Tredici – Pronounced tray-dee-chee
Who: Me and My Boo Thang
Where: 13thand Sansom St.
Why: 5 Year Anniversary
How: On foot…I’ll explain 

The plan was to go to a BYOB to celebrate our 5-year anniversary and then return home to exchange gifts. To make a long story short and not put anybody on blast… I was told not to worry about destination just be cute, dressed and ready to go. No problem, I can handle that; I’m cute, eyebrows on fleek, outfit short and sweet and, I’m informed by Boo Thang that there’s no restaurant pre-selected for the evening.  What?? “You told me all I had to do was be ready and now you don’t know where we’re going” (My internal thought is, “this is why I plan shit myself because now we‘re about to be ass out in Center City on a Sunday night”)

But it’s our anniversary so I’m going to just shut up and go with it. I suggested since we always walk around Center City on the way to a bar or an event, why not just walk around until we bump into a restaurant that caught our eye?  

That was the first mistake…

We arrive downtown and get excellent parking, no garages and no meter. We’re just out here on the street with residential free parking. Bitch what? We winning…or so I thought

.

We set out in pursuit of a restaurant that entices the both of us and after stopping at various spots to browse the outside menus for about 40 minutes, we realize that our taste buds aren’t aligning, my feet are hurting, I’m ready to start drinking, it’s chilly, and most importantly it’s hard just walking up on a restaurant that has everything on a menu that you like until…

Tredici. 

The owners of Zavino created Tredici which means 13 in Italian on 13thand Sansom (I think that’s so damn clever!) to evolve past their normal menu of wine and pizza. We read the outside menu and was instantly impressed; the Italian dishes were beyond traditional and refreshing so we ventured in. The waitress promptly seated us at a table for two and began her genuinely hospitable service. I was undecided on a drink, I didn’t want to start the evening off with a double shot, it was my anniversary after all. I needed to at least start outclassy! The waitress recommended a red fall sangria for me and an IPA for boo thang. Drinks come and I’m happy with my sangria, a little on the sweet side but it’s doable. I order our salads, 1 Greek and 1 Kale. They arrive and it’s like everything we get just gets better. We both order the Crab Pasta which consists of Jonah crab, spaghetti, fresno chillies, burst cherry tomatoes and toasted breadcrumbs. We sprinkle a couple of crushed red pepper flakes for kick and dig in. 

When I say this dish is so damn good…I truly expected it to be a alfredoey (yup, made it up) type dish with a sprinkle of crabmeat. I always wanted to try Jonah crab but just never got around to it. Well, I’m glad I tried it this night, because it was perfect! I wasn’t just a sprinkle in it, it was generously distributed throughout the dish with the noodles being cooked to the point of excellence. The white cheese base wasn’t alfredoey, it was white garlicky saucy goodness but it didn’t take away from the greatness of the crab. I usually love some cheesy shit but it knew to let the crab be great. As we talked and reflected on our last 5 years togethers we realized that after all of the walking and indecisiveness of the night (that could have been avoided, okurrr!) We ended up right where we were supposed to be, with each other at Tredici…

All dishes and drinks are reasonably priced and substantial enough to start or end a night on the town…

Leah B.