Restaurant Details

Neighborhood Italian restaurants are thick on the ground in Philly, but people from all over the city hop on the Broad Street line for Scannicchio’s. It’s the kind of unassuming, friendly “post-red gravy” BYOB that you wish was on your block, perfect for a low-key weeknight celebration or for catching up with an old friend over a heap of penne. It hits the classics without breaking a sweat, serving excellent clams casino, fantastic meatballs, and a bone-in veal Parmesan that’s the right amount of crispy-to-saucy. With love and respect to the Villa and Dante’s set, the food here is more delicious than any of the older red sauce stalwarts farther north. Servings are appropriately mountainous, and the red gravy is simmered for hours with pig’s feet and bone marrow, giving it a pleasing richness. The waiters have no qualms about correcting your order if they feel like you’re going astray — “it’s July, get the Caprese,” one advised us, and he was right.