How the White Dog Cafe Got Its Name

 "In June of 1875, Madame Helena Blavatsky lay seriously ill with an injured
leg. On the second floor of her brownstone row house at 3420 Sansom Street
in Philadelphia, the doctors urged amputation to save her life, but she would
have none of it. 'Fancy my leg going to the spirit land before me,' she exclaimed,
'and have my obituary read 'gone to meet her leg'. Indeed!' So she shooed off the
doctors and cured herself by having a white dog lie across her leg, healing all
in no time.
"Almost 100 years later, just after moving into that same house, I answered a
knock at my door around midnight and found a strange woman who asked,
'Is this the home of the great Madame Blavtsky?'
'Who?'
'Is this 3420 Sansom Street?' she asked impatiently.
'Yes, but there's no Madame here.'
'No, no, of course not, but would you mind if I came in for a minute, just
to see where it was she once lived?'
"I swung open the door and she tore around the house explaining how this was where her bedroom had been, and this her parlor, and oh, how disappointing
it was that the rooms had been so altered. Then she was off and I went back to
bed, wondering if I had been dreaming. Several months later, I was looking out
the window of a bus when I noticed a small message board in the window of an
elegant building near Rittenhouse Square that read,
'Who was Madame Blavatsky?'
I quickly hopped off the bus and ran into the building. The Theosophical
Society was celebrating the life of its founder and I began to learn the story
of the remarkable woman who had lived in my house 100 years before.
"A Russian noblewoman turned vagabond, Madame Blavatsky had come to the United States to study the philosophy of Native Americans and during her illness
on Sansom Street developed a vision of the world united by a belief in universal brotherhood. After her recovery she left for New York City to found the Theo-
sophical Society, an organization dedicated to reconciling all nations and
religions through a common understanding of ethical truths.
"As though fate had brought me to the same house, I discovered my own funda- mental belief in the interconnectedness of all life to be at the core of Madame
Blavatsky's philosophy. In 1983, I would open a restaurant on the first floor
of that house at 3420 Sansom Street and name it for the dog who had saved
her. Whether there had actually been  a white dog or the dog was a symbol of
the healing powers of faith and good humor, I'll never know. Since dogs for
me have always represented the qualities of comfort and fun that I wished for
the Cafe, the name suited and I drew the logo to resemble the silhouette of my
beloved hound, Newman. He was not a white Lab as most people guess, but the
ghost of a tricolored mutt. Some accuse me of creating the White Dog Cafe as
a shrine to his memory, and perhaps it's so!
"An intellectual and scholar, Madame Blavatsky worked to bring the world
together through the study and teaching of ancient truths. With the same goal
in mind, I choose a different route - peace through parties!"
- Judy Wicks, Founder and Proprietor

Balsamic-roasted Portobello Mushrooms

“Marinated in balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, these fleshly mushrooms have a surprisingly meaty flavor. They are simple to prepare and are terrific grilled. If
you offer them as a vegetarian alternative at your next barbecue, you’ll find you
have more hamburgers left than mushrooms. We serve them with creamy herb-
flecked polenta to temper an sharpness from the vinegar, and with spinach
sautéed with roasted garlic and pine nuts.”