Monday, May 11, 2009

Spring Fun: Dining, Strolling

Over the weekend we had a great time at the Rittenhouse Row spring festival in Philadelphia where we enjoyed those wondrous beef burgers from legendary Rouge restaurant. We also tasted gellato and other treats while enjoying great music up and down the promenade.
Walnut Street was packed with strollers from Broad right on up to 20th as people turned out to see and be seen on an absolutely glorious spring day. We poked our heads into the new Barney's Co-Op store on Rittenhouse Square but found it far too pricey for out tastes. Still, the store seems to be doing a brisk business and that's got to be good news.
On Saturday morning we had breakfast at Nordstrom's new Cherry Hill Mall store where the management provided coffee, juice, fruit, pastry and breakfast sandwiches for select customers followed by trunk shows and seminars. Great fun!
A nice crowd turned out for the Nordstrom event and the store looked spiffy with plenty of helpful sales people available to take care of customers' needs.
We also continued our quest for the perfect pizza, visiting Tacconelli's pizza across from the Moorestown Mall in Maple Shade and King of Pizza on Route 70 in Cherry Hill. The great appeal of Tacconelli's pie is the crust: thin, fresh, crisp and crunchy. But the pizza itself doesn't stay together very well and there isn't a heck of a lot of cheese on the regular pie. Yet, this South Jersey outlet of the famous Philly pizza family is attracting huge crowds as evidenced by the fact that we had to wait half an hour for a table.
At King of Pizza we found a large, fresh, old-fashioned pizza with a bubbly texture. But, as is often the case, the pizza suffered from too much oil -- or maybe it was the residue from the cheese.
In any event, we can't give our highest rating to an oily pizza or to a pizza that falls apart.
But again, as withh Tacconelli's, King of Pizza was jammed.
So, these two joints are definately doing something right.
It was a busy weekend for us.
And yes, we headed back to Seasons 52 at the Cherry Hill Mall. This was our third visit to this delightful new eatery. And yes, once again we enjoyed excellent meals, fresh and delicious: flatbread, shrimp with crabmeat, trout, penne with tiger shrimp and salmon on a plank. We topped it all off with those wonderful mini dessert treats.
Head on over to Seasons 52! You won't be disappointed.
BTW: While we were at the Rittenhouse Row fete on Saturday we enjyed watching world-renowned chef Georges Perrier hawk his culinary treats right on the sidewalk in front of the his super chic Le Bec Fin restaurant. Perrier is a great chef, a smart businessman, a keen competitor and a good sport. And, he's a champion Philly booster.
Check out Le Bec Fin's web site. You'll be delighted with the surprsingly affordable specials offered by Perrier & Co. Bravo!

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