November 04, 2009
The World Series is winding down, with Yankees and Phillies duking it out for baseball’s bragging rights. Although my household isn’t particularly invested in the outcome -- my husband is a diehard Detroit Tigers fan, and let’s just say that my team hasn’t been to the World Series since 1945 -- I can’t resist the opportunity to sit on the couch for hours watching sports. To play up the rivalry, I’m passing on various nightlife attractions and planning a World Series-themed dinner party. One of the best things about baseball is its unpretentious, all-American traditions, so this is not the time to impress guests with a gourmet menu. Instead, I’ll be serving fare from the competing cities. Nothing says Phillies like, well, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, and New York cheesecake is a crowd-pleaser no matter where the sports allegiances stand.


A business meeting took me to Philadelphia yesterday. Although the election outcome in New York is a foregone conclusion, many believe Pennsylvania may be close. I saw Barack Obama volunteers everywhere -- even a cute little old lady with a table giving out buttons. One of the great things about Philadelphia are the murals on the sides of buildings. Here too was Obama staring righteously at us as we navigated the streets of the city of brotherly love. I showed my partner Marc Dizon an orange sticker 3 feet wide and 18 inches tall in the window of a building erected just after the signing of the Constitution of the good old USA. This sticker is a notification to the neighborhood that someone plans to open up a drinking establishment. People have 30 days to raise objections, or as I understand it, the license is issued without much ado. My Philly meeting told me that if someone objects, they go before a mediator and objections are heard, the future establishment explains how they will deal with the issue, and most of the time that’s that. Philly is like the fifth or sixth biggest market in America. They have thousands of bars, restaurants, clubs with diverse crowds, and as many big-city problems as we do in New York, and this is how they deal with the process of obtaining a liquor license.