Pierre Robert’s heaven: A nice queenly brunch followed by coffee at Rittenhouse Square
The WMMR rock jock, who's been a staple on the Philly airwaves for four decades, needs your Chinese food recs.
Pierre Robert’s Philadelphia story started at a Center City restaurant.
Robert had recently moved east from California and was hoping to find his way onto the air on the radio in Philly when he had a chance encounter with WMMR-FM (93.3) program director Joe Bonadonna at the Astral Plane, the long-gone eatery at 17th and Lombard.
That bump-into led to a run at ‘MMR that has lasted 42 years at the enduring rock station, and is now scheduled to include four more, since the mid-day host signed a four-year contract extension last month.
Robert lives in Gladwyne and the station’s studios are in Bala Cynwyd, so he doesn’t dine out downtown as much as he used to as he did when ‘MMR’s offices were at 19th and Walnut.
“I’m not as in tune with Center City restaurants as I once was, which disappoints me,” says Robert, 68. “But one real standby for me is El Vez, which of course is one of Stephen Starr’s places.”
Forgive Robert if he digresses, but he’d like to reminisce for a moment about Starr’s music business past.
“When I first came here, he was just closing his club Starr’s [at Second and Bainbridge] and had opened the Ripley on South Street.”
U2, Joan Jett, the Ramones, and the Replacements played the Ripley Music Hall in the early 1980s, and Bruce Springsteen once joined Clarence Clemons and the Red Bank Rockers on stage.
“The Ripley used to be a men’s clothing store, it was a place you would buy an overcoat or a fedora,” Robert says. “When Stephen took it over, he didn’t rename it because he didn’t have enough money to change the sign. He was really down on his luck, and now he’s such an American success story. He’s got the touch with a lot of restaurants.”
And now, back to El Vez.
“El Vez to me is just great fun. Coming in on a Saturday night and hopping over there, I’ll have a margarita or a Negro Modelo and some nachos. The food is always good. It’s not gourmet per se, but it’s fun and like a big party and very festive there.”
Robert also likes to hang around his old ‘MMR stomping grounds around Rittenhouse Square. He returned to broadcast from the site of the original studio — now a law firm’s office — in 2015 to celebrate the station’s 47th anniversary.
“It’s my favorite neighborhood and I’ve kind of never gotten over not being there,” he says. “I love the restaurants adorning the square, and I’ll often go and have brunch at Rouge or Devon. I love escapism and spy novels and stuff like that, so I’ll just go and have a nice queenly brunch and then go sit on the square with a cup of La Colombe. It’s like heaven to me.”
Off the Square, “there are a number of other ones I like, some Japanese places. I went to Double Knot the other night, which I really liked. I liked the whole vibe there when you go downstairs. I’m a vegetarian, so when I go out to a non-vegetarian place the choices tend to be limited.”
His favorite vegetarian place?
“Vedge,” he says. “That is a gourmet vegetarian restaurant. I’ve taken a lot of heavy meat eaters there and they’ve loved it. It’s in the site of Deux Cheminees on Locust Street, which was a legendary French restaurant in Philadelphia a little before my time, though I did eat there once when I first got to town.”
But back to Vedge.
“Vedge is an old house” — two adjoining townhouses, one designed by Frank Furness, actually — “and its a great place with amazing food and really nice people.”
Then Robert says he’s in need of some restaurant tips.
“I’m always on the lookout for a great Chinese restaurant in the city, though I have not found one lately. Margaret Kuo’s out on the Main Line is one I’ve eaten at before.”
In the early days of his 42-year tenure at ‘MMR, Robert was a regular at many of the eateries that were part of what was known as the Restaurant Renaissance.
“All these places that popped up before I got here: Frog, and the Commissary, and Knave of Hearts, this really great place on 2nd and South. I just loved that place. They had the best gazpacho I ever had. That and Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which I guess is the only survivor from that era. I haven’t been to the new version of it yet. But it’s on my list.”