Bookbinders back !!??

an article that i found interesting.

Unchain My Heart and Set Me Free...
by Robert Bickell


Being from the City of Brotherly Love, it kills me to see an Applebee's replace a Philadelphia institution at 215 South 15th Street. Once a great seafood house owned by Richard and Sam Bookbinder, it's just another example of what is happening to our local food culture. It was bad enough when several years ago, Kentucky Fried Chicken replaced a beautiful restaurant called San Marco, but at least that was in the suburbs. Applebee's is downtown for the whole world to see and it says something depressing about big business and its eventual destruction of fine dining, as we know it. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but one block away there now sits an Olive Garden and the chains are falling all over each other trying to open in the City.

Just so we understand each other, the Bookbinder's location that was sold to Applebee's had become (in my opinion) a disgrace to the modern independent restaurant community. The family was feuding over money and the restaurant had become a classic tourist trap of the worst kind. It should have closed its doors years ago. Fortunately for the family, they owned the building and apparently it didn't matter who or what bought it because it was all about the money. I understand that, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

For the record, the Taxin family of Old Original Bookbinder's in Old City also closed their doors, but under the leadership and resolve of young John Taxin, they have reopened and they are anything but a tourist trap. Philadelphia has a real live Bookbinder's, so perhaps there is some hope after all.

Allow me to define my real problem as it relates to the restaurant business in 2006. Chains are fine and they are what they are. To my way of thinking, they are like having dinner on an airplane - the food is usually acceptable and certainly predictable. I would be totally happy with them if they stayed in the suburbs. In point of fact, that's why they created all those grotesque indoor malls - so there was a place to put all those chain restaurants.

I'm certain that even I would enjoy a salad or even a sandwich at Applebee's. It's a wonderful thought to be "Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood". I just don't want to do it at 215 South 15th Street in downtown Philadelphia where a Booky's used to be.

(Robert Bickell is the managing editor of Restaurant Report and a self-proclaimed defender of independent restaurants everywhere. )

He sounds just like a Roadfood member. Someone sign him up.

quote:

Originally posted by Extreme Glow

He sounds just like a Roadfood member. Someone sign him up.

Well, I live in the suburbs and I want to know why this guy thinks that these damned chains should be out here with us instead of the city folk? If we have to put up with chains taking over, then the folks in the city should have to suffer with dreadful food, also.

Our home office was in Philly and I ate at the Bookbinder several times about 6-7 years ago. I enjoyed it then.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I still have a black Bookbinder's T-Shirt with a lobster on the front.My Mom and Dad picked it up there years ago on a roadtrip.

Did anyone ever notice that the waiters at Bookbinder's would always tell you,sotto voce, that the big lobsters were not as tasty as the little ones?

An excellent article which exactly reflects my own feelings.

Great to see a reference to Bookbinder's on the Board. When I was in college, I played football for an Ivy League team (those of you with 'real' footbal teams are chuckling, I'm sure; I'm all of 5'10" and 180lb). Every other year we travelled to Philadelphia to play Penn, and on both trips we ate at Old Original downtown. Strikes me that it was East of Center City, maybe near Franklin SQ? We all loved the restaurant and had contests to see who could consume the largest Lobster. Their cocktail sauce was the hottest I've ever had, and excellent. I also like scrapple, and this was about the only place I've ever seen it on a menu. Sad to hear that even in history conscious Philly a great place like Old Original could be replaced by a chain. Where I live now (Boston), that would be like replacing Durgin Park with a McD's. Ecch!

db