East of Broad

Chinatown, Gayborhood, Old City and Washington Square West


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Published: Dec 8, 2010

Apparel + Accessories

BIKE GLOVES, Art in the Age: Bespoke boyfriends and grizzly bike messengers will gravitate toward AITA's handsome fingerless gloves. For its recent Bilenky Bike Works exhibit, the Old City purveyor of boutique booze and dashing duds asked Fishtown's David Laverdure (pimpgloves.com) to hand-craft just a handful of these leather/wool palm-warmers. Which means you better hustle, for the sake of your favorite dude's digits.

$60, 116 N. Third St., 215-922-2600, artintheage.com.

Books + Magazines

THE BOOK OF FRANK, Giovanni's Room: You can't get more quintessentially Giovanni's than this: The Book of Frank(Wave Books) is local poet CAConrad's dark, raucous, vulgar, semi-autobiographical collection — one that'd make a perfect gift for your brooding, whiskey-sour-drinking friends. Giovanni's Room, in the heart of the Gayborhood since 1979, is the country's oldest gay and lesbian bookstore; in recent years it's been hit hard by the recession and a little thing called Amazon, so keep that in mind when you're buying for bibliophiles.

$16, 345 S. 12th St., 215-923-2960, giovannisroom.com.

Food + Drink

TAIT FARM JAMS, Fair Food Farmstand: Based in Centre Hall, Pa., Tait Farm produces everything from chutneys to rice pilaf, but who wants to drive out to the middle of Pennsylvania for a jar of preserves? Fair Food Philly, dedicated to bringing local, sustainable foods to the city, has a permanent farm stand at Reading Terminal Market, selling edibles to locavores seven days a week. For the culinarily ethical folks in your family, this jelly is the jam.

$7.50 each, Reading Terminal Market, 12th and Arch streets, 215-922-2317, readingterminalmarket.org.

Home + Garden

PUFF FRAME, Hello Home: J. Lamancuso's Antique Row shop is chock-full of goodies for classy, quirky people past their IKEA days (at least in theory). Developed by the Savannah College of Art and Design, these room-revving 3-D frames are delightfully huggable works of art. Hello Home also sells ornaments, vases and a slew of Philly skyline-adorned glassware, should you prefer swanky to squeezy.

$55, 1004 Pine St., 215-545-7060, shophelloworld.com.

Kids + Pets

PRETZEL ONESIE, Open House: Adorbs alert: This sweet onesie starts the kids off early on their Philly pride (and their pretzel cravings). Queens of 13th Street Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran — whose empire also includes home-and-garden haven Verde and Medi small-plates mecca Barbuzzo, among others — have created an in-house collection of Philly-lover gifts (weheartphilly.com). The entire line's covetable, but this little cotton number scores high points for preciousness.

$26, 107 S. 13th St., 215-922-1415, openhouseliving.com/openhouse.

Mind + Body

COCONUT-BUTTER SOAPS, Yadain: Sure, they look like candy. Yes, they smell like heaven. Oh, and they're organic and made in-house. But the main selling point for Yadain's lush coconut-butter soaps? They cost a fraction of what you'd spend at any fancy bath-and-body joint on the other side of Broad. (No offense, Rittenhouse.) With an original location in Germantown, Yadain packs its soaps, butters and lotions with nutrients; check out their gigantic mixing bowls of coconut butter, shea butter, mango butter — and then kiss your Lever 2000 goodbye forever.

One for $2, three for $5, 1226 Chestnut St., 215-991-9001.