Even More Cool Places in Philly

More places. These ones didn't really connect to the first batch, but that's fine.

Fishtown Rap Battle

I've been into battle rap for over a decade. Soul Khan and Arsonal are my favorites — I've watched their entire careers online, the disappearances and comebacks, the whole thing. Soul Khan was absolutely dominant, probably top 3, for several years in the early 2010s. Then he stopped battling to try and be a serious musician, and ultimately run for local political office in NYC on a progressive agenda. Unfortunately, neither have worked out. His songs Fahrenheit and King Ugly are amongst my favorites. After like a decade hiatus, he came back in January 2020 to battle Diz and got crushed because of a style change. Since then he's been clawing his way back to top tier. By comparison, I personally don't like Arsonal's style — but I absolutely acknowledge his performance and stage presence. I think his aggression is real, but his gun bars are a little flat since they're not real threats as Iron explicitly called out in their battle at World Domination.

A few months ago I went to a live low-level rap battle in a random warehouse in Fishtown. None of the big names were there. Some of the guys were terrible, honestly painfully so. A couple were actually good. It was just a room full of people into the culture, with some guy filming the whole time on his phone held sideways. Anyway, it was fun.

Queen & Rook

Queen & Rook is an LGBT-friendly cafe on the edge of Francisville or Bella Vista, depending on how you define neighborhood boundaries. Before my kid was born, I used to go to their free Tuesday poker night run by this guy named Butch Cordora, who is described as a "local personality" which is Philly speak for "everyone knows him and nobody knows exactly what he does." I'm a TOTAL poker dork — I love it. Beers were six or seven dollars for the cheap stuff and first prize was a $25 gift card to the cafe itself, which is strong incentive.

The crowd was random — some people who could actually play, some people just there for the cheap beer. It felt like a bar should feel, where whoever showed up that night was the right mix.

Capital One Cafe

Capital One — the credit card company with the annoyingly low credit card limits — runs these cafes in a bunch of US cities. I'm not sure why it makes business sense for them, but whatever. What I like is there's AC, lots of desks to work, and you get 50% off everything if you use a Capital One card. So coffee after the discount costs about $4 ($6 for the nitro cold brews if I'm feeling fancy). That's significantly cheaper than both Starbucks and random neighborhood coffee shops. To be honest, it's the only time I use my Capital One credit card.