Philly Spotlight: Chinatown Izakaya – YAKITORI BOY and other Philly Highlights

This week’s invite came from Philly PR Girl in celebration of the 8th Anniversary of YAKITORI BOY 211 N. 11th Street (11th & Race). The establishment is called an Izakaya, which is the equivalent of a pub, in Japan. Different from a bar in that emphasis is put on ordering food to accompany your cocktails. Wikipedia says Izakaya: is a compound word consisting of “i” (to stay) and “sakaya” (sake shop), indicating that izakaya originated from sake shops that allowed customers to sit on the premises to drink.

Yakitori Boy Celebration 12/2/2015

Gorgeous ladies: Media Maven Deja Monēē (lf) and Explore Philly Editor, Cassie Helper (rt.) in red. Cassie graciously granted me an interviewed during her launch party this past spring, only I got backed up on posts and never wrote a story. I really should write a post about all the posts I never finished writing. I do have the audio of our interview uploaded (listen below). She has a lovely zen outlook on getting to where you want to be in life, and discusses how grateful she is to everyone who came into her orbit to make Explore Philly happen.

Photo on Right: Nina Lyrispect, poet and Philly Maverick leader for director Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY with Philly columnist & talk show host Ernest Owens

Slideshow from Philly PR Girl (may take a moment to load)
View “undefined” on Storify

Not sure why I’ve never noticed Yakitori Boy before, I’ve eaten at restaurants very near it, and done karaoke in Chinatown, but this party was my first experience of the place. The bottom level looks like a traditional Japanese restaurant. The 2nd level opens up to a bar/lounge featuring karaoke and private karaoke rooms. The private rooms encourage music themes like 80, 90’s, Country, R&B etc… although, we were able to access the full music library from each room, so it’s more of a novelty with corresponding props on the tables.

For a little while I had the country room to myself and took advantage of the opportunity to belt out my favorite Wynonna Judd and Reba McEntire songs from their early albums. Note: when using the karaoke kiosk and searching by artist doesn’t seem to bring up enough selections, type in the first letter for each word in the song title. For example: “She is His Only Need” SIHON, this should bring up the track.

I met two super fun bloggers with great voices in the 80’s room, Susan Graeser & Tara Gontek their site is actually called This Drunk Bitch, which is awesome! Needless to say, their site is aimed towards spirits, alcohol, bars, taverns drinking!
Click play on the image to hear a clip of Tara doing the power ballad “Alone” by Heart on T&T’s Instagram.

I don’t know what Yakitori Boy will do for their 10th Anniversary because they really went all out for this one, including Chinese Dragon, photo booth, full open bar, plentiful buffet and a plethora of sushi rolls. I should have asked if 8 is a major milestone in Japanese culture?

I went against my rule at the last open bar event and drank too many different types of spirits, and was very sorry. This time I conservatively had just two Saketini’s (Sake Martini). I’m still not sure if I liked it, with so many flavors happening simultaneously, I found myself being more intrigued by the cocktail than actually enjoying it, but it’s pretty! #EATDRINKSING

Also This Week

The Christmas Tree Lighting at City Hall

The City Hall Tree Lighting Celebration Thursday night turned into a FREE EATS Philly Food Truck Festival! @Philly_Fry, Maglio Italian Sausage, @SayCheesePhilly, @RevolutionTaco, forget the name of the chicken wing truck, Wawa Coffee and @SugarPhilly Creme brulee to die for!

Thanks Mayor Nutter – that’s the way to go out in style!