Ladder 15 in Philadelphia

Ladder 15 to the rescue!  It rescued me not from a fire but from a grueling day yesterday.  Two friends and I headed there, lured by the prospect of intriguing food and checking out what appeared to be a really interesting space.

Ladder 15 restaurant is in an old firehouse on Sansom Street in Center City Philadelphia. When we entered, it immediately struck me as a very cavernous space. Since we got there right around 5pm it was very empty.  I thought, "Seems like a lot of wasted space."  By the end of the night, I understood differently. All that extra space was filled with young business people standing around while drinking and talking.  My friends and I definitely bumped up the average age!

Fortunately, we got unobstructed views of the interior prior to the crowd's arrival.  The Ladder 15 website sums it up the space well:

With 35 foot ceilings, and a unique mixture of stone walls, steel railings, beautiful mahogany, and two fireplaces, Ladder 15 is designed to look both cool in an industrial sense, and feel warm and comfortable at the same time.  

I absolutely agree with warm and comfortable.  It did, however, have perhaps just a tad of "too hip" or trendy.  But just a tad...

In February of this year, David Ansill, former owner and chef of both Ansill and Pif, became the executive chef at Ladder 15. (Philadelphians will recognize these as former Philly "hot" dining spots.  Ansill replaced the long-surviving Judy's Café on 3rd and Bainbridge.  According to Philly.com, Ansill also spent time at the Rittenhouse Hotel, Café Nola, BLT's Cobblefish, Lucy's Hat Shop, Continental and...interestingly... Judy's Café.) 

Ansill came to our table two or three times.  He spent time telling us about the menu, answering our questions, and talking a little bit about the various restaurants in his past. While he talked about working all over the world, he eventually did say, "I am Pif" when we questioned him about that.  I told him the best creme brulee I EVER had was from Pif.  I think about it every time I think about creme brulee; it had the taste of pistachio.  Ansill mentioned his creme brulee at Ladder 15 was orange and...something.  I was going to try it but didn't and now I can't remember the other ingredient.

The food was mostly very good; I loved the "twists."  We started with goat cheese cigars, which were mashed potatoes and goat cheese in wrappers like that of Vietnamese summer rolls (the unfried kind).  We also had marinated octopus with three "dipping sauces" including a pepper coulis, a lemon/garlic coulis, and something else I can't remember.  (Gosh, this is becoming a bad trend.)

The three of us had rice bowls.  Mine was beef with seaweed salad.  Each of my friends got the chicken rice bowl, which had a coconut curry flavor.  Both were good but I liked the appetizers best.  We washed our meals down with various beverages - but just one each.

The drink that was most fun, however, was the "Cherry Water Ice"" - Three-O Cherry Vodka and lemonade served with Cherry Pop Rocks garnish.  If you are of a certain age, you remember Pop Rocks, the candy that popped in your mouth.  I had no idea you could still buy this candy!  (A Google search proved otherwise.)  I also didn't know my friend's drink came with Pop Rocks.

We were talking to Chef Ansill when the drinks arrived.  I was vaguely distracted by a fizzy sound while we were speaking.  I heard it for minutes when finally I turned to identify the source.  I saw that it was my friend's drink.  Those red Pop Rocks added color and sound! They "popped" for several minutes.  Like the food at least one drink had a special "twist."

As much as I enjoyed experiencing Ladder 15, and would recommend that people try it, I don't think I will go back. Why?  The noise was DEAFENING.  It was so loud that the last 40 minutes of our conversation consisted of "What?" and "I didn't hear you" and "This place is SO LOUD."  I'm sure the high decibel level at the restaurant is due to the large space, high ceilings, and exuberant 20-somethings.  It was just too much.  Ladder 15 rescued me once but I don't think it will happen again.