Terror Behind the Walls Dinner Package

Terror Behind the Walls (Dinner Package) Fairmount/Philadelphia.

Eastern State and Terror Behind the Walls:
http://www.easternstate.org/halloween

Jack's Firehouse:
http://www.jacksfirehouse.com/Home/tabid/54/Default.aspx

Terror Behind the Walls and Fairmount have a Dinner Package that is worth checking out if you're nto both haunted houses and food.  If you live in or near Philadelphia, you must check out Terror Behind the Walls around the Halloween season.

A $65 dollar package gets you a four course meal at a Fairmount restaurant, we chose Jack's Firehouse.  This is followed by a rapid pass which allows you to bypass the line after you finish your meal and a ticket into Terror Behind the Walls.  The only downside we experienced was that everyone was battling a food coma as we made our way through the adventure.  Luckily Terror Behind the Walls is very well done and kept our attention even through our fooditis.

Considering tickets for the event itself runs around 40 dollars and you get to bypass everyone who is in line, it's not a bad deal.  For those of you who enjoy the "VIP" experience, this might be the way to go.

Devil's Alley (Restaurant Week)

Devil's Alley (Restaurant Week)
1907 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 751-0707
http://www.devilsalleybarandgrill.com/


Devil's Alley is one of those places that I usually stop by with friends after a Happy Hour for dinner.  After Happy Hour this week after much debate and difficulties in finding a table anywhere, as it was restaurant week, a fact that we forgot, we settled on Devil's Alley.

We walked in and realized they also had a restaurant week menu.  Being the second to last day, three-fourths of our party decided to partake.  With most restaurant week menus, portions are toned down; this was not the case.  The photos below may reveal that this was a bit of an epic meal in terms of quantity of food.  We may have a bit of an eating problem.

Pumpkin (Philadelphia, PA)

Pumpkin (Philadelphia, PA)
215-545-4448
1713 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146
http://pumpkinphilly.com/restaurant/

Hours
Tuesday-Sunday
5:30pm-10:00pm

A college friend of mine was in town for some business.  A min-reunion was in order so I made reservations at Pumpkin.  It happened to be restaurant week and I had heard many good reviews. 

The restaurant is small and intimate.  I used Open-Table and the restaurant called to confirm my reservation the night before.  Pumpkin is also a BYOB so I packed a bottle of wine, a malbec, into my camera bag and off we went.

The food was quite good.  Everything was well presented and plated well.  The Tomato amuse bouche was more than a bite, but personally I prefer a more genrous amuse so it worked out.  As is tradition with my friends, everything we ordered that was different was shared.  Amusingly we all settled on the duck so only the duck entre was sampled.  The  desserts were a nice conclusion to the meal.

Pumpkin definitely met the hype and I would highly recommend it as a destination for an intimate meal with a few friends, or a fun date meal.

I was also amused and a bit surprised that the owner followed up with me after I made a few comments on the meal on my card and at open table.  These little touches distinguish them from some other places I have tried in Philadelphia.  I'll be sure to stop by another time.



BYOB

New Noche

Noche (Center City Philadelphia)
1901 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19103

PHONE: 215.568.0551
FAX: 215.568.0582
EMAIL: info@fcm215.com

http://www.nochephilly.com/

Noche has a new identity as a Mexican Restaurant.  As a graduate student, Noche was home to half price pizzas and a surprisingly good beer special.  Grad students in CC may mourne this loss.

The decor remains largely unchanged.  The space is still nice and the flat screen tv is now gone.  We sampled the food and new margaritas.  There are 6 to choose from and come in at 5 dollars.  The beer specials are now much more limited.

Bring back the pizza and beer and the restaurant will probably see more clientelle. I don't think patrons would be opposed to keeping the new margaritas and the add on of the mexican food.  Unfortunately for them El Rey is just down the street and Qdoba, sad to say, is decent competition.

Queso Fundido with Chorizo

Hibiscus Margarita

Apple Picking Linvilla Orchards

Linvilla Orchards

http://linvilla.com/pick_your_own/pick_your_own.php

For anyone in the mood to go Apple Picking, Linvilla might suit your fancy.
Apples are 1.79 per lb.  Not terribly cheap I know but its more about the adventure of walking around and picking your own apples.  There's a decent selection although some of the rows are a bit stripped from all the pickers by now and certain apples types have been more sought after than others but all in all still a good time.

Be sure to check out their farmers market for other produce.  If you change your mind and decide you do want other types of apples they have all of them availible for sale cleaned and bundled for you with a slight price increase.

Other activities include: pumpkin land, a hay ride, tour, and food.

 

 

Chinatown Night Market

The Chinatown Night Market occured on Oct. 4th.  I have never seen that many non Chinese or asians in Chinatown.

It was fun to see Chinatown so alive on a weeknight with foodtrucks and mostly college aged to young professionals.  Unfortunately getting food took longer than expected so I ended up grabbing a meal in a restaurant, Penang to be exact.

Photos follow below:

Yuengling Toast

Yuengling Toast.

As a native Philadelphian, Yuengling holds a special place in my heart.  It's tasty and reasonably priced. It was a beer that I missed when I was in college up in New England.

On Friday, September 28th, Yuengling celebrated Philadelphia for helping to make it the largest American owned brewery with a free beer and a toast at 6:30pm at over 250 bars.

Free beer and a brewery that I like meant that I obviously participated.  One of the Yuengling daughters was at McGillins and was there to offer free beers and Yuengling glasses.  Cheers!