Meritage serves contemporary American fare just a few blocks from Rittenhouse Square. The dining room, which seats 55 people, boasts golden yellow walls and gleaming hardwood floors, proving the space to be equal parts cozy and chic.

Meritage promises to be one of the more wallet-friendly fine dining destinations in the tony Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. A full bar offers an impressive variety of wines under $50, while elegantly plated dishes don't exceed $30. The gourmet fare here includes vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options. For those without dietary restrictions, the free-range chicken breast with whipped potatoes, and sauteed spinach is a local favorite. Finish your meal with the decadent goat cheese cake with pistachio, poppy seeds, and lemon curd.

Meritage serves dinner 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Meritage
500 S. 20th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 985-1922
www.meritagephiladelphia.com/index.html
www.yelp.com/biz/meritage-philadelphia

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr/Tim Lucas

Between prepping your home for out-of-town guests and ensuring the turkey is properly basted, you're likely going to be stressed a little thin on Thanksgiving Day! Luckily, these Turkey Day crafts can help keep your little ones entertained, requiring just a little assistance from you along the way.

Mod Mayflower [Parenting]
Task the kids with making these adorable masted ships out of paper. White construction paper is affixed to popsicle sticks to create the ships' sails, while a paper beverage sleeve helps the mini Mayflowers to stay upright. Use the ships to add flair to your Thanksgiving Day decor, or write each guest's name onto the sails and use the ships as place cards.

Turkey Headband Craft for Kids [abccreativelearning.com]
Create a custom turkey headband for your favorite little pilgrims with this quick and easy craft. Simply cut a length of brown construction paper to wrap around your child's head, then instruct your pint-sized dinner guests to trace their hand shape onto multiple colors of construction paper. The hand shapes will become the turkey's "feathers," while a googly-eyed turkey face decorates the front of the funky, seasonal accessory.

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr/Adam Baker

Though it may be easy to pop into that large chain coffee shop on your way to work each morning, where’s the fun in that? Philadelphia is home to a wide variety of great independent coffee houses with a much more personality, and these are just a few.

La Colombe Coffee
The thought process behind La Colombe Coffee is that if you remove the food menu, the merchandise and the other unnecessary features, the coffee will have to speak for itself. That’s exactly what the founders did with their Rittenhouse Square and Dilworth Plaza locations, and the results are beautifully minimal coffee shops that brew fair-trade classic and reserve coffee blends from around the world.

One Shot Coffee & Cafe
Located on the corner of George and American Streets, One Shot is a warm, eclectic coffee house furnished with rustic wood, vintage furniture and bookshelves from floor to ceiling. The cafe proudly brews Portland’s Stumptown Coffee, which has been hailed as the best coffee in the world by numerous media sources, as well as pour-overs from local roasters ReAnimator and Rival Bros Coffee.

Old City Coffee
Old City Coffee brews only high-grown Arabica beans in very small batches, and the prices are kept extremely low by not using a commercial roaster. The cafe is traditionally furnished with wooden tables and bright pops of red, and true to coffee house form, there are often live music performances in the evenings.

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr/Pen Waggener