Photo: Mike Persico for Keystone Edge
Tuesday’s Inquirer ran a dope story about the revitalization of East Passyunk Avenue. Staffer Kia Gregory, a PW alum, deftly examined the balance between old and new that makes this street so vibrant, interesting and authentic. We were featured as well as Avenue newcomer Fuel and been-there-forever cheese shop Mancuso’s.
In the last year, 19 businesses have opened on the avenue between Ninth and Broad Streets. Drawn by cheap rents and cooperative landlords, the new owners have created an eclectic patchwork of bistros, galleries, and boutiques, joining fixtures such as Di Cocco Family’s St. Jude Shop, where girls for 20 years have bought communion dresses, and Mancuso’s, where mothers once lined up outside to buy handmade ricotta for Sunday dinner.
Such a mix, “it’s what keeps the avenue authentic,” says Adam Erace, 25, co-owner of Green Aisle Grocery, which opened three months ago up the street from Mancuso’s, where Erace remembers shopping with his mother. True to the avenue’s roots, Erace’s neighbor, a seamstress who owns his building, often brings him homemade Italian dishes for lunch.
“It’s a great balance,” Erace says, “and I hope it stays that way.”
We love the love for Mancuso’s. As kids, we used to stop on the way to our grandmom’s–she still lives at 10th and Mifflin–order softballs of fresh mozzarella on sheets of wax paper and unwrap one long ivory strip at a time, as if were peeling oranges. (Insiders also know Mancuso’s is the place for water ice in the summer.) The image sounds like something out of the ’50s, but no, this was around 1996. In South Philly, old traditions are alive and well.
