I thought it was funny when – in the midst of a slight tiff with an employee of the East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District – I was told that whether I liked it or not, Cantina was the “face” of East Passyunk Ave.  (One sentence above this, she also mentioned that it wasn’t up to her to decide who has the best burritos.  You see, she can’t make any judgment calls about the quality of any business along the avenue.  No, I didn’t see an irony, either!)

Initially, I was very angry about the conversation, but maybe, just maybe, she was right. I mean, after all, South Philly and mountains of trash seem to go hand in hand, right?

For the love of all that is unholy, invest in a damn dumpster and private trash pickup!  It shouldn’t be difficult given all the money they make off of underage drinkers!

Given the amount of bad press the place gets (my favorite description thus far is “Chi-Chi’s for Hipsters”), and the fact that they are fairly well-known as having a…loose carding policy for serving alcohol, I can’t imagine why they are still in business.  I also don’t understand the weird tie they seem to have with EPABID.  All I did was make a comment that Cantina is an overrated, steaming pile of monkey dung (but that’s just my opinion, folks).  Well, except I was a bit nicer, of course.

At the time, I thought it was odd that my criticisms of Cantina would draw the ire of someone representing the East Passyunk Business District.  Why would – as an employee from EPABID – she go out of her way to both label any one business as the “face” of the Avenue and get incredibly defensive when someone makes a passing comment?

A more cynical person might think that there is something shady going on.  I’m not one to spread gossip, but my gut thought is “dude, is Cantina los Caballitos paying off East Passyunk Ave tl;dr Association?”  But that’s just a passing thought.  It’s more likely the comments were made by someone who lacks decorum and professionalism.  At least, I hope it was.  I’d hate to think that shit documented in the above photo is common knowledge and Cantina gets a pass for it for being “the face of Passyunk.”  This is doubly true given that the city is currently broke.

Even if no one was aware, it shows a huge amount of irresponsibility on the owners’ part to not sub-contract out for their waste removal and dump it on city employees.  I don’t know every law applying to businesses in Philly, but you would think that this is a huge no-no, given that I can take shit for throwing away a fridge or a dishwasher, let alone a mound of trash bags.

I’m not saying they are definitely breaking the law or not, but I am going to throw out a hearty “way to waste city resources, Cantina!”

(Photo was taken at 3:10 am on August 25th, 2009.)

Update located here.

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