Ask around Old City where to find the best slice, and most likely you’ll be pointed in Soho Pizza’s direction. The eatery located at 218 Market St. offers a creative selection of brick-oven style pies — like barbeque and buffalo chicken — at a reasonable price, and customers rave about the garlicky crust. And if there actually exists a non-pie eater, the place serves up a pretty tasty salad, hoagie or order of cheese fries.
Soho’s greatness is no mystery — if you arrive during a weekday lunch or after 1:59am on the weekend, the place’s popularity is, unfortunately, embodied by a long line. But there does happen to be a secret haven of a hangout on the other side of the pizza shop’s east wall — a cozy, little lounge named Chelsea.
Run by the same folks and connected by a doorway, the pizza shop and bar are two different worlds. Small and somewhat unnoticeable from the outside, Chelsea (216 Market St.) is often discovered by Soho customers who wander through the doorway looking for the restroom and end up sticking around for a cocktail or four. The bar is like a dive in that it’s small, 
friendly and cheap — there are always $2 and $3 beer specials until 11pm — but the visual appeal and cleanliness of the place resemble more upscale Old City lounges.
When sitting at the bar, it’s hard not to notice the digital clock counting down from some 1,300 days hung over the bar and the large “est. 2012” logo on the wall. That’s all in reference to the end of the Mayan calendar — the “judgment day,” “end of the world,” or “shift of ages,” as it’s been called. If you are not familiar with the various cosmic theories surrounding this, you likely will be in November when Sony Pictures releases “2012,” starring Woody Harrelson and John Cusack. But keep in mind that the bartender at Chelsea has probably already been asked what it means a million times.
Whether you consider the apocalyptical theme to be eccentric or inspiring (in the live-like-there’s-no-tomorrow sense) it definitely adds a hint of intrigue to the Market Street lounge — as if being able to bypass the line at Soho and order pizza at the cool, little bar next door wasn’t enough to win over hearts. Soho and Chelsea. Finally, a down-to-earth and satisfying duo — just when Old City pretension was starting to get, well, old.
AroundPhilly Staff
