TAKE a stroll under the bright metal awnings of South Philly’s storied Italian Market (on 9th Street between Catherine and Wharton) and you’ll likely end up with bags stuffed with imported olives, homemade sausages, and creamy cannolis, cooking recipes from one of the merchants’ Sicilian grandmothers and a new friend or two straight out of “The Sopranos.”
There’s a sense of family here that dates back more than a century, when Italian immigrants, mostly farmers from the Old World, first set up fruit and vegetable carts on sidewalks in front of their homes. It didn’t take long before they organized and began peddling fish, cheese and all the staples for an authentic feast and, in the process, created what has become the country’s oldest outdoor market.
Some of the original stands and shops are still owned and operated by the same families – great-grandchildren who went to college and came back. You can buy prime steaks at Esposito’s Meats, which opened in 1911 and currently supplies many major restaurants in Philadelphia. Or, snatch up some fresh produce at Giordano’s. All but a banana cart in the early 1900’s, it now takes up over half a block.
Through the years, the market has maintained the same rustic charm that was forever captured in celluloid by “Rocky” in 1976 when a then-unknown Sylvester Stallone jogged through 9th Street – on his way, to the iconic steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“I absolutely hated every part of it,” remembers Harry Giordano, who was a pudgy five-year-old when he was chosen to toss the actor an orange for the movie. “It was freezing cold and he kept missing,” says Harry, who’s been working here since he could count.
If that scene were filmed today, the baskets at Giordano’s would also include habanero chiles, cilantro bunches and other stock catering to the growing Mexican population who have settled here in the last few years, slowly opening taquerias, music stores, beauty salons and money-wiring businesses to help those they left behind.
“The Italian Market has always been a market of immigrants,” says Mariella Esposito, who arrived from the Friuli region in 1970 to work at Fantes Kitchen Wares, a cooks’ haven established in 1906.
“The Italians were the first, then came the Greeks selling spices, the Jewish sold clothing, and then Koreans and Vietnamese opened markets and shopping centers,” she says. “It has kept the market alive.”
Still, the bulk of the businesses are proudly Italian. Harry, who often gives impromptu tours, recommends “DiBrunos for cheeses from all over the world, Cannulli’s for pork, Talluto’s for fresh pasta and great ravioli, Sarcones for the best bread in the universe!”
“Most New Yorkers bring coolers in their cars,” says Mariella.
The Italian Market is also the birthplace of the cheesesteak. Pat’s Steaks, on 9th and Wharton, claims to have invented the steak sandwich in 1933. While rival Geno’s Steaks, directly across the street, swear they were the first to smother it with cheese.
Which one is better is a question that only you can answer -then again, these days you can bypass cheese steaks altoghether, opting instead for Mexican enchiladas suizas, or a crusty banh mi (sandwich) from one of hte neighborhood’s many Vietnamese restaurants.
Just remember this:bring an empty stomach.
INFO:phillyitalianmarket.com