My brief tenure as a resident of Philadelphia, from 1990 to ‘92, coincided with a period of remarkable growth for the Hard Rock Cafe chain of restaurants. The chain’s cofounders, Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, had chosen a divide-and-conquer strategy for expanding their domain beyond the rock capitals of London, NYC and L.A., and during the late ‘80s and early ’90s HRCs popped up in Chicago, Houston, Orlando, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

But not in Philadelphia, where local boosters predictably commenced a round of wailing and gnashing of teeth upon the opening of the DC restaurant in 1990. Soon enough there appeared, in a nondescript shopping strip near the Delaware River waterfront, the Philly Rock Bar & Grill, a short-order joint that dedicated itself to the city’s own rock ’n’ roll heritage. The place sported memorabilia related to Philly greats including Dick Clark (don’t forget, American Bandstand started there), Bobby Rydell, Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff and their stable of Philly-soul artists, Hall & Oates, the Hooters, and more.

It wasn’t a bad place, exactly, but it certainly seemed second-rate compared to your basic Hard Rock Cafe. Here, of course, is the point where I deploy this morsel of pop-culture minutiae as a metaphor for Philadelphia in general – and where I piss off untold numbers of friends and readers (not to mention Popdose colleagues) who have called Philly home. If Phillies fans can boo their MVP mercilessly and Eagles fans can pelt Santa with snowballs, I can only imagine what I’m in for. Bring it on!

When Gwen and I were choosing among graduate-school options during the spring of 1990, we fretted about the impending student-loan debt only slightly more than we worried about losing the cosmopolitan life we imagined we were living in DC at the time. So it was with a mixture of bemusement and horror that we viewed the University of Pennsylvania’s admissions brochures, which couldn’t get more than a sentence or two into their sales pitch for Philadelphia before noting that the city is “midway between the financial and political capitals of New York and Washington, DC.” Really? Your best selling point is that I can hop on a train and get somewhere else in a hurry? Really? (more…)