Industry Nights: Amis, Table 31, The Industry

Get your ShackBurger fix at Amis industry night

Story and Photo by Danya Henninger

With so many restaurants thriving in these less than perfect economic times, food and beverage staff make up a large percentage of the Philadelphia workforce. Hence, the proliferation of “industry nights” offering workers in the biz special deals on food or drink.

The first Monday shindigs at Amis are famous by now, and this month Marc Vetri’s trattoria will host newcomer Shake Shack. Bring a pay stub to get into the 10 PM-late night event, where chef Brad Spence will be serving a housemade sausage sandwich, “Spanky’s tomato pie” and Old Bay fries. Also on the buffet (did we mention all the food is free?) will be ShackBurgers and a special Toscana Dog with fried sopressata and provolone. On the boozy side (usually pay as you go, with discounts), look for a white-whiskey-peach-pecan frozen custard with Philadelphia Distilling’s XXX Shine, Brooklyn Brewery ShackMeister Ale, Victory Viaweisse and some kind of boozy watermelon. There’s also talk of a snow cone machine. We’ve never looked forward to a Monday quite so much (215-732-2647).

On the weekly tip, every Monday is now industry night at Table 31 in the Comcast Center. Bring proof of your involvement in the biz and get half-off pizza, drafts and specialty cocktails from 5 PM-close (215-567-7111). At The Industry in Pennsport, everybody gets to experience staff meal on Sunday and Monday nights. From 10 PM-1 AM, chef Pat Szoke preps the same dish he’ll serve to the workers after their shift and offers it up for $5 or $6 per plate. Recent bites have included spaghetti bolognese, Monte Cristos and sausage sandwiches with beer mustard. Of course, in keeping with the restaurant name, industry folk get a 20% off discount all day, every day (215-271-9500).