I Like Philadelphia’s Markets (Reading Terminal Market)

A few days ago, I wrote about Philadelphia’s amazing Italian Market but in our City of Brotherly Love, we are blessed by having two great markets – the Italian Market and the Reading Terminal Market.  Before I get too much further, though, I have to credit David K. O’Neil’s (no relation) Reading Terminal Market: An Illustrated History for some of the background in this post.  The book is a delightful short history of this Philadelphia icon with some wonderful pictures, including the one that I used as this post’s feature image.

The Italian Market grew out of a pushcart culture in the early 20th century into a slightly more formal operation running along S 9th St.  Reading Terminal has much deeper roots. The first formal market in Philadelphia was built in the late 17th century on High Street, later renamed Market Street.  By the 1860s, Farmer’s Market was an incorporated market occupying a full block between Market and Filbert Streets between 11th and 12th and the nearby Twelfth Street Market provided a home for butchers.

Around 1890, the Reading Railroad began planning a new terminus in Philadelphia’s Center City that included taking the two markets by eminent domain.  After much legal and political wrangling, the end result was a new terminal for the railroad that included a new Reading Terminal Market for the displaced merchants.  With the connection to the railroad and innovations in cold storage technology, Reading Terminal Market became the major center for food distribution in Philadelphia as well as a functioning retail market.  Just check out the sign on the wall in the feature photo – “Source of the Main Food Supply of Philadelphia!”

Fast forward 120 years through the collapse of the railroads, the move of the food distribution center to the airport area, urban decay, a near death of the market, urban renewal, and a new convention center and Reading Terminal is busier and more successful than ever.  These days, though, unlike it’s own brawny past or the sprawl of the Italian Market, Reading Terminal Market is a carefully curated collection of a wide range of food merchants, restaurants, and the occasional gift shop.

The variety of food is truly stunning.  There are three produce stands, three fishmongers, multiple butchers, a mushroom cart (!), and any number of merchants selling packaged foods of various types.  Most of what’s available is your basic garden variety fresh food at good prices and I could spend hours ogling the fresh herbs and vegetables, steaks and chops, fresh whole fish, or pastries at any one of the more conventional merchants (I’ve spent way more than my share of money at Iovine’s Produce or the John Yi Fish Market).

The more adventurous among you, however, will also appreciate some of the more unusual items.  A couple of the Pennsylvania Dutch stores (see below) have dizzying collections of things like jerkys, popcorn, preserves, honey, or various picked things.  There’s a store with dozens of olive oils, more different types of sausage than you imagined existed, and, believe it or not, a chocolate covered onion.

The diversity of food offerings is perhaps even more pronounced in the more than two dozen restaurants that run a range from Philadelphia staples like roast pork, hoagies, scrapple, and cheesesteaks to crepes, saag paneer, oyster po’ boys, gyros, and peking duck.  And, I kid you not, not once have I had a bad meal at any of the stands. It would be easy for the restaurants here to dumb it down and play to the gazillion tourists wandering around the market, but the po’ boy from Beck’s Cajun restaurant is properly spicy and Dinic’s roast pork with broccoli rabe can only be described as a work of art. Seriously.

The Italian Market (obviously) has an Italian street market feel, but Reading Terminal for the most part focuses on diversity and a cosmopolitan approach.  All kinds of basic street foods and comfort foods are available, with an emphasis on Philadelphia traditions (Bassett’s claims to be the oldest ice cream company in the country).  There’s one corner of the market, though, that’s different – the Amish Corner.

The Amish Corner is a bit of a euphemism.  The northwest corner of the market is occupied by a group of nine Pennsylvania Dutch merchants but there are six others scattered throughout the market.  At these stands, the focus is on good, honest, rural food, made and offered the way it has been for hundreds of years.  Many (but not all) of the staff working at the stands wear traditional Pennsylvania Dutch clothing and the whole experience reinforces just how good basic, simple food can be.  Almost as if to prove my point, on the day I visited to take the pictures shown in this post, at 3 pm there was an orderly queue of at least 65-70 people patiently lined up waiting to buy donuts from Beiler’s Donuts and Salads (is that mind-blowing name or what?).  I’ve had those donuts before, and they are worth it. 

The “mascot” of Reading Terminal is Philbert the Pig, and here’s an unadorned picture of him.  His name comes from Filbert Street, which borders the south side of the market, with the “Ph” from Philadelphia replacing at the F in Filbert, but he deserves more of a story than that.  Here’s another picture of Philbert, taken in 2003, when my true love and I were married in Reading Terminal Market by one Judge Goodheart on Valentine’s Day (I’m not making this up).

Well, a dozen or so years later, we’re visiting Florence and wander into the Mercato Nuovo, a covered market specializing in leather, silk, and luxury goods.  It may be called the Mercato Nuovo (New Market) but it’s origins date back to mid 16th century.  Greeting us in the southern entrance is Il Porcellino (the Wild Boar)!  It’s a bronze copy (or prototype?) of Philbert that is part of a fountain.  Actually, it’s a boar, not a pig and he looks like he might be a little difficult to cuddle up to while Philbert looks pretty happy, but the idea is the same and a bronze pig serving as the symbol of a market can’t be a coincidence, can it?

There’s probably a connection between pigs and markets that a historian needs to explore but there’s still more to this story.  A couple days after seeing Il Porcellino at the Mercato Nuovo, we are visiting the Uffizi Gallery, the absolutely stunning art gallery that is one of the major reasons anyone visits Florence.  In one of the galleries, we are taken up short by Il Porcellino again.  Apparently, the pig at the Mercato Nuovo is a bronze copy and the original sculpture is in the Uffizi, meaning that this is a tradition that is more than 500 years old, and that the original Il Porcellino is considered to be a work of art of sufficient note to be showcased in the Uffizi.

It’s nice to think that the brass pig who helped us to get married is part of a long and artistic tradition.