Guapos
Tacos
Food on
Wheels
You can tell a lot about a
city by its street food
Philadelphia has always had its fair share of
decent street food, but options were largely
limited to greasy egg-and-cheese sandwiches
or paper plates brimming with rice and sesame
chicken. In the past few years, however, enough
newfangled food trucks—the kind with Twitter feeds followed closely by a growing army
of food bloggers—have taken to the streets to
merit the city’s first Vendy Awards in
2011. (The event started in New York
City in 2005.)
Some of the newcomers
include Guapos Tacos, the Mexico City–inspired truck introduced in 2010 by Iron Chef
Jose Garces (often parked at
LOVE Park; @guapostacos);
La Copine, a weekend brunch cart (209
Poplar St.; @PhilaCopine); and Sugar Philly,
specializing in cupcakes and French macarons
( sugarphillytruck.com; @sugarphilly).
ave
Date
FRANKLIN SQUARE
Mini Golf
the
Ongoing
A miniature golf
course within city
limits? That’s right.
And within shouting
distance of a carousel,
a playground with
separate areas for dif-
ferent ages and Square-
Burger’s unparalleled
Tastykake milkshakes.
historicphiladelphia.org/
franklin-square
AROUND THE CIT Y
FiberPhiladelphia
March 2–April 14
Citywide venues host
exhibitions, workshops
and community projects to celebrate fiber
and textile art during
FiberPhiladelphia. The
festival embraces a wide
range of disciplines,
including surface design
and 3-D structures.
fiberphiladelphia.org
CITY GUIDE
Philadelphia
For additional event, attraction,
restaurant and hotel information,
go to arrivecityguides.com
Garces, who runs eight restaurants in
Philadelphia, approaches the truck much as
he approached the Iron Chef competition.
“There’s no décor, no bar,” he says, “nothing to
distract from the food, so it better be good.”
Despite this new generation, Philadel-
phians remain true to the old-timers, which
continue to attract long lines at lunch hour.
Some favorites are King of Falafel (16th Street
and JFK Boulevard), whose Syrian owners,
former electrical engineers, have been making
hummus and falafel from scratch for 22 years.
Magic Carpet Foods’ a;ordable vegetarian fare
has been a University City staple since the ’80s
(34th and Walnut streets; magiccarpetfoods.
com). One benefit of the classic trucks: Unlike
the newer ones that are often roving around,
you always know
exactly where they
stand.
Sugar Philly’s
colorful truck
Wild Art Ahead
Road trip! As Phila-
delphia’s art scene
grows, gallery dis-
tricts continue to
evolve
on the
fringes
of the
city and closer
to areas of town
where artists can
a;ord to keep
studios. Starting
in March, Libby
Rosof and Roberta
Fallon, founders of
Artblog, will pack a
dozen or so people
into a van every
month to explore
these new frontiers
outside of Center
City and Old City.
In case you miss
it, the three-hour
Art Safaris will be
documented and
posted online. The
idea, after all, is to
connect new audi-
ences with new art.
March ;, ; p.m.;
April ;;, noon.
theartblog.org.
RITTENHOUSE
Let’s Pretend
We’re Famous
March 6–25
Let’s Pretend We’re Married, the comedy cabaret
by Jennifer Childs and
Tony Braithwaite, got
rave reviews for being
“fresh and free of cliché.” If they can give
marriage a new, funny
take, imagine what
they’ll do with this walk
down the red carpet.
1812productions.org
LOGAN CIRCLE
The Academy at
200: The Nature
of Discovery
Opens March 24
A grandiose birthday
party opens the Academy of Natural Sciences’
yearlong bicentennial
exhibition that explores
how scientists discover
new species and how
humans are a ;ecting
our environment.
ansp.org
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA
Michael
Jackson: The
Immortal World
Tour
April 10–11
Celebrate the King of
Pop’s legacy through
his own music, with
choreography by Cirque
du Soleil, in a produc-
tion that’s billed as “a
riveting fusion of visu-
als, dance, music and
fantasy.” wellsfargo
centerphilly.com
