Post Haste — Restaurant in Philadelphia

My wife and I were very excited to finally make it to Post Haste, but overall we were pretty under-whelmed and probably wouldn't make an effort to come back. The best parts were the overall look of the room and friendly staff, but for us, the food and drink were pretty mediocre, and the overall concept is kind of strange.

First off, the room looks very good, and it is way larger than I was expecting. They have a really nice long bar with quite a few seats. All of the staff were quite pleasant and friendly.

For food, we just ordered a couple of small plates. The pork belly was good but average. The smoked beets were unique, but topped with some kind of fried or baked grains for texture that was good in theory, but when actually eating it the grains were like bullets--super hard.

Like the food, the drinks were ok. We had three different cocktails off the menu, and everything that we had definitely leaned pretty sweet, and each had something (like a weird texture or underlying flavor) that was just a little off-putting. Despite service being friendly, they desperately needed another bartender for the opening hour, or at least a bar back or something. It wasn't busy when we were there, but a bunch of people came in around the same time, and the solo bartender got pretty crushed. We were sitting at the bar, and it took about 25 minutes for me to order and get my second drink. I sat with an empty glass in front of me on the bar for the majority of that time, probably almost 20 minutes. Another bartender came in at 6, and the wait times got slightly better, but it was weird to have to wait so long for drinks, especially when there were multiple waitstaff standing at the pass with nothing to do.

I get the concept of the whole 'local' thing, but it's not super coherent. I like the idea of the purpose being to highlight local products, but when framed primarily as a sustainability thing, which was definitely our impression, it didn't always seem to make a lot of sense. For example, no lemons or limes because of the impact of importing them I guess, but locally produced citrus which is grown in greenhouses?--which I don't know, may or may not have a greater environmental impact. Similarly with some of the spirits, no "imported" rum or tequila, but they had locally produced versions of both that relied on imported agave, molasses, etc. or even included in the blend spirits from other countries. Again, for the purposes of highlighting locally produced products, I was all for it. But for environmental purposes, it just didn't make a lot of sense and felt a little bit like green washing.

The concept would not have been an issue if the food and drinks (and service) had knocked us out of the park, but given that everything was pretty average, with the exception of very nice staff, it just stood out as a bit strange. I'd maybe stop back in if I was in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't make another special...

Grabbed some seats at the bar for happy hour. The vibe truly escapes me but I'm not mad about it. Did I understand the music choices? No, but again, into it.

The happy hour deals themselves are fine. There are 3 drink choices, none of which I was super interested in so went with a non HH beer instead. The names of the non HH cocktails are worth a read and clearly really thought out.

We went with both HH apps: the corn ribs and the white fish dip. The former was pretty good- I don't LOVE corn but the dipping sauce was nice and it was pretty well executed. The latter was much better. Nice chunks of meat with really great homemade chips. We also got the beignets which were the highlight: the melted cheese was excellent and was an addition I wouldn't have expected. The pulled pork and the cauliflower were sort of unnecessary here but still really nice.

Service was great. Everyone was super friendly. The prices for HH were fine, a BIT on the pricier side and the actual non-HH menu itself was also fairly pricey. Not sure I would necessarily feel the need to come for non-bar food. Really laid back...

Verdict: Recommended

Really good vibe and ambiance, the service is really good and the servers are great.

The drinks were really good. I had both the manhattan and the old fashioned and was quite nice.

We had the Beignets and the Maitake fried steak for starters which were both really good and hefty portions. Cooked quite well and very tasty.

The ham sammy’s were great too. Had a small hiccup with the duck breast, the fat was not rendered and the skin was quite gummy. I did ask the waiter if it was meant to be that way and he said the skin should be crispy so we returned it. Got another version of the duck but was still, unfortunately the same. The rest of the dish was actually good, it’s just unfortunate that the fat and the skin were really gummy in both iterations I received.

They did compensate with a complimentary vegan creme brulee with concord grape jelly on top which was, to be honest, not really good.

Overall, despite everything, would still recommend this place for good food, great drinks and the...