24 Hours in Philly: B.J. Novak, Organic Coffee + Authentic Fish & Chips
Last week, The Drowsy Reader and I attended B.J. Novak's Book Tour at the Free Library of Philadelphia (FLP). If you don't know who The Drowsy Reader is, she is a dear friend of mine who just started a book blog (so if you love books go over to her site and give her some love). The Drowsy Reader fyi had to travel about 8 hours for this event from oh-so-snowy Boston and stayed in Philly for a mere 24 hours. B.J.'s event was an hour long and it was a full house. He read excerpts from his book and answered some questions from the audience and also signed copies of his books. The event was live streamed so if you want to watch the video it's available courtesy of the FLP. My post is going to be a bit about the event and a couple of restaurants we visited if you are interested in the book review head on over to The Drowsy Reader.
I've been a huge fan of B.J. ever since his days at The Office and even more recently as Lucas Pruitt, the new owner of ACN in the final season of the Newsroom. I was actually scared to read this book cause I was afraid that I'll hate it and it'll reflect badly on my admiration for him as an actor. But alas this man was meant for the pages too. I think it's a rare opportunity to have a gifted actor be equally a gifted writer without it being a memoir or biographical.
B.J. said that he intended the book to be read out loud and to actually be in the room and have the author bring his characters to live is a dream. During the Q & A, a couple of the questions were regarding his thought process and ideas behind the stories he read that night. And after re-reading the stories and re-watching the playback online this book is becoming one of the best fiction books I've read. This book is fun and entertaining, but it's got a lot of heart and grounded in such basic human emotions that you can't help but relate to it. Overall it was just an amazing event and my thanks go out to the people at the Free Library for hosting such an amazing event.
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Now onto our foodie adventure. Since we got to the library about an hour before the event starts we needed to get a quick bite to eat. We ended up at one of my favorite spot- Le Pain Quotidien. We actually went to Le Pain Quotidien the night of the event and for brunch the next morning just because The Drowsy Reader wanted to check out The Next Page which was already closed for the night. I'm a huge fan of Le Pain Quotidien mainly for their awesome organic coffee. For dinner I had the Toasted Ham & Gruyere Croissant and for breakfast we had the Smoked Salmon Omelette.
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| Pot of Coffee |
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| Smoked Salmon Omelette |
The Drowsy Reader and I have been friends for many years. We share many interests one of which is our love for tea. I decided to take her to The Victoria Freehouse which is this really great British Pub. Now, I've never actually been here during lunch time so I didn't know that they offer a $10 lunch menu which is soup/salad and Chicken Tikka or Fish & Chips. We also ordered a pot of my favorite tea- P.G. Tips which came in this huge Union Jack Tea Pot.
Our soup came and it was this amazing, flavorful tomato soup and our entree? It was by far the best and most authentic fish and chips I've had here in the States. Fish and chips is one of those dish that is so simple on paper but pretty hard to master. The fish can be overcooked and bland and the batter can go so wrong in so many ways (and the fries has to be the right size and fry to perfection).
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| Tomato Soup |
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| Small Fish & Chips |
Until next time,
