Rubbing elbows with fellow diners at Bridget Foy’s

By Carrie Caine
Collegian Staff
March 1, 2006

Upon entering Bridget Foy’s from the cold wind of South Street, I immediately noticed that the left side of the restaurant, a bar and a few tables, was mostly empty, while the right side of the restaurant had diners packed to near-bursting. When I noted the stairs leading up to what looked like a well-lit second floor, I breathed a sigh of relief, mistakenly believing that I wouldn’t spend the entire meal packed in a noisy room of screeching voices and clanking silverware. Then, the hostess led our party to a table in the middle of the room, closely flanked by several other tables and some very loud eaters.

As the meal began, we continually noticed how close we were to the other patrons. We could overhear some very interesting conversations, and we were constantly hindering the waiter’s ability to bring meals out to some of the tables around us. The volume of the room made conversation difficult at some times and uncomfortable at others during bursts of sound followed by moments of strange silence.

The appetizer, duck spring rolls, came with a delicious orange plum sauce, a step up from the typically bland duck sauce that usually accompanies such rolls. The filling, however, was a kind of shredded duck with a nice flavor but a strange canned-tuna texture.

For the main course, I enjoyed a delicious chimichanga, a crispy tortilla with melted cheese, chicken, black beans, peppers and corn served with homemade pico de gallo and cilantro sour cream. This meal, available any time at the restaurant (including brunch, lunch, dinner and late night) is delicious and a must-try for any new patron. The spring mix salad on the side had a nice mix of leaves topped with a tangy dressing. Also a hit at the table was the South Street Bistro Burger, a whopping 10-ounce slab of meat with Wisconsin cheddar, lettuce and tomato. The accompanying fries were also quite tasty.

Dessert was delicious and included a berry tart and a chimichanga cheesecake (it was a chimichanga kind of day). The cheesecake had a banana cream in it and came rolled in a sweet but crisp shell with caramel sauce and cinnamon sugar. The berry tart, though not outstanding, was served in a memorable raspberry-chocolate sauce.

An after-dinner visit to the restroom proved frustrating, as I pried myself from the jaws of the crowded restaurant and pitched myself up the stairs where I assumed there would be as many full tables as below. Instead, I found a room of about 20 tables with two diners at a single table. While the manager and hostess were probably trying to keep the tables close together in the interest of their servers and staff, they did so at the peril of the patrons, who were forced to sit near each other and listen to screeching thirtysomething women whine about their jobs and marriages.

While the food at Bridget Foy’s was good and its near-the-river on South Street location ideal for downtown shopping and Old City touring, its management style and setup brought some discomfort to the meal. Try making a reservation ahead of time and asking for a window seat to escape the crush of the crowd, and enjoy those chimichangas.

cainec1@lasalle.edu