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Reading Terminal Market still feeds Philadelphia

A roast pork sandwich, a bread boat, a slice of sweet potato pie. Follow the counters and family histories that make Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market more than a place to stop for lunch.

Things to do near you · GuidesChecked October 30, 20268 min read

Archive · 2026

A central aisle and seating area in Reading Terminal Market, July 2026. Dough4872 / Wikimedia Commons

Inside this guide

A grocery basket could once leave Reading Terminal Market on a train. A customer ordered food, the basket traveled out toward the suburbs, and someone collected it at the station. The market’s published history describes a system that made the railway useful all the way to the dinner table.

That is a good thought to carry into a first visit. There will be plenty of things to eat immediately. But the interesting question is how a place becomes part of people’s ordinary lives: the counter they return to, the ingredients they carry home, the family business that finds room for another generation.

The market that stayed beneath the trains

Reading Terminal Market exists where two kinds of city business met. When the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company bought the block for its terminal in 1890, the existing market merchants resisted moving. The agreement put a new market below the train shed and tracks. Food trading was built into the station rather than simply cleared away for it.

The early market was a piece of working infrastructure. Its aisles formed a grid, while a large refrigerated basement stored perishable food. Delivery connected the counters to customers beyond walking distance. The market’s history describes both small orders carried through town and grocery baskets dispatched on suburban trains. A visitor buying lunch today enters a place that was organized to provision households, not just feed travelers.

Survival was less orderly than that grid. The railroad’s financial troubles, a deteriorating building and rent increases weakened the market in the 1970s. Later, shoppers, merchants and preservationists pressed to protect it as the convention-center project developed. Keeping the market meant preserving its function as well as its architecture. That distinction is still visible in the mix of produce, meat, pantry goods and prepared meals.

A sandwich with a garage behind it

At DiNic’s, the family history starts before the market stand. The business traces its roots to Gaetano Nicolosi’s South Philadelphia butcher shop, opened in 1918. An oven in a garage behind the shop cooked roasts for customers. In 1954, the next generation began selling sandwiches from that garage.

The name came later. Tommy Nicolosi and his cousin Franky DiClaudio joined parts of their names when they opened DiNic’s in 1977. They subsequently took separate locations; Tommy moved to Reading Terminal Market in 1980. The family’s account connects the present counter to that progression from butcher shop to roasts to sandwiches.

For a first lunch, look at the distinction on the menu rather than treating every large sandwich as a cheesesteak. DiNic’s lists roast pork, roast beef, housemade meatballs and Italian sausage, with hand-carved pulled pork and brisket in a separate group. Choose the meat you want, then ask about the current toppings and portion. A famous name is useful for finding a counter; deciding what to order still belongs to you.

Two ways to begin with dough

A pretzel and a Georgian bread boat make an unlikely pair of directions through the market. Miller’s Twist describes soft Amish-style pretzels rolled and twisted by hand from fresh dough through the day, then dipped in butter. The market’s own profile distinguishes them from the chewier pretzels associated with Philadelphia. The name of a city does not make all its breads the same.

At the Georgian-food business listed in the market directory as Saami Somi, the dough itself is the organizing idea. Its published explanation separates a leavened sourdough for Adjaruli khachapuri, a matsoni-yogurt dough for filled flatbreads, and an unleavened wrapper for khinkali dumplings. Those are different preparations and different ways to eat, even before choosing a filling.

The sourdough bread boat begins with a starter the business calls Lucile. Its menu describes a cheese filling, followed by butter and egg yolk after baking. Dumplings use rolled and pleated wrappers instead. Read the shape as a clue to the work: an open boat, a closed bread, a parcel gathered at the top. Ask which version is being served that day and whether it suits the kind of meal you want.

There is a naming detail to keep straight: the market still lists Saami Somi, while its linked website now presents Kartuli Bake Shop & Bites at Reading Terminal Market. The site continues to carry its Saami Somi dough explanation. Use the market listing and the linked current menu together when locating the business. The useful continuity here is the food-making; a saved name or an older photograph is not enough to settle every present-day detail.

A familiar recipe finds a new counter

Sweet T’s gives one ingredient a whole display’s worth of possibilities. The market lists sweet potato pie, pound cake and cheesecake among its specialties. Visit Philadelphia identifies the owners as Mark and Tia El and traces their route through a South Philadelphia shop, a food truck and a pop-up cart before the market bakery opened in 2021.

The bakery’s own press page reproduces a Visit Philly account connecting Tia’s sweet potato pie to a recipe learned from her grandmother, with a graham cracker crust as her variation. That is a more personal way into the counter than another ranking of desserts. A recipe can be handed down and still leave room for someone’s decision about how to make it their own.

Decide whether you want something to eat now or something to carry away. Visit Philadelphia describes mini-pies as well as larger sizes; ask what is available before committing the rest of your bag to it. The pleasure is in choosing one thing you are curious about, with enough room to notice it. Dessert need not become a second itinerary.

Let the ice cream slow you down

Bassetts offers another kind of continuity: a retail shop in the same location, with its original marble counters. The company’s own account dates that shop to 1892, when Lewis Dubois Bassett brought production into the newly built market. It identifies his great-great-grandsons Michael Strange and Roger Bassett as the family members operating it.

There is more to look at than a list of flavors. The market’s merchant profile points visitors toward the painted mural around the mezzanine and historical footage of ice cream production in the basement. A scoop gives you a reason to pause long enough to notice how the shop carries its history. The old counter and the thing handed across it belong to the same encounter.

Order the form that fits your afternoon: a cone or cup for the visit, or a packed container if you have a sensible plan for getting it home. Bassetts lists daily hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., later than the market’s general opening time. An early breakfast trip and an ice-cream stop are therefore different plans, even under one roof.

The other shopping list

Before treating the market as a collection of meals, look at what is being bought to become a meal later. Iovine Brothers Produce sells the ordinary foundations of dinner—potatoes and onions—alongside specialty mushrooms, fruit, nuts, beans, seeds and dried goods. The market’s profile traces the business to brothers James and Vincent Iovine and lists its opening year as 1994.

This is where a visitor’s route can cross somebody else’s weekly shopping. Allow space at the displays and counters. If you have a kitchen, one practical purchase might change dinner more than another snack would change lunch. Without a kitchen, a small pantry item may travel more usefully than produce that needs attention tonight. Ask about the item in front of you rather than shopping from an archive photograph’s season.

The market’s stated mission includes maintaining the link between rural and urban communities and preserving its role as an urban farmers’ market. That mission does not mean every ingredient in every stall was grown nearby: Iovine’s own profile describes produce from around the world. What matters is the market’s continuing capacity to sell ingredients as well as finished dishes.

Choose a counter, then choose the day

The market’s published general hours are 8 a.m.–6 p.m. every day, with individual merchant hours varying. Sunday is the decision that most changes this particular food trail. Pennsylvania Dutch merchants are closed, and DiNic’s own website also lists Sunday closure. You can visit the building on Sunday without being able to make every stop described here.

Miller’s Twist lists a 3:30 p.m. finish Monday–Wednesday and 5 p.m. Thursday–Saturday. Sweet T’s market listing starts at 10 a.m.; Bassetts starts at 9 a.m. If one counter is the reason for coming, check that counter first and arrange the rest around it. The building’s closing time is not a guarantee of six more hours at every stall after noon.

For the rest of 2026, the market lists closure on Thanksgiving, November 26, and Christmas Day, December 25. Check the current visit page when making a holiday plan. A weekday with the counters you want open is a stronger starting point than a promise that any particular hour will be quiet.

The address is 1136 Arch Street. For Regional Rail, the market directs visitors to Jefferson Station and onward signs for the Pennsylvania Convention Center and Reading Terminal Market. Its directions page also sets out parking-validation conditions; a reduced parking rate requires a qualifying market purchase and merchant validation. Read the current terms before driving, or use SEPTA’s current service information for the train journey.

Give the visit one main meal and leave the rest negotiable. You might choose DiNic’s and look at the produce afterward, or investigate a Georgian bread and save room for a pie. Keep a name worth returning to. A good first visit does not finish the market; it gives you a reason to come back.