Pizzaz Benedict

Pizzaz - Celebre's
Eggs - The Family Cow
Sauce - Corropolese


The Best!

Cacia's Bakery

Check out Cacia on Ritner for square pies of all variety. On a friday afternoon the tiny storefront was packed with customers lined up for take out, by the slice or "by the box". Not quite sicilian, the crust is thinner than La Rosa, similar to Stogie Joe's / Santucci's style, but with a softer crust and bigger slices.




I had to try the Pizzaz - I haven't had the courage to order an entire Pizzaz pizza - which, if you don't know, is a crazy obscure only found in (usually south) philly pie that's topped with fresh tomato slices, AMERICAN CHEESE, and pickled sweet yellow peppers. It was stranger than I expected but actually kind of good, think grilled cheese pizza with a hoagie twist from the peppers. I would eat it again, but don't know about a whole pie.




People were ordering it by the box, pronounced "lemme getta boxa bazzaz"... on some of the red white and green south philly menus that land on my doorstep it's even spelled "Bazaz". Awesome. The tomato pie was OK, the white was delicious. And the stromboli looked AMAZING, definitely my next order. I had no idea but they actually have 6 locations - nothern liberties, jersey, etc so there's probably one near you.

Cacia Bakery
1526 W. Ritner Street
Philadelphia, PA 19145

Michael's Deli - Double Philly Surf & Turf

Another stop in my quest to eventually eat every Philly Combo (aka Philly Surf and Turf) in the city. If you don't know, the Philly Combo is an old Philadelphia hot dog variation that consists of a hot dog and a potato-fish cake on the same bun, usually with mustard and onions, sometimes garnished with pepper hash.


At Michael's Deli at 4th and Wolf - an unassuming South Philly corner store with video poker and a kitchen in the back - this is the only way to get them. 2 smashed fish cakes, and 2 split hot dogs on a hoagie roll, with mustard and onions.

The result was better than I expected. The fish cakes were fresh (not too fishy) and Dietz & Watson dogs were decent. The roll was nothing to write home about, and the option of pepper hash would have been nice to add some moisture to the sandwich. But overall a success.



A tiny South Philly corner store with juice, cigarettes, and a few dusty groceries, walking in you might be surprised that they even serve food, let alone a giant menu with a zillion different hoagies, cutlets, burgers, hot dogs, wings, breakfast, pasta and even pizza. I don't really understand where they keep all the food.. maybe a kitchen or walk-in freezer in the basement?

The cheesesteak we also tried was just OK, but some of the concoctions on the menu have me curious enough to go back.

• Animal Farm
Big pile of Chicken breast, cheesesteak, bacon, cheese, onions...

• Brontosaurus Burger
3 burger patties served with fried onions, swiss, american, and mozzarella cheese.

• The Stray Dog
3 hot dogs on a large italian roll with fried onions, relish, saurkraut and mustard.

• Pizazz Pizza
Another obscure Philadelphia classic. Pizza with American cheese, tomato slices and sweet peppers.

Then for breakfast there's scrapple and eggs, pork roll, creamed chip beef, baloney & egg. And everything is cheap as hell.
Check out the crazy menu here (with music!) -
Michaelsdeliphila.webs.com

Michael's Deli
4th & Wolf
Philadelphia

more fish cakes and pizzaz-

•Drawing For Food - Fish Cakes from Gus's Cart and Bubby's Brisket
•Drawing For Food - Nicky & Pete's Famous
•Hot Dog Of The Week - Philly Combo
•Meal Ticket - Outside The Box (Pizzaz at the end of the article)