WE LIKE: The quirky side streets, historical buildings, and park-like squares seen throughout visionary city planner William Penn's "greene countrie towne."
The most low-key meal at this mega-sized Parisian-style bistro over looking Rittenhouse Square is early breakfast during the week.
227 South 18th Street
(215) 545-2262
With the motto "taste no evil," Capogiro Gelato Artisans Stephanie and John Reitano use handpicked Pennsylvania produce and milk from grass-fed, hormone free cows. This dedication to local ingredients has garnered national attention, turning the couple into some of the most important gelato makers in the country. Rotating flavors feature black raspberry, strawberry tarragon, watermelon with grappa, ginger pineapple mint, Turkish coffee, pistachio Siciliano and ginger sesame.
119 South 13th Street
(215) 351-0900
At Amada, Iron Chef Jose Garces reinterprets authentic Spanish tapas like salt-cod croquette, clams and chorizo, and crab-stuffed piquillo peppers. The community tables in the bar and chef's counter overlooking the kitchen are the perfect place for single travelers to perch. The forty wine list features primarily Spanish bottlings, and seeping in oak barrels along the wall is house-made sangria, a signature assortment like Blanco, a crisp white wine flavor-spiked with quince, pear and lemon.
217 Chestnut Street
(215) 625 2450
In another adaptive reuse project, Kimpton's Hotel Palomar is a 24-story renovation of the 1929 Art Deco Architects Building, former home of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. It's the city's first green hotel with whimsical eco-touches like a recycled composite glass finish to the lobby "living room" fireplace, and reception desk wall covered with diary entries from the hotel's architects. Located in the center of the business district, contemporary luxuries include Frette linens, L'Occitane bath amenities, and Fuji spa tubs in the suites.
17 South 17th Street
(215) 563-5006
After a recent renovation to reflect a contemporary version of Philadelphia's signature Federal-style period, The Four Seasons remains the only hotel in the city with an inner courtyard for a country-club-in-the-city ambiance. There's in-room exercise equipment, non-allergenic pillows, and a special children's welcome program to provide age-specific amenities such as cribs, baby toiletries, child-size bathrobes and slippers. In a green initiative, the hotel's new food salvage program made them the single largest composter in the city.
One Logan Square
(215) 963-1500
Behind Petulia's Folly's large carved Zanzibar doors is an international souk of contemporary fashion and homewares artfully mixed with delicate and statement jewelry and dotted by well selected accessories: T Alexander Wang, Rachel Comey and premium denim alongside 49 Square Mile bags, Newgate London clocks and John Derian decoupage.
1710 Sansom Street
(215) 569-1344
Locally owned and beautifully spacious, Sugarcube® is known for inspired fashion by independent designers. American and international lines compliment Sugarcube's select vintage. A.P.C., Dunderdon, Gestuz, Frock! by Tracy Reese, Steven Alan, and Bing Bang Jewelry unite in this dynamic industrial lodge setting for men and women.
124 North 3rd Street
(215) 238-0825
A modern hardware store for urban living, Open House stocks a tightly edited selection of heightened design objects including bedding and bath ware, colorful tabletop, and nature-inspired lighting. Relevant jewelry, bags, and baby indulgences make distinctive gifts.
107 South 13th Street
(215) 922-1415
The Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the only diagonal street in the city, is known as Philadelphia's Champs Elysées, home to some of the city's most magnificent cultural institutions. Marked by what local art lovers call "the father, the son and the holy ghost," the Parkway displays works from three generations of the Calder family. Alexander Milne Calder's 27-ton, cast iron William Penn crowning City Hall is the largest statue to top a building in the world (until 1986, a "gentleman's agreement" dictated that no building in Philadelphia was allowed to be taller than the tip of Penn's hat); his son Alexander Stirling Calder's Swaan Memorial is at Logan Circle (the three bronze Native Americans atop the 50-foot fountain symbolize Philadelphia's principal waterways), and the white Ghost mobile that hangs in the Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was designed by grandson Alexander (Sandy) Calder.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, founded as a museum of decorative arts during the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Now the third largest art museum in the country, there are significant Renaissance, American, Impressionist and Modern holdings, and the largest group of work by Philadelphia's American realist painter, Thomas Eakins. Supporting the modern and contemporary design collections is Collab, a volunteer committee of design professionals who initiate exhibitions and educational programs including a citywide, college-level Student Design Competition, as well as a annual Design Excellence Award with recipients such as Florence Knoll Bassett, Richard Meier, and George Nakashima.
26th Street and the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway
(215) 763.8100
