South Philly Tap Room

More art this past sunday. Golly, what's it with art festivals weekend after every darn weekend? Oh, by the way, were you caught in the freakin monsoon on saturday? Yeesh. I was trapped at a mall, literally, because it was raining so hard that we could not leave. I felt like I was in jail. Ok, back to the sunday. After more art, we were hungry, of course, or at least I was, so we ventured all the way south because I wanted to check out that new Ultimo coffee place. I thought they had food there, but it really didn't look like it, and my tummy was growling, so we walked the 10 feet down to South Philadelphia Tap Room instead. This place is real laid back and warm inside. There's a decent sized bar and some seating, inside and out. We sat at the round table right at the front with deep seats. We felt real short!
R thought that the shrimp ceviche sounded good so she ordered it. It had huge shrimp in it, along with the ceviche part (onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, in a spicy tomato based sauce), sliced avocado, and oyster crackers. It was great! And slightly spicy, but not overly so.

R also ordered the shortrib sandwich. She didn't really need to, as the appetizer was actually plenty. Another little side would have been plenty enough. This was a big sandwich with tons of meat and stewed onions and cheese. It was a bit too unwieldy to eat like a true sandwich. Juicy. Kind of a mess, but tasty. There was a nice side of salad too. You get a choice of fries, salad, or a pasta or potato salad.
And me? Oh my gawd. I got the meatloaf. It is amazing. Well, maybe not just the mealoaf, but it comes on top of an entire plate of mac and cheese. And this mac and cheese is definitely amazing. The best mac and cheese. Ever. At least for me. It's lovely and mild. I don't like crazy sharp cheese and this mac and cheese is just perfect for me. The meatloaf is pretty plain and grilled a bit before serving, and it's great as well. They serve it with some french fried onions, which I just loved. They go a little overboard with the scallions here as garnish, and they should stop it. A little is ok, but they're a bit too crazy about it. Despite the scallion overload, this whole dish was amazing. And it's served with a homemade ketchup, which is also amazing. Seriously, I love this dish! Did I write the word amazing enough?
Service was good. The people here are nice and friendly. It's a very comfortable place, not at all pretentious, not overloaded with hipsters, just a nice nieghborhood bar, which looks nice and also serves kick ass food. It's so far down though. Gah, I wish it was in center city. But then it probably wouldn't feel like how it does. So venture down to SPTR!