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RING MY BELL (p. 2)

1 | 2 | 3 | SEP 03

Shopping and lunching like a socialite "Let’s check out the Liberty Bell," says Miriam. We hoof over to Independence Park, where we find a huge lineup, metal detectors and no promise of cheesesteaks at the end of it all. The Liberty Bell is for suckers, I decide. We’re going shopping.

We head to Market Street, which looks like NYC’s SoHo, with its renoed factories and lofty spaces. Second Street is great too; 3rd, even better. Between looking into galleries, visiting Betsy Ross’ house, trying on chunky resin rings and checking out Elfreth’s Alley (the oldest continuously inhabited street in America), I realize we might be in the wrong part of town. Though it’s full of historical marvels, emerging artists and designers and a lot of extremely cool stuff, we need to approach this shopping binge with the seriousness it deserves – clothing and shoes are tax-free in Pennsylvania, after all. We debate over the merits of the Shops at Liberty Place, Jewelers’ Row, Antique Row, Manayunk or even heading out of town to the King of Prussia Mall (the largest shopping mall on the East Coast). We decide upon the fashionable shops and restaurants that border Rittenhouse Square, known as Rittenhouse Row. It is here that we are seduced by the walls of apothecary products at the new Bluemercury. I’d give my kingdom for the fashion-forward lines at Petulia’s Folly and home trimmings at Leehe Fai. To have shoes like this! To roll around in a bed like that!

While I can’t afford to shop like a hedonist, I can afford to dine like a diva. Across the square, into the Rittenhouse Hotel and up the second floor to Lacroix we go. If the name sounds familiar, it should. For 18 years, Jean-Marie Lacroix was the executive chef at the Fountain Restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia, his award-winning work there earning him the unofficial designation of godfather of fine food in Philly. Last September, the Rittenhouse gave Lacroix carte blanche to come out of retirement and build the restaurant of his dreams.

Lacroix’s dream turns out to be a Zen-like blend of 1940s Paris fused with warm yellows and lush greens. There are stone pathways, soaring Venetian plaster pillars and the plushest of armchairs, where we tuck into a four-course business lunch: an intricate bento box featuring a luscious ragout of fresh fava beans and wedges of artichoke, and seared scallops with spinach and tomato coulis, among other delights. All prepared with a deft hand and topped off with homemade chocolates. Oh, and, it’s only $24.

Iron Chef sashimi and electric cocktails We walked into the restaurant and just stood at the threshold, taking it all in. The seven-metre undulating wood ceiling. The recessed lighting in curvaceous plaster walls. The colour-box booths that change hues throughout the night. But when you match Philadelphia’s hottest restaurateur (Stephen Starr) with TV’s hottest Iron Chef Japanese (Masaharu Morimoto) and one of the world’s hottest designers (Canadian Karim Rashid), you can’t miss.

And they don’t. The sake’s cold, the cavernous space warm, the place is jumpin’ and the food – well, now I know what those Iron Chef judges go through. Kobe beef tartare, seared and sauced, melts on the tongue. Morimoto’s namesake sashimi plate pairs five different pieces of fresh fish with seven sauces. Rock shrimp tempura, sweet and glazed, is my new best friend. The food is fun, and the people are relaxed. "This is New York without the anxiety," surmises Miriam.

We go for postdinner drinks at Trust, a funky year-old bar and restaurant that is the cornerstone of an almost-thriving new district called B3 for Blocks Below Broad. Never heard of it? Neither had I, but nobody had heard of SoHo 20 years ago either. Trust’s general manager, Brent Stanton, sauces us up with electric cocktails (they glow!), then takes us on a little walkabout to illustrate what’s going on in the area. It turns out that urban development pioneer Tony Goldman, one of the developers behind the revitalization of New York’s SoHo and Miami’s South Beach, started buying up buildings in this rundown ’hood a few years ago – 22 of them, in fact. What was a triple-X-rated theatre last year is being converted into lofts. Boarded-up buildings have morphed into upscale gelato spots, ritzy women’s accessories boutiques and gourmet pizza parlours. "The only way you can really appreciate where we are is to look at what we were a year ago," says Stanton as he walks us to the corner, with our keepsake glowing ice cubes in hand.

In that case, I can’t wait to see what the place looks like next year. [ ]

Where to stay, what to eat, what to do... >

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1 | 2 | 3 | SEP 03