Harrisburg Makes Forbes.com List of Most Livable Cities in America

At first glance, ‘most livable’ could mean a lot of things, but I wanted to make sure this article gets a little more attention because Forbes.com actually uses a very legitimate set of statistics to grade their picks for ‘Most Livable Cities in America-

“Results were the result of comparing five-year income growth per household and cost of living from Moody’s Economy.com, crime data and leisure index from Sperling’s Best Places, and annual unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

Harrisburg ranked 12th on the list. Personally I think making the list at all is really quite commendable, what do you think?

Check out the full article as well as Forbes ‘Most Miserable Cities’ list.

Where’s Your Favorite Caffeine Destination Around Harrisburg?

I’ve noticed lately that there are more coffee shops around Harrisburg than I have time to visit, especially around Camp Hill. I thought I’d create a poll to get an idea of which places are the most popular, please add a destination if I’ve missed it!

Harrisburg’s Best Restaurants (west shore)

Naturally, this is the continuation and counterpart to a previous list of Harrisburg’s best restaurants residing on the east shore of the beautiful Susquehanna River. As previously mentioned, don’t write off a restaurant without giving it a twice over and by all means, if you enjoyed your culinary experience somewhere make sure to write a positive review for them, great eateries deserve the promotion! There are countless websites where you can sing the praises of a deserving restaurant, my favorite local site is DineOutHarrisburg.com, and Yelp has a strong presence nationwide.
Here goes!

Best sushi – Zen Japanese Cuisine, 5205 Simpson Ferry Rd, Mechanicsburg. Sorry Sapporo fans, this place is tops for me in the Japanese food category. Sushi, service, and ambiance here are wonderful.

Best Pho- Issei Noodle, 54 W High Street, Carlisle. There aren’t as many Vietnamese options on the west shore but for a grand slam bowl of Pho this place does it best, really neat interior to the place as well.

Best Middle Eastern – Cedars Lebanese Restaurant, 2153 Market Street, Camp Hill. Incredible food, atmosphere and service!

Best Italian – Juliana’s Italian Restaurant, 6108 Carlisle Pike, Camp Hill. Hard to find, but completely worth the effort. This is a classy restaurant that couples great service with quality food.

Best Pizza – Pizza Grille, 3817 Gettysburg Road, Camp Hill. Gourmet pizza, full bar, and lovely interior makes this best pizza, Harrisburg Magazine voters have concurred for the past decade.

Best Korean – Spring Garden, 5 South 35th St., Camp Hill. Since discovering Spring Garden I think Korean food has become my favorite cuisine! You might not notice this place just from driving by, but its really nice inside and the food is definitely ‘best of’ material.

Best Thai – Bankok Wok, 125 Gateway Dr # 111, Mechanicsburg. This place lives up to the hype in every respect, the food is always impressive, the restaurant is completely top notch.

Best BBQ – Memphis Blues, 5202 Simpson Ferry Rd, Camp Hill. Fun atmosphere, quality BBQ.

Best Overall – I’ve got to give it to Spring Garden, the food is really incredible, the owners are extremely helpful and friendly, and the restaurant is quite nice inside. I recommend the dumplings and Jaeyook Bokeum- pan fried pork with veggies in spicy sauce. Don’t forget the kimchi!

Honorable Mention: West Shore Farmers Market, 900 Market Street, Lemoyne. Another awesome farmers market, with plenty of wonderful places to eat and snack from on the first floor and quite a few shops on the second floor.

Think I missed any or disagree? Please use the comment box and let me know!

: : : : : : : : : : :

Harrisburg’s Best Restaurants (east shore)

Whether you grew up here, pass through on occasion for business, or just randomly find yourself in Harrisburg for mysterious reasons beyond your control, I’d like to point you in the right direction with the local restaurant scene. I’m not a professional food critic by any means, but I do love eating and with as much time and money I’ve spent trying every place to eat around here I could find,  I’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s what and who’s guaranteed to please.

You should first of all be aware that there are A LOT of dining options in and around Harrisburg, so don’t you dare consider Applebees! A good place to start is DineOutHarrisburg.com; Yelp.com is another great way to learn about the best places to eat from those who have already been there.

Now obviously opinions are merely that, so don’t write off any restaurant before you try it at least twice. Many people are quick to complain but slow to write reviews about positive experiences, so don’t take online critiques to be gospel. But enough of the preaching, you’re hungry right!? Well here goes:

Best Burger – The Jackson House, 1004 N 6th St. Lunch hours only and no credit cards but wow you’ll have a new favorite burger place after your first visit. Try the house Jackson Burger.

Best Sandwich – Nonna’s Delicioso, 263 Reily St. This little Italian delicatessen serves up amazing quality sandwiches and Italian side dishes.

Best Pizza – Brother Joe’s Pizza, 6051 Allentown Blvd. Thin ‘n crispy pies, this place looks like your average Joe’s Pizza but the quality is surprisingly noticeable.

Best Sushi – Okini Pan Asian Restaurant, 3402 Walnut St. With so many local sushi places to choose from it’s tough to name one the champion, but personally I’ve always been impressed with the sushi here. Yes it looks like a Pizza Hut from the outside.

Best Indian – Aangan Indian Cuisine, 3500 Walnut St. Never mind the ugly exterior of the building, the inside is really quite nice and the food is wonderful. They specialize in Indian and Nepali food and have a wonderful buffet. Quite a few Indian places around the burg but this place is tops.

Best Vietnamese – Rose’s Vietnamese Cuisine, 2306 Walnut Street. You’ll probably drive by the place the first time, but you’ll know why you turned around to find it after you taste the food. Not much to the interior of the place, but definitely my personal favorite for pho and other Vietnamese dishes.

Best Middle Eastern – La Kasbah, 913 N 2nd St. Incredible Moroccan food, order anything on the menu, but don’t forget to try the tea!

Best Latino- Las Delicias, 2060 Derry St. So it’s not the nicest part of the city to be sure, but for authentic Spanish-American food this is it. Nothing impressive about the look of the place inside or out but the food makes it all worth it.

Best Italian - Zia’s at Red Door, 110 North Second St.  A private and upscale atmosphere, high quality food, and extensive wine list make Zia’s a great pick for Italian.

Suba Tapas Bar

Best overall – Suba Tapas Bar, 272 North Street. Suba is the upstairs part of an Italian restaurant called Mangia Qui and they share the same kitchen. Both places are incredible, but Suba gets my personal nod for best overall place in Harrisburg to eat. It’s not cheap, but the atmosphere, service, drinks, and tapas are so worth it.

Overall Runner Up – Bricco, South 3rd & Chestnut Streets. A close second behind Suba, Bricco is an upscale Mediterranean restaurant with an elegant atmosphere and outrageously delicious cuisine. You will leave impressed from a dinner at Bricco.

Honorable Mention – Broad Street Market, 1233 N 3rd St. I love this market plain and simple. The hours are a little funny so check before you go, but there is such a wonderfully diverse collection of food available for purchase at the market. One building is for food vendors, the other is for groceries and miscellaneous goods.

Think I missed any or disagree? Drop a comment.

: : : : : : : : : : :

Restaurant Review: Bricco, 31 S. 3rd Street, Harrisburg

After winning a $50 gift card from a contest facilitated by local events calendar Spotobe.com, my lovely girlfriend and I stopped in for a romantic evening at Bricco. I will say that I’ve been here a number of times for lunch and always left impressed, but I still had this feeling that somehow the place was over hyped.

I could not have been more wrong.

If you’ve never been inside Bricco, the place has a classy and modern New York City type of feel to it. You quickly feel relaxed and comfortable as you peruse the menu and extensive wine list. The lighting, music, and pace of the restaurant is just perfect. Our server for the evening was nothing less; attentive, courteous, and knowledgeable of every single aspect of the drink and food menus. Very impressive, in fact, I’ll go so far as to say I’ve never had better service anywhere, ever.

After a few complimentary samples from the wine list we decided on drinks and focused our attention to appetizers. We decided on 3 cold small plates, similar to tapas; house made pickled vegetables, grilled asparagus, and eggplant with raisins, pine nuts, and roasted peppers. All three dishes were exquisite, and I especially enjoyed the pickled vegetables, they were just exceptional and bursting with flavor.

Following the appetizers, I decided on the Bricco Bolognese and my counterpart ordered the Sage Pappardelle. Wow. I can hardly express how impressed I was with the quality and flavor of these extraordinary dishes. The Bricco Bolognese was a combination of house made sausage, meatballs, pancetta, chicken, mortadella, tomato sauce and polenta that was just amazing down to the very last bite. The portion was rather large and loaded with meat but believe me there was not a bite spared when all was said and done. The Sage Pappardelle was a more delicate dish, but no less incredible. The raised duck, red wine and pancetta ragout just melted in your mouth and was so succulent that we couldn’t help but finish the entire plate. We enjoyed the food so much that we unfortunately left no room for dessert!

That will have to wait for another day, but I am certain I’ll return to Bricco. While the lunch menu is wonderful you really must make a dinner visit to truly experience the brilliance of the food and atmosphere of the restaurant. Bricco has firmly established itself in my mind as setting the standard for fine dinning well beyond Harrisburg.

: : : : : : : : : : :

Bube’s Brewery- A Must Experience

If you’re into unique dining experiences, themed feasts, quality beer, or pirates, you need to put a visit to Bube’s Brewery on your to do list. Located in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, this 19th century brewery and museum contains 4 extraordinary restaurants, live events, an unusual store, and an art gallery displaying works from local artists. Bube’s, (interestingly enough pronounced “boo bees”) has a very rustic, vintage atmosphere, as everything has been preserved as it existed years ago.

My experience with Bube’s was in the Catacombs, an incredible restaurant located 43 feet underground in the old stone cellars where enormous wooden casks used to be full of aging beer. The atmosphere is beyond unique, as the quiet stone caverns are lighted only by candlelight atop a number of dinner tables. What an experience! Not to mention that the food was great and the service superb. They even provided a free dessert to help us celebrate a birthday in our dining party. I tried a few of the house brewed beers- an IPA that really threw me off because of it’s unique maltiness and a red ale that was just perfect. My date tried a caramel apple martini that was equally delicious, and the prices for everything on the menu were very reasonable. Both the swordfish and the seafood mornay were wonderful.

All in all, dining in the Catacombs was an experience I will not soon forget, and I am already planning a return visit to try the other dining establishments at Bube’s Brewery. Those include the original bar called Alois, the Bottling Works, and the outdoor Biergarten. Themed dinners also include Murder Mysteries, Roman Feasts, Medieval Feasts, Pirate Feasts, Halloween and Christmas Feasts.

Bube’s is truly a must, try it for a romantic dinner, a fun themed evening, or just for something altogether different.

You can check out their upcoming events, menus and more at: BubesBrewery.com

: : : : : : : : : : :

Restaurant Review: Mangia Qui, 272 North St., Harrisburg

A word of advice if you’ve never been to Mangia Qui – rearrange your to do list. This place is well worth the visit! The downstairs is a very nice, quaint Italian restaurant and the upstairs is a gorgeous tapas bar called Suba complete with a high wooden beamed ceiling, colorful artwork, and detailed spanish decor.

I chose to stop in on a Sunday for brunch and eat at a table outside on North Street. The service was good and the atmosphere very relaxed, but it was the food that most impressed me. The menu had quite a few great options on it which made the decision difficult but in the end I ordered the Italian breakfast – pecan raisin sweet bread dipped in egg, sauteed, topped with mascarpone and powdered sugar served with bacon. Was I ever impressed! The Italian style french toast was outstanding and the bacon was cooked perfectly, crispy and heavily peppered. My girlfriend ordered the Mozzarella en carrozza, a delicious grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. The soup turned out to be more of a dipping sauce but the two together were good to the last bite. Come to think of it, there wasn’t a bite left after all was said and done. The restaurant is known for using local produce and while the prices are a little higher, the quality of the food is well worth it. I’ve already put trying the tapas bar upstairs at the top of my to do list.

Restaurant Review: Anastacia’s Restaurant/Bar, 1535 N. 6th Street, Harrisburg

Who said Harrisburg doesn’t have culture? Anastacia’s Restaurant/Bar is a brand new establishment that serves up authentic Puerto Rican cuisine at its finest! I had on a number of occasions passed by their location on 6th Street as they were renovating the building and decided the place certainly wasn’t appealing enough to check out upon completion. However, after a quick glance through some of their pictures on myspace I was surprised to see how nice of an establishment it really was, not what I expected at all!

I had to see/taste the place for myself, so I decided to drop in for lunch. Now don’t be fooled into thinking that since the restaurant is on 6th Street it clearly must be a dive like I had mistakenly done, the place is quite nice. The inside is colorful and neat, with a decent size bar and dining area complete with 4 flat panel TVs and a large chandelier. Everything is brand new, but the menu is seriously authentic – they even serve up Patitas de Cerdo, pigs feet! I wish I could say I’m that adventurous, but I stuck with the stewed chicken and rice ‘n beans  which was absolutely delicious. Service was great, and I’ll be going back, maybe this time to try something a little more out of the ordinary. The menu is different depending on the day, but the prices are all quite modest.

Check it out for yourself, the owners are hard working people and have done an excellent job renovating the entire place. It’s hard working small business owners such as these that really do enormous good for the city, so show your support by enjoying some delicias latin cuisine!

: : : : : : : : : : :

Restaurant Review: Jamines With Papine, 306 Riley Street, Harrisburg

As mentioned in a previous post, I made sure to visit this Jamaican/American restaurant to see what the place was all about. The restaurant is next door to Garden Vietnamese Restaurant, a block over from the new Harrisburg Area Community College Midtown Campus – in my opinion an excellent location to open up shop. At any rate, the place just opened a week ago, and is modest looking on the outside as well as inside. Downstairs there are a few tables, a billiards table and an electric jukebox, I’m foreseeing this place as a pretty nice little student lounge for HACC students. Up the small stairway there is a counter immediately on the left where you can place an order and a number of little tables that fill the room. Again, pretty modest inside but what is most important to me is what’s really most important (that’s the food of course). You can see the menu in my previous post, but you can see that the place is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I tried the curry chicken with steamed cabbage and rice ‘n beans. Absolutely delicious. I was a little doubtful of the authenticity of the food until I had a taste, then there was nothing except planning a return visit to try something else. The food really did it for me, and the authenticity of the place was confirmed when I met Kenny the owner, or as everyone calls him “pops.” From the 5 minutes we chatted, Kenny seems to me a pretty stand up guy. He’s got an obvious Jamaican accent and has tried his hand at making a successful Jamaican restaurant a number of times before. I’m optimistic that this place will stick for him though as the food and location are both great.

By the way, for anyone curious pops explained to me that “Jameans With Papine” is a combination of American and Jamaican names, synonymous with the type of food served from the kitchen at 306 Riley Street in Harrisburg.

: : : : : : : : : : :

New Restaurant Opens in Harrisburg – Jameans With Papine, 306 Riley Street

En route to downtown Harrisburg in search of a few more venues for this year’s Experience Harrisburg Job and Internship Fair, I noticed during my casual drive that the shop next door to Garden Vietnamese Restaurant that used to be a soul food restaurant before going out of business had a bit of activity going on inside. Upon a closer look I also noticed that the front window had a different name on the glass complete with a Jamaican flag. Needless to say, I slammed on the breaks, pulled a 180, and beat out a police cruiser for the last space along the sidewalk in front of the store to try the place out. Well, not really, but I did stop in and check the place out after I finished talking to a few business owners downtown about hosting employers for the job fair.

I can’t say I know what Jameans With Papine actually means but after grabbing a menu (click on images below)  and a quick look around the shop I’ll make sure to ask the owner tomorrow when I return for lunch. It’s pretty nice inside, just a few tables, an electric jukebox and pool table downstairs with the kitchen upstairs. I can’t vouch for the food yet, but any new restaurant is worth trying twice in my opinion. I’m especially curious about this place as there is already a Jamaican Buffet just a few blocks down 3rd Street called Ventura House. Is this city big enough to have two Jamaican eateries in addition to a great Caribbean food stand in the Broad Street Market? I suppose time will tell, but personally I can’t wait to give Jameans With Papine a first taste.

: : : : : : : : : : :