The all-you-can-eat sushi for $25 promo at Pod is back every Tuesday, starting tonight.

Maybe They’ll Call It The SPEC Roll

To remind us that they’re not still relevant after Fling, SPEC is offering another one of our favorite activities– eating!

For just a $10 deposit (you’ll get it back) you can sign up to make your own sushi at Pod (nom nom nom) from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. this Sunday, May 2nd.

However, there’s kind of a catch. You have to sign up on this Google form here for the chance to actually go, which is determined by a lottery system. Personally, we think winners should be chosen based on who’s hungriest.

And if you do win, you have to show up to their BeachFest thing on Wednesday, which will probably be yet another awkward gathering outside of Houston. But hey! There’s even free ice cream there too. Winners all around.

Get Your Penn Roll On

Apparently the all-you-can-eat sushi deal Pod hosted last month a big hit. Yesterday the Stephen Starr restaurant announced that they’ll be offering the same sashimi-filled special every Tuesday 9-11 p.m. throughout the month of February.

No word yet on whether our favorite specialty rolls are part of the deal. At the often-pricey Pod, you could order the Bentley roll and quickly break even on this $25 deal.

Stuff Your Face At Pod

Hungry for sushi? We noticed this promotion on our bill at Pod, where all-you-can-eat sushi will be $25 from 9-11 p.m. January 18-21.

We Stay Fly, No Lie, You Know This: Crawlin’

Today is Penn’s first Arts Crawl! Exciting, right? It started this morning so maybe you are already out there crawling and reading this on your mobile device. If you did manage to squeeze some crawling in between racquetball and your lunch with Larry Linder, how has it been so far? Let us know in the comments!

The whole thing wraps up tonight at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts at 9:30 p.m. with a big, fun party. When we asked Annenberg, “What’s going down tonight? Will there be videogames?” they said:

We are turning the lobby into a club scene and will have free food from local vendors like POD, D.P. Dough, Marathon Grill and more! We will have prizes, a Wii console set up, and will be selling tickets to our remaining 09/10 performances at a discounted price! Also Pieris Music will be on hand to provide the music and will have a video DJ projecting art installations onto the walls.

For a second, we thought they meant music by P.O.D., but this is much cooler! Plus there is no better way to end your day of viewing paintings, enjoying performances and hearing speakers than to view us dominate in Wii Tennis, enjoy our performance of interpretive dances to the sounds of Pieris Music and hear us go on and on about how much we killed it both in Wii Tennis and on the dance floor. Should be a good time for everyone!

Like Restaurant Week, But West

Starting tomorrow and ending the 30th, University City Dining Days bring you 20 of West Philly’s finest restaurants. We’ll give you the lowdown on why we think U City Dining Days are awesome in tomorrow’s Summer Street (though we bet some people are pissed they aren’t called West Philadelphia Dining Days). For now, here is your guide to the week’s best deals.

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Suck It, Stephen Starr: A News Round-Up

Since we just extorted you to send us tips, we should probably share some of the ones we’ve been meaning to share for the past few weeks. It’s round-up time, bitches.

• Restaurateur Stephen Starr has set his sights on DC.  What are we gonna do tonight, Stephen? Same thing we do every night, try to take over the world by opening yet another luxury asian-fusion pretentierie, this time in our nation’s capitol.
• The Ivy League sucks at sports? Whatever.
• Bikes beat cars, and also make you look more badass, which is why we’ve taken to walking around with one of our pant legs jauntily rolled up. J/K you can’t really roll up gaucho shorts. (But they’re badass in their own way.)
• Supreme Court lady-in-waiting Sonia Sontomayor’s brother Juan Sotomayor did a fellowship at CHOP. According to the right wing site we saw this on, that’s grounds for smearing him.  That pinko ivory tower educated bastard.
• Some delirious old man wrote in to Princeton’s alumni mag to complain about the preponderence of women overruning his fair alma mater.
• Penn’s women’s ultimate frisbee team tied for fifth place in the nation. Rock on, ladies.
• And just for the lulz: a tipster wrote in to tell us that www.pod.com belongs not to the 36th Street sushi mecca, but is “a blank webpage except for a large picture of a badger/skunk/beaver.” We kind of love that.

La-tik-a! Dis-trit-o!

UTB hears that Dev Patel (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) bucked celeb tradition last night, skipping Pod and heading instead to Distrito.  Apparently he’s in town filming M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, The Last Airbender.  Did he enjoy Distrito’s constant loop of scenes from that ridiculous movie where Jack Black plays a Mexican monk/wrestler?  ‘Cause trust us, it gets funnier after a few sangrias.

We Show You How: Finding Food

Join us for the latest instructive installment of our visual Penn survival guide, a collaboration between UTB and David Comberg’s Information Design class (FNAR 337). Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

“How To Find Food At Penn,” by Brynn Shepherd.

This one’s a three-parter, so be sure to check out the rest, including a wheel of intoxication and a walking tour of the food trucks, after the jump.

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In Which We Make Seniors Feel Better About The Impending Doom That Is Graduation

This will be the graduation of this generation of this decade.

Just because you have to graduate (sad) and leave all your friends (really sad) as you burst out of the Penn bubble into a world without jobs (wow, this is even sadder than we thought) doesn’t mean that Graduation itself can’t be fun! Right? The DAB is trying to make you feel just a little bit better – cheering you all up as Feb Club comes to an end, perhaps? – by making a photo slide show to show to parents at the College graduation. They want you to remember that the photos will be seen by mom and dad, so keep it clothed and kosher. If psuedo-celebrity in May isn’t motivation enough, think of this: “At the end of each month, we will have a random drawing from submitted photos for gift cards from local restaurants/bars like Smoke’s, Pod, Distrito and Mad4Mex.”

To be a part of this last-ever Class of ‘09 facebook album, email your pics to graduation@penndab.org

Eat Your Money: A Modest Proposal

Gold at Pod is the new Gold ipod.

After Vince decided to make a cameo at Pod, we should have seen this coming: gold leaf sushi. Yes, we’re serious. It’s not like we could make up the most economically sensitive menu addition since the ten dollar Gia salad.

Queer Eye for the Sushi Guy

Our sources tell us that Jai Rodriguez of Queer Eye fame is currently eating at everyone’s favorite JAP/celeb haunt Pod. Have a picture? Send it over.

Penn Girls Squirrels Love Sushi

A tipster just sent us this snapshot of a typical Penn squirrel.  What, are acorns considered a carb?

Stuff Penn People Like

You love it.

In light of Christian Lander’s visit to Penn this evening, we at UTB HQ thought we might honor him by beating him at his own game. Lander is the founder of the wildly popular blog Stuff White People Like, and he’s currently on a promo tour for his eponymous book. As such, here is our list of Stuff Penn People Like! Fairly self-explanitory

1. Froyo – And we do mean both the item and the abbreviation. Never content to just call it “frozen yogurt,” Penn students are obsessed with this (supposedly) low-fat treat.

2. Pod Takeout – When they aren’t in the mood to see-and-be-seen, Penn students need not worry! They can take a trip down to 36th Street and grab their overpriced Penn Rolls to go! That way, they can eat them in their houses on Beige Block.

3. PDAs – Be it iPhone or Blackberry, Penn students love them some smartphones. If you were enrolled in five classes, active in six extracurriculars, and wanted to go to Smoke’s later, you’d need constant email access too.

4. Themed parties – Far be it from any Penn student to go out dressed normally; they instead opt for trailer trash gear, army garb, ’80s wear… pretty much anything they can put together at American Apparel and Urban Outfitters.

5. Free shit – See our brand-new Swag-O-Meter. Enough said.

Vinny Chase Loves Macadamia Chicken

It turns out it isn’t only Adrian Grenier’s TV alter-ego that wants to be like Mark Wahlberg. Adrian has apparently taken Markie Mark’s advice to dine at campus fave, Pod. We’re not quite sure why he’s in Philly, but we are always a fan of celebrity Pod sightings. Check out the pic sent in by tipster Laura Minksoff; he’s the one on the far right:

Update: Adrian was in the Illadelph drumming for his band the Honey Brothers at the North Star Bar.

Update #2: Here’s a sliiiightly better pic: