devil's den

Last night Kris, Man-Chris and Man-Chris' girlfriend Hillary tried out the new gastropub in "SoPhi" (I will get this nickname to stick), Devil's Den (1148 S. 11th St.). I was very excited, as we are (or really, I am) desperate for that one awesome, comfy, chill local place where we can go and convince friends to hang out in our 'hood (i.e., SoPhi), and Devil's Den is only four blocks away.

From the inside, the place looks great, and given that it was the first truly beautiful night of the year, the windows had been thrown open and everything was very comfortable. For me. My wife was roasting, but that may be because she's preggers.

There are great beers on tap; I had two Schneider Aventinuses (Aventini? Aventinii? Let's get some declensions for this shit), which had been impossible to find in draught form since dear departed Ludwig's departed; I also tried out the Rowhouse Red from the new Philadelphia Brewing Co.

But the food was, uh, not good. Lukewarm mussels are gross, and three of us each got stttttttttttttttt66666666666666666666666666666hj (cat-like typing detected! Probably because Pandora just walked across the keyboard) a different variety of gross lukewarm mussels. Our pommes frites were a bit overdone, in that they could have been called "toothchippers" on the menu.

After our meal, our very sweet waitress accidentally dumped beer down Hillary's back, and comped us for... one beer.

It would have been nice to see the management make more of an effort to apologize, especially considering 1) they're new, and 2) I really really really wanted to like this place.

As it is, there is great potential here that will remain unfulfilled until the kitchen gets its act together. Maybe we'll try this place again in the fall. In the meantime, we'll still be waiting for that one kickass local joint to steal our hearts (hopefully not for real, though); a home away from home in SoPhi.