Octopus Cart

Center City is full of food carts, but the Octopus Cart is one of a kind. A business district lunch standby for more than 30 years, its charcoal-fired grill sends seductive plumes of smoke across the intersection of 20th and Market Streets, where devoted customers wait half an hour or more for whatever $20 Mediterranean platter is being cooked that day by Konstadinos “Gus” Christis (who also sometimes goes by “Kostas”). No, he doesn’t serve octopus; the name is a tribute to his Greek heritage. The specialty here is the char-kissed chicken breasts tinged red with paprika and saffron that, on my visit, came tangled with house-extruded turmeric spaghetti in garlic sauce. And that was just the base. Add deep-green falafel (my vote for Philly’s best), apple-cabbage slaw, blanched asparagus and yes, a handful of ripe cherries, and you’ve got appetizer, entree, and dessert all piled into a 2½-pound mound of shareable garlicky goodness. Total chaos in a clamshell? Perhaps. But what a singular feast.