Having a ball at a hot nightclub | Let’s Eat

Chuck E. Cheese may be the place where a kid can be a kid, but Concourse Dance Bar is a place where an adult can be a kid. We take you to Center City’s most fun-loving club. Also this week: We tell you the region’s best bubble tea outlets, take you on a tour of Manayunk, and show off a dog park with a bar. Or is that a bar with a dog park?

⬇️ Read on for a quiz and restaurant news.

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— Mike Klein

The owner of Concourse Dance Bar had one goal: to become “a place for people where they could just be who they are and kind of celebrate being alive.” To that end, writes colleague Henry Savage, Avram Hornik installed a ball pit, with neon balls. Talk about lit.

On the far more chill side, colleague Jenn Ladd visits The Hayes, a moody, comfy reinterpretation of the former Irish Pub in Washington Square West from Townsend Wentz. It may be an American tavern, he says, but “in lieu of mozzarella sticks, I figured we’d put scallops on the menu.”

Manayunk, which for a quarter-century has been one of Philly’s hipper neighborhoods, is rocking a wholesome hustle and bustle. Let colleague Hira Qureshi take you on a tour of Main Street.

Bark Social, an outdoor dog park combined with an indoor bar for people, opened in Manayunk this week. It’s the first of its kind in the area. The 30 self-service beer taps and dog food menu will have tails wagging.

Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival is set for Sunday. Music and shopping go along with a roster of restaurants and trucks.

Bubble tea has come a long way here. Colleague Hira Qureshi reports that Philadelphia is second only to Chicago in growth in boba shops over the last three years. Get yourself a straw and check her guide to top bubble tea and boba shops in the region.

Samuel’s, the deli-ish restaurant on the street level above Giuseppe & Sons (1523 Sansom St.), has shut down after eight months. A rep for the Schulson Collective said only that it’s “closed for renovations for a few weeks” and that Giuseppe & Sons is unaffected. In his review in November, critic Craig LaBan kvelled about the food while noting two previous “concept misfires” at the space (Italian luncheonette and pizzeria). “But Samuel’s has seamlessly repurposed the nostalgic decor of pendant lights, tufted booths, and tiled floors into a buzzy brunch niche in Center City, where the lunchtime mojo has struggled elsewhere to return.” 🔑

Latin-inspired dining near Rittenhouse Square, unavailable since the pandemic shutdown of Alma de Cuba, has reemerged with last weekend’s opening of Bolo from chef Yun Fuentes and the partners from MilkBoy. There’s a romantic bar specializing in rum on the first floor. A skylit dining room on the second floor of 2025 Sansom St. Menu spans the Caribbean, Central America, and South America with ceviches, piscolabis (snacks), pinchos (skewered meats and vegetables), cuchifritos (fried foods), verduras (vegetables), platillos (main dishes), desserts, and Latin-style coffees, and the flip-up front window exposing a four-seat bar creates a cool street scene. 🔑

Bolo, 2025 Sansom St. Hours: 4-10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 4 p.m.-midnight Thursday-Saturday.

South Jersey’s small complement of French restaurants just increased by one with this month’s opening of Cafe le Jardin in Audubon, a sunny, casual cafe/brasserie from chef Richard Cusack, who with his wife, Christine, also owns the more buttoned-up June BYOB in nearby Collingswood.

The Cusacks, who took over the former Smoke BBQ, are doing pastries and croissants at opening, and proper breakfasts and brunch-ie foods (including luscious omelets, quiche Lorraine, French toast, and rich French onion soup) from 10 a.m. At 5 p.m., the dinner menu kicks in with trout amandine, chicken quenelle, and steak frites (at $33, that’s the top price). It’s BYOB, and there’s a sizable patio.

Cafe le Jardin, 34 W. Merchant St., Audubon. Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday to Monday.

The thought of 4/20 causes restaurateurs and snackers to light up — with ideas. This is the Big Jac, a special at the delivery-only Jackass Burrito, available only from Thursday to Saturday. It’s like a Big Mac in burrito form: a smash burger with American cheese, special sauce, shredded lettuce, crunchy sesame bread croutons, and curly fries. Other great burritos? Let’s go to South Philly, where critic Craig LaBan likes the Aztec (with pork and nopals) at El Jarocho (1138 S. 13th St.), while I’m a fan of the customizable Cali burrito from Juana Tamale (1941 E. Passyunk Ave.), which I get with fried seitan, crinkle fries, refried beans, cheese, and Juana Sauce.

Earth Day: Help cut food waste by downloading the Too Good to Go app. Restaurants and other food businesses list their daily leftovers, and customers can snap up a meal deal for as little as $5.

To mark the birthday of Rome (Friday, April 21), Francesco and Alison Crovetti of Rione pizzeria in Center City will give out cacio e pepe ciottolino (breaded pasta squares filled with spaghetti, mozzarella, pecorino, and black pepper) to the first 100 customers, starting at 11:30 a.m., at 100½ S. 21st St. The Crovettis opened in 2017 and later moved next door.

And finally: An off-duty Philadelphia police officer is accused of stopping at Stratus, the rooftop bar at the Hotel Monaco, for a late-night bite. This was not happy hour, police allege.

A popular, regally named Philly cheesesteak shop is opening a location in Wildwood. Which one?

A) Steve’s Prince of Steaks

B) Pat’s King of Steaks

C) Mark’s Marquess of Queso

D) The Duke of Oil

Find out if you know the answer.

Which restaurant has the best bathroom? —@t_roland16

“The one with no line” is what I’d say. There are all kinds of “best,” and Philly is flush with options, aside from the predictably bougie loos at hotel-restaurants. The fire-engine-red one at LMNO in Fishtown/Kensington, which will admit you to the restaurant’s secret bar, is cool. There’s the multicolor mosaic-tiled one at Cogito Coffee in Washington Square West. There’s the subway-tiled restroom lined with antique photos at Hop Sing Laundromat, where it’s tempting to break the Chinatown bar’s no-photo rule. (Some have, above.) The Instagram account @sittingovationsphl was created to rate public WCs, but it seems to be out of odor. My all-time eyebrow-raiser was at Paradigm, restau-bar in Old City in the 1990s that had three stalls with clear glass doors that fogged up only when locked. Late some nights, they’d be occupied by people who didn’t click the latch, redefining the concept of “dinner and a show.”

Have any candidates for best bathrooms? Drop me a line.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com.

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