Philadelphia Weekly

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COOK Dive-Bar Food With PW’s Brian McManus and Tim McGinnis

By Brian McManus

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Oct. 19, 2011

Brian McManus loves you, Philly. He loves you so much, he wandered into your most storied, dangerous, booze-soaked haunts and wrote a book about them, Philadelphia’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the City of Brotherly Love. If one of the three Amazon reviews about it is to be believed, it is an “impressive, very civilized read.” There are some fantastic stories in its 171 pages—everything from poop-smeared walls to what it’s like to spend Valentine’s Day at McGlinchey’s. This Friday, he’s going to tell many of them at COOK, the new cooking school partnership of Philly super chef Audrey Clair Taichman and Philadelphia magazine. While he does, he and chef/food writer Tim McGinnis will demo some kicked-up dive bar favorites like chili, hot wings and Fiorella sausages. There will also be potato salad. (In homage to the tubs of the stuff you can still purchase for 45 cents at Jack’s Famous Bar in Kensington, duh!) Oh, and beer. Lots and lots of beer. It’s going to be fun. So fun, in fact, Brian McManus doesn’t feel the least bit embarrassed writing about the event in third person.

Fri., Oct. 21, 7pm. $75. COOK, 253 South 20th St. 215.735.COOK. audreyclairecook.com