Uwishunu.com

Unless you’ve worked at Jefferson Hospital, or happen to be a food and drink editor for a newspaper, you wouldn’t have stumbled deep into the bowels of the Medical Building on 10th and Chestnut for Sant Gardez.

The tiny lunch counter appears to be nothing more than your quickie for a tuna on wheat. Peer a little closer and you’ll notice that the staff at Gardez does a brisk business with dumplings and Korean food. A Sharpie’d sign will announce that they have iced coffee, or rather, “ice coffee”. There’s a reassuring La Colombe sticker underneath. Do a head count and you’ll realize that the lady who took your drink order has disappeared into a hallway.

Is this brew so secret that they cannot make it in front of you? Perhaps. She’ll return a minute later with an iced up concoction, sweet and milky with cream. Maybe she won’t look you in the eye. The question is whether you can make it back through the hall, past security, and burst out into the sunshine before you drain your cup of bold brew, and let anyone on the street dare think that your coffee came from that building.

Sant Gardez Pan de Vida
1015 Chestnut Street (first floor of Jefferson Medical Building)
(215) 627-4727

Mon.-Fri., 6:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; closed Saturday and Sunday