Midtown Lunch

This week,  Luncher John tries out the combo dealage at Percy Street’s Comcast Center location.

Percy Street Barbecue opened up on South Street in 2009, serving Texas-style barbecue to the masses. Most other area barbecue establishments specialize in other styles, such as Carolina barbecue, but Texas barbecue isn’t as common in this area of the country. Fortunately, Percy Street fills that niche well, and recently, it debuted a sandwich shop at the Comcast Center. Now, Center City workers don’t have too far to travel to sample some great barbecue.

Percy Street’s new spot is right at the entrance of the Market and Shops at the Comcast Center. The space is small, with room to place your order at one counter before picking up your drinks and dessert and paying at the other end. A server then brings you the remainder of your order, and you can eat it in the market’s seating area. It’s an efficient operation, which is a good thing considering how busy Percy Street has been since its opening.

As a huge barbecue fan, I was definitely looking forward to how the food, served typically in platters, would translate to sandwiches. Here, there are six sandwich options, including chopped brisket, pulled pork, smoked turkey, sliced brisket, spicy barbecue chicken and boneless ribs. There are also five different sides of pinto beans, collard greens, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese and vegan chili. The sandwiches are either $8 or $9, with sides at $3, but the combo allows you to pick a sandwich, side and drink for $10 (tax included). In other words, you’d be a fool to skip out on the deal (which falls right on the Midtown Lunch limit).

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As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week it’s Rachel, repping U City and looking for some vino with her lunch.

Name: Rachel

Age: 21

Occupation: Student

Where in Philly do you Work?: UPenn

Favorite Kind of Food: Mediterranean. And chocolate. Especially dark.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything orange flavored, I had a traumatic experience with orange juice when I was younger.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: the Lancaster omelet at White Dog is always extremely satisfying, especially on the weekends. Koch’s deli is also a treat when I’m super hungry.. and Pattaya’s lunch special is an incredible deal!

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Earlier this month Sammy Chon’s Korean Restaurant opened up a Philadelphia branch in Chinatown. The opening brought  much excitement to lovers of the Koagie (spicy meat sandwich), Korean fried chicken, and Korean barbeque. To make matters better, affordable lunch specials are available during the week until 3:00, which is huge because Korean bbq can sometimes be a little pricey.

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• Zento, which we reviewed last week, has officially moved and changed chefs [Meal Ticket]
• The Special K at Koch’s Deli comes with pastrami, turkey, kosher salami, corned beef, Swiss, and  homemade potato salad [Serious Eats]
• Ten stone makes a ham and cheese pretzel sandwich [Two Eat Philly]
• Serious Eats has a You Tube playlist dedicated to weird fried food [You Tube via Serious Eats]
• Eater Philly has launched this week [Eater Philly]

Today,  profiled luncher Stephanie enjoys some Belgian Tavern fare in Old City.

There’s no shortage of bars in our old city, Khyber Pass Pub and Eulogy and Khyber Pass Pub are some of the few remaining old bars in Olde City. One rainy Thursday afternoon (lunch only served Thurs-Sunday, so don’t say I didn’t warn you when you show up on a Monday), a coworker and I decided to cross Chestnut Street and head to Eulogy for a hearty pub lunch.

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Pitruco Pizza sells pizza pies from their shiny, mobile wood fired oven equipped truck. Pitruco offers 6 different pizzas ranging from $6.50 to $9. The pies are heated up and presented on a big round cardboard plate or in a box for you. A single pie is enough for a hearty lunch. It was so hard to choose from the tempting descriptions, I got two (there were leftovers, I swear).

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As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week it’s Amy, who gets to plan chili competitions and is looking for the best pork in town.

Name: Amy – Amaryllis (people know me as both)

Age: 29

Occupation: Development and EventPlanner for BigBite’s Philly Chili Bowl

Where in Philly do you Work?: 36th and Market

Favorite Kind of Food: My preferences are pretty diverse, but to be specific…I am in love with pork. That’s the love of my life. However, I have a few side mistresses: cheese,charcuterie, raw fish (oysters, ceviche) and plantains…prepared in any way,shape or form.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Cucumbers. Ginger. Liver.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Sang Kee (several locations) shrimp steamed dumplings. I prefer to hop on the El and get my dumplings from the Reading Terminal Market location. They also have a great sesame chicken. New Delhi (40th and Chestnut). Thanks to my father, I can get down with buffets. They have a great $9 buffet with the Indian staples like tikka masala and mutter paneer. You also cannot go wrong with the mango ice cream. Outside of my work area, I enjoy Mixto (12th and Pine). Almost everything on the menu is very good, but the ropa vieja is great!! Pura Vida’s (6th and Fairmount) shredded beef tacos are awesome and so are the people. Morning Glory (8th and Fitzwater) does everyting well. Great cheddar chicken sandwich. For a weekend lunch, I recommend heading north and trying Tierra Colombiana (5th and Wyoming). They, in my opinion, have the best bistec encebollado (steak and onions) in the city.
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