Where four of the Phillies love to eat in Philly

Ask one of the Phillies for a favorite restaurant, and you might hear one of your own — or at least one from a critic’s best-of list.

Pitchers Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler, queried through a team representative, included Vetri Cucina — Philadelphia’s most-honored Italian restaurant, which serves a $165-per-person fixed-price menu — on their lists of favored dining destinations.

Vetri was Wheeler’s “fancy” choice. He also enjoys Cheu Fishtown, an Asian-inspired bar-restaurant, when he is after a “chill” experience, and the landmark Tacconelli’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond for pizza night.

Nola’s tastes include Japanese food, as he listed the intimate Hiroki in Fishtown and the romantic Double Knot in Center City. He also enjoys Barbuzzo, a stylish Mediterranean bar-restaurant, and Butcher & Singer, a posh steak house, in Center City, as well as the sultry Suraya in Fishtown, whose menu is inspired by Lebanon.

He also enjoys South Philadelphia’s Scannicchio’s, which caters meals in the clubhouse. Manager Marc Varalli said Nola particularly likes the sacchetti cheese and pear pasta in honey Parmesan cream sauce.

“He calls them ‘money bags,’” Varalli said.

Manager Rob Thomson, who seems like a low-key fellow, enjoys the Saloon, the intimate, old-school Italian steak house in Bella Vista, the team said.

Catcher Garrett Stubbs, the sparkplug behind the team’s raucous clubhouse celebrations, favors Barclay Prime, a fairly subdued steak house on Rittenhouse Square that is known for its $140 cheesesteak (wagyu rib eye, foie gras, onions, and truffled cheese sauce, served with a half-bottle of Champagne).

Phillies slugger Bryce Harper invested in the Blind Barber, a cocktail lounge tucked behind a barbershop near City Hall. (The follicly gifted first baseman had been scouted for the venture just before he signed with the Phillies.)

There’s a roster of Philadelphia restaurants that provide catering to the team at Citizens Bank Park, including Puyero, a Queen Village arepas shop that is popular among the team’s Venezuelan players.

In an earlier, pre-pandemic era, Phillies were active players on the city’s nightlife scene. Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick started dating his wife, former Survivor star Stephenie LaGrossa, when she owned the erstwhile Old City bar GiGi. Left fielder Pat Burrell was a regular at the now-shuttered Rittenhouse location of the Irish Pub, and was known to frequent the old Continental in Old City and the after-hours Pen & Pencil Club in Center City, among numerous others.

Vetri’s Jeff Benjamin said his restaurant has a place in the Phillies’ 2008 World Series run against the Tampa Bay Rays. On Oct. 27, foul weather forced the suspension of Game 5 in the sixth inning. Oct. 28 was an off-night to await clearer weather, and “not for nothing, Chase and Jen Utley ate with us that night, and we know the result,” Benjamin said. “Just sayin’.”

For those who don’t know the result: As play resumed on Oct. 29, Utley delivered perhaps his most stunning feat as a second baseman. With two outs in the seventh inning, a runner on second, Akinori Iwamura hit a grounder up the middle. Utley backhanded the ball, faked a throw to first, wheeled to his right, and fired to catcher Carlos Ruiz to nail the Rays’ Jason Bartlett at home plate. Saved the game, and the Phillies clinched the series two innings later.

The power of pasta.