The Italian Market

Why go

The Italian Market earns time because it offers a neighborhood food corridor whose history is more varied than its familiar name suggests. Its central thread is produce stalls, specialty food shops and successive immigrant communities along South Ninth Street. Open-air stands still shape the rhythm of the central blocks. Mexican, Vietnamese and newer businesses now sit beside long-established Italian shops.

What to look for

• Open-air stands still shape the rhythm of the central blocks.
• Mexican, Vietnamese and newer businesses now sit beside long-established Italian shops.

The full story

The Italian Market is best understood through produce stalls, specialty food shops and successive immigrant communities along South Ninth Street. The Italian Market is the popular name for the South 9th Street Curb Market, an area of South Philadelphia featuring many grocery shops, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, butcher shops, etc., many with an Italian influence. The historical heart of the market is the area of 9th Street between Christian Street and Washington Avenue, and is now generally considered to extend from Fitzwater Street at the north to Wharton Street at the south. The term Italian Market is also used to describe the surrounding neighborhood between South Street to the North and Wharton Street to the South running a few blocks to the east and west of 9th street. Although it is considered the social and commercial heart of the Philadelphia Italian community, the Ninth Street Market was an ethnic mix from its inception. In recent years, an influx of immigrants from Latin America, mainly from Mexico and to a lesser degree from Central American countries like Guatemala and El Salvador, has significantly changed the Italian Market area and it is now also home to many stores and restaurants catering to South Philadelphia's small Hispanic population.

Useful to know

• Go in the morning when more vendors are active.
• Walk the corridor first, then choose one meal rather than queueing at every famous counter.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.