Walnut Bridge Coffee House

FOOD

By Kirsten Henri

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Sep. 21, 2005

2319 Walnut St. 215.496.9003. www.walnutbridgecoffeehouse.com

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You think you'd be safe from the siren song of a freshly foamed latte while, say, crossing a bridge, but you'd be wrong, especially if you were crossing the Walnut Street Bridge, where the Walnut Bridge Coffee House has recently opened on the Center City side. You can easily avoid the bridge and its caffeine lure, especially if you don't live or go to school in University City. You can also avoid the bridge by never, ever going to Sweat gym on the Walnut Street Bridge. (Although I don't recommend avoiding Sweat by first joining it for $59 a month, then never, ever going for the entire year of your contract. I can assure you from experience this is much more painful than actually going to the gym.) But why bother avoiding it at all? It's worth a trek over there just to check it out. The building, once a notorious eyesore, has been buffed up and renovated, now given over to the great cause of brewing coffee for the sleepy denizens of our fair city. There are other reasons to visit: Illy coffee, pastries from Miel and Petit 4, and Marcel Schumann cards for sale. But the chocolate "slicks" ($1.50 each)-flattened truffles-are the best reason of all to go to the bridge even when you don't intend to cross it. Owners Mike Caro and Edna Cruz fly these mouthwatering disks in from the San Francisco-based chocolatier Joseph Schmidt. Schmidt stuffs each coin of chocolate with caramel, peanut butter, mint creme, and raspberry or dark chocolate, then hand-paints it with a charming little design. They're delicious, especially with a cup of coffee. Caro says the combination of coffee and chocolate in the same place was popular in San Fran, and he thought it would be a good idea for Philly too. What better place to bring two marvelous things together than a bridge?