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If you and your loved ones are following health advisories this holiday season, your regular out-of-town guests might be missing the chance to experience their favorite Philadelphia goodies.
(Maybe you’re that out-of-town guest.)
For the poor souls who can’t just head to their corner store for a cheesesteak or hop a neighborhood over for a cannoli, there’s an alternative. A fair number of the city’s independent food and drink joints ship products nationwide
Options include both iconic brands and newcomers on the scene.
From soft pretzels to roast pork and coffee to cannoli, here’s how to satisfy that Philly food craving anywhere in the U.S.
Steaks, roast pork, candies and more
On Goldbelly, an online platform dedicated to keeping the dry ice industry alive by sending hyper-specific regional foods to faraway people, you’ll find Philly’s most well-known grub along with some smaller outfits.
There’s sweets from Bassetts Ice Cream and and Famous 4th Street Cookies, sandwiches from John’s Roast Pork and Tommy DiNic’s, red pies from Corropolese Bakery and cheesesteaks from four of the biggies: Joe’s, Jim’s, Pat’s and Campo’s.
Goldbelly also stocks Romano’s Stromboli, baked goods from East Passyunk’s Essen Bakery, and candies from John & Kira’s and Old City’s Shane Confectionery.
For the truly upscale, Zahav lists a couple offerings too, including a meal kit to make the famous lamb shoulder.
A heads up — grabbing your regional faves will cost you. A four pack of sandwiches from John’s is $109 on Goldbelly, for example, compared to about $40 in-person. Depends who you’re trying to make smile, of course, but some gifts might be worth the premium.
Scrapple to go, please
For more hometown hookups, head to Philly Food, which gets some products straight from the Italian Market, according to its website.
You’ll find more generic offerings, like a two-pack of precooked, “heat and eat” cheesesteaks, a gallon jar of hot and sweet peppers, or a case of 24 soft pretzels, yours for $100.
There are mainstay brands, too, like Day’s Soda, Dietz & Watson smoked sausages and Maglio’s Italian sausage.
Like Goldbelly, Philly Food offers Tastykake, but adds Goldberg’s Peanut Chews, Sweetzels spiced wafers and a $90 pack of two dozen Amoroso’s hoagie rolls.
Both Philly Food and Goldbelly have Habbersett scrapple, too.
Gift packs from the PA General Store
Give the gift of Philly faves with one click at the Pennsylvania General Store. The online shop ships pre-packaged baskets of small-item goodies like Goldberg’s Peanut Chews, Tastykakes, and Anastasio Italian Market Reserve Coffee.
Grab some Philly Pretzel Factory soft pretzels while you’re there.
More pretzels…
Federal Pretzels ships nationwide themselves, and at a lower cost than some other shops. You can get 50 salted, individually wrapped soft pretzels for about $30.
Cheese, sauce and other local spices
Craving a charcuterie board but, like, specifically from Di Bruno Bros.? Not a problem. Di Bruno’s ships plenty of products, including gift packs at every price point, from a $25 box of mixed nuts and snacks to a $1,600 wheel of parmigiano reggiano. Because, why not!?
Philly-based Soom Foods is run by three sisters who wanted to offer tahini products from their native Israel. Shop their sauces, kitchen tools, cookbooks and gift packs with all three.
Chestnut Hill-based biz The Spice Rack sells an exhaustive list of kitchen condiments: Sweet, hot and savory sauces, marinades, jams and spreads, salsa, pancake and pizza dough mix, fruit and nut extracts, pasta.
And while this business recently relocated from Philly to Puerto Rico, Mari-Sal’s offers a taste of the city’s Latin culture with homemade adobo and sazon seasonings, hot sauce and a Puerto Rican holiday favorite, coquito.
Shippable sweets and baked goods
Sweetzels are offered at one of the aforementioned online Philly-food hubs, but the brand also ships the orange-and-black-boxed goodies from its own website. So does Rittenhouse’s Metropolitan Bakery, and South Philly’s century-old Termini Bros.
Brown Sugar Sweets Co. is a new, Black-woman owned bakery shipping its cookies and brownies nationwide. Argentinian bakery Jezabel’s will send packs of sugary alfajores around the U.S.
There’s also Anthony’s of the Italian Market, where shoppers can cop baked goods, teas, coffee, chocolate-covered pretzels and candy.
A sip of home
Speaking of coffee, Philly has no shortage of indie tea houses and coffee roasters. A bunch of them, from mainstreamed hubs like La Colombe to newer gems like Càphê Roasters, have beans and leaves for sale.
Gifting to a West Philly expat? Try sending some beans from Green Line Cafe. South Philly friend missing home? Check out Herman’s Coffee’s Pennsport roast.
Or, try something totally new. A purchase from any of these shops means you’re supporting a Philadelphia biz.
Coffee
Ultimo Coffee
Elixr Coffee Roasters
Greenstreet Coffee Co.
Càphê Roasters
Ox Coffee Roasters
Herman’s Coffee
Green Line Coffee
Tea
Heirloom Spiritual Apothecary
Viva Leaf Tea Co.
Cultivated Bohemians
Both
Square One Coffee Roasters
Rival Bros.
