A Million Stories

Last week, a young waitress ambled about the sidewalk outside Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House, holding a tray of white sample drinks and offering them to passers-by. She was surrounded on all sides by shouting picketers — subcontractors who worked to renovate Del Frisco's historic building, and say they are still owed $6 million. They've filed suit against the restaurant and against the general contractor, Lorient of Plainfield, Ill.

Del Frisco's doesn't deny that the picketers were skimped; it just says Lorient did the skimping. The restaurant has also filed suit against the contractor, and offered the subcontractors a settlement through its insurance company: about 40 cents on the dollar of what they're owed, in the case of Delaware Valley Remediation, a demolition firm. Lorient, for its part, is suing Del Frisco's.

The waitress looked at the protesters, then back to passers-by, then back at the protesters again. She looked confused and uncomfortable.

She continued to offer free drinks.

It all started when Frank Iacovino, a regular happy hour patron at the Khyber in Old City, accidentally dropped a quarter in the urinal. Ten or 15 minutes later, he returned to the men's room to find the coin was gone. "I had to see how long before the next two quarters were going to disappear," he recounts.

He and Jay Moody, a friend and another Khyber regular, came up with what they now call "The Game." The Game is simple. They place two quarters in each of the two men's urinals, return to their seats and check a clock every time one of them visits the can. When the quarters are gone, the game starts over.

"Usually, it doesn't go on longer than 30 minutes," Moody explains.

There have been only a few times when the quarters didn't disappear eventually. The two have never caught anyone in the act.

They did, however, recently learn that an acquaintance was removing the quarters with the pliers on his Leatherman. Does this brighten the dark portrait of humanity their game has painted?

Not necessarily. "They've disappeared on days that [the Leatherman guy] wasn't there. We're positive," says Iacovino, adding that the phenomenon is not unique to the Khyber.

"I tried this at a little redneck bar in Maryland. They lasted a little longer — maybe about an hour — but then they went."

Listen to an interview about The Game on the Clog.

Earlier this week, the mayor and Council announced that they'd reached an agreement on the city's budget. Instead of Nutter's proposed steep two-year hike in the property tax, the city will extend his 1 percent sales tax hike from three years to five, and defer payments to the city's pension fund for two years to make up the difference.

There's at least one wrinkle, though: The plan assumes the economy will get better in the next year or two. But what, asked Inquirer reporter Marcia Gelbart at Monday's press conference, if it doesn't?

Nutter's answer? Cheer up: "I know that there are others around that will have more of a doom-and-gloom outlook on life," the mayor said. "I do not believe that we're going to stay in this kind of economic crisis forever."