PHLReview
photo credit: Kerry McIntyre
Harper’s Garden
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If we made a flowchart on whether or not you should go to Harper’s Garden, it would have one simple question: Is it nice outside? If the answer is no, then there are a bunch of other places we’d recommend instead. But if the answer is yes - if the sun is shining and the temperature is 70 or above - then there’s only one place you should be going for a post-work glass of wine and a few small plates. And that place is Harper’s Garden.
Harper’s Garden is located between Rittenhouse Square and almost every Center City office building, and it’s about 75% patio and 25% indoor space. During the winter, there’s almost no reason to come here, because if Harper’s Garden were La La Land, then the patio would be the combination of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Take it away and you’re left with a depressing two-hour saga inside a small, empty bar area that’s devoid of almost any atmosphere. However, as soon as May hits, all of a sudden every single person you know, from your upstairs neighbor to that person you always see at your coffee shop, is waiting in line for a table under the plant-covered trellis here.
photo credit: Kerry McIntyre
You generally don’t come to Harper’s Garden for the food - you come to hang out in the nice weather after a long day of work with the few people you can still tolerate talking to. But when you don’t want to have three drinks on an empty stomach, stick to the small plates. There’s a kung pao squid dish with Szechuan peanut sauce with exactly the right amount of heat and sweetness to it, oysters with a raspberry vinaigrette that are a no-brainer if you’re sharing with the table, and a tomato and prosciutto pie that’ll go well with whatever drink you happen to be on. It’s all stuff that can be easily divided among a group of people, which is exactly what you want from a place that you’re mostly going to because the weather’s good and it happens to be close to everyone’s office.
The burger is also a solid option if you want something bigger, and at $14 it’s a much better deal than anything you’ll pick from the larger plates - which are generally underwhelming and overpriced. But we’re kind of okay with that, because Harper’s Garden fills a very specific outdoor-drinks-and-small-plates void in Philly, and they do it well. Which is why we don’t need to make a flowchart that looks like the SEPTA map to decide whether you should go here. Just check your weather app, float the idea to your other three coworkers who leave at exactly 5:01pm every day, and save the more complicated flowcharts for later in the night.