Midtown Lunch

a. kitchen and a. bar sit on the corner of 18th and Walnut. Rittenhouse Square is just 2 crosses of the street away. I was invited to try the lunch at a.bar and I was eager for the opportunity to pretend to be classy for an hour while people watching and possibly day drinking.

The $15 express lunch includes a rotating sandwich and side. The week I visited, it was a grilled cheese on High Street bread and potato salad. When you put anything on High Street bread, I am going to like it. Poop sandwich? Fine, if its on High Street bread. But this wasn’t poop, it was delicious melty local cheddar cheese with heirloom tomatoes. Grilled cheese always taste better when someone else makes it.

Other express lunches have featured duck tacos with potato soup- check out the weekly deal before you go.

A regular menu item, the grilled Branzino ($24) , is a real beaut- half crispy skin, half delicate, white flesh (that’s how people describe fish, right?) The grilled romaine with ample parm flakes and croutons was a lovely side. I’d eat a bowl of that.

While I am not a vodka person, the “Orange Catholic” with vodka, orange and hibiscus seemed to suit the corner table situation we were bestowed. And with pink vodka drink in hand, I could almost pass for a classy girl.

a. bar, 135 S 18th St, 215 825-7030