New Yelp “Best Brunches” List Offers More Proof of How Worthless Yelp Is

A sign for Yelp, which just released its list of the best brunches in America; only one Philadelphia restaurant wound up on the list. (Getty Images)

Check phillymag.com each morning Monday through Thursday for the latest edition of Philly Today. And if you have a news tip for our hardworking Philly Mag reporters, please direct it here. You can also use that form to send us reader mail. We love reader mail!

New Yelp “Best Brunches” List Offers More Proof of How Worthless Yelp Is

The everybody’s-a-food-critic site Yelp just released its list of the best brunch spots in the country. And Northern Liberties restaurant Cafe La Maude came in at number 30.

That’s all well and good. Cafe La Maude is a perfectly fine place to go have brunch in Philadelphia, particularly if you want to drop about $20 on specialty pancakes or a burrito. (Actually, if you go, this place is really all about the shakshuka.)

But somehow, Cafe La Maude is the only Philadelphia restaurant that made the Yelp best brunches list. And that has to make you really question Yelp’s methodology — if there even is any methodology. Should you want a more useful guide to the best Philly brunches, I suggest you visit here.

Anyway, this is probably a good time to remind you that Mother’s Day is just two Sundays away. So once you finish reading this, go ahead and make a reservation. Just not at Cafe La Maude, because they don’t take them.

And if you want to know what we think are the best places in Philadelphia for Mother’s Day festivities, we’ve got you covered.

About Those Damn Bikes…

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and new Philadelphia police commissioner Kevin Bethel have made it quite clear they aren’t going to put up with all that dirt-bike and ATV nonsense that ran rampant during the previous administration. And police do appear to be making progress.

So far this year — and let’s keep in mind that it only just started getting warm out — police have confiscated 150 illegal dirt bikes and ATVs. That’s great. But it would be really nice if they’d do something about my neighbors who play really loud music outside until two in the morning. One quality-of-life issue at a time, I guess.

Local Talent

If you’ve been wondering what Jason Kelce will be doing now that he’s no longer a Philadelphia Eagle, we now have our answer: He’s joining ESPN’s Monday Night Football pregame show. No word on how many ways ESPN is going to try to tie all of this into Taylor Swift mentions.

By the Numbers

200: Approximate number of public meetings SEPTA has held about its long-awaited and long-debated Bus Revolution. SEPTA just made yet another batch of changes to the proposal. And it could finally go to a vote in June.

900 percent: Increase in square footage for Stateside Vodka’s headquarters once it makes the move from Olde Kensington to Northeast Philly. Downside: Employees will now have to deal with Roosevelt Boulevard.

2: Days a local woman worked at Weckerly’s ice-cream shop in Fishtown before deciding it wasn’t for her. “So what?” you’re probably asking yourself. Well, the manager at Weckerly’s apparently didn’t pay her because these were supposedly considered “try-out” shifts. And the whole thing has blown up into a major neighborhood controversy and battle over workers’ rights.

And From the On-the-Line Sports Desk …

The fifth (final?) game in the Sixers’ down-3-1 playoff series with the Knicks is tonight at 7 p.m. at Madison Square Garden. God only knows what will happen. Philly. Stay strong. Remember the good times.

How’d the Phils Do?

They got the party started, as is their wont lately, in the first, against the Angels’ Griffin Canning, with a Kyle Schwarber single, a pitch that hit Trea Turner, a walk to Bryce Harper, and Alec Bohm at the plate. He singled, to stretch his hits-in-games streak to 13, and it was 2-0 just like that.

And that's why he's the NL Player of the Week pic.twitter.com/uyIxz5n6X2

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 30, 2024

Harper scored on Brandon Marsh’s sac fly, and Nick Castellanos … hit into a double play. Jo Adell countered with a solo homer in the bottom half off Cristopher Sánchez — the first he’d allowed all season. And in the second, he gave out a double and a walk, then a double steal and a single that scored another one.

Castellanos was robbed of a homer in the fourth by a good catch after Marsh walked, but in the fifth, we picked up another run on a balk: 4-2. Hunter Strickland replaced Canning in the sixth, and after Sánchez allowed two singles in the bottom half, Orion Kerkering came in, and both runners scored, on a sac bunt, a grounder and a single: tie game.

In the seventh, Seranthony Domínguez came on and handed out two singles, got a ground-out, allowed a steal, and made a wild pitch compounded by a Stubbs error that left L.A. up 6-4. And then a double by Taylor Ward? The social media grumbling about Seranthony was fierce. One more wild pitch … Rob? Rob? Anybody there?

That was Bad News Bears-esque. #Phillies

— Matt Higgins (@MattHiggins80) April 30, 2024

Rob left him in. He got the final out. Gregory Soto pitched the eighth with no more woe. Turner singled with one out off Carlos Estévez in our ninth, and Harper got a ground-rule double, bringing up Bohm. He hit a fly that scored Turner: one-run game, and Marsh at the plate. And he … struck out. Eh. Can’t win ’em all. Rematch tomorrow night at 9:38. Precisely. No doubt.

Any Doop News?

Actually, yeah. They’re resuming their suspended-because-of-rainy-weather March 9th game against the Seattle Sounders tonight, with a 7:30 start. There are … a lot of intricacies to a resumption game!

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.