NPS has not been to the Palomar in Philadelphia for a while—six years! So why not. (Just between us, the Philly Monaco takes the win when it comes to Philly. More about why below.)
What’s happened in the last six years at the Philly Palomar is some renovation and some aging, both seemingly in equal parts.
Thanks to Abby Raymond’s magic, we find ourselves in room 2102 which is an exec suite of sorts (but on the small side and with a noted lack of design pop). The bathroom is great, however the rest of the room needs some work.
Did we mention the bathroom? Its great.
Lets start with that.
Yes please. A HUGE bathtub IN the shower. This one is a Kimpton record.
The view from the shower/tub combo package is nice. And you can leave the shades up if you feel like flashing the world while scrubbing your hair.
The hot tub IN the shower.
View from the shower (not the one through the huge window).
Obviously, NPS approves of the shower situation in 2102.
But then there is this view from the door.
Hamster’s view into the room. Nope.
You can see the dated couch thing in the background. Design. Design. Design.
The ’80s called and they want their TV pod thing back.
So the TV pod? Probably used to be nice in some previous decade. We no longer worship the TV. Stop it.
Water damage obvious. Time to haul this thing to the dump.
The rest of the room is small and very gray.
Nice bed. That goes without saying.
Anyway, the shower is nice.
Philly is nice too. After scarfing down a cheesesteak at Jimmy G’s it was off to Friday Saturday Sunday for some world class cocktails. Philly’s outstanding cocktail kung fu persists to this day. Make a point of visiting Friday Saturday Sunday. NPS liked it so much we went two days in a row. Thanks to Alec and Sasha for making Wednesday fun and Paul for the icing on the Thursday cake.
The Cloudbreak is a fantastic cocktail invented by Paul MacDonald who runs the bar program at Friday Saturday Sunday.
1 oz bonal
0.75 oz bols genever
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.75 oz simple syrup
0.75 oz heavy cream
egg white
dry shake. ice. shake. serve up. grapefruit peel + cinnamon
And glass shape does matter. Make sure the foam has a delivery mechanism with each sip.
On our Thursday return, we tried a brand new experimental cocktail by Paul that remains As Yet Unnamed
1 oz mezcal (del maguey vida)
1 oz lime jiuce
1 oz eden orleans herbal (a vermont aperitif cider)
1 oz buddha’s hand, juniper steeped syrup (no heat but 1:1)
Delicious. Paul is a master.
In other Philly news, skip Rouge. Too trendy and a lackluster wine list.
Maybe we just miss Tom Stoppard (it was great to meet Abby though). Four showerheads for the Palomar in Philly.