Philadelphia’s Great Northeast is practically a city unto itself. I can remember in the 1980s when this part of Philadelphia wanted to break away, when it wanted to become its own city. This part of Philadelphia receives no love. It receives no press from local publications and operates in relative anonymity. Based upon where I live, where I work, and where I venture, this neighborhood is either out of the way or easily bypassed via I-95. However, whenever I make the effort to venture here, I am rewarding. Aside from the mayhem of driving Roosevelt Boulevard, which is Mario Kart come to life, I enjoy leisurely exploring the neighborhoods.
This article captures the Northeast life better than anything I'd write: The Late Great Northeast
This article captures the Northeast life better than anything I'd write: The Late Great Northeast
The Great Northeast’s defining feature are the rows after rows of row homes. This section of Philadelphia grew rapidly post World War II and the same buildings were built over and over. I find the block and block consistency fascinating. The scale of the rowhome block after row home block is fascinating because the blocks go on for miles.
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For a break from the row home monotony, there’s a fish hatchery at Pleasant Hill Park. There are times living in Philadelphia that you take it for granted the city has two rivers as its borders. The city does not do a great job of promoting its waterfront (it doesn’t help that two expressways are built beside the waterways) but the boat activity in the Great Northeast shows that at least some Philadelphians have embraced the aquatic life. Just north of Pleasant Hill Park is Maggie’s Waterfront Café, which while a great neighborhood bar, doesn’t have a waterfront patio.
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The Great Northeast has a few historical mansions that serve as attractions/destinations when trying to explore this neighborhood between meals. Glen Foerd is located on the Delaware and home to a former tanner who experimented with all sorts of chemicals. It’s interesting to know that Port Richmond has been an enclave for Polish immigrants since the 1800s. The owner of Glen Foerd operated tanning facilities in the area and relied on cheap Polish immigrants to apply the tanning chemicals.
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The Ryerss Museum and Library in Burholme Park is another Philadelphia Mansion in the Great Northeast that is part historical mansion tour, part Asian art collection museum, and a part that is a branch of the Philadelphia public library. The park is located in Fox Chase which has always been a nice section of Philadelphia. I can remember being a kid and hearing adults talk about the Fox Chase Cancer Center and the quality of those facilities and thinking “wow, Fox Chase sounds amazing.” It sounded like a world away from the remote and quiet suburbs. In some sense, it is a world away.
You can’t travel in this direction and not stop at Hop Angel Public House (which Google Maps now says is permanently closed) for a beer and Rieker’s Prime Meats from some liverwurst.
You can’t travel in this direction and not stop at Hop Angel Public House (which Google Maps now says is permanently closed) for a beer and Rieker’s Prime Meats from some liverwurst.
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I’m not sure how long the Great Northeast has been a landing spot for immigrants but these days the area is home to a wide range of nationalities, each bringing their own flavor, literally and figuratively, to the neighborhood. The Bustleton area has an enclave of Eastern Europeans from either former Soviet Bloc countries or Russia specifically. Gone are the days of Acme markets being the grocery store of choice. Today it’s Bell’s Market which stocks all the goods from the Eastern European homeland. More sturgeon than you would ever want. More flavors of caviar than you could ever imagine. An entire aisle of nothing but pickles—which I thought only existed in my dreams.
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Beyond Bell's Market there's restaurants like Georgian Bread, one of the few areas in the city where one can order khachapuri - this cheesy bread, "Eastern European Pizza" as I call it, is one of the world's, and I truly mean that world's, great dishes. It's bittersweet that a place in Reading Terminal Market is now serving khachapuri because it means people who may otherwise have traveled to Northeast Philly for the dish can now stay in Center City but maybe they'll like the dish so much that they'll try a place like Georgian Bread. Georgian Bread has great hearty vegetable side dishes too. Georgian cuisine is phenomenal. There's not a great comparison but from an experience standpoint, it's similar to the first time you tried Thai food in the sense that if you were like me, you ate Chinese food for twenty years, thinking that's all that Asian food was, well that and sushi, then you had Thai food for the first time and it tasted so fresh, so flavorful, so bold, that you wondered why you had been eating Chinese food for all those years and why aren't there Thai restaurants everywhere like Chinese restaurants. It's the same experience with Georgian food - it's just a burst of flavor, great pairings - and you'll wonder why Georgian restaurants aren't everywhere like Italian restaurants.
It's not just Georgian restaurants - there's Uzbekistan, like Uzbekistan Restaurant, Shish Kabob Palace, etc. While not in Philadelphia, Samarkand, farther up on Bustleton, is another great spot. It's not just Eastern European places - there's good Portuguese food, good Colombian food, good Guatemalan food. Or if all you want is a great breakfast or lunch sandwich, you can't beat Northeast Sandwich Co. I really wish this part of the city was more accessible and now that I live in Conshohocken it's an "event" heading over here.
It's not just Georgian restaurants - there's Uzbekistan, like Uzbekistan Restaurant, Shish Kabob Palace, etc. While not in Philadelphia, Samarkand, farther up on Bustleton, is another great spot. It's not just Eastern European places - there's good Portuguese food, good Colombian food, good Guatemalan food. Or if all you want is a great breakfast or lunch sandwich, you can't beat Northeast Sandwich Co. I really wish this part of the city was more accessible and now that I live in Conshohocken it's an "event" heading over here.
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And then when I do venture over here...it is for an event - Oktoberfest, specifically the Cannstatter Volksfest, which is by far and away, Philadelphia and the entire region's, best Oktoberfest. At this point it seems that every neighborhood and suburban town has their own Oktoberfest or "Fall" festival where a few blocks are shut down and people can walk the streets...none are on the scale and level as the Cannstatter Volkfest which has it's own dedicated "facility" to host Oktoberfest. The garden type setting is how Oktoberfests should be celebrated. Also, since they've been doing this for decades now, it's an incredibly well run event - easy to find parking (usually), fast ticket lines, fast food lines, food prices that correspond well to ticket prices, good music, stuff to do while walking around besides drinking, etc. A good way to dip your toe into the Great Northeast. Arguably, the best excuse to head to the Great Northeast at least once a year.
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