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The Rittenhouse Square-area coffee experience is, generally speaking, better known for the exclusive quality of its products than for the warmth of its customer service. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to tell Jean-Luc the La Colombe barista to keep his precious little spoon if it irked him that much to hand it to me along with my morning fix. Being from the neighborhood, I am equally reluctant to utilize the many nearby Starbucks locations when I could just as easily support a local business. When I discovered Darling’s, however, I was in coffee shop nirvana. The sleepy little storefront lives up to its name, lined with pillow-stuffed booths and hung with fine-art photography on the walls. The first time I went, the owner, Harry, introduced himself, shook my hand, and said he hoped I’d be back soon. And the coffee? La Colombe–minus the spoon and snottitude.

So impressed was I with my takeout coffee experience at Darling’s that it took me several months to realize that something else was going on inside its unassuming façade. Sure, I’d seen the cheesecakes lined up in the display case, but I had no idea that Harry was waging a one-man cheesecake revolution. “Try the bananas foster,” he said when I expressed interest in his true passion one day. “It’s my invention.” This cheesecake is an ethereal dream, with bananas and liquefied brown sugar poured over a base that seemed both fluffier and creamier than the average cheesecake. “Philly style,” Harry explained proudly. “New York style’s on its way out.” All I know is this: after my first bite of cheesecake, I would have believed anything Harry told me.

Darling’s
404 S. 20th Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-547-5745