I went to Philly and I liked it.

A little slice of life & also come see me at SXSW

Last weekend my husband Ben and I went to Philadelphia for a Dol. A Dol is the Korean birthday party of a 1 year old where they pick from a lineup of random objects to determine the rest of their lives. Usually there is a pencil or book signifying a scholar. Yarn means you’ll have a long life. There is always money which means wealth (my grandma really wanted me to pick the money at my Dol. Sadly, I did not.) And nowadays people might add in some modern things like a stethoscope for doctor or baseball for professional athlete. Then the baby sits at a table like a little King/Queen that has towers of fruit and sweets on it while wearing a traditional Korean outfit. It’s very cute.

We watched our friend’s baby crawl towards the lineup, crumble under the pressure of 30 people staring at him and making audible noises every time he made the slightest movement, and talked about how we all hate our jobs.

Most of our friends from Brooklyn just came down for the day, but we stayed overnight to have more time to see Ben’s sister who lives in Philly.

Act I: The Sofitel Rittenhouse Square

Zero pages were read on said train ride.

We got off the train. It was an easy train ride! Pleasant even! But Ubers were insane ($30 to go the distance of a 15 minute walk) so we walked. Service at check-in was very friendly - and our room was ready early, we love when that happens. The lobby is nicely designed (but of course has a TV playing sports at the bar which loses some cool points). Our room had kind of ominous art in it. It was sizable and had all the amenities but nothing special.

What was notable was the room service offerings … for dogs.

Just … wow.

We decided to stay at the Sofitel because when we were in Marrakech it looked BUMPIN’ and LUXE. This Sofitel claimed to be rated in the top 50 hotels in the world by Condé Nast but we both found that hard to believe. Top 50 in the world?! I mean…

Act II: Bad Vegetarian (I am normally, a Vegetarian)

I tried to get a reservation at Pietramala which is a critically acclaimed fully vegan restaurant. But I couldn’t, so I had a Philly Cheesesteak. When in Rome as they say!

Act III: The Bok Building

Philly is pretty cute. The colonial architecture is nice. It’s an affordable city. There were some fashionable old ladies and flamboyant gentlemen walking around Rittenhouse Square. But, as Ben’s sister said, you don’t really see critical masses of people out in Philly the way you do in NYC (with the exception of sportz).

So I thought going to try Machine Shop, the James Beard nominated bakery, would be a walk in the park. I thought I was going to get decadent french pastries with none of the hassle and half of the price tag.

I was wrong.

We waited in line for at least 40 minutes and spend at least $40. Every person in Philadelphia was at the Bok Building on Sunday morning.

Picture this: A man sitting at the table with two of his friends. A cool looking Asian woman across from him with a mini Australian Shepard on her lap and funky glasses. At first it looks like he has one small Pomeranian in his lap, as the line moves closer, you discover he has not one, but TWO Pomeranians on his lap. This is the social circle I need to infiltrate.

The Bok Building is a cool place and I recommend you go if you’re in town even though it is probably not convenient to wherever you are staying.

Historic Photo of Bok Building, Entrance today, Yun's Hardware

The Bok Building is in South Philly and was originally built in 1936 as a vocational high school. Designed by the architectural firm Ballinger, the building is an iconic example of Art Deco architecture. Over the years, the structure has been repurposed, the building now filled with creatives, makers, businesses etc.

It has:

• Machine Shop Bakery

• the most aesthetic hardware store

• a cute ceramics shop

• a cool bakery upstairs that feels like a secret bake stand

• artist studios

• one of the foremost clarinet repairman in the world (lol wut)

• apparently it has a cool rooftop bar but I did not see it for myself

• and so much more !

I love these kinds of second use, economic development projects. Newlab, where I’ve worked for ~2 years, is of a similar origin - a workspace purpose-built for building stuff (workshops, labs) in an industrial building past its prime (naval shipyard hangar). The Bok Building in its current form is the work of the firm Scout.

I’m going to talk more about these kinds of projects in my SXSW talk if you happen to be in Austin next week and are interested. This talk is part of the official conference so you need a badge, but I’ll be back at it a few days later to talk about placemaking and this SXSW talk does not require a badge.

Act IV: Back to Brooklyn

With $50 of pastries in tow (I purchased more at the upstairs bakery, driving costs probably above $50), we got to the train station. There was a huge line to get on the NYC bound train (no line in NYC when we headed south). So get there early ya’ll.

Soon we were home to little Coco.