THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Bookbinder's 15th St.

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Bookbinder's 15th St. Restaurant Review:

In Philly, the name Bookbinder is synonymous with seafood. This restaurant, in the same location right off Restaurant Row (before there was a Restaurant Row), has provided comfort and consistency for over five generations of fish lovers. The front room has a clubby atmosphere, complete with captain’s chairs and mounted game fish, like seafood houses from Maine to Florida. Great vats hiss in the windows, Trenton crackers and horseradish reside on each table and the air is scented with steaming clams. The crowd is a mature mix of regulars and tourists. Aside from those briny steamed clams, there are cherrystones on the half-shell, a selection of oysters and mussels in red sauce, or the famed clam chowder, full of chopped clams and redolent of thyme and pepper. Every fish, from snapper to shad (in season), is given proper treatment, and lobsters, steamed or broiled, are admirable. Desserts are a notch above predictable---fudge cake, lemon meringue pie, cheesecake---for those whose willpower is not sated by seafood.