Where did this come from?
No, not the freakish hailstorm Wednesday night, but this newest Stephen Starr concoction that has opened on Rittenhouse Square just as the square is drawing attention for its homeless population.
Parc opened a mere 11 days ago, and immediately started attracting a noisy weeknight crowd of true-believing Starry-eyed loyalists, Rittenhouse blue bloods, after-work paralegals and their jaunty lawyer team leaders, out-of-town bended elbowers, designer-sunglasses-on-blond-haired women being ogled by older men from the safety of the massive dining area, rumpled-suited young businessmen complaining of their girlfriends not committing, international students at a sidewalk table chatting in Arabic with their waiter, a standard poodle nearby lapping at a restaurant-supplied water bowl, and tank-topped and jeans-skirted girlfriends marveling at the rapid pulse of a Wednesday night on Rittenhouse Square.
Rapid pulse of a Wednesday night on Rittenhouse Square?
C'est vrai.
Taking a cue from a Paris bistro (or, maybe more precisely, from Balthazar, the authentic, mega-size copy of a Paris bistro in New York's Soho), Parc has become, in a Philadelphia minute, the place.
At least that's what the 250-odd people jammed into the tile-floored, distressed mirrors-and-art-deco-poster decored, 93-on-the-decibel meter, $9 million restaurant seemed to believe.
And surrounded by all those people and all that noise and all that food, Bordeaux by the bottle, Hoegaarden on tap, $8 martinis, cute barmen from Dublin and Miami, all that joie de Rittenhouse, why not nurse that perception? Where else in Philly were that many people jammed in on a Wednesday night, except maybe the hipster music room Johnny Brenda's in Fishtown, albeit another demographic?
