Carlin Brown (bottom right) with Restorations (photo: Mitchell Wojcik).
Carlin Brown, drummer of Philadelphia melodic punk band Restorations and executive chef at the Philly location of Barcade, moved to the city of brotherly love a decade ago and has immersed himself in the food and music scene ever since. He recently talked to us about the food scene in Philly and his job at Barcade, which, as the name implies, is a bar mixed with an old-school arcade.
How did you get involved in the food scene in Philly?
Ironically enough, I moved here for that specific reason. I was just getting over almost dying from black mould in Harrisburg, so I had this kick where I was like, “Screw everything. I want to make food and I want to make music,” and I moved to Philly a little over 10 years ago. And that’s basically all I’ve done since and dedicated myself to either/or.
What was your first reaction to the Philly food scene when you moved there?
I realized that the city revolves around beer, food and music; that’s it.
So you’re right at home then?
Yeah, it’s been perfect. I mean, there’s always rough spots, like places you work where you think it’s going be more awesome than it turns out to be, and the same thing with bands sometimes; you can put everything into it just to realize you wasted your time.
What are some of your favourite places to go for food in Philly?
Well, not the fancy restaurants that people go to. I like smaller places like Amis, but my favourite places to go are the tiny, little Mexican places down in South Philly to get tacos and burritos and stuff. South Philly, especially in the last five years, has a quickly growing population of Mexican and Vietnamese restaurants. There are a million pho spots, and tons of Mexican spots. I love all of the food down there.
We all know about the Philly cheesesteak, but are there other dishes that are becoming really popular down there?
The way most of the fancier, bigger restaurants work is basically what’s in style that season. Everything is constantly changing and whatever’s in that month’s food magazine or whatever is going to be hot. A lot of the places are seasonal, and a lot of them are local, so you never know what you’re going to get, depending on what’s good that season.
Tell us more about Barcade.
It’s a bar, and it’s an arcade, and it’s got a kitchen as well. It’s pretty big, we have about 40 old-school video game machines. The kitchen’s pretty simple; a few cold sandwiches, a few hot sandwiches, nachos, carnitas… we do specials on the weekend. It’s simple bar food. I wanted to keep the menu simple, but all of the ingredients are local and I wanted it to be really, really good ingredients. So it’s nothing extravagant from what you’d get from any other fancy bar food, but it’s just really super quality ingredients from local farms. It’s a really cool place to work. It’s a lot of fun, it’s little to no stress; the only reason I get stressed out is because I’m going away on tour in a few days, and I just started the entire kitchen from scratch two weeks ago and everything is now up and running. Right now we’re brining brisket and smoking duck; we’ve got a smoker out back and a big fire pit out there, and you can do a lot of really fun things. I get to do a lot of manly things at work, which is really rewarding.
If someone came to town to visit you, where would you tell them to go? Besides Barcade, of course.
I always really like going to Monk’s Café. It’s a place I used to work years ago and it was once voted one of the top places in the world to go and have a beer. It’s the same deal as Barcade; just fancy bar food, nothing extravagant, just good food. And just about every beer you could ever imagine. They have a cellar with more beers than you could possibly count. It’s kind of divey, but also kind of classy at the same time, so if you go on the right night you can have a nice, quiet evening with someone, or if you go on a weekend night it’s just an absolute shit show.
Where do you and the rest of the Restorations guys go when you want to do a band meeting, or a meal together?
Right now, [guitarist] Ben [Pierce] and [vocalist/guitarist] Jon [Louden] are really into this place called Fountain Porter. I think they only have, like, two things on the menu, and then a whole bunch of draft beers.
Restorations‘ third album, LP3, comes out October 28 on SideOneDummy Records.
No Comments