June 24-30, 2004

summer restaurant guide

Dining Out

CHIPS ON YOUR SHOULDER: For ease of carrying, pack up your snacks compactly, as with this hamper supplied by Picnic. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Take to the streets, the parks and the city's purveyors for picnics that are memorable and infinitely varied.

by Alex Koppelman

The Oxford English Dictionary says that the word picnic first appeared in 1748, meaning, "A fashionable social entertainment in which each person present contributed a share of the provisions."

Picnics have certainly gone through a few incarnations since then. Nearly all of us have some sort of inkling of what a picnic should be, even just a picture in the mind. It could be the idealized version of the impressionist painters, all dolled-up Europeans in clothing that looks impossibly confining and too well-starched to allow its wearers to actually reach the ground. It could be a family enjoying hot fried chicken still in the box while Fido and the kids play Frisbee. A lunch at the picnic tables in a local park, or a winter meal in front of the fireplace. Or it could just be Yogi Bear asking, as always, about the contents of that pic-a-nick basket.

Maybe it's the ever-faster pace of American food culture, that ever-present culprit, or maybe it's the wave of barbeque and grilling that has swept the country, but it seems that you just don't hear much about Americans picnicking anymore, and that's a crying shame. That's especially true in Philadelphia, where picnic options abound, both in terms of where to go and what to eat. And with summer, the prime picnicking season, having just started, now's the time to try it. So with that in mind, here's a guide to picnicking. Get out there, kids — sunlight is good for you.

Where to Go

Anne-Marie Lasher, chef and co-owner of Picnic, a University City prepared foods store, believes a picnic is anything involving eating food on the floor. "I think it can be anything," she says. "Sitting on the floor with a box of strawberries and a brownie is a picnic." So you're welcome to just clear away the table and sit and eat on your kitchen floor, but you might as well take advantage of the abundant flora and fauna in Philadelphia and its environs.

Fairmount Park, our 9,100-acre park, should be one of your first destinations. The park encompasses far more than most people believe. More than just the area around Kelly Drive, the park actually runs throughout the city.

Those who don't mind crowds can check out any of the city's five squares: Franklin, Logan, Penn, Rittenhouse and Washington squares are spread out through the city. Center City's Rittenhouse, Logan and Penn squares are the most well-known, but the others are worth a try too. Franklin Square, in Old City, has plenty of benches to sit on, as well as monuments to Ben Franklin and the city's police and firefighters. Washington Square, originally the gravesite of 2,000 soldiers of the Revolutionary War, is a popular spot on the weekdays for people in Old City on a lunch break.

Nearly all of the outdoor areas of Fairmount Park are open to picnickers. Try the old standards around Kelly Drive, Valley Green Park along the Wissahickon or the Whispering Bench at Smith Civil War Memorial, a long bench where a person sitting at one end can whisper and still be heard by a friend or lover at the other end. Also popular is the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, which is happy to supply you with a picnic at one of its concerts and also lets you bring your own, if you prefer.

Don't feel bound by the borders of Center City, either. There are plenty of destinations in the outer reaches of Philadelphia, as well as beyond. Blue Marsh Lake offers a 25-mile bike trail and a beach. Wissahickon Park's 1,800 acres provide plenty of places to explore before and after your picnic. Chester County's Brandywine Picnic Park has rides, miniature golf and tubing, but it's not a spot for a spur-of-the-moment picnic, catering more to groups with reservations.

Some people may not know it, but one of the new hot spots for vineyards here in the U.S. is Pennsylvania, and some of our local vineyards offer tours and picnic opportunities. The Adams County Winery's location near Gettysburg makes it an ideal spot to leave the tourists behind for a quieter meal, while the Brandywine Valley's Chaddsford Winery offers wines that are just a little different: The grapes sit on the vine a little longer and the wine is aged differently than most, giving the vineyard's wines a richer quality.

What to Bring

The Pic-a-Nick Basket: Look, you could just pack all your food into a plastic bag from Wawa, complete with more plastic (plates, forks and cups, that is) from a similar convenience store. Or you could ride in style. You may not want to shell out the money if you're only planning on dining al fresco once in a blue moon, but if you want to make a regular thing out of it, the proliferation of Web sites selling picnic gear on the Internet makes the whole thing seem downright economical. Try www.picnicperfect.com and www.heirloomgiftbazaar.com for a selection of picnic equipment ranging from the practical to the, well, somewhat over the top. (A wine and cheese cooler? Come on.)

The Food: There are as many schools of thought concerning the proper food for a picnic as there are about the proper location. Europeans generally shy away from what we here might consider a proper meal, preferring to bring a mix of different foods — breads, cheeses, meats and fruits and vegetables — and let the picnickers pick their poison. Some of Philadelphia's picnic gurus agree.

"People always ask me why I don't serve hamburgers and hot dogs," Lasher says. "I grew up in Europe for a couple years, though, so that's not my idea of a picnic." Ed Sciamanna, the owner of Reading Terminal Market's Salumeria, is not a typical picnicker. "I don't like to eat outside. I don't like bugs," he admits, sheepishly, "but if I were to have a picnic inside, I would probably bring a baguette, maybe some pâté de campagne — a French peasant's pate, some nice goat cheese, a tomato and onion salad with a good vinaigrette and maybe some boiled shrimp with mayonnaise."

Particularly useful are Philadelphia's two main markets, Reading Terminal Market and the Italian Market. In Reading Terminal Market, a baguette from Le Bus, some cheese from Salumeria, some prosciutto from Martin's Quality Meats & Sausage and dessert from Beiler's Bakery practically guarantees eternal happiness. Or pick from a selection of prepared Mediterranean-style foods at Mezze and finish with chocolate-covered pretzels (or, for the truly adventurous, a chocolate-covered onion) from Chocolate by Mueller — either way, it's all good. Vegetarians can be happy, too, with the Basic Four Vegetarian Snack Bar's soups, sandwiches and other vegetarian specialties.

The Italian Market isn't strictly an Italian market anymore, and while that has proven a little controversial, we're not complaining, as long as Taqueria Veracruzana is around. This affordable Mexican restaurant offers filling, authentic Mexican food on the cheap and on-the-go. We would be remiss, though, if we didn't recommend some of the old favorites as well. Try Sarcone's for a classic hoagie, D'Angelo Bros. for all sorts of assorted meats and Isgro Pastries for ultra-good tiramisu and cannoli.

Almost as good as any market is the stretch of 18th Street between Walnut and Chestnut. Practically abutting Rittenhouse Square, these two blocks are full of good picnic food sources. Start off with one of over 300 cheeses from Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese, and a few prepared salads from their other branch, Pronto, just up the street. You can grab bread at either place, or head to Le Bus' Center City location. If you're feeling particularly healthy, pick up fruit to round off your meal from Sue's Fruit, a place whose produce is so fresh that the smell of it hangs in the air, or, for the less diet-conscious, there's always Scoop De Ville's luxurious ice cream cones.

Thankfully, not every picnic needs to be so labor intensive, especially not in a city so devoted to the art of the proper hoagie. The old standards are still the best: John's Roast Pork for, you guessed it, roast pork; Campo's for a mean chicken cutlet hoagie, and well, as for a good cheesesteak — we'll stay out of that fight, thanks very much.

Of course, nearly anything can be a picnic, and there are other time-honored picnic foods that can't be forgotten. Fried chicken, for one — get it from Delilah's at Reading Terminal Market or 30th Street Station and you can side it with the macaroni and cheese that Oprah Winfrey, whose love of food has been well-documented, called the nation's best. And the many city establishments with catering services means a wide variety of other foods is available, with a little foresight on your part.

The Booze: Yes, folks, that's right — you can drink outdoors, at least in certain places, without so much as a brown paper bag. "The attitude of Fairmount Park," says former Fairmount Park Commission public information officer Tom Doyle, "has always been that alcohol is all right, as long as it's drunk responsibly." But the commission's current chief of staff, Barry Bessler, says drinking is only OK in some parts of the park. (Heed the "No alcohol" signs or call the commission for the rules in particular spots.) And despite the Liquor Control Board's best efforts, there are still a few places to get a drink in this town. Foodery offers over 500 kinds of beer, which you can mix and match into a custom six-pack, and a new state liquor store at 12th and Chestnut streets offers a wider selection of wines than ever before.

Philadelphia luminary Ben Franklin once remarked that "beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy," and if Ben was thinking of a good beer and good food outside on a hot Philadelphia summer day, we couldn't agree more.