Opera Philadelphia and the Bearded Ladies Cabaret
While the Philadelphia Orchestra has been futzing around with live accompaniments of Star Trek Into Darkness and Gladiator and performing with a Beatles tribute band (ugh), Opera Philadelphia is figuring out how to get a new audience interested in opera without sacrificing its credibility and self-respect. The company has teamed up with the gender-bending Bearded Ladies Cabaret on Andy: A Popera, an opera based on the life of Andy Warhol. We've been following this important work-in-progress closely (there were staged previews in May and July) and look forward to its 2015 debut. 1420 Locust Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, PA 19102, beardedladiescabaret.com.
3rd Ward
The adult night-school world in the Philly region has been turned on its head by the brand-new outpost of the Brooklyn-based education company, which the New York Times has deemed a DIY utopia. Whether you want to learn how to develop a documentary, fabricate metal structures, cast jewelry molds, build an urban garden, create comic strips or design Web pages that look like they're from 2015 instead of 2005, you can do it here, at the wide-open learning space. Say goodbye to basket-weaving forever. 1227 North 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, philly.3rdward.com.
Rat's
It's on the other side of sad-sack Trenton, in a not-so-romantic warehouse wasteland. But this tiny Claude Monet-inspired French village and 35-acre sculpture park, the formal whimsy of Johnson and Johnson heir J. Seward Johnson (and named for Wind in the Willows character Ratty, the quintessential host), boasts a decor that's Frida Kahlo meets Swiss chalet, with bright colors, arched wood beams and fireplaces. The food is beautifully done eclectic French, but the sell here is the sculpture park and its moodily lighted paths. Its goofiness (dancing twigs!) strikes just the right note of postprandial surprise and how-did-this-place-get-here? delight exactly the stuff, in fact, of romance. 18 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton, NJ 08619, ratsrestaurant.org.
National Constitution Center
The time commitment for touring the whole museum is a mere hour and a half. And with political conversation-starters around every bend exhibits touch on everything from liberal theory to women's and civil rights to how pocket-sized the Founding Fathers were you can suss out whether your would-be soulmate has any ideological deal-breakers: Communist? Fascist? Closet member of the Cheney family? If the coast is clear, afterward you can head over to enchanting Franklin Fountain to split a towering hot fudge sundae and discuss anything but politics. 525 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, constitutioncenter.org.
Bridge Street, Phoenixville
Noon: Start with Swedish potato pancakes or omelets at local fave Black Lab Bistro (248 Bridge Street, 610-935-5988, blacklabbistro.net). 2 p.m.: Take in a classic movie at the Colonial Theatre (227 Bridge Street, 610-917-0223, thecolonialtheatre.com). This month, look for a Harlow-and-Gable screening series; coming in September: the "Better on the Big Screen" series, including The Searchers (9/6), Lawrence of Arabia (9/13), and the supremely confounding 2001: A Space Odyssey (9/20). 4 p.m. (or later, depending on length of said movie): Roam the antique (and junk) shops on Bridge Street. Buy things you don't need. 6 p.m.: It's Sunday, so it's an early dinner. For burgers and beer, the call is Iron Hill (130 East Bridge Street, 610-983-9333, ironhillbrewery.com); for something a tad more refined, BYO Majolica (258 Bridge Street, 610-917-0962, majolicarestaurant.com). 8 p.m.: Remember that tomorrow is a workday, and make the long, sad journey home. 00000,
Proyecto Tamal
Pre-coronavirus, Ana Caballero was the chef at Lost Bread Co. But when disaster struck, she lost her job and turned her talents to protecting those being failed by our all-too-fragile social safety nets. This is how Proyecto Tamal was born. In partnership with Lost Bread and in collaboration with two families each week, Caballero does a weekly tamale sale, with recipes defined by the partner families and supplies covered by Venmo donations (@proyecto-tamal). All money raised goes to the families she works with. An average run of 400 tamales can mean $1,500 for a family in need. To Philly’s credit, the tamales have been selling out fast every week. lost-bread-co.myshopify.com/collections/project-tamale.
Kobe the Husky
The next time you’re scolding your pup for digging up your yard, think twice. That’s exactly how four-year-old Kobe saved Germantown. Owner Chanell Bell had had a gas leak in her house, so when Kobe went to work in her front yard and refused to desist, she tested the air, then called the gas company, which found leaks there and in two neighboring pipes. The heroic husky was celebrated the world over, with articles everywhere from People to the Washington Post to the Guardian, not to mention TV appearances and a kids book by Bell celebrating his feat. “It’s amazing to know Kobe saved our block,” she says.
McGlinchey's
I remember the first time I went to McGlinchey's, the notoriously divey (and smokey) dive bar on 15th Street. It was just after my 21st birthday (I'm 39 now, egad!), and I heard that the beers were some of the cheapest in the city, which is all I needed to know. Given that these were the days before Philadelphia was Beer Town U.S.A., I ordered a Rolling Rock. Within minutes, I managed to get screamed at by the prickly bartender and have a beer spilled on me. On a later visit, a blonde bartender pegged me in the eye with an ice cube, and a girl puked on my shoes. Little has changed. Unlike most dive bars in Philadelphia, which go through waves of cliques and trends (Bob & Barbara's is a good case in point), McGlinchey's is still the same old school McGlinchey's it was back in the good old days when every bar in the city allowed you to light up. And the cast of regulars that bellies up to the bar each night hell, each lunchtime, at this place is a study in colorful characters, so much so that Philadelphia photographer (and former McGlinchey's bartender) Sarah Stolfa won a New York Times photography contest for The Regulars, her series of pics of some of McGlinchey's most dedicated drinkers. You can have your gastropubs and trendy dive bars that have to actually try to be dive bars. Gritty, no-frills McGlinchey's is the real deal. Oh you can find all sorts of fancy beers here now, that's true... but don't worry; they still have the $3 Rolling Rock 20 oz. draft. And the jukebox is now one of those irritating play-anything models. But the bathrooms are still filthy and graffiti-covered, with barely enough room to stand up and pee (and God forbid you have to do more). You can still get a 75-cent hot dog from a crock-potted pool of questionable liquid. And if you so much as let a finger dangle into the waitress's service space at the bar, she will put a verbal beatdown on you. But that's okay. It's McGlinchey's. It's always been that way, and I, for one, hope it never changes. 259 South 15th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, mcglincheys.com.
Timecycle Couriers
I find bike riding in the city perplexing. I know people do it all the time, but the combo of swerving taxis and buses that share biking lanes provides enough excuses to keep me firmly on my feet. Jorge Brito, a veteran messenger for TimeCycle, understands. It's things like this, he says, shaking his head as we maneuver around a car illegally parked in a bike lane. Our first pickup: GreenStreet Coffee Roaster in Point Breeze, whose owner serves us java as he gives instructions for out drop. From there we bike to Rittenhouse Square, then two jobs in Kensigntown assignments Brito gets via smartphone or the radio strapped to his chest. Brito is among the two-wheeled, tattooed, messenger-bagged concrete crusaders at TimeCycle who have long kept the city's daily commerce (Stephen Starr's latest menus, an architect's plans, important legal contracts) reliably moving, at the fast pace that life and Philadelphia demands. We cut through gritty neighborhoods, ride against the occasional one-way street seasoned bike messengers know how to get around. Brito, 31, used to work as a teacher in North Philly. He says the key to delivery is keeping tabs on your packages, and on the errant car doors and oblivious drivers. There was a time when he didn't wear a helmet, and got a shattered collarbone and a brain hemorrhage in return. He wears a helmet now. Keeping up with him is literally an uphill battle. My legs burn as I flip through gears; I battle a bat-out-of-hell driver; a miniv<pan cuts me off. Brito just glides along. He'll cover anywhere between 25 and 50 miles on a typical day. Not many people get to do a job that they love to do, he says. I don't wake up and say, 'Oh I gotta go to work.' I wake up and say, 'Yeah, let's go.' 230 North 2nd Street, Suite 1C, Philadelphia, PA 19106, timecycle.com.