Favorites
Reading Terminal Market
Reading Terminal Market is a huge indoor food-court style market. There are dozens of food stands and vendors, and you could easily spend hours here. While it's largely about the food, it's still a big "attraction" in the city that we highly recommend!
Green Eggs Café
We go to Green Eggs every year before PAX Unplugged (the annual board game convention we attend). All locations are equally great.
The Biscuit Lady
Best biscuits you'll ever eat, even if it's a bit out of the way from wedding festivities and where most folks are staying. If you're able to stop here on your way into the city, or on your way home on Sunday, you won't regret it!
Clark Park Farmers' Market
Every Saturday, from 10am - 2pm. This Farmer's Market is the closest to our house, and has many wonderful vendors selling fresh baked goods, produce, and crafts. There's a much better turnout when the weather is nice, so here's hoping the weather will cooperate for more reasons than just the wedding!
Pattaya Thai Cuisine
Our favorite Thai place. Our favorites: pork spring rolls, chicken satay, chicken dumplings, panang curry with chicken (Level 3), and chicken pad thai (add vegetables, not spicy). Fun note for those of you actually reading to the very last detail: when I (Alana) was writing the list above, I was unsure about whether food items (example: "pork spring rolls") should be capitalized (example: "pork spring rolls" versus "Pork Spring Rolls"). Googled, and wanted to share that there is no official answer. The more you know. Source: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/11/food-names.html
Spice 28
This restaurant is in the heart of the "Gayborhood," which is as "downtown" as you can get. Street parking will be scarce, but there are parking garages nearby, and it is close to both the subway and many bus lines. Our favorites: Indian pancakes, dry pepper-style beef (extra garlic), pineapple fried rice (no cashews!!), and tropical mango-style with chicken (not spicy).
Marrakesh Moroccan Restaurant
This is our favorite restaurant to take folks visiting from out of town. Reservations required, but maybe if you're coming in early enough on Friday, you can plan get dinner here before joining us for drinks later in the evening. All food is a set seven-courses meal, served "family-style" and menu can be found at the website above. They have the best chicken we've ever had. It's a full experience, not just a meal. Cash only! You can usually find either free or metered parking within a block.
AMC DINE-IN Fashion District 8
As you probably know, we go to the movies pretty often. This is where we go! The theaters are still very new, and we often get dim sum before or after a movie. Speaking of dim sum, learn about a current Philadelphia hot-button issue: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/30/us/philadelphia-chinatown-76ers-arena.html
Don Barriga
This is where we had our first date at a restaurant! Because of the pandemic, our first date was on Zoom, and then our next many dates were at Alana's house. It wasn't until at least 1-2 months that we felt safe enough going to a restaurant, and even then, we sat outside and froze. Our favorites: create-your-own nachos with Mexican ground beef (no sour cream), choriqueso, chorizo tacos, kid's meal with chicken burrito and rice, plantains, and churros.
Nice Things Hand Made LLC
We just stumbled across this place while doing a "Hot Chocolate Crawl" and couldn't have loved it more. It's a cute store that sells largely (or maybe all?) Philadelphia-made crafts, art, chotchkes, etc. This is where Kenny bought the adorable stuffed whale you see above.