At lunch, we were perusing this link about how selected hotels in Philly are offering free overnight parking, and it got us to thinking: It’s been an age since we hightailed it out of the neighborhood to spend a night in a Center City hotel in posh isolation. If you’ve never thought to do this, we highly recommended it for recalibrating one’s own sense of place, re-discovering your own city, and also just getting plastered and waking up in a strange bed in a relatively consequence-free environment. So one thing led to another, and we punched in a place where we regularly enjoy adult beverages, but have never stayed in and have always been curious about: The Society Hill Hotel, on the corner of Third and Chestnut Sts. and in operation since 1832. We’ve loved drinking at the SHH for a while now, but only know one person who ever stayed there, and he was too drunk to have any decent recollections of what it was like. Sadly, this is not the case for scads and scads of reviews on TripAdvisor, which charge this historic flophouse with accusations of rampant mice, a rotten milk smell and worse. And it goes on and on and on. Sure, there’s a decent review every once in a while, but we’re getting the message: Could it be that our favorite place for drinking Preppy Old Man Drinks is actually a fleabag, no-tell motel? Actually, come to think of it, this could be just the thing for Sweeney. He’s got a birthday coming up, and there’s no way in hell he’s walking home from Zahav after untold Israeli martinis. Book it, Joyce!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 3:05 pm.