John Hodgman joins the fight for Little Pete’s

As a city already collectively mourning what presumably is the coming loss of Center City's most loved all-night diner, Little Pete's, it's nice to have a little commiseration. Even better when it comes from Daily Show correspondent and actor John Hodgman.

Hodgman yesterday took up Little Pete's cause in a blog post titled "Uber, Roadrunner, The Anchor, and Little Pete's," calling it his "favorite scrapple counter in the world."

In it, Hodgman laments the potential demolition of Little Pete's to make way for another Center City hotel—much like many actual citizens of Philadelphia have been doing recently.

"This is just sad and dumb," he writes. "Not in any special way, just sad and dumb in the way almost all city development is sad and dumb. And also pointless."

It is, in many ways, a summation of the feelings of Little Pete's patrons in these harrowing times. From the lunacy of tearing down a beloved restaurant to construct a hotel across the street from another hotel, to the ostensible hopelessness of lobbying city council and the "simple corruption" of it all, Hodgman really does seem to get it.

Perhaps because, as he writes, he stays at the Warwick Hotel every time he's in Philly "because it is across the street from Little Pete's."

Via Hodgman's post:

"Because look. Unlike the Anchor, Little Pete's wants to keep going. If I were putting up a luxury hotel over one of the last and busiest and most beautiful all night diners in a city, it would be JOB ONE to try to incorporate that authentically popular, authentically local business into my plan rather than pay buckets of money to some consultant in Elsewheretown to design a generic martini-and-small-plates-lounge to replace it, which bar no one will ever go to because it has been pasted together out of cliches and sadness. 

I guess there is SOME CHANCE that the re-zoning law that will allow this to happen will be scuttle if enough CITIZENS OF PHILADELPHIA RISE UP AND SAY TO CITY COUNCIL PERSON KENYATTA JOHNSON "NO WE MUST SAVE OUR OLD FAVORITE PLACE." 

But that won't work, right? This isn't a Muppet Movie. This is city politics. The only consolation is that, unlike Roadrunner or The Anchor, I actually understand why this is happening: simple CORRUPTION.

The small comfort left, of course, is that Little Pete's remains open for now—a fact Hodgman recognizes.

"Maybe I will take the train down soon and we can have Scrapple and eggs together."

Maybe, John. Maybe. We'll see you there.

[JohnHodgman.com]