March 17, 2010
Garces Trading Company in Pictures
Top: Olive oil decanters; Bottom: Bread box and olive oil (all photos by M. McClellan)
The Garces Trading Company opened its doors just over a month ago to much fanfare. Charcuterie! Macarons! Bottled wine sales! I finally headed over on Monday to take a few pictures and see for myself what so many had been raving about.
The Garces Trading Company is located at 1111 Locust Street, just around the corner from Jefferson Hospital and a few blocks west of Washington Square. When you first walk in, you have a choice to make. You can ask for table (where you’ll be tended to by a friendly server) or you can opt to shop for a few gourmet groceries.
Shoppers can select from a gorgeous display of cheeses, charcuterie (some made in-house), breads, pastries, jams, olive oils and ready-to-go meals. Additionally, a small wine room takes up a large portion of the east wall of the space, making it possible for shoppers to pick all the essentials for a summer concert or picnic. This wine option is particularly exciting, since Pennsylvania wine laws typically make it impossible to buy a bottle outside a state store. Here’s hoping this is won’t be the last of such joint ventures.
If you choose to dine in, you’ll find yourself tucked in at one of the well-lit, comfy tables in the center of the space. The GTC menu has a number of options and from what I experienced, they do them all exceedingly well. If you’re stopping in for a quick lunch, the soups, salads and sandwiches are accessibly priced ($6-11) and generously sized. For sharing, I’d recommend one of the oblong, thin crust pizzas ($12-13). They also make a deep dish pie, but I didn’t have an opportunity to try it.
If you’re feeling nibbly, you can order up a couple cheeses (they are $6 a portion) and a bit of the charcuterie ($8 a portion). Tangy bread, olive oil and salt arrive on the table as soon as you order. I had the opportunity to try their house-made Chicken Liver Mousse and it’s been haunting my dreams. Smooth and luscious, I can’t stop thinking about when I’ll be able to return and taste it again.
The other item I tried that I found impossibly delicious was their made-to-order mozzarella. It arrives on your table warm and drizzled with bright, lemony olive oil. It was bursting with the flavor of fresh, creamy milk and while eating it, I had to resist the urge to pull the dish towards me and wrap my arms around it in affection. I really wanted to keep it all to myself. However, since that sort of behavior unseemly in adulthood, I refrained.
If you haven’t been yet, please do make a point of visiting Garces Trading Company. It offers an easy, delicious and inexpensive option for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. You can’t really for much more than that.
Garces Trading Company
1111 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA
215-574-1099
www.garcestradingcompany.com/
1 Trackbacks/Pingbacks-
Pingback:
Garces Trading Company in Pictures | Things to Do in Philadelphia … | The Philly Wine Website on March 17, 2010
(2 responses)
March 17, 2010, 4:00 pm
Patrick L. says:
I myself have not had the opportunity to go yet but I have tried a few of the delicious and exotic sodas that they carry, thanks to a coworker. They were fantastic.
I would like to note though that he made a similar mistake by assuming that the fact that they serve alcohol was some kind of “joint venture” as you put it, however this is not the case. After saying how happy he was that they were serving alcohol and that he was glad that they were not being oppressed by the tyranny of the state system, the employee curtly informed him that they were, in fact, the state store. Though, as my colleague has said, they seem to go to great lengths to hide that fact.
Leave a comment