The food of Citizen's Bank Park

No you're not going for the food, and I'm not bothering with a coherent review. I was hungry over the course of a recent Phillies game, so I eat and drank my way around the park. I'm still pissed I missed a Ryan Howard homer by standing in line for Rick's.

First, if you pay $8 for an aluminum bottle of Bud Light, you're a moron. I don't know what sacred power that a gimmick metal bottle provides, but you can enjoy better beer (Lager, Flying Fish, Anchor I can't remember) for $6.50 (deep discount!) at brewerytown. Getting past the 2 beer limit is possible, but expensive and requires walking to multiple food stands.

The steak fight is a no contest. Rick's makes it steaks fresh, while Tony Luke's uses a lamp. I ate Tony Luke's last year, but they have not changed. Rick's are exactly like their Reading Terminal location, and I have not had a chance to go to Tony Luke's in South Philly. The longer wait in the Rick's line is worth it, even if you miss a Ryan Howard home run.

Bull's BBQ is also a tasty food stand. The pulled pork sandwich is spicy yet expensive for a kaiser roll. You can also see Greg Luszinski, he spends his time in a booth, kinda like Santa.

Finally, these items both suck and are too expensive: popcorn and fries. Buying either is futile. Buy a super pretzel or a steak.

GO PHILS

Fieldhouse Bar and Grill

Unlike Boston's, the Field House at Reading Terminal is a proper example of a sports bar. Spartan in decoration (save for memorabilia), sports playing on all TVs that aren't controlled by patrons and the beer selection is larger. I had the misfortune of going late on a Sunday, getting an early last call for my trouble. A viewing of the drinks list shows Magic Hat, Brooklyn and Victory beers; more than Boston's.

Food is standard bar fare--it's a drinking establishment, not an eatery. The fries were good, as was the burger. The only issue was the burger was too small for the given bun (where's the beef, etc.). When the bill came, my opinion of the food changed entirely. The price of $12 is too steep for this burger, $8 seems more reasonable. This bar has a decent atmosphere and menu, but the pricing makes it a bar only worth going to if you are close by and need a drink.

Twilight Diner

Loganton,PA is a sleepy little town right off an I-80 exit, and it contains a diner that servers an artery clogging guilty pleasure. The Twilight Diner seems like it could be a fancy big city retro '50's diner when you see the sign on the highway. Pulling in to the eatery presents a different picture: a standard rural Pennsylvania diner. Zero frills. Personally, it's my favorite: painted plywood walls, linoleum floor, dimly lit ceiling. It doesn't have the fancy wood paneling that the Snow Shoe diner had, and dammit, it doesn't need it. The Twilight is not a town meeting hall. It might not be an impressive place to take a date, like many other diners, it does its job: give you food.

Most of the menu reads as basic diner cuisine, save for one special: the Mountain Sandwich. A piece of Sirloin, lettuce, tomato, sour cream and two buttered, thick slices of bread. It seems unbelievably fatty, but that is what make it taste so good. The price was not that different from the regular choices on the menu (though I visited when the Mt. sandwich combo was a special), and is a real treat. The fries served with is were weak and not memorable at all. In college, had I known the Twilight Diner and its Mountain Sandwich existed less than 30 miles away, I would have made more than one out of the way trip to eat this interesting meal.

This marks the end of the road trip, I return to posting Philadelphia eateries next week with a better sports bar than Boston's: The Field House.

Smuggler's Wharf

One of Erie's prides is its maritime history; Oliver Hazard Perry has a prominent place in the town's main square. In this vein exists Smuggler's Wharf, a seafood/general American eatery. The decor is maritime and dank, it feels every bit like it is from the 1970's. The outside seating can get a bit chilly, as the wind comes off Presque'Isle harbor.

A major part of the lunch menu is the build your own sandwich. The number of options is enormous for breads, cheeses, meats and toppings. While it may be the ability to build your own sandwich that makes it good, the ingredients themselves are excellent.

Boston's: The gourmet pizza

I may be naive, but a sports bar is not a complicated formula. A building (depending on the climate, at least something resembling a bar), beer, sports and occasionally food are needed. Boston's has a building and a generic list of beer (thankfully, Yuengling has made it to Erie), and that's about all the praise I can give it. The pizza, which Boston's claims is it's specialty, was cardboard. I do not know where they got the dough, it seemed to be rejected by all the frozen pizza makers. I partially expect carpese/margherita pizza to be sub-standard at chains, yet putting barbecue sauce on the pizza instead of balsamic earns a special place on my list of shameful shit.

Now to the sports. Even with basic cable, it is not impossible to keep several different sports on at any given time. With satellite, it is even easier as options like New Zealand Rugby, Zimbabwean Cricket and Alpine goat fucking all become available. At no point should crappy reality shows like Big Brother be on any screens. To further compound matters, the gold medal match of men's volleyball was on broadcast TV--it was an exciting match until I decided that a sports bar would surely be airing it. Sports broadcasts are crucial to a sports bar's ambiance; not exerting any effort to keep all televisions on whatever sports are currently on is a mark just as bad, if not worse, as putting the wrong dressing on a terrible pizza.