Likes & Likes

What happens to the banners that hung from streetlamps in Center City, welcoming visitors to Philadelphia and promoting cultural events? They usually pile up in storage. But now, Philadelphia’s Center City District has found a way to recycle them as hand-made tote bags - no two are alike.

All manufacturing is done right here in Philadelphia by two nonprofit work rehabilitation programs: the banners are cleaned by Philacor, a vocational program in the Philadelphia Department of Corrections, and then another non-profit vocational program, Baker Industries, makes the cleaned banners into the totes.

Currently, the bags are available at Open House at 107 South 13th Street, the Pennsylvania General Store at the Reading Terminal Market, and the PAFA online and retail store at 128 North Broad Street.

Philagrafika is Philadelphia’s city-wide international festival created to celebrate printmaking in contemporary art. It was conceived by a consortium of print curators and artists to build audience and visibility for the area’s print community. Opening weekend starts this Friday the 29th, and the festival extends all the way into May (see the calendar of events).

The events planned for the festival will explore the role of printmaking in shaping contemporary visual culture around the world. Almost every major Philadelphia art institution is participating - the exhibition now involves more than 300 artists for events and exhibitions to be held at more than 80 venues throughout the city. Philagrafika is being billed as one of the largest art events in the US and “the world’s most important print-related exposition”.

For more information and events, see the official website.

A friend forwarded this to my attention. It’s a new shop called Big Green Earth Store on Philadelphia’s South Street where you can bring your own empty bottles and refill them with locally-produced Sun & Earth (of Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen fame) natural cleaners. You pay by the ounce. So far the list includes laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid and packs, all-purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, fabric softener and hand soap. For more information. check out their website.

Growing up, I vividly remember the burning barrels keeping workers warm in the Italian Market during the long, bleak Philly winters (see here and here for examples). Well, designer John Briscella has created this Philadelphia Outdoor Barrel Fireplace,which harkens back to those makeshift urban firepits. He both updates the exterior and at the same time mimics the holes and cracks created in the barrels by laser-cutting the city’s grid into the walls. Interesting. Via PSFK.

Continuing on the sandwich kick from a few posts ago, the girl and I decided to finally get to the bottom of all the buzz surrounding Paesano’s, a new sandwich shop straddling the line between Northern Liberties and Fishtown in Philadelphia.

Fist off, we’re talking hoagies here. Not subs. Not heroes. Hoagies, a long time Philadelphia tradition (see here for etymology). So you can imagine the gravity of the situation when critics began calling this newcomer a maker of the best hoagie in the city. A bold statement, and one that the girl and I had to put to the test.

Paesano’s is small, no frills, straight-forward. It’s located directly across the street from big sister restaurant Modo Mio, a wonderful italian BYO (and a Likes and Likes favorite). They only have a few sandwiches listed on the chalkboard menu, and only a few seats in the restaurant itself. But the names and descriptions sounded wonderful, and we were eager to order.

First up, the Daddy Wad. This is the Paesano’s take on the traditional Italian hoagie. Pretty standard looking from the outside, but there’s a few interesting twists. The ingredients are high-quality and really fresh, something you notice right away when you watch the Italian hoagie being prepared. No shredded iceberg here. Handfuls of whole fresh arugla. Thick tomato slices. Just the right amount of meats, sliced thin. Also, the ends of the bread are cut off (and saved for bread crumb duty across the street) and some of the bread is removed from the inner top half of the roll. Small touches that make a difference when you’re eating the sandwich.

We also picked up the Arista, which is a take on another Philly standard - the roast pork sandwich. Again, the same small touches: broccoli rabe cut into manageable chunks. The top half of the bread torn out to provide the right ratio of bread to filling. A hearty portion of shredded pork and au jus.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, the whole experience was marred by one incredibly important flawed ingredient: the bread. Soggy. Soggy! While we didn’t eat our sandwiches right at the counter, we drove five minutes to the house and ate them right away. We both expected the roast pork to be a little bit moist, what with the au jus, but even the bread on the relatively dry hoagie began to disintegrate after only a few bites.

While this may seem a bit like picking nits, when you have purveyors of quite possibly the best bread in the known world right here in Philadelphia, there really isn’t an excuse for anything sub-par… especially when being touted as a best sandwich maker.

Maybe we were both a little misled by the hype. Honestly, the sandwiches are good, and we will most certainly be back in the future.But all in all, while the sandwiches were really tasty, we here at Likes and Likes came away a bit underwhelmed.

Paesano’s
152 W. Girard Ave.
267-886-9556

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program in collaboration with artist Steve Powers, are in the midst of an ambitious mural series that spans 50 walls and rooftops along the city’s Market-Frankford elevated train line titled, “Love Letter.” In addition to the murals that will stretch between 63rd and 45th street on Market Street, a film, sign school and two publications documenting the project, are in works.

Above are photos of a few of the completed murals thus far. I really like the graphic quality of the work and the playfulness of the freeformed type. I’m also happy at the energy and attention this is bringing to West Philadelphia.

The full love letter will be on display Labor Day.