Anthropology

I often joke that New Yorkers are the most provincial people on the planet. Obviously New York City is cosmopolitan in the generally understood meaning from that word, but when New Yorkers write about/talk about other places it's as if they're venturing deep into a bizarre landscape on some strange new planet. NYC is the norm, and all deviations are weird and strange. And, of course, the peasants of the lesser provinces aren't very sophisticated.

For any new restaurant in Philly, Kulp says the trick is creating "something that isn't going to intimidate people or make them feel like they're risking their money because it's so out of touch with what they might anticipate."

But he says there's still a bigger mental divide between New York and Philadelphia than there is an actual geographical divide: "People in New York just don't go to Philadelphia," he says. "But if it didn't work out down here, I figure I'd take the hour-and-fifteen-minute train ride. Once I realized how close Philadelphia is, it's not like you can never go back."