Housemates, and the newly released Fat Swim, an interconnected short story collection featuring, among other local allusions, a pool inspired by the one at West Philly’s Kingsessing Rec Center.
a]:text-blue-mid [&>a]:no-underline [&>a]:hover:shadow-lightmode px-4 font-medium”>On her perfect Philly day, Eisenberg treks between fresh and familiar haunts, floats in the city pool immortalized in Fat Swim, and browses at least three bookstores.
Café y Chocolate, a wonderful Mexican brunch and breakfast spot in our new neighborhood. I read my book for a little bit until meeting a friend. The mocha they make is pretty life-changing. When my mom was in the hospital, she was like, “All I want is café con chocolate from there.”
Clark Park farmer’s market still has a chokehold on our Saturdays. I’d get some flowers from the Amish fellows [at Unique Gardens].
a]:text-blue-mid [&>a]:no-underline [&>a]:hover:shadow-lightmode px-4 font-medium”>A lot of my friends have kids now, so it’s usually a good excuse to see some of their kids and hear about their gossip at school.
Kingsessing pool, I like to just kind of flop around and float. I can’t ease my way into the pool, I have to jump all the way in. I’m not a particularly good swimmer per se, but it makes me happy. After doing the pool, I always feel 10% less dead inside.
Saad’s [Halal Restaurant]. I like the chicken falafel sandwich. Fries are often important.
PFS East Theater. I always love seeing the Oscar-nominated shorts or when they play older movies. If it’s August, I go see a BlackStar Film Festival movie.
Old City back to South, I stop at Head House Books. It’s kind of magical: whatever the book is that I want, they always have it. They have good book clubs, they’re supportive of local authors, they do a lot of events.
little free libraries because I find that joyful.
Giovanni’s Room, because they have all those $1 paperbacks out. I’ll browse around to see if they have anything that’s cheap that I want to buy for my library or for one that I pass on the way home. I might wind through a few little free libraries. I could hit the one at the Singing Fountain on East Passyunk, and say hi to Little Yenta Books.
Cafe Nhan at least once a week. I love their vermicelli bowl with grilled pork, and fried spring rolls. They have an amazing limeade too. If you follow Cafe Nhan on Instagram, they often show what broths and soups they have going that day, so you can get excited.
Fred’s on 54th and Chester. I put Fred’s in Fat Swim. However, I will say that at Chuck’s Water Ice [on Snyder], the texture is incredible. It’s very fluffy. The flavors they have are really special — tangerine, blood orange. I like to get a gelati of tangerine and vanilla custard. I eat it as I walk home.
Brewery ARS. They have good beer and it’s kind of a hole-in-the-wall, but not in a sports way. More in a “we might have a weird musician” way. They probably wouldn’t have the game on, but they would have a Sun Ra music video on.
a]:text-blue-mid [&>a]:no-underline [&>a]:hover:shadow-lightmode px-4 font-medium”>The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.