A ceramic coffee mug shaped like a stick of salted butter. Glittery Christmas tree ornaments fashioned after tins of beluga caviar, knotted pretzels, and even an Ozempic syringe. A Phanatic-shaped bottle opener made from discarded wooden baseball bats, plus Phillies-themed press-on nails, sweatshirts printed with South Philly landmarks, and lots and lots of bespoke Eagles merch.
Those are just some of the wares on offer from Red Gravy Goods, a new food and Philly-centric gift shop that opened earlier this month at 1335 E. Passyunk Ave. The store is the latest project from Valerie Safran and Marcie Turney, the married entrepreneurs who helped revitalize the Gayborhood with a string of boutiques and restaurants along 13th Street.
The couple met while Safran was waitressing and Turney was working as a chef at a long-shuttered Mediterranean restaurant, going into business together after just a year of dating to open all-Philly-everything boutique Open House at 107 S. 13th St. in 2002. The couple then spent the next two decades opening a string of Center City restaurants and retail concepts.
Some — like gourmet food market Grocery and vibey Mexican restaurant Lolita — puttered out during the pandemic. But others — Barbuzzo, Bud & Marilyn’s, and beloved Italian spot Little Nonna’s — have stuck around to become Center City stalwarts. Safron-Turney’s last project was Darling Jack’s Tavern, a casual-yet-design-forward bar that opened in 2023.
Red Gravy Goods is the couple’s first foray into South Philly. It’s as much an homage to their new neighborhood as it is to their other brands.
“We really just love everything that South Philly is. Yeah, it’s Philadelphia, but it’s also its own thing — red sauce and pasta,” said Safran, 50. “It just feels like [South Philly] never goes out of style.”
Though the pair now lives in Chestnut Hill, South Philly has long captivated Safran and Turney. They pick up breads from Sarcone’s Bakery and certain pastas from Claudio Specialty Foods for Little Nonna’s, and often sneak sweet treats home from Mighty Bread for their two daughters. Whenever Turney passes the uniform store at Ninth and Christian Streets, she said, she cracks a smile.
The couple purchased the East Passyunk Avenue building in 2017, which property records show used to be an auto body shop. The name comes from Little Nonna’s Sunday Gravy, a pasta dish heaped with a San Marzano marinara and a side of beef short ribs or meatballs. To reiterate the theme, Turney covered accent walls in a tomato-printed wallpaper.
“You have to respect those old businesses that are still here, still kicking,” said Turney, 55. “We’re a good connector to what’s happening further up the avenue.”
Curating a Philly “shoppy shop”
Red Gravy Goods is what the internet calls a “shoppy shop”: a broad collection of highly curated gift shops, artisan markets, and modern-day general stores where, as Emily Sundberg wrote in New York Magazine, “you can touch all of the products you see on Instagram.” Shoppy shops are places of discovery, often merchandising things like trendy condiments next to goods from small local brands.
South Philly is nothing if not a collection of ultra-specific stores held together by rowhouses and excellent delis. There’s cookbook store Binding Agents on Christian Street and the duo of quirky kitchen supply stores from former chef C.M. Neff, plus the treasure trove of boutiques and specialty food stores that line Passyunk Avenue and Ninth Street in the Italian Market.
What differentiates Red Gravy Goods is that more than half the stock comes directly from Safran’s brain. Roughly 60% of the store is exclusive to the Safran-Turney universe, where Safran works with a rotation of top-secret local illustrators and designers to create prints sold only at Red Gravy Goods, Open House, and Verde (the duo’s other gift shop).
The rest, Safran said, is sourced from trade show trips and social media. She never peers into other Philly boutiques for inspiration.
“I don’t want what they have … because everything gets repeated,” Safran said. “If it brings me joy, it’ll bring someone else joy … There’s nothing serious about this.”
Nearly everything in Red Gravy Goods costs under $100, save for a couple of big-ticket items, like a forest green shoulder bag covered in beaded footballs from local apparel brand Phannies, that retails for $120.
The front of the 1,000-square-foot store is a hodgepodge of Philly-coded food paraphernalia, from butter-shaped coffee mugs and a deck of pasta-themed tarot cards to shimmering Italian cookie ornaments, and a candle that smells exactly like a soft pretzel. Like any good shoppy shop, there’s also condiments from trendy sauce brands such as Ayoh!
The back of the store, meanwhile, is for apparel and accessories, from claw clips (shaped like cannolis) to children’s clothes and a wall of unofficial Eagles swag.
Already, most of the store’s bestsellers are Safran’s designs: A mug printed with “F— Dallas” in cartoonish script; a children’s nursery sign that says “Shhh … an Eagles fan is sleeping”; and a new crew neck covered in illustrations of South Philly iconography that range from a Mummer and a cup of John’s Water Ice to the awning of P & F Giordano Fruit & Produce.
A hat patch bar only a Philadelphian could love
The piece-de-resistance of Red Gravy Goods is a custom hat patch bar currently manned by Turney.
Customers choose a Philly sports hat for $34, and then can add a patch from what will eventually become a line of roughly 250 patches designed by Safran. Each costs $6.
The first 52 patches are already in store, and run the gamut from sports pennants and cartoonish pretzels, to depictions of Saquon Barkley’s iconic reverse hurdler, and uncannily accurate miniature versions of a SEPTA bus.
The hats are prepared on-demand, with Turney operating a heat press machine. When done right, Turney said, it should take less than a minute to press down a trio of close-together patches.
Already, said Turney, their 7-year-old Harlow aspires to be a shop owner when she grows up — just like her moms.
Red Gravy Goods, 1335 E. Passyunk Ave., 267-764-5532. Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily
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