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Categories: Grocery, Convenience Stores [Edit]
Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square
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This store is great. It is particularly phenomenal if you have lived in the neighborhood for a while and remember what used to be in this spot!
They have a great beer selection which allows you to buy singles of a ton of beers you wouldn't normally find in this area without travelling to say Foodery. The fruit and cheese selection is really great and the fruit salad they make (while a bit overpriced) is out of this world! Although the prices are a bit steep (it is Ritt Square people) the products are great and it is usually my after work "what the heck am I making for dinner" spot over the brutally expensive Rittenhouse Market or the less exciting South Street Market.
All in all, this is a great little market for everything from unique cheeses and beers to funky pastas and organic potato chips.
I go to Food & Friends once or twice every few weeks. Overall, it's a good corner store to pop into for a few food items and some beer. They have a very small selection of prepared foods (salads, sushi, etc.), a cooler with veggie friendly "meats" and some sliced deli meats, eggs, a really diverse hummus selection (only two brands, but a lot of flavors), etc., and a small selection of produce to accompany basic shelf-life food options. They also have a small selection of household goods.
Let's be honest though, I come here mainly for beer when I'm not close to The Foodery. They have an aisle of beer coolers with a few coolers dedicated to 6 packs and the rest dedicated to singles for mix-a-six purposes. The 6 packs are decent, nothing mind blowing, but good for picking up Yards or a name brand import. The singles are pretty diverse, ranging from some American craft beers to Belgians. The selection is not as great as The Foodery, but I do appreciate the fact that they label every beer so you know how much it costs without fumbling through a notebook of beer prices.
Overall, I think the prices on some food and household items are a little high, but the beer prices seem in line with other CC beer spots (in other words, a little high, but we're willing to pay it).
Bottom line: Could you buy food to make a meal? Yes. Is this the best place to buy food? No. Could you find beer to satisfy a diverse beer crowd? Yes? Is this the best place to buy beer? No.
I realized the value of this place when I had a super craving for spaghetti and meatballs and truly did not make the walk all the way to TJ's. Most grocery staples (eggs, yogurt, pasta) are super over priced here (my boring un-fancy pasta cost $2 -- 100% more than TJ's price), but some of the distinctly health-conscious yuppie-type foods like fancy soup in colorful boxes and raw almonds are actually competitively priced. So no, I pretty much never shop here, but in a pinch, it actually is really, really convenient.
F&F is known as the Rittenhouse Foodery because it boasts the best beer selection on the west side of Broad. To be sure, the selection is not nearly as extensive as the Foodery's, but it packs a punch for a little guy. F&F also has a small selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, cheeses, organic and natural foods, and a handful of prepared meals, making it a fake-Trader Joe's, only with name brand products and without the x-rated movie theater across the street. Johnny-on-the-spot for last minute food purchases and a night of drinking.
Fabulous corner spot!
These guys have a great small selection and are pretty reasonable prices. Not a spot for everything, but they have the best price on La Colombe around, are open late, and are always friendly. Generally a great addition to the neighborhood.
OK I split the difference and gave 3 stars. here's why:
Food selection - 5 stars
Beer selection - 5 stars
Food quality - 4 stars
Service - 1 star
Prices - 1 star - soooooo expensive!
Cashiers are rude and inconsiderate.
I dropped over $50 on random groceries and they rang it up incorrectly and swiped my card. They then asked me to pay for the 2 items they forgot to ring up in cash.
It was a nightmare. I basically spent $54 on a dozen eggs, an apple, an orange, a bowl of cut fruit, a chef salad, a turkey wrap, some hummus, a quart of OJ, 2 boxes of raspberries, a container of mixed nuts, a container of dried apricots, a package of sliced organic cheese.
$54! Ack!!!!! For one small bag of groceries.
That said - I am glad they were there when I needed them. I paid the price for the convenience. And for organic.
Beer right around the corner at 12 A.M. -- great!! Had a good turkey wrap from here too once.
The beer selection at this place is awesome. Hitachino. Thats all I have to say. The prices here are insanely high. The saving grace for me is that its about 40 feet from my apartment.
The service is good depending on who's working. Some are cool, while others, well, they just aren't.
I'll give it three stars for the best beer selection around, and the cute blonde girl behind the counter.
And now they have BEER?!?!
There really is no reason to go anywhere else.
Except maybe Trader Joes to get dog food.
The name of this place: lame. The selection and prices of this place: awesome.
I've walked past the…
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Some of the cashiers are nice and some of them are well not nice. they need to drop their ten dollar minimum to 5 bucks. This practice is illegal in general. Regardless my bill was 9.06 and she pestered me to buy something else and luckily I have balls. I'm moving next week and not walking three blocks to this cornerstore!
This place rocks my face off! Great beer selection. Pretty solid produce for being a mini-mart. Very well kept. Good prices. Food and Friends, you are flippin fabulous!!
Try their raspberry fig bars--they're dyno-mighty delish.
My boyfriend kept telling about the new mini grocery store that opened on the corner of 20th and Spruce for a long time now and for some reason never took a minute to go check it out. We usually have to walk about 10 blocks for good food shopping such as Whole Foods Market. Sometimes Rittenhouse Square Market -- but their prices are ridiculous for the most part.
Well, I finally went in a few weeks ago in search of something to hydrate me in the crazy humidity. It's such a plain and unattractive building from the outside, but once inside, you may call it love at first sight. I was instantly smitten and I come to shop there at least three times a week. They have a lot of what I would normally find at Whole Foods, and some are actually cheaper than Whole Foods, so it's quite a treat really. Their selection of snacks and sweets make me fee like I'm 12 again because there's a lot of Asian supermarket goodies that absolutely love. They also have a great selection of cold drinks. They also have a small section by the register for coffee and bagels and the like. So, if you need a morning pick me up, here is another place to consider. They also have good deals on produce on most days. They take credit cards if you spend over $10.
It's definitely a must-see little grocery store with a nice fresh and modern feel to it. I'm definitely in love.
I haven't bothered to revisit my review of Food and Friends until now as a recent comment on the previous review pushed it to the front of my mind. I do revisit the store a couple of times a week however. It's settled in pretty well, and as one could expect prices went up to match the neighborhood standards. They had great sandwiches for a week or two, but when I asked about them I was told that they were going to start making them again in a nebulous future reality (or something like that). Often though when I look around the corner down the deli seating aisle the tables are pretty much covered with boxes and such, from unpacking orders I suppose, otherwise clean, and still nice and comfortable. The staff is fairly good too. The prepared foods they do have, salads and fruit and such look pretty good.
And they have had beer for quite some time now, which was an exciting prospect that I had really been looking forward too. They do have a great selection of beer, lots of large bottles, it's not really cheap, but I think it's worth paying for a quality product and convenience. I had expected to pick up a bottle now and then to take to BYOBs or for a drink at home that's a step up from the stuff in the local delis around where I live. This is where I have a problem, they store their very attractive expensive beer out on shelves toward the back of the deli. Good beer should really be stored rather like wine, in an area away from light with a constant, generally cool, temperature. Atmospheric fluctuations are usually no good for more sensitive brews. Also it is universally held that light skunks beer. I would think that at the very least it should be kept in the sealed shipping box until it is stocked into the cooler. A bottle that is stored for a month on the top shelf in Summertime could well taste very different from an exactly similar brew stored on the bottom shelf in December. I would guess that the cooler is stocked from the shelves of beer to the side of it. I don't really think of myself as a beer snob, but I'm not going to pay top dollar for beer that may have been sitting around for some time, as handsome as the labels may appear on the shelf. If they didn't have this problem I'd give them another star.
If you remember Kitchen USA, the previous incarnation of this location, you'll know that anything… Read more »
This is my go-to store for late night snacks since, unlike all the other stores, this one is open until midnight. Great selection of dry goods, drinks, produce, and beer. And an unbeatably friendly staff. It puzzles me that others have had bad experiences, I've always enjoyed going there BECAUSE the staff is so nice. Only downside is that, like most corner groceries, the prices can be high, but they do seem to make an effort to keep them as low as possible.
Close to home, great hours, awesome people, and yeah a decent beer selection. Place is super clean. Prices are reasonable on most things but some products are marked up a bit. Usually random stuff like shampoo. I have to say I pretty much stop here on a daily basis and I love it.
I like this place. It's close to my apartment, has the types of things I need to carry me over until my next "real" grocery shopping trip, and has a nice selection of health/organic products. I mostly love it for the wide selection of Yogi teas, which I am obsessed with. A lot of things are a bit overpriced here, but you're paying for the convenience. They also have a good selection of beer.
Thrilled to have this store nearby. Fantastic beer selection with lots of interesting picks. I often just grab a Weienstephaner Vitus. Really high quality produce and snack selections. Friendly staff. I've heard some really enjoyable dance music coming through the speakers every time I've been there.
This place has been open about a month and I now find myself stopping in a couple times a week for incredibly fresh (and fairly priced) produce and hard-to-find grocery items like Sahale almonds, Peace Valley cereal, and Popcorn Indiana Kettlecorn. Amazingly, from Tostitos Chips to Hari-bo candy, Food & Friends manages to stock all the basics was well as niche brands in an rather compact yet uncluttered space.
When it comes to grocery shopping, I'm what some call a "cherry-picker." I'm picky with what I get, and go to multiple stores every week to get a couple specific items from each... i.e. Sue's for mangoes, mushrooms and fresh mozzarella, Whole Foods for yogurt, clifkids bars and coconut water, Trader Joe's for bread and cheese and edemame...you get the idea. Food & Friends has quickly become a routine stop for me in the neighborhood as they're OPEN UNTIL ("about") MIDNIGHT EVERY NIGHT!! Most other businesses in the area, including the much more expensive Rittenhouse Market two blocks away, don't open past 10.
This place is an indispensable addition to the neighborhood!
FYI: It's on the Northeast corner of 20th and Spruce, but there's not much signage on the Spruce St facade so just look for the white building with large tinted windows at the end of the block.
I love this place because it is clean, everyone is friendly and the goods are reasonably priced. And because it is open til midnight. When it starts selling beer, I may move in. I stop in a few times a week for fresh fruit and veggies, a cold drink, sandwich meat/bread, and other random stuff and usually leave very happy. Welcome to the neighborhood!
Love it :) Clean and cute. And everything is reasonably priced.
Neighborhood: Market East
Category: Grocery
Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square
Category: Grocery
Philadelphia, PA
Category: Grocery
Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square
Category: Fruits & Veggies
Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square
Category: Bakeries
