B34!

I've never learned how to play poker and craps is a complete mystery to me, but I have a soft spot for the lesser gambling arts. Slot machines? Embarrassingly enough, I really like 'em. Roulette? Never played it, but I like the idea of a vaguely social game left almost completely to chance. And bingo? Oh, bingo. That hallmark game of elementary schools and the elderly that makes you a slave to random numbers. But unlike, say, the Powerball, where you get your numbers and are done, bingo is a good lover, caring and slow, keeping you in suspense. The Piazza started hosting bingo games outside last summer, and recently PYT put the Wednesday-night number-calling in its back room for the colder months Yeah, the girl who ran it when I went made a lot of mediocre sex jokes, and yeah, a PBR and shot of whiskey was $5 (is it still a "Philly special" if it's not so, er, special?), but dammit, this was fun. It's free, and players can win food and drinks from PYT. I can think of worse ways to spend a Wednesday night. Like losing all my money at poker.

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Restaurants • Northern Liberties

Holiday Haze

Like with espresso and bad news, I prefer my holiday cheer to come in a small, concentrated dose. One listen-through of Neil Diamond's Christmas album is all I can stand for Christmas music (and really, I just like listening to his velvet-man voice), one holiday party has me set for the whole year, and while I enjoy hanging ornaments, I'm really glad that I only do it once annually. (I'm also really glad that I'm not part of some crazy family where, if you hang the ornaments and they aren't quite right, a taskmaster parent yells "No!" and makes you hang them again.) But this year, the Standard Tap provided my favorite dose of holiday cheer: a glass of spiced-rum eggnog, sipped by the Tap's upstairs fire on a cold day. It was such a nice moment--not overtly holiday-themed, but celebratory and shared with a good friend. If all of the holiday season was like this, "the most wonderful time of the year" would be, actually, well, wonderful.

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Nightlife , Restaurants • Northern Liberties

Tommy's Tacos

One could argue that simplicity is the mark of any good restaurant. If you do one thing, and you do it well, that thing should be able to keep your business buoyantly afloat. Thus Honest Tom's tan truck appears day after day, serving a small-but-delicious variety of flour-tortilla tacos. There are breakfast tacos in the morning, and a changing selection of fresh lunchtime tacos, with possible fillings including chicken, fish, steak, and sweet potato. What else does Honest Tom's serve? Good coffee. That's about it. The truck is on Drexel's campus when classes are in session, Monday through Thursday from 8 am until 2 pm, and at Clark Park on Saturdays for the same time period. That's really all you need to know. See? Simple.

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Other • Extended Coverage Area

Meet the Press

Dammit, letterpressed art. You're too goddamn gorgeous. Seriously: is everything that's letterpressed inherently awesome, or do only awesome designers use letterpresses? No matter. Now that I have professed my love for the medium (The sharp, clean lines! The texture!), it should be little surprise that I am also professing my love for the Pressed 55 gallery. Situated in Northern Liberties, Pressed 55 is the show space for the Wayne-based letterpress shop of the same name, and EVERYTHING is (beautifully!) letterpressed. The shop is card-heavy--from thank yous to holiday cards to general greetings--but there are a few other goods available as well, including wall art, journals, and jewelry. Be warned, letterpress can get pricey--the gorgeous vegetable cards I had my peepers on logged in at $5 a piece. But oh, yes, this stuff is gorgeous indeed.

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Shopping • Extended Coverage Area

Thank Your Sexy Veggies

Step away from the fried onion rings: the pilgrims didn't have 'em, nor did they watch cranberry sauce and cream of mushroom soup plop out of their respective cans like slick slugs of food on turkey day. Okay, I'm not actually going to tell you that you shouldn't put grandma's green-bean casserole in the oven this Thanksgiving, but I am going to tell you this: Greensgrow, the urban farm out in Fishtown, is having a special Thanksgiving farmer's market. Stop by on Tuesday and Wednesday between 2 pm and 6 pm, and you can snag fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables, plus other goods like eggs, dream-worthy Amish butter, and the DiBruno Brothers' "sexy" olive pack (seriously, the word sexy is on the package). Now, this is the part of this write-up when I should conclude with some stupid comment about how easy access to locally grown food is one of the things I'm thankful for this year. But as true as that is, using that as a concluding line is just too damn cheesy.

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Farmers Markets • Fishtown / Port Richmond