Cherry St. Tavern
129 N. 22nd St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 561-5683

A cool little joint within walking distance of the Art Museum. It's one of those ooold ass Philly bars that make our city worth a checking out. It is frequented by students and Museum workers. It has the standard Philly compliment of antique and nostalgic crapola hanging from the walls, ceiling, bar-back and anywhere else you can fit a nail. One of the not-so-philly qualities of this bar are the prices. A of Bass was $3.50 (pretty damn good) and I spied pitcher specials for every night of the week costing less than $10 an fill! That alone could keep me coming back.

There are around 40 beers available to wash down the in-fucking-credible hot roast beef sandwiches they carve from the massive hunks of beef sitting at the end of the bar. Although the rest of the menu is rather unimpressive (nachos, poppers, hoagies, steaks, ect.), I was starting to fall in love with this place.

As I saddled up to the bar I noticed the fantastic gilded woodwork framing three huge mirrors of the type you see in old westerns. The bar top is thick polly covered cherry of the same gilding of the bar-back. The ocher stain of the bar can only come form age and use. Then there is the curious trough on the floor running parallel to the bar at the bottom. 'What the hell is that for?' I quiz myself. I thought it was an old place to squigy off the floors after a spill. But then I thought 'They didn't have squigys back then dumbass.' 'So what the fuck is that trough for?', I started accessing my wealth of historical nonsense. Accessing…accessing….Back in the day, only men where allowed to sit at the bars…accessing….back in the day they had
no running water….accessing…IT'S A PISSER!!! A fucking piss trough. That is awesome. I did not want to ask the (rather cute) bartender chick what the trough was for to confirm my deduction and reveal myself as an tourist. So, I just decided to go with the theory I had come up with on my own. I convenient way of relief that allowed you to keep you much coveted spot at the bar and continue tossing back mugs of booze! I was in love with this place.

Since I was there around 1pm I could not get to solid an idea of the type or amount of clientele that would descend upon this place during peak bar hours. So with that in mind I gave this place a tentative rating of 8 with a possible 9.5 if it doesn't get all packed with strappers and Philly jerks.

I feel a holding a Staff Meeting here around 8 or 9 pm would give me more of feeling for my final rating….

Outpatient 8
May 23rd, 2005