) gives Bourdain a job as a dishwasher at the Flagship, a no-nonsense seafood shack where Bourdain grows from bumbling dishwasher into something resembling a cook.
The film draws heavily on chapters of Bourdain’s best-selling memoir Kitchen Confidential, in which Bourdain romanticized a crew of talented, if aimless, line cooks and their exploits.
“They drank everything in sight, stole whatever wasn’t nailed down, and screwed their way through floor staff, bar customers, and casual visitors like nothing I’d ever seen or imagined,” Bourdain wrotewith palpable admiration.
When Sessa startedas a dishwasher there in 2016, he was 13. By the time he worked his last shift in 2019, he had worked his way up to full-fledged baker, responsible for opening the shop and preparing batches of Cathy’s famous powdered and cream-filled doughnuts from scratch.
“I’ve hired a lot of great kids, but there are some who don’t get it,” said Cathy Greene, the bakery’s owner. Sessa “was really a natural.”
Cathy Greene, owner of Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., fills a box with doughnuts for a customer on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Sessa doesn’t remember taking to it so easily. And yet, like Bourdain, he kept coming back.
“When I first started there, it was miserable — especially at that age, waking up super-early and making batches of dough. I was just lazy and didn’t feel like finding another job,” Sessa told The Inquirer. “But every summer I’d come back and Cathy would teach me something new … The experience was one of the things that taught me how to work hard.”
Tyler Greene, Cathy’s son, flips doughnuts in a deep fryer at Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Doughnut summers
Admittedly, frying doughnuts at a family-run bakery did not entirely prep Sessa for the fictional kitchen he’d step into as a teenage Bourdain. In Tony, the Flagship is full of cocaine, dirty jokes, and smashed dishes. Cathy’s, by contrast, was basically Disney World.
Still, Sessa said the job helped him understand what motivates chefs to endure grueling hours and nonstop kitchen injuries. Like Bourdain, the actor was a self-styled troublemaker, nearly getting kicked out of his South Jersey high school before earning a hockey scholarship to Massachusetts’ prestigious Deerfield Academy, where he would eventually be discovered by director Alexander Payne and land his breakout role as a boarding school kid in 2023 Christmas comedy The Holdovers.
Cathy’s kept him disciplined.
Sessa used to clock in atthe bakery at 4:30 a.m. to prep the day’s first doughnuts, rolling out and aerating one batch of dough while minding another batch as it proofed. In between, he’d fry up a third.
Tyler Greene rolls out the dough for donuts at Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The InquirerA variety of doughnuts are for sale at Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
At its busiest, Greene said, Cathy’s sells between 1,200 and 1,400 doughnuts a day. Sessa drew on the rush — and the high stakes — while acting in Tony.
“I related to the integrity working in a kitchen demands,” he said. “If I didn’t show up on time, everything would be messed up, and everyone would know it was [because of] me.” Plus, there was “something so gratifying” about placing doughnuts in the display case and watching customerssnap them up.
Antonio Banderas (left) as a chef-mentor with Dominic Sessa as Anthony Bourdain in “Tony.”A24
Greene said Sessa shined when it came to the rhythm of baking and could manage the flow of the stationabout as well as she could. When they’d roll out dough side by side, Greene would quiz him on three-digit by three-digit multiplication. Sessa, she said, always answered correctly “off the top of his head.”
“He was a real smart kid,” Greene said.
Things didn’t always run smoothly. Once, Sessa recalled, he nearly ruined the bakery’s trash cans by throwing out a batch of dough with too much yeast in it. He had gotten away with the mistake — until the dough proceeded to nearly quintuple in size. “It was billowing out of the cans, on the ground, seeping into the kitchen,” said Greene. “It was pretty funny.”
The stress of the job didn’t detract from Sessa’s favorite part: small-town notoriety.
Passersby love to peer into Cathy’s kitchen from the street. “Kids were always interested in watching the guy who rolls the doughnuts out,” Sessa said. “It made me feel like a celebrity.”
The outside of Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Drinking on the beach and baking hungover
As much as Tony spins a hero’s journey for a young Bourdain (who ends the movie — spoiler — by enrolling in culinary school), it also foreshadows his struggle with substance use.
Dominic Sessa as Anthony Bourdain in “Tony.”A24
Bourdain, who died from suicide in 2018 at 61, had spoken candidly about his addiction to heroin and cocaine before getting sober in the 1980s. In Tony, we see the fledging chef try cocaine for the first time at his dishwashing station at Flagship with Sal(Leo Woodhall), a hard-partying coworker who relishes in showing Bourdain his favorite vices.
Sessa’s Ocean City summers followed a similar pattern. Before The Holdovers, the actor was crossing the causeway to buy booze at Circle Liquors in Somers Point.
“All of my friends were doing the same thing” as Bourdain in Tony, Sessa said. “We would just work so we could get paid enough to buy alcohol, drink on the beach all night, go into work hungover, sleep it off after our shift, and do it all over again the next day.”
“We were all under 18 so we felt invincible,” Sessa said. ”It was paradise.”
Cathy Greene, owner of Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City, N.J., fills a box with donuts for a customer, on Aug. 13, 2026. Former Cathy’s dishwasher and junior baker Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in the new A24 biopic “Tony.”Tim Hawk / For The Inquirer
Antics aside, Greene is proud of the role her bakery played in helping Sessa get into character (even if she hasn’t seen Tony yet). She just isn’t sure about cashing in on his star power. “I don’t want to be the one who is like, ‘Oh, I had Dominic Sessa here,’” Greene said. “But it’s pretty cool.”
You can order 10 different margaritas, a tequila-spiked rendition of a Clover Club, and whole barbecued dorade for the table at East Kensington’s newest bar.
Mixteca — an agave-focused coctelería from two James Beard Award-winning bartenders — opened at 2113 E. York St. in late August, breathing new life into the space formerly occupied by the acclaimed neighborhood barMartha.
Mixteca — named after the artisan-rich region of central Mexico — is as much a tribute to Lopez’s heritage as it is an outgrowth of Lopez and Bell’s relationship. Bell worked his way up at PDT from Lopez’s barback to lead bartender and eventually owner, after buying the speakeasy and its brand from co-founder Brian Shebairo.
Victor Lopez pours cocktails at Mixteca in East Kensington.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Lopez “is one of the best cocktail makers I’d ever worked with,” Bell said. “We’d play these games with him back in the day at PDT where we’d make him a drink, and he’d correctly guess the components.”
In New York, Mixteca is a bar first, with an extensive drink list of inventive takes on classic cocktails prepared with Latin American flavors, like a tomatillo gin and tonic or a Negroni infused with palo santo, a wood used for spiritual cleansing across Latin America. In lieu of a full food menu, Lopez and Bell partnered with Los Angeles-based Tacos 1986 to serve a handful of tacos and quesadillas.
The dining room at Mixteca on a friends and family night Aug. 26.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Mixteca in Philly, meanwhile, is equal parts bar and restaurant, with a full-fledged food menu of Poblano-inspired share plates and nearly double the number of cocktails. The space seats 100 people across its airy, bench-lined main dining room, dimly lit mezzanine, and large patio outfitted with string lights and rainbow-colored chairs. The restaurant has an eye-catching centerpiece: a large arch over the center bar made of intricate ceramic Talavera tiles imported from Puebla. They almost create a halo over the shelves upon shelves of alcohol.
The strawberry margarita, Fish House Punch, and carajillo cocktails at Mixteca.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“The high ceilings, the exterior, the energy of the neighborhood … it was perfect,” Bell said. “There’s a chaos to New York that can be exhausting, and I don’t see that in Philly.”
Lopez needed even less convincing: “I told Jeff, ‘I’ll probably move to Philly because I love it.’”
Classic cocktails with an agave twist
Mixteca’s Philly menu uses the New York location’s as a starting point for an array of drinks that draw deep on mezcal and tequila.
The restaurant has the same house margaritas on the menu — classic, made with Cointreau; and spicy, made with wasabi, cucumber, and hot honey — plus seven new flavored options, such as guava and blackberry, made with fruit juice.
The aorade asado at Mixteca. The Philly location is equal parts bar and restaurant, with a full-fledged food menu of Poblano-inspired share plates.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The Philly location’s 18 signature cocktails include classics like rye whiskey Manhattans and espresso martinis as well as agave-centric counterparts, like the aptly named Puebla York (made with reposado tequila, mezcal, Cynar amaro, and cassis) and a cold brew carajillo, the popular Mexican cocktail made with tequila and vanilla-forward Licor 43.
Lopez also created versions of two timeless local cocktails: a mellower, peach-infused Fish House Punch that swaps brandy for reposado and Oaxacan rum, and a foamy raspberry Clover Club that uses white tequila instead of gin. Both go down easy.
The patio at Mixteca on a friends and family night Aug. 26.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Though no executive chef heads up Mixteca’s kitchen in Philadelphia, the food menu got the stamp of approval from Lopez, who said the flavors were “the closest” to what he grew up eating as a kid in Mexico. Highlights include a bright hamachi and yellowtail ceviche; steak, mushroom, and chicken tacos served on made-to-order corn tortillas; and a whole dorade asado designed for sharing. Served with warm tortillas, white salsa, and a crisp tomato-cucumber salad, the fish sits at the center of a table like a prized catch of the day.
“We’re showing up to a party that’s already happening. We’re not the hosts,” said Bell. “We want to ingratiate ourselves.”
The exterior of Mixteca, in the former Martha space in East Kensington. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Mixteca, 2113 E. York St., 215-714-3148, cocteleriamixteca.com. Hours: 4 p.m. to midnight Monday through Wednesday; 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday to Friday; noon to 2 a.m. Saturday; noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Victory Brewing Company’s Philadelphia taproom was ordered to cease operations over a series of “imminent health hazards” following a Department of Public Health inspection Tuesday.
The Downingtown-based brewery’s three-level bar at 1776 Benjamin Franklin Parkway was ordered to close at 3:20 p.m. Tuesday after a health inspector documented 26 health-code violations.
Among the findings: live roaches, flies, and mice in the first floor bar and prep areas alongside mouse droppings littered throughout the nearly 14,000-square-foot space.
Victory Brewing Co.’s taproom replaced the TGI Friday’s at 1776 Ben Franklin Parkway.Michael Klein / Staff
No soap was available at several sinks throughout the brewery at the time of the inspection, the report stated, and employees were observed working without washing their hands. Black specks and orange residue had accumulated inside the ice machine, while several soda guns were “not clean to sight,” the report said.
Victory Brewing must remain closed for at least 48 hours and cannot reopen until it pays a $315 fine and passes a new health inspection. The bar announced via Instagram that it would be closed Wednesday with plans to reopen Thursday.
“The cleanliness and safety of our taproom are of paramount importance to us. They are ingrained in our daily routines and reinforced by the professional partners we work with. We have always been in compliance with the health department since opening, which is why we take this week’s report extremely seriously,” Matt Reimold, the area operations manager for Victory Brewing, wrote in response to an Instagram comment asking about the closure. “We are taking immediate action to resolve all issues and will reopen only when they have been fully addressed.”
A pest control service is “on site” to address the vermin-related violations, Reinhold wrote. Victory Brewing has maintained regular pest control service throughout doing business, Reimold wrote in the comment.
Health inspections are typically viewed as snapshots in time and may not necessarily reflect an establishment’s day-to-day conditions. That hasn’t stopped at leastone corner of the internet from fixating on Victory Brewing’s violations — which, to some, feel like taproom sins.
The first floor bar at the center of Victory Brewing Co.’s Philadelphia taproom, which opened on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2021.Michael Klein / Staff
“A brewery not cleaning their own lines. What a trip,” read one Reddit comment on a post about the cease operations order in the popular subreddit R/PhiladelphiaEats.
Cofounded in 1996 by Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet in the old Pepperidge Farm factory in Downingtown, Victory Brewing has grow into a national craft beer brand known best for its IPAs and easy-drinking Golden Monkey tripel.
The brewery opened its sole Philadelphia location on the Parkway in 2021, and runs two other taprooms in region in Downingtown and Kennett Square. Those remain open.
Food magazine Bon Appétit released its annual best new restaurants list on Monday, and it includes two Philadelphia restaurants.
Honeysuckle, Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate’s fine-dining restaurant in North Philadelphia, and Sao, Phila and Rachel Lorn’s East Passyunk oyster bar, were among the 19 establishments that made the cut.They joined restaurants in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Nashville, and Birmingham, Ala., and more.
The unranked list defines new restaurants as those that opened between March 2025 and March 2026. Scouts visited restaurants in 43 U.S. cities and rated them according to seven criteria: flavor, technique, hospitality, ambiance, cultural significance, innovation, and sense of place.
To be considered the best, “a restaurant must serve dishes and drinks that are complete in terms of flavor and technique, from the pre-meal cocktails to dessert, like an album with no skips,” wrote Bon Appétit editor-in-chief (and former Inquirer food editor) Jamila Robinson.
Partners and chefs Cybille St.Aude-Tate and Omar Tate, who opened Honeysuckle at 611 N. Broad St. in April 2025.Clay Williams
Tate and St.Aude-Tate opened Honeysuckle at 611 N. Broad St. in April 2025. The restaurant’s five-course tasting menu evolved from the couple’s beloved West Philly café-market, Honeysuckle Provisions, which closed in 2024. The couple uses the menu to weave a dynamic and complex narrative about how the Black diaspora has shaped American food culture.
The Mawn Cutlet at Sao, the East Passyunk Avenue oyster bar from married restaurateurs Phila and Rachel Lorn.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“Chefs Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate deliver a showstopping walk through nostalgia, pop culture, Philadelphia, and Black American history through dishes that spark new reflection and conversation,” Robinson wrote of Honeysuckle.
Phila (left) and Rachel Lorn (right) own Cambodian noodle bar Mawn and oyster bar Sao. Bon Appétit has named Sao one of the country’s best new restaurants of 2026.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Summer may be nearing its end, but hot dogs aren’t going anywhere. Philly is deep in the throes of a hot dog era. Our inveterate cheesesteak-and-hoagie city hasbeen throughthem before, but what sets apart the current boom is that it’s not so much about standalone hot dog joints. Instead, dogs have nosed their way onto many menus where they once might have been out of place.
That’s a double-edged sword: Hot dog purists may want to avert their eyes. This list, which is focused on Philly proper, has some natural-casing-centric sweet spots for them, but we’ve also included spots that are bucking strict hot dog norms with croissant buns, bonito flakes, carrot salad, and pineapple salsa. Some even deploy the most divisive condiment of all: ketchup. — Jenn Ladd
The Wagyu hot dog at Almanac in Old City, topped with tonkatsu sauce, Japanese slaw, bonito flakes, and nori.Stephen Recchia
Almanac
There’s something delightfully incongruous about pairing Almanac’s hot dog with one or two of its painstakingly crafted cocktails, often made from foraged ingredients and house-fermented elixirs. As bar snacks go, the Wagyu hot dog is a bit of an indulgence, but it hits all the notes of salty, fatty, sweet, and umami — the hallmarks of snacks you’d get at a konbini, or Japanese convenience store. The juicy sausage is tucked into a run-of-the-mill yet perfect split-top bun and topped with house-made tonkatsu sauce, a crunchy cabbage slaw, strips of nori, and bonito flakes. It’s a feat of layered textures and contrasting flavors, just as one would expect from one of Philly’s finest omakase chefs. — Kiki Aranita
Almanac, 310 Market St., Second Floor, 215-238-5757, almanacphilly.com
Texas Tommy from A.P.J. Texas Weiner (47 N. 13th St.)Craig LaBan
A.P.J. Texas Weiner
Time has largely forgotten A.P.J. Texas Weiner, a no-frills, old-school luncheonette squished between a bail bondsman’s office and an omakase restaurant on 13th Street just off Filbert, across from the Criminal Justice Center. Greek immigrants Andrew Kanakis, Paul Vasiliades, and John Halkedis opened the joint a century ago, joining an early-20th-century rush of so-called Texas wiener (as it’s usually spelled) joints around town. The “Texas” in a Texas wiener refers to the thin, mild chili perfumed by cinnamon and allspice that the cook spoons onto the grilled, split 5-to-a-pound beef hot dog before adding yellow mustard and chopped onions. In sum: the best $3 snack in Center City. You can dine in, though it’s primarily call-ahead (no apps!) or grab-and-go (from the sweetest counter woman, who won’t skimp on the napkins). — Michael Klein
47 N. 13th St., 215-665-8081
Café Tinto Fishtown
Café Tinto’s hot dogs are only available from 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays at its buzzy new Fishtown location. The scarcity only adds to the mystique of chef Daniela Garcia’s Colombian-style beef hot dogs, which are all about perfecting the golden ratio of sweet, spicy, and crunchy. Served in soft, buttery house-baked rolls, Café Tinto’s happy hour dogs come topped with Garcia’stangy pineapple salsa and a layer of crushed classic Lays potato chips. There’s something deeply satisfying and oddly nostalgic about the crunch, which reminds me of when I’d stuff Doritos inside my salami sandwich on white bread in elementary school. Chips really do make everything better. — Beatrice Forman
A Chili Cheese Dog and a Chicago Dog with a side of fries from Bad Nina’s grand opening outside Attic Brewing in Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Bad Nina’s
In 2025, Attic Brewing owner and Chicago native Laura Lacy decided to capitalize on one of the most intuitive food pairings there is: beer and hot dogs. Lacy and her husband/co-owner, Todd, decked out a vibrant yellow-and-teal food truck that operates noon to dinnertime Friday through Sunday, serving up at least 12 dog variations, including a jalapeño popper dog, a cheeseburger dog, and a classic Chicago-style dog (mustard, relish, chopped white onion, sliced tomatoes, a dill pickle spear, celery salt, and pickled peppers). Bad Nina’s go-tos are Vienna Beef brand hot dogs and Cacia’s Bakery rolls, but there are also Impossible vegan dogs and gluten-free buns (and bratwurst if you’re dogged out). — Jenn Ladd
What’s more rock ’n‘ roll than a dive bar hot dog? A dive bar chili dog. Doom technically isn’t a dive, but it is a heavy metal bar with a just-messy-enough hot dog that some dare to call the best in Philly. Doom’s dog starts with a deep-fried, ripper-style beef frank in a split-top bun. Then, it gets topped with a tofu-and-pork Bolognese inspired by mapo tofu, the spicy Sichuan classic. Doom’s version is milder and smokier, transforming the sandwich into something akin to a sloppy joe with a touch of class. Not a drop of chili is to be wasted. We recommend scooping up the inevitable spillage with a side of fries. — B.F.
The mapo chili dog from Doom, a heavy metal bar at 421 N. Seventh St., is inspired by the popular Sichuan dish.Beatrice Forman / Staff
Famous 4th Street Delicatessen
Famous 4th Street’s hot dogs are just how deli magnate Russ Cowan left them when he sold the joint in 2024 to Connecticut-based restaurateur Al Gamble: big and beefy. The Queen Villageinstitution still uses all-beef sausages for its traditional hot dogs and oversized pigs-in-a-blanket, and it still makes its challah buns in house. The only difference? The buns are now buttered and lightly toasted to mimic a Connecticut-style lobster roll, a change that Gamble said “tastes like childhood.” The deli’s classic hot dog is its bestseller, but the true showstopper is the hulking Reuben dog, which piles thin-cut pastrami, hot sauerkraut, and Russian dressing atop a 7-inch frankfurter. It’s just as filling as the sandwich it’s based on — and nearly half the price. — B.F.
The Reuben Dog at Famous 4th Street Delicatessen, 700 S. Fourth St.Beatrice Forman / Staff
Fox & Son
Reading Terminal Market has a certain “state fair” feel anyway, but a stop at this stand will make your day seem even more festive. Rebecca Foxman’s signature, crunchy hand-dipped corn dogs are made with corn batter, a boon to those who are sensitive to gluten. Choose pork-and-beef, all-beef, turkey, spicy pork, or a Beyond veggie dog, then stick with the classic or go fancy. Variations include chili-cheese-scallion, cheddar-jalapeño, and sweet-potato batter with chorizo and cilantro-lime sour cream. For a more lavish version, choose the Korean-style dog with mozzarella, sugar, ketchup, and mustard. — Michael Klein
Standard hot dog with ketchup and mustard front, hot dog with pepper hash back, and hot dog with fish cake and pepper hash at Johnny’s Hots, in Philadelphia, Aug. 17, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Johnny’s Hots
At 5:45 every weekday morning (and at 7:15 on Saturday), the window rolls up at this cash-only stand across from Penn Treaty Park. Ride-share drivers, truckers, and other hungry early birds start pulling up for grilled hot dogs and especially that old-time Philly combo of hot dogs and fish cakes, on soft buns. Johnny’s traces its roots to the 1950s, when Nunzio “John” Danze started serving waterfront workers from a lunch truck. The business later operated from a pier-side shack before moving to its current location on Delaware Avenue. The power move is the namesake spicy sausage, though the menu includes breakfast sandwiches as well as roast pork and cheesesteaks. — Michael Klein
The standard hot dog with ketchup and mustard, hot dog with pepper hash, and hot dog with fish cake and pepper hash at Johnny’s Hots on Aug. 17.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Juana Tamale
The only thing better than one hot dog is two hot dogs. Juana Tamale’s Jen Zavala serves her Sonoran-style hot dogs in pairs for $8, and prepares them just like they do in Northwest Mexico, where the street food originated before becoming Arizona’s glizzy of choice. A Sonoran dog comes wrapped in bacon and topped with refried pinto beans, Hatch chiles, red and green salsas, mustard, and mayo. Zavala’s one departure from a traditional Sonoran: She uses Amoroso’s Italian rolls instead of fluffy bolillo bread. The two have nearly the same texture, she said, and the Amoroso’s roll adds a touch of Philadelphia to a hot dog steeped in Southwestern spice. The Sonoran dog’s excess was a hard sell at first in Philly, Zavala said, but now, her East Passyunk Avenue Mexican restaurant sells between 200 and 300 a week. The more-is-more approach hits just right for those of us who view the hot dog as a prime vessel for toppings. — B.F.
Size matters at Columbus Boulevard’s newest waterfront tavern. Lucky Duck co-chef Sanil Shah claims the bar’s 10-inch wiener is likely the largest you can find in Philly — it pokes comically out the ends of its 6-inch Baker Street Bread roll. The tavern uses a smoky beef-and-pork blend from Reading-based Berks Packing Co. that has an audible snap with every bite. The toppings are simple — just brown mustard and a house-made hot honey-pepper relish that Shahsaid is loosely inspired by the packets of duck sauce that come with Chinese takeout. Bonus: Lucky Duck’s dogs are available until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, just in case a late-night glizzy craving hits. — B.F.
501 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd., Suite 2003, 215-964-9345, luckyduckphl.com
A hot dog at Lucky Duck, Aug. 17.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Lucky’s Last Chance
When Chris Barnes added hot dogs to the Lucky’s Last Chance burger-centric menu six months after it opened its first location in Manayunk in 2011, he hoped to sell “maybe 50 hot dogs a week.” Now, Barnes estimates the shop goes through between 5,000 and 6,000 franks weekly across its four locations, in Queen Village, Manayunk, East Falls, and Ambler. At Lucky’s, Deitz and Watson franks (or Light Life veggie dogs) are the base for 12 variations that push the limits of the “is a hot dog a sandwich” debate. Take the Voodoo, layered with shredded chicken, American cheese, and onion strings. Feels like a sandwich to me. The bacon bits and BBQ sauce-topped Deadwood? A very meaty hot dog. The 1Up, with sautéed mushrooms, provolone, and garlic aioli, is somehow a secret third thing — a hot dog crossed with a French dip. Rich and warm, it resonates even in winter. — B.F.
848 S. Second St., 267-519-2080; 4421 Main St., 215-509-6005; 5154 Ridge Ave., 216-842-5836; 15 S. Ridge Ave., Ambler, 215-367-5881; luckyslastchance.com
Lucky’s Last Chance uses Dietz & Watson dogs and New England-style split-top rolls.Marisa DiSalvatore
Miller’s Twist
Lines often wrap around the edges of this legendary Reading Terminal Market vendor, whose tawny, traditionally knotted Amish-style pretzels are irresistible in their own right. So what’s not to love about that same supple, salt-studded dough wrapped around a hot dog, then baked to juicy perfection? Costco customers will be particularly enthused: The Miller family uses Kirkland brand for their regular and jumbo dogs. (Dietz & Watson supplies their spicy beef and jalapeño dogs.) Buy one with or without cheese, and be sure to spring for a dipping sauce, especially the hot-sweet mustard made by the owner’s Lancaster-based in-laws. (Note that Miller’s does not make Philly soft pretzels; for better or worse, ours are not buttery. If you want a hot dog wrapped in Philly pretzel dough, head to one of three Bernie’s Pretzels in Delco.) — J.L.
Chef Chance Anies’ Filipino riff on Outback Steakhouse is a great place to go for happy hour, and particularly welcoming to kids. One of the draws is the Jollidog: an all-beef dog with mayonnaise mixed with bangus (umami-rich tinned milkfish), sandwiched in a soft bun, and topped with atchara, or pickled green papaya. It’s a perfect snack with a glass of wine, or a great meal for a toddler. Mine ate it up and clamored for another, which we happily ordered. The hot dog is on the regular menu, too, and comes with fries for only a few bucks more at happy hour. — Margaret Eby
When we kids were extra-good and my mom was feeling extra-rich, my mom would buy bacon and American cheese for our usual hot dog nights. She’d pull out the stovetop griddle, split the dogs, wrap them in bacon, and make us each a Texas Tommy — draping a thin slice of American cheese over everything to melt on contact. For me, the smoky, crispy Tommy at the Nifty Fifty’s chain is the perfect throwback to ’60s indulgence, even if the cheese of choice for the pork-and-beef dogs here is Whiz. Get yours topped with chili and eat it with a knife and fork, and don’t forget to use your napkin, as the old luncheonette lady would have reminded you. — M.K.
2491 Grant Ave., 215-676-1950; 2700 S. 10th St., 267-719-1950; 2431 Aramingo Ave., 267-771-1950; 1140 Old York Rd., Abington, 267-833-1950; 503 S. Oxford Valley Rd., Fairless Hills, 267-571-1950; 1900 MacDade Blvd., Folsom, 610-583-1950; 3524 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square, 484-992-1950; 684 York Road, Warminster, 267-802-1950; 1365 Marrows Rd, Newark, Del., 302-742-1950; 4670 Route 42, Turnersville, 856-875-1950; niftyfiftys.com
A classic hot dog with Ortlieb’s written on it with mustard and ketchup, in Philadelphia on July 20, 2024.Tyger Williams / Staff PhotographerAn assortment of classic hot dogs with mustard and ketchup writing, Ortileb’s taco dog, a Chicago dog, and a pickle on a stick, at Ortlieb’s on July 20, 2024.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Ortlieb’s
When Kyle Costill dedicated his Northern Liberties bar to the humble hot dog in 2024, “people were laughing at us,” Costill said. “Now, it’s like everybody is doing them.” Since then, Ortlieb’s has built a tiny empire out of no-frills dogs. Costill estimates the bar has sold 30,000 in the past two years thanks to a partnership with music venue Union Transfer and Port Richmond’s Green Rock Tavern, which sells Ortlieb’s-branded steamers behind the bar. The secret to their success is the wiener, a maple wood-smoked beef frank from Nevada-based brand Snap-o-Razzo, whose natural casing is so taut, the dog pops with each bite. (That feeling has inspired Costill to work on a proprietary Ortlieb’s dog that he intends to launch by the end of 2027.) Ortlieb’s has something for everyone: You can swap out a Snap-o-Razzos for a veggie dog, or top either with a vegan three-bean chili, courtesy of chef Alan Lichtestein of Haddonfield’s Little Hen. And pickle lovers will find a new obsession in the bar’s pickle dog, a hot dog cradled in an oddly sturdy half-sour spear. — B.F.
The chili cheese dog (top) and pickle dog (bottom) at Ortlieb’s in Northern Liberties are offered in both meat and vegan versions.Beatrice Forman / Staff
Perfect Together Restaurant & Cafe
Dilbar Nurivinova, the chef at this Bella Vista halal restaurant, grew up eating Uzbek super hot dogs at street food stands across her native Bukhara. So after nearly two decades living abroad, she was eager to recreate this overloaded wiener tribute to home at Perfect Together, the restaurant she opened last year on South Street with a menu that features foods from Uzbekistan and the Czech Republic, her previous place of residence. Nurivinova’s super dog begins with a smoky pink halal beef hot dog, then is piled high with so many fixings — garlicky shredded carrots, tangy beet salad, rice noodles, a hard-boiled egg, Nurivinova’s special sauce (a ketchup zingy with cumin and paprika), and copious gobs of mayo — that it is essentially an entire Uzbek picnic on a bun. Perhaps even better is the kofta variation she makes with a well-spiced kabob of minced beef. There are several other intriguing variations to be found in Uzbek Northeast Philly. — Craig LaBan
Don’t go to this 54-year-old Fox Chase institution expecting to walk out with a griddled hot dog on a bun. Rieker’s is a market — “German-food wonderland” is probably more accurate — and, particularly, a sausage specialist. The traditional wieners here are handmade in the back, where the staff grinds bull meatwith a blend of beef trimmings, pork butt, granulated onion, paprika, and garlic powder, then makes long links that go into the smokehouse for a hickory-scented steam. You can buy the skinny, snappy wieners by the pound, along with well over a dozen other sausage varieties, plus German potato salad, dried egg noodles, and much more. — J.L.
Alex Naumenko, a sausage maker, pulls wieners from a water bath at Rieker’s Meats in Philadelphia, on July 16, 2024.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Second Daughter
Is there an ordinary treat that Rhonda Saltzman can’t transform into a work of art? The creative genius behind Second Daughter bakes all-beef Nathan’s dogs in ultra-flaky, sesame-seeded croissant shells that give faint crunch to each savory bite. The Second Daughter crew tops the dogs with ketchup and spicy brown mustard squiggles and house-made pickle chips for tangy contrast. The only drawback: The dogs are so popular at both the fourth-floor Bok Building bakery and its Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market stand, they’ve been selling out around noon. On the bright side, Saltzman says they’re not going anywhere, even after summer ends. (Look out for specials like a sloppy joe dog and a baked bean-topped dog.) — J.L.
Essington native and Starr Restaurants alum Mark Gears runs a bustling breakfast and lunch takeout trade from this Kensington corner store, which has some bodega trappings, too. Need paper towels, dish soap, sugar, and spaghetti sauce? Gears has it. That pragmatic mindset led him to add hot dogs to his menu when he opened the shop in October. “Preopening, I went to Cacia’s [Bakery] to talk bread and saw these beautiful little fresh hot dog rolls. Said, how the hell can’t that be tasty,” Gears said. Smalls’ plump griddled all-beef hot dog, served on buns delivered fresh daily, will cost you less than a fiver, but it’s well worth springing for caramelized onions, roasted long hots, and crispy bacon toppings. — J.L.
A loaded hot dog (with roasted long hots, cheddar, bacon, spicy brown mustard, and caramelized onions) at Smalls’ Provisions in Kensington.Jenn Ladd / Staff
Sonnys Cocktail Joint
A single hot dog isn’t ideal for sharing. But at Sonnys Cocktail Joint, they’ve solved that particular issue with a hot dog tower, an inspired play on the seafood tower, that replaces oysters and shrimp with hot dogs, french fries (regular and sweet potato), and a top tier filled with little cups of ketchup, ranch, and a peperoncini aioli. A small tower comes with six hot dogs, a large fits 12. The hot dogs aren’t anything fancy — a standard-issue wiener with an array of condiments — but the format is whimsical, and it’s a perfect accompaniment for a couple of cocktails. — M.E.
A tornado touched down in Downingtown during a barrage of severe storms Thursday evening, the National Weather Service confirmed Saturday.
The tornado landed in the Chester County borough at 5:40 p.m. Thursday, the weather service said in a statement, as major thunderstorms passed through the area.
The twister was considered an EF-0, which is considered the least destructive on the Enhanced Fujita rating scale. The tornado touched down for less than a minute, according to the weather service, traveling just over a fifth of a mile along Quarry Road near the Quarry Crossings commercial development. Its winds reached speeds of 60 to 70 mph and brought down several tree branches, the weather service said.
Downingtown’s tornado was one of three to land in the region on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. A slightly more intense EF-1 tornado touched down in Dover, Del., at 6:09 p.m., while a tornado with an unknown Enhanced Fujita scale rating occurred at 4:41 p.m. in Estell Manor, in Atlantic County, N.J., about 19 miles inland from Ocean City.
The tornado in Dover lasted roughly five minutes and traveled just over three miles with winds ranging from 100 to 110 mph, the weather service said. After landing in an open field, the twister caused “extensive damage” to the Dover Little League baseball diamonds at Schutte Park, the weather service said: Two scoreboards were crushed or knocked down, and several lighting fixtures were snapped.
Then the tornado struck the Van Sant Generating Station — a power plant owned by the City of Dover located across from Schutte Park — before zigzagging through downtown Dover, where it downed trees. The tornado dissipated at the intersection of Kings Highway and North DuPont Highway after peeling the roof off a motel, the weather service said.
The tornado in Estell Manor lasted approximately 30 seconds or less, according to the weather service, and landed in a wooded area across from the Great Egg Harbor River. There were no reports of associated damage.
Thursday’s storms were the latest in a summer marked by intense wind and rain. The storms arrived in the Philly region just after 5 p.m. and set off a barrage of flash-flood warnings for Philadelphia, the Main Line, and sections of Delaware and New Jersey. Portions of Delaware and Chester Counties were also under tornado warnings.
The downpours led to flash floods that made many streets impassable in the Montgomery County townships of West Norriton and Lower Providence, according to the weather service. And in Chester County, fallen trees cut off sections of heavily trafficked Route 322 in Honey Brook.
The forecast for the rest of the weekend was looking similarly wet.
“Multiple rounds of scattered showers and thunderstorms expected through tomorrow afternoon,” the National Weather Service at Mount Holly wrote Saturday on X, and forecasters “cannot rule out a few strong to severe thunderstorms” for Sunday.
I am a breakfast sandwich snob. I also love rules, which is why there’s rigorous criteria a sandwich needs to meet for me to even consider ordering it.
Is it served on brioche, a bread that is entirely too soft for a greasy sandwich? Hard pass.
Is there one of those dreaded rectangular egg patties, which are somehow always dry and a little cold in the center? Don’t even send it my way.
Does it lack whimsy? Unless there’s some sort of intrigue— a fun condiment, fresh-baked bread, a flavor combo that gives a sense of perspective — I’ll just have eggs with a side of bacon and home fries, please.
Executive chef Aya Iwatani (left) and owner Evan Jaroff (right) inside Chibanos, their Cuban-Chinese sandwich shop that opened on July 1 at 1127 Pine St.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The tight menu — eight sandwiches plus a handful of snacks — is an ode to owner Evan Fong Jaroff’s mother, Ana, a Chinese Cuban who immigrated to the U.S. from the island in the 1960s. Jaroff grew up watching her command their home kitchen in Lansdowne, where she’d serve traditional Southeast Chinese fish dishes alongside staple Cuban dishes like fried yucca, beef picadillo, and lechón (aka shredded and slow-roasted pork).
“I don’t think of us as a Cuban restaurant. I don’t think of us as a Chinese restaurant,” Jaroff told me in July. “We’re our own thing.”
Chibanos’ menu pulses with nostalgia. That’s especially true of the Chino, which packs fluffy eggs, melted Swiss cheese, and a sticky-sweet char siu-style sausage patty between a crackle-crusted bolo bao bun smeared with garlicky scallion mayo.
The sandwich is an adult version of Jaroff’s favorite childhood breakfast: a steamed, custard-filled bao from pretty much any bakery in Chinatown.
The Chino breakfast sandwich on a Dodo Bakery bolo bao at Chibanos, a Chinese-Cuban sandwich shop at 1127 Pine St.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Developed in partnership with executive chefAya Iwatani (formerly of Honeysuckle Provisions), the Chino is the perfect combo of sweet and savory. It conjured up my ownmemories of using sausages to sop up the leftover syrup from diner pancakes. The lightlysweet bao from Dodo Bakery — a Cantonese bread and sweets specialist in South Philly — is equally transportive. It reminds me of the oversized conchas that lined the pastry cases of the panaderias in the tiny Hudson River town I lived in as a teen.
It’s funny how a single sandwich can take me to so many places. Perhaps I should add another question to my breakfast sandwich checklist: Does it make me feel warm and fuzzy?
One bar is finally firing up its kitchen and another is switching food vendors as irreverent sandwich maker N.A. Poe parts ways with his second business partner in three months.
Poe’s Sandwich Joint is out as the food vendor at Human Robot after seven years at the original Olde Kensington brewery, and a little over a year at its Brewerytown outpost. His last day at both locations is Sept. 3, Poe — whose real name is Richard Tamaccio — confirmed to The Inquirer.
Tamaccio’s menu of chicken cutlet hoagies and loaded fries will be replaced by Cantina La Martina, the acclaimed Mexican restaurant from James Beard-nominated chef Dionicio Jimenez and his wife, Mariangeli Alicea Saez. The move is a both an expansion of the couple’s relationship with Human Robot — Cantina La Martina has been serving brunch, tacos, and enchiladas at the brewer’s Jenkintown location since 2024 — and a homecoming.
Cantina La Martina owners Mariangeli Alicea Saez (left) and her husband chef, Dionicio Jiménez, in front of their former Kensington Avenue restaurant. Starting Sept. 13, the couple will be Human Robot’s new food vendors in Olde Kensington and Brewerytown.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“We really wanted to be back” in the neighborhood, Saez told The Inquirer. “We built really strong relationships with the community and lifetime friendships” while on Kensington Avenue.
Cantina La Martina’s menu at 1710 N. Fifth St. will include a mix of burritos, tacos, wings, and nachos, plus the return of its popular weekday happy hour, which featured $1 tacos alongside $2 wings, ribs, and empanadas. At 2711 W. Girard Ave. in Brewerytown, Cantina La Martina will run a burrito bar.
Both locations will have a grand opening Sept. 13.
Shrimp and chapulines tacos at Cantina La Martina. At Human Robot’s Olde Kensington location, the menu will feature a mix of tacos, nachos, burritos, and wings.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Starting Sept. 1, chef Jake Bukowski will reopen the kitchen at the Monto with a menu that Carey described as “modern Irish food”: Think black pudding sliders, cheesy chicken fillet rolls, and spice bags, the viral Irish-Chinese takeout staple popular in Dublin.
Bukowski is a Temple grad who previously worked at the long-closed Belgian Cafe (also owned by Carey) and, most recently, as the culinary director of the Havertown gastropub Brick & Brew. Bukowski was best-known for the Galley, the residency he ran for six years from a window inside Garage Fishtown, where he served handmade pierogis alongside wings and burgers.
The Monto, 226 Market St., in June. Michael Klein / Staff
Why is Poe’s leaving Human Robot?
Tamaccio’s abrupt split with Human Robot played outpubliclyover Instagram, when the brewery announced that it had renewed its lease in Olde Kensington. Poe’s would not be staying on, however.
“We are thrilled to kick off this new chapter with a brand-new food partner at both our 5th St & Girard locations,” the brewery captioned their post. “Before we look ahead, we want to send a massive thank you to Poe’s Sandwich Joint for being our food partner for nearly 7 years. Thank you, Poe and team, for slinging some amazing sandos and even better memories.”
“I guess we’re looking for a new home,” Tamaccio says, while puffing on a joint. “Poe’s is getting booted from Human Robot.”
Inthe video, Tamaccio explains that Human Robot’s lawyers sent him a letter earlier this month that said the brewery was terminating its contract with Poe’s “immediately” over his behavior on social media.
Human Robot co-owner Ken Correll told The Inquirer that the decision to part ways was precipitated by an Aug. 3meeting to discuss concerns about Tamaccio’s behavior, to which Tamaccio showed up “late and alone” instead of with his investors, as discussed. “Given the lack of an active lease with Poe’s and his failure to uphold previous promises, we decided to move on,” Correll said.
In an interview Monday,Tamaccio told The Inquirer that the termination letter, sent Aug. 4, centered on a series of Instagram stories he posted in July after leaving the Monto. They included, among other things, an antisemitic quote from The Sopranos, a homophobic slur, and an AI-generated image of Carey engaging in indecent acts with a phallic potato.
“I was very angry at the time,” Tomaccio said, adding that he sees himself as a provocateur.“Comedy has always been the way that I process or deal with anything … I know what I’m doing, I crossed the line, and this is the result.”
N.A. Poe at the sandwich window inside Human Robot’s Olde Kensington location in 2020. His last day there is Sept. 3.Michael Klein / Staff
Tamaccio has long used social media to promote his sandwiches alongside a near-constant stream of controversial memes on his Instagram story that ranged from 9/11 conspiracies tooff-color jokes about politicians. Most of his content, he said, doesn’t reflect his actual beliefs.
“Everything I’m saying is a joke. I’m not a serious man,” Tamaccio said.
The Hamilton sandwich, served at Poe’s Sandwich Joint inside Human Robot, has chicken cutlet, Cooper sharp cheese, fries, house ranch dressing, and crumbles of bacon.Michael Klein / Staff
The sandwich maker said he felt blindsided and “gaslit” by Human’s Robot decision, which he worries will impact his 10 employees across the Brewerytown and Olde Kensington locations.
Poe’s kitchen staff at both Human Robot outposts have been offered jobs with Cantina La Martina, a representative for the restaurant said.
What happened at the Monto?
This is Tamaccio’s second business partnership to dissolve this summer.
In February, Carey and Tamaccio announced they were going into business together at the Monto, an Irish pub at 226 Market St. There, Tamaccio would serve a mix of Poe’s signature sandwiches alongside more traditional pub fare like shepherd’s pie.
But just two days after the Monto’s June opening, Tamaccio resigned. “I was very excited about the project,” Tamaccio said. “But when it came down to the actual execution in a high-pressure environment, I just couldn’t do it.”
Sandwich specialist N.A. Poe (right) with Monto co-owner Fergus Carey.N.A. Poe
Tamaccio said he decided to leave the Monto after working without a contract, a claim that Carey disputes: “He quit after preparing for six months. That’s totally on him.”
Carey — who never saw the image of himself with the potato — said that Tamaccio has since apologized for the post. He’s choosing to look at the humor of it all.
“I think it’s the funniest twist to the story you could imagine,” said Carey. “One of my partners said, ‘Karma didn’t take very long this time.’ I don’t feel like that at all. I wish him well.”
Tamaccio believes Poe’s Sandwich Joint has a future, either with a new partner or in a storefront of its own, where he can “do and say” whatever he wants.
“Maybe I went too far,” he said. “But what is happening to free speech? Most people don’t even get in a position to be able to own their own business, and then when you do, you just need to shut up to make money.”
Baseball’s lax food policies have long been viewed as a way to keep America’s pastime accessible, especially as ticket and concession prices continue to rise. Generally, most fans keep it simple: sandwiches, chips, fruit, or a bag of precooked glizzies.
But in Philly, the Bank’s spaghetti policy has taken on new life as Phillies fans redefine what’s considered acceptable ballpark food, smells and food safety be damned. For some, smuggling in tiramisu or seafood is a sign of dedication. For others, it’s about committing to a bit.
Regardless, Philly wouldn’t have it any other way.
“As much I as love ballpark food, I don’t want to miss anything because I’m waiting in line” at concessions, said Laura Bider, a season ticket holder who prefers to tote a fanny pack full of meatballs and what she called “pocket pickles.”
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At the start of this year’s baseball season, we asked Phillies fans to tell us about the best food they’ve taken inside the ballpark. We fully expectedto hear about supermarket rotisserie chicken, booze-soaked fruit, and the best BYO condiments.
We did. But we also received 100-plus submissions of the most outlandish things we’d ever heard: fresh mussels, hard-boiled eggs, racks of ribs, and oysters tucked inside hoagie rolls, among others. (We don’t judge, we just listen.)
“Bring whatever feels lucky to you, whatever is going to pack you with enough protein and joy to get you through a game,” said Sarah Dlugos, 28, of Graduate Hospital. She believes her curried tuna salad helped the Phillies sail to the National League Championship in 2023. She also had a retort for skeptics:“It’s none of anybody else’s business.”
Actually, it’s our business. Here are the wildest foodspeople have taken inside Citizens Bank Park, for better or worse.
Seafood, apparently?
Ideally, a baseball game is like an airplane: You respect legroom, and never, ever eat smellyfood that spoils easily.
Not here. In Philly, fish and mollusks are totally acceptable ballpark fare.
Dlugos packed a tuna salad sandwich on untoasted whole wheat bread to all eight Phillies games she attended during the 2023 season. And while theflavorings ranged from dill to sriracha and sesame,the outcome remained the same: Every time Dlugos bit into her mushy, slightly warm sandwich, the Phils won.
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“I even had tuna salad for game two of the NLCS when the Phillies beat the [Arizona] Diamondbacks 10-0,” she said. “Lucky tuna.”
Dlugos assured us that she downed her sandwiches quickly, to limit any odor, and she recommends copycats eat their tuna before the third inning at the latest.After all, her sandwiches had already survived several Broad Street Line stops before making it to the stands.
Haters, she suggested politely, can go kick rocks. “Whatever you do is between you and the tuna,” said Dlugos.
Not everyone is so lucky.
It was June 2012 when Jersey resident Dom Ellis walked into Citizens Bank Park with a bag of fresh mussels taped to his back and a dream: for Chickie’s & Pete’s to steam his shellfish and top them with a drizzle of their cheese dip.
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“For some reason that popped into my head, and I thought it sounded really good,” said Ellis, now 34, of Pennsauken.
His hopes were dashed when the Chickie’s & Pete’s staff in section 126 refused to so much as touch the mollusks. “I remember the lady looking at me like I had three heads,” Ellis recalled. “The manager was like, ‘Do you think anyone here knows how to cook mussels?’”
Ellis said he would’ve paid at least $50 for cheesy ballpark mussels. Instead, he dumped them in the trash. To date, Ellis is so scarred that he refuses to bring food inside any ballpark.
“A lot of people lost that day,” Ellis said. “I lost. The Phillies lost.”
More recently, someone did succeed in getting shellfish to the stands.
Last year, Ty, alocal influencer who goes by “the Hippie Meathead,” smuggled 60 oysters inside the Bank by stuffing them in hoagie rolls, shells and all. He wrapped the rolls in tinfoil to avoid any interrogation. (The 25-year-old Rittenhouse resident declined to share his last name out of fear that his seafood habits could hurt his career.)
Once inside,Ty put the oysters on ice that he retrieved from concessions and shucked them with a screwdriver. He slurped some straight, while others topped hot dogs and pizza slices that were shared with strangers. A few went into a beer bat filled with Yuengling. Ty chugged it like an oversize shooter.
“It tasted like the ocean,” he said. “Oh, and victory.”
The home cook special
Forget peanuts and Cracker Jack: The new frontier of baseball fandom is bringing elaborate spreads to the ballpark. Dozens of Inquirer readers responded to our survey with tales of dinners spread across several innings.
A reader from Point Breeze prepped a full steak with potatoes and shrimp scampi for night games. Another wrote via Reddit that they managed to get a full barbecue spread — smoked brisket, mac and cheese, cornbread, and baked beans — inside for a World Series game.
Kevin Kilroy’s most memorable Phillies game involved eating lasagna and tiramisu in the stands for a birthday party. It wasn’t exactly a five-star meal: The cold lasagna was “just edible.” The tiramisu, a family recipe, was a toppled mess. Not that Kilroy minded.
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“Each Phillies game is special because of the people I’m with,” said the 33-year-old Olde Kensington resident. “The food is a way to celebrate that.”
First-time season ticket holder Alex DiDonato,28, has already built a reputation in section 317 for bringing ornate dinners: a rack of ribs, crab cake sandwiches with homemade aioli and grilled corn, a charcuterie board, and, more recently, a DIY taco kit with ground beef, guacamole, shredded cheese, and lettuce.
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The new tradition started as a way for her to make each game feel special. The Spring Garden resident hasn’t had a single miss yet, she said, and has plans to bring a tray of baked ziti next. The only downside: her seats.
“We sit at the edge of our section, so every time someone comes into our [row], we have to stand up and take all of our food and dips and drinks with us,” DiDonato said. “It’s a bit of a problem.”
Bider, with her meatball-filled fanny pack and back-pocket pickles, isn’t into all the flash. The 46-year-old from Swedesboro just wants the Phils to make the playoffs.
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The one time she splurged on a stadium hot dog and an ice cream helmet last year, the Phillies lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first game of the division series, Bider said.
“It was all my fault,” she said. “And, no offense to the stadium, the food was nasty.”
