We have been to Reading Terminal Market before, specifically to check out Flying Monkey Patisserie to see their 15 layer Pumpple cake. Once we got there, we saw that every single stand in the market had been featured at some point in the 'Best of Philly'. Which meant, of course, that a more in-depth review of the whole market was very necessary.
This past weekend, I made a trip back to Philly with Chocolate's Why I'm Fat's new official photographer to try a little of everything the market had to offer.
We started back at Flying Monkey, since that was the place we loved so much the first time. This time, we tried the cheesecake brownie, the smoreo, a whoopie pie, an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie sandwich, a red velvet cake ball, and a chocolate chip cookie. All of the desserts looked amazing, and they have interesting spins on traditional treats. Since we bought so much, and expressed our love for Flying Monkey, the lady even gave us the cake balls for free!
Market bakery, which carries a full line of LeBus breads (a famous Philly bakery featuring artisan breads since 1978), also had fantastic chocolate chip cookies. They were fresh and warm and had giant chocolate chunks. We brought half home and warmed it up in the toaster oven, and it proved to be just as good the next day (or at 5 in the morning when we tried this experiment). The focaccia breads looked amazing, but we made the mistake of saving them for the next morning when they were slightly stale after sitting in the ice cold car all day. Putting them in the toaster didn't help in this case, so we'll have to try them again next time. LeBus also has a separate store where you can purchase their breads near Rittenhouse Square.
One of our favorites in the market was The Famous 4th Street Cookies. They have a lot of different flavors, and initially we just bought a white chocolate chip and a chocolate chip walnut. But then we saw there were traditional chocolate chip cookies with a fresh coat of chocolate fudge on top. So back out came the wallets, and another cookie was purchased. This was my favorite, although very sweet and I was only able to handle a couple of bites at a time. The Famous 4th Street Cookies is located at the very front of the market, but you can also have them shipped off of their website. Although to be honest, I would rather hold out until a return trip to Philly because spending the day at Reading Terminal Market is such an enjoyable experience. There are other things besides food stalls here, such as beautiful flowers from Lancaster county, candles made naturally with bee pollen, and so many Amish people. Especially for someone who's never been to Amish country, coming here will be a very unique experience.
At the back of the market we found an Amish bakery called Beiler's Bakery. They are apparently known for their pies and sticky buns, but since neither of those have chocolate we were ready to keep walking. They we saw a sign that said, 'try our chocolate covered whoopie pies'. I've never had a chocolate covered whoopie pie before, so we asked if we could try them. They were sold out of the packages, but they had one package left that they were willing to give us as samples. I don't usually care for whoopie pies all that much, but these were smaller than a normal pie - probably 3-4 bites in total - and the chocolate covering did the trick. It was delicious, and I was disappointed they didn't have more for us to bring home!
Reading Terminal Market is located at 51 N. 12th Street. It's walking distance to the historic district, Rittenhouse Square, and the shopping along Walnut and Chestnut streets. We parked the car next to the terminal for the day and were able to cover all of the major sites, so I would strongly recommend doing this. Aside from the bakeries, there are a lot of places for real food too - from Cajun to seafood to Turkish to Italian. Anything you want, you can find here. Just make sure to come on an empty stomach!
