Philly’s Reading Terminal Market ranks as one of the best in the US and is a local treasure. It has history: started in 1892, and scale: over 80 vendors, and is a vital part of the city, not just a (wonderful) tourist attraction. The restaurants are everything from stand-style as well as sit down and there are purveyors of vegetables and fruit, meats, poultry, fish, chocolate and a smattering of non-edibles stalls such as french linens, cookbooks, “made in Pa” items and a kitchen supply store. The ethnic range of the food is remarkable and representative of the region: Amish, Italian, Soul Food, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Middle Eastern, French, Caribbean and more.
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You can taste your way through the Philly classics: an Amish breakfast at the Dutch Eating Place, snapper soup at Pearl’s Oyster Bar, a cheesesteak at Carmines or Dinic’s award winning pork sandwich, Bassett’s ice cream for dessert and from one of the numerous candy stands pick up some Wilbur buds (from whom Hershey stole the idea of the kisses…but buds are better!) If you want to get really experience the market come before lunch, say 10:30, so you can stroll the aisles without fighting the lunch crowd. But be sure to stay for lunch as the options are endless!
There is also an excellent tour of the Reading Terminal Market offered on Wednesdays and Saturdays that gives a real “flavor” of the place with a history lesson thrown in. At $16, it is a bargain. When I took the tour, our guide Betty took us outside the market building and onto Market Street to look at the Terminal Head House where the Reading Railroad trains used to come into the city. It’s a beautiful Victorian building but the best part is on the inside. If you go into the entrance marked “Convention Center” and up the escalator, you’ll come to the original train shed. When the Reading Railroad built this terminal in the 1890’s, there was an existing farmers market on the site and they refused to leave. So the company built the train shed above them and created the market space (originally for 800 vendors) below, in the space that still houses the market. The trains stopped running to the elevated tracks in the 1980’s, with the Market Street East Station being built underground.
When the convention center was built they took over the train shed and as part of Philly’s mandated public art initiative (1% of new construction cost must go to public art…how great is that!?), they added a wonderful Calder-like aerial sculpture in the beautiful hall where the shed existed. You can still see the arched structure with sky lights and if you examine the marble floor, you can also see the original tracks. It’s a hidden gem of Philadelphia.
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