Food For Thought

Accidentally texted my mom that I ate Pelican chicken after eating here. Also this was a Korean fried chicken restaurant, or a KFC. Environment: I think the concept of a dining hall hiding behind a draped curtain is underdone in the modern restaurant meta. Everyone is running for open-air bullshit and is too afraid to reduce ceiling space cause “we’re too cheap to hide the pipes in the ceiling so you’re just going to deal with it”. Pelicana upends this canon by not only making the ceilings ~8 feet tall, but also hiding the table area at the end of a long hallway that in any other restaurant would lead to a bathroom.  The decor was minimal, but did include a painting of a rooster and a poster that told me to “eat chicken!” I vibed with the music, which was a lively combination of old Kanye/J. Cole type hip hop. We were seated at a booth for 6; being 3 people, this blessing of space can only be a reward from the food blog gods. We ordered an entire fried chicken to split among...

Pretend you REALLY want a large, wall-scale mural of early 2000s anime and need an excuse to commission one from a legit artist. You decide that establishing a delightfully nerdy ramen bar in Chinatown, Philadelphia is the best cover. You name it Yamitsuki.    Atmosphere: You kinda REALLY like the look of smooth, light-colored wood. In fact, every wall should look like it could be the floor of a beach house, planks of sanded wood separated by small gaps. Additionally, you decide to trisect your restaurant with solid, standing walls of the same colored wood about chest height. This is a great move because even when full, the guests won’t feel too crowded. Now your guests have a place to sit, but you have nothing to serve drinks in! Luckily the science department of your nearby university bought too many 250 mL beakers recently. You’re in luck, and purchase plenty of surplus Pyrex cups for your patrons to drink from. Nerdy And Cool at an anime restaurant Now, about y...

Atmosphere: ABP is a restless intermediary situated near the front of the University Center. I say this because it is located in an indent in the wall, but does not have an open storefront. There are doors on either side, and the place feels like a shotgun shack converted into a store. The tiling and lighting create a tan glow on every surface, and the entire place feels like you’re looking at a slightly oversaturated image. There’s an open fridge on the left containing sandwiches and boiled eggs in a cup, and there’s the famed pastry wall on the right. The store’s middle has two tables with vats of soup and mac n’ cheese, and in the deepest part of the store is the ordering wall.  ABP is always filled with people coming and going, which is why it feels restless. The man eyeing the cookie shelf one moment could be paying and gone the next. Despite this, ABP has a very friendly feeling to it because you know everyone’s name. You reveal it twice, once while ordering, and ...