Photo by Alvimann

I have been walking around my Philadelphia neighborhood quite a bit since I moved here not too long ago. And the one thing that has struck me the most is just how many galleries, coffee shops, restaurants, and bars there are around here. Of course, it's not really a surprise since I picked this neighborhood exactly for that reason. But it's only after walking around here that I've come to realize just how many places there are.

Now, I also really like food — both to eat and to cook — and I'm also one who willing to try pretty much anything at least once "just because". Add to that a pinch of "geek", 2tbsp of "wannabe writer", and a healthy dose of "amateur food critic" and you can understand how I came up with the idea of the Eatery Project.

The premise is simple: visit every establishment that serves food and/or drink and falls within an area defined North and South by Arch Street and Chestnut Street, and East and West by Front Street and 4th Street. And if you know anything about this area in Philadelphia, then you can understand how ambitious this project really is — there must be at least a hundred or so establishments in this area.

I haven't counted them (that's one goal of the project), but I can tell you that almost every door here is an entrance to some food place of some sort. There are also some stores, quite a few galleries, and some other businesses. But most places are in fact serving food and/or drink.

Of course, this project will take a while to complete and I plan to document each visit both here on this site on probably "live" on Twitter as well. I guess it will depend on a bit circumstances as well. I will also not plan any of these visits, so they will not occur in a certain sequence. Instead, I will chose a place based on what I want to eat that day. That may mean that some places will be visited twice before another is visited even once.

Here are the basic rules that I intend to follow:

1. geographic boundaries:
   • North — Arch Street
   • South — Chestnut Street
   • East — Front Street
   • West — 4th Street
2. time frame: unknown, but I hope to finish by end of 2009
3. type of establishments: must serve food (to-go and/or sit-down) and/or drink
   • exceptions: movie theaters, grocery stores (unless they have a real deli counter)
4. reporting criteria: brief blog post describing establishment, and food and/or drink(s) consumed (and hopefully enjoyed). Possible live tweets.
5. selection criteria: establishment will be selected based on what I feel like eating/drinking that day
6. other criteria: have fun don't take anything too seriously. After all, this is a highly un-scientific study :)

So, that's it for now. I will visit the first place for this project within the next few days.

-martin.