S&B Tour 2011: Chicago-Youngstown-Philadelphia

That there? That is one packed car. And you can’t even see the mountain of vinyl tote bags and consumer electronics jamming up the back seat.

Sheila and I left Chicago bright and early just after noon on November 14, full of anticipation and pumpkin spice cookies. We hit I-90 and successfully navigated the remarkably poorly marked exit to the Chicago Skyway. We marveled, as always, at the modernist neon grace of the Skyway toll bridge signage.

We zipped over the border into Indiana. We were on our way! We promptly got a speeding ticket.

One pending subpoena later, we set off — eye on the speedometer; hands at 10 and 2 — for that night’s destination: Youngstown. At this point we were deeply behind schedule. But of course we had to stop for pie at the Village Inn, deep in the heart of Amish Indiana. We fueled up on heaping plates working the spectrum of beige and brown (exhibit A below) and packed a bag with slices of rhubarb-custard, peanut butter chiffon, and blueberry-sour cream pie for dessert. The Village Inn is adorable, and at 5 PM Monday fills up fast with locals. Note to travelers: Patronize an Amish diner at dinnertime wearing running tights and you WILL wind up feeling naked.

The road from Middlebury to Youngstown was uneventful, save for the first long stretch of what would prove to be a hallmark of this trip. Namely: pouring rain and looming dark. But we made it to our host’s home before it was too unforgivably late, and were greeted by a big pot of sweet potato soup and some surprisingly fine wine in a box. Thanks again Mary June!

The next day we stopped for some bread and morning coffee at a strip mall on the outskirts of town — and sold our first cookbook, to Mike Landgraff at the Bread Chef, purveyors of excellent artisanal baked goods at a very reasonable price point (try the spinach pie). Bonus: Mike also directed us two doors down to an amazing vegan Vietnamese cafe featuring pho and bahn mi, plus Americanized salads and sandwiches, and surprisingly good wi-fi. You won’t find Ely’s To-Go on Roadfood, but I was thrilled see a fresh vegetable. I had a spring roll for breakfast.

After five more hours of dark and rainy interstate, we pulled into Philadelphia just in time to jump out of one car and into another, smelly road sweatshirt and all, and zip downtown to the World Cafe to catch John Wesley Harding and the King Charles Trio on the hometown stop of their tour.  I think I took a nap somewhere in the middle (that sofa was really cushy) but that should be no reflection on what was, all around, a rousing show.

We stayed up far too late that night, sipping bourbon and talking soup and checking out the Underground Railroad hidey hole in the basement of our host’s house. But somehow the  next morning I got up and staggered, uncaffeinated but bathed, to the studios of the local ABC affiliate to be taped in a conference room wearing a Cosby sweater. The interviewer didn’t know we had an event later that night (?) so the segment went into the can for some possible later airing. Frankly, I wouldn’t blame them if it never saw the light of day.

Many cups of coffee later, we were off to try and track down our missing shipment of bowls, pick up bread from Wild Flour Bakery, an oasis of olfactory excitement tucked behind a tiny door in a grey and drippy industrial park, and connect with a friend of a friend in the rain on a street corner, by the statue of a dragon, where she handed off a tote bag full of soup. This sort of intrigue being par for the course when you are involved in projects of this ilk. Finally, after a stop at the oldest, slowest full-service gas station in Philly, we headed to Kung Fu Necktie.

Our Philadelphia soups were already looking solid, when we got a sudden windfall in the form of *three* soups rounded up by our friend and former co-worker Brian Welsh, who called in favors from  Paul Roller, Culinary Crossing, and the cafe on the first floor of his workplace. Thank you BRIAN! These we added to the vegan gumbo from Mary Ebeling at Mill Creek Farm, which we picked up in the rain; the black bean and sweet potato soup from Kate Hartman of Good Spoon Soup, who found us through the good work of my college friend Jonathan Perry, who has a studio space down the hall from Kate; and the duo of vegetarian split pea soup from Cindy Burstein and smoky split pea with cabbage and tavern ham from Laurel Katz, both friends of our friend Amy ‘s friend … Amy. Are you following along? There may be a quiz.

Here’s Kate (R) with a friend (L) who stopped by and got pressed into service. It was that kind of night. It was pouring rain (again) and turnout was small but enthusiastic, including a few barflies who stopped in for the Necktie’s usual Wednesday night happy hour offering of free pizza and, after some momentary confusion, were all too willing to step up for some soup. But everyone who showed was aces, from Kate’s nameless friend, to gallant Emily Rhodes of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, who also got stuck with an apron and a ladle, to DJ John Burke from Y-Not Radio, to Jonathan and his kids, to the aforementioned Brian Welsh, who not only rounded up all that soup but then ran out to the store to buy Tupperware so that we could apportion out the leftovers.

Here’s possibly my favorite photo of the night, with Emily smiling gamely as Sheila lunges at the newly arrived Tupperware.

We sold some books, we raised about $160 for the GPPCAH, and we sent the bartender, the DJ, and just about everyone in the joint home with a little plastic tub of soup. We also saw the birth of the above meme — which was picked up in New York and which we only dare to hope we’ll see again down the road. Because every vegetarian soup should come with optional bacon.

And then, finally, it was time to go home. But not before Brian insisted on taking the wheel and giving us a Cliffs Notes tour of Philly. Liberty Bell! Independence Hall! Rocky steps! And, of course, cheesesteak corner. I did not partake. But with someone else doing the driving for a while, it was great to collapse in the back seat and shoot cellphone pix out the window. In the rain.

Posted: Tuesday Nov 29,2011 10:03 PM In S&B Cookbook