Rick Nichols discovers the Centennial Cafe in Fairmount Park is serious about their food.

The tip-off was the scent of brisket smoking in the morning, a juicy 12-pounder that had been brined for 16 hours, then smoked for most of a day and basted with a vinegary mop sauce. The final result is a tender chew of a sandwich, slathered with a brown-sugar-onion sauce reminiscent of Jewish-deli cabbage soup. It’s developer David Groverman’s personal recipe.

Thank You For Smoking [Philadelphia Inquirer]

The Centennial Café opened last Thursday in Fairmount Park. Located in the historic Ohio House, one of the last remaining buildings from the 1876 US Centennial Exhibition the Centennial Café is open 7 days a week (Monday to Friday from 6 am to 6 pm and 8 am to 4 pm on weekends) for coffee, sandwiches, Paninis and salads. Be sure to try Groovy’s Smoked Brisket of lean top round beef brisket topped with the Centennial special sauce served up on a Kaiser roll.

Centennial Cafe [Official Site]

Developer David Groverman had leased the Ohio House in Fairmount Park at Belmont Avenue and Montgomery Drive is turning it into the Centennial Cafe. It’s still a couple weeks away from officially opening but that someone’s even trying to revive the building is exciting.

Groverman, who has developed prosaic shopping centers (Overbrook Plaza and Ardmore Plaza) and dabbled extensively in the antiques business, said he’d pay homage to Hires with the Park Float, an ice-cream float. Also on the menu will be Capogiro gelato, smoked chicken salad, soups, panini, wraps, and, not least, smoked brisket from a personal recipe that he contends produces, if not “the Greatest Brisket Ever Made,” at least a stupefyingly fine smoked brisket.

On the Side | Reviving spirit and taste of 1876 [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Photo via FairmountPark.org