Jenkintown Mayor Goes on 24-Restaurant Tour

In a bid to promote the restaurant industry of Jenkintown, Philadelphia, Mayor Ed Foley went on a gastronomic tour of all the town’s restaurants – all in one day. The tour, which he made on April 19, 2014, is to promote the borough’s first-ever restaurant week dubbed Dine Out Jenkintown.

This gut-busting tour had Mayor Foley starting at sun up at the local IHOP. For each restaurant visit, Mayor Foley live tweeted (through his handle @MayorFoley) and updated his FaceBook page during the whole-day tour with the hashtag #EatJenkintown. The secret, the mayor says, is in the pacing. He had mini-meals at some place but he could not resist having full meals at some places. Nor could he say no to the “mom guilt” by restaurant servers to make sure he ate the food he was served.

Aside from the one pancake he had at IHOP, he also had a wide variety of restaurant dishes – Cinnabon French Toast at Cinnabon, munchkins at Dunkin Donuts, a cupcake at Velvet Sky, an egg and bacon at Joey Tates, as well as a full meal of rice beans and ribs with macaroni and cheese and collard greens at Taste The Difference. Other stops at his tour included make-your-own cheesecake at The Cheesecake Lady, steamed dumplings at China Keng and a warm bowl of matzo ball soup and three latkes at La Pergola. The tour will end at the Drake Tavern. Some locals also joined him for a quick bite at one of his restaurant stops.

To get a head start to “clear up some space”, he fasted on Good Friday and also went for a run. He also weighed himself but did not count the calories for his tour. The mayor, a second-term Democrat, stated that his town is in the “day of a restaurant renaissance”. 20 years ago, locals and visitors had only one restaurant to go to. Happily though, the town’s growing restaurant industry now counts 24 restaurants in the last three years and will be seeing more restaurants in the next years. This includes sit-down restaurants as well as cafes and take-out stores.

Mayor Foley, who also works in marketing for a Philadelphia insurance company, kicks off the town’s restaurant week starting on April 22 to April 26 with discounts and special offers from participating restaurants. Aside from some of the restaurants mentioned, other participating establishments include West Avenue Grill, Fill-A-Bagel, Fiesta Pizza, Bella’s Restaurant, Argana Tree, Forcella, Our Family Café, Leila’s Bristro and King’s Corner. The Jenkintown Community Alliance organized the said event. After 6 p.m. every day throughout the event, the town also offers free parking.