Right?

Moving on.

I had dinner with some of my favorite ladies not too long ago at Royal Tavern. As I mentioned before, I was unimpressed with their vegan sloppy joe. When I saw a short rib sloppy joe listed on their specials menu I thought I would give it a chance. I’m so glad I did. What a sandwich!

The short rib was so tender and the sauce was  much better than what they use on the vegan sloppy joe. It didn’t have the same spiciness and was just little bit sweet, just the way I like it. The addition of cheese was also appreciated. The bun held it all together very nicely.

I’ve been dreaming about this sandwich ever since. If you see it on the specials menu get it!

1. Find a dimly lit bar with a big window to watch the snow. Bonus points for having a sweet jukebox.

The Royal Tavern has both of the above. Dimly lit but has a big window so you get a feel for the snow without actually feeling the snow. I still hate being out in the snow, but I definitely like it better when I’m sitting in a bar.

2. The bar must offer some kind of warm drink involving whiskey or rum.This is also a warming mechanism. I have found that having a small amount of whiskey flowing through my veins this winter has made me a warmer person. Oh and drunker. Funny how that works.

In this instance The Royal offers a hot cider with rum. Oh and a cinnamon stick which some of my friends may or may not have taken home with them to reuse. Weirdos.

3. Indulge in some kind of comfort food. Preferably a childhood classic and a large serving of french fries. Winter = carb overload. Don’t worry, you will walk it off when you realize that Septa has shut down and you must walk most of the way home.

Vegan Sloppy Joe at The Royal. Look I can eat vegan, I swear! It was good but not great. I think I like my Sloppy Joe a little more on the sweet side. This was more on the spicy side. I still ate the whole thing. CARBS! Their fries are excellent.

4. On the second day of daytime drinking, keep it close to home. You will be exhausted from your previous snow day. Drinking indoors can be exhausting work.

Many of my wonderful South Philly and West Philly compatriots met me at my favorite bar in the city, Johnny Brenda’s. Yes it’s my favorite. You can quote me on that.

They were offering an emergency brunch. I really appreciated this because I was craving something breakfasty.

5. Move to the more brunchy cocktails. You need to slowly sip on these so take it easy. You will be marathon brunching. So have a few cups of coffee and enjoy a mimosa or Bloody Mary. Also hydrate with some water. Basically you will have like 20 beverages in front of you. This is ok.

6. Eat only dishes containing pork and potatoes. Protein for energy and carbs to absorb the booze. Right? Ok, it’s just a good combo. Also alliteration.

Do you see how much pork they have on this menu? Love. You can also get 3 different kinds of potatoes. FRENCH FRIED POTATOES, SMASHED POTATOES, AND GRATIN POTATOES.

One friend followed my strict rules and ordered the Cubano. This is a must try at JB’s. Hot pressed sandwich with pork and cheese. Fries = potatoes, in case you forgot.

Unfortunately, not all of my friends could heed my advice. Vegetarian friend got the french toast. Very good and if you prefer a sweet breakfast this will do it for you.

This is the perfect kind of breakfast for me, ham and cheesy grits. I have mentioned my love for JB’s grits. And again I will beg them to BRING BACK YOUR SHRIMP AND GRITS. COME ON!

Crispy ham, creamy grits and yolky egg.

7. Make sure you do all of the above with awesome friends who will travel miles in the snow for you and brunch for 3 hours.

This is what you get when you play around with my camera while I have stepped away. Ok clearly this logic is false because none of them were holding the camera but still they were accomplices.  Seriously though, thanks dudes for making my snow days so epic.

There was initially some confusion at the first stop of the nacho crawl. Royal Tavern, a very popular weekend brunch spot was packed when we showed up at 3. Add around 70 nacho eating freaks and there was some initial stress. Luckily for me and my two nacho eating companions, we scored a table quickly and scarfed down a huge plate of chicken nachos.

They are all here for the nachos

The nachos at Royal come topped with mozzarella and jack cheeses, pico de gallo, lettuce, jalapeños, sour cream and guacamole. You also have the option of adding grilled chicken or vegan beef. My not-a-big-meat-eater friend would have appreciated trying the vegan beef but we felt lucky enough to get a full plate of the chicken nachos. I found our nachos rather cold. I think this could have been due to two things; they were making nachos for like 70 people and there were a lot of cold toppings on the nachos. I will say that the Royal Tavern was the most generous with the guacamole that day. That is huge in my book. It was nice not to have to ration the guacamole. They were actually very generous with their toppings. So much so that we had a lot of left over toppings but no chips to dip them in. I am ok with this problem when it comes to nachos because the opposite problem generally occurs where you have too many chips and not enough delicious toppings. My only other minor complaint is that I would have enjoyed some bean action on the nachos but that is more of a personal preference. Oh and I also realized that I’m not a huge fan of lettuce on my nachos. The things you will learn from a nacho crawl.

Chicken nachos at Royal Tavern

La Lupe was our next stop on the nacho crawl. Again we got there early so we had our pick of the tables. At this next stop, they separated the tables into the kind of nacho you wanted. I kindly left my not-that-into-meat friends and sat with some friendly strangers at the spicy pork table. Mmm. I will leave you for pork, believe it. Oh and hello friendly strangers, if you happen upon this post.

We took over La Lupe, it was awesome.

I was lucky enough to try not one but two kinds of pork nachos at La Lupe. The first was the spicy pork and my least favorite of the two pork nachos. I found the spicy pork not very spicy and a little on the dry side. I did enjoy the generous amounts of cheese and crema on the nachos. I will give them a sad face for the puny serving of guacamole.

Spicy pork nachos at La Lupe

The  non-spicy pork had a lot more flavor than the other pork nachos. I want to say that it was actually carnitas on the nachos but I can’t confirm nor deny this. The fact that we got these non-spicy pork nachos was surprising because we were just expecting to get the spicy ones. I also enjoyed these more because they had refried beans, which was the only time I saw them on any nachos during the crawl. I am a huge fan of refried beans so I am always happy to seem them on pretty much anything. This did lead to a bit of a soggy nacho eating experience. I did enjoy the chopped avocado instead of guacamole on these. I would say that these were my second favorite of the day. I also appreciated that the nacho crawl organizers brought a couple of cases of Tecate for us to enjoy at this BYOB.

Pork nachos at La Lupe

Our final stop was at Cantina los Caballitos and was also our most festive. I’m a sucker for Christmas lights in unexpected places. It was a great end to a great day of nacho eating. I enjoy this Cantina so much more than the one closer to my house.

The Cantina wins for best atmosphere

Their nachos are topped with roasted corn, pickled jalapenos, black beans, pico de gallo, melted cheese, and crema. You can get them with chicken, pork, steak, or vegan beef. During our time at the Cantina we were able to try the steak and vegan beef nachos.  My not-that-into-meat friend was very excited when a plate of vegan beef nachos were set in the middle of our table. I would say that any meat eater would enjoy these nachos. I found them to be much spicier than the steak nachos. While I missed having guacamole on my nachos, I found the nachos at the Cantina to be the best constructed nachos of the day. There was a good balance of toppings and chips. I didn’t eat a single soggy chip during my time there. Also the steak nachos were the best tasting nachos I had that day. The grilled steak pieces that I found on the nachos were well seasoned and tender. Sorry for the bad picture below, I didn’t want to be obnoxious and use my flash. I figured I was being obnoxious enough at this point in the day.

Steak nachos at Catina los Caballitos

Another reason I enjoyed our last stop on the nacho crawl was due to the delicious cocktail listed below. Due to an unfortunate miscommunication with our waiter, I ended up drinking two of these. I know my life is the worst. I was initially set on having a margarita at our last stop but when I saw this drink listed I immediately changed my mind. It was a refreshing end to a long day of nacho eating.

El Amargo cocktail at The Cantina

So with my El Amargo in one hand I raised a glass to a long day of nacho eating. I will end this post by saying that most everyone I met during the nacho crawl were awesome and super friendly. Eating from a communal plate of nachos will bring people together. I could complain about the certain group of people who believed that the nacho crawl was their own personal nacho buffet but I won’t waste my time on them. Too late. I was very satisfied with the number of nachos I ate that day. I didn’t stuff myself but found that I got way more nachos that I expected for the $10 cover. I suggest a future nacho crawl in the Northern Liberties area. We have a few nacho eating options up there.

Final thought: I’m a big fan of the nacho crawl.

El Amargo is el deliciouso