“First we eat, then we do everything else.” -M.F.K. Fisher
Kismet Bagels, Pragels, Good Pizza, Giant Riverwalk, Old City Coffee walk-up window, another Food Network food competitor, and more! Step inside this week's Philly Grub newsletter.
Kismet Bagels on Good Morning America
Kismet Bagels was born during the pandemic. Now almost a year later, they’ve hit the big time. Just last week, they were featured on Good Morning America, where founders Jacob and Alexandra Cohen told the cute story about how their grandmothers brought them together and why they started their bagel business. By selling their bagels online, at local farmer’’ markets, and in retail stores like Di Bruno Bros. and Riverwards Produce, they’ve made quite the name for themselves locally. Now they have the attention of national media. Good Morning America interviewed them this week. Check it out!
Pragels?
Speaking of bagels, Center City Pretzels has developed a soft pretzel bagel that looks all kinds of delicious. While scrolling through Twitter this week, I noticed this tweet about them, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I’ve seen commercially made pretzel bagels before, but they don’t look near as good as these do. It prompted my Twitter pal John Suder to ask whether to put cream cheese or mustard on them. So, I asked, why not both? OK, that’s a no, but these pragels might just put Philly on the bagel map once and for all. What do you think? Will you try these?
Good Pizza PHL on The Ellen Show
Speaking of local peeps on national shows, Good Pizza PHL popped up on The Ellen Show this week, where founder Ben Berman was gifted $10,000 from Ellen and Shutterfly. Ben started “dropping” homemade pizza from his apartment window in 2020. Recipients of the free pizza are selected by lottery, with 100% of donations going to local charities. So far, he’s raised nearly $60K. Good pizza for a good cause, indeed. Good job, Ben! Have you tried his pizza yet? Let me know!
GIANT’s Flagship Center City Store Opening Soon
Center City will be getting a new, two-level supermarket next month. The official opening date of The GIANT Company’s urban flagship store at the new Riverwalk building located at 60 N. 23rd Street in the Logan Square neighborhood is Friday, March 19. The store will include a first-of-its-kind Food Hall with Mission Taqueria, Saladworks, a beer garden with a tap wall, and its largest beer & wine collection and plant-based section. 22-year company veteran Jessica Fischer was named General Manager. She previously served as manager of the company’s University City GIANT Heirloom Market. A community grand opening is scheduled for 8:35 a.m. on opening day. Are you excited about this new supermarket opening in Philadelphia?
Old City Coffee Walk-Up Window at Reading Terminal Market
You can pick up your caffeine fix on the weekends at Old City Coffee’s Reading Terminal Market location without going inside. Recently, they opened a walk-up window which is open every Saturday 8-6 and Sunday 9-5. Are you an Old City Coffee fan?
Philly Baker on Great Chocolate Showdown on Food Network Canada
Another local will be featured on a food competition show, this time on the Great Chocolate Showdown on Food Network Canada for $50,000 prize money. Richard Martemucci, of Baked by Richard, will compete in the second season of the chocolate dessert baking competition series. Richard began his baking career by ditching his 9-5 job to offer scrumptious sweet treats from his home kitchen in Philadelphia. Now he’s showing off his baking skills on television. Let’s all cheer for Richard!
Here’s what you might have missed on the blog:
Philadelphia Chefs Competing for Favorite Chef - I’ve compiled a list of Philly-based chefs participating in Favorite Chef, a competition where the winner will win $20,000 in prize money and be featured in a sponsored spread in Bon Appetit magazine. If you know of a chef competing, let me know so I can add them to the list. Good luck, chefs!
That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. And let me know if you see anything interesting going on that should get a little attention or let me know the types of Philly food news stories you’d like to read about here.
Until next week — much love!
Marilyn
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