Reading Terminal Market stretches into Filbert Street with outdoor seating and a festival space

With more than 75 vendors, the Reading Terminal Market has long had Philadelphians covered on pretty much anything and everything. There are top-notch groceries, specialty stores, and prepared foods that run the gamut from cheesy Georgian khachapuri to cold and fruity halo-halo. You can even knock back a scrapple Bloody Mary there.

But something was missing: outdoor space.

That changed this week, when the Terminal completed an expansion onto the 1100 block of Filbert Street that was years in the making. The space’s debut was Tuesday, just five months after groundbreaking.

To make the Filbert Street underpass more customer-friendly, the sidewalk was widened by 8 feet. The street and sidewalk are now flush, or “curbless,” which allows the area to act more like a public plaza than a road. (It also serves as a traffic-calming measure; car traffic is separated by retractable bollards.)

The hope is for upgraded lighting, funded by the Pennsylvania Convention Center, to be installed within the year, said Terminal general manager Annie Allman. Test lighting is up now, but the permanent fixtures will be dialed back a bit. (“I may have gotten a little carried away on how bright it was,” Allman said with a laugh. “You might need sunglasses if we lit the whole thing like that.”)

The space features eight high-top tables crafted by Dienner Woodworks, and more custom furniture — bistro-style seating similar to setups in LOVE Park and outside 30th Street Station — is on the way. In warmer weather, the market plans to roll out newly built kiosks, which will reboot its Day Cart program.

Though it seems timely, if not a little late, to add outdoor space, Allman said the $1 million project originated as early as 2016. It was the brainchild of former development director Ann Mintz, who brought a strong background in arts and public programming to the market. Mintz and then-GM Anuj Gupta worked together to secure the bulk of the funding for the expansion, which was announced in 2019. It was delayed by the pandemic.

Now that Terminal staffers can see the changes, they can better envision uses for the new space, Allman said. “We can still program it on a fairly consistent basis, and there’s plenty of pass-through room for pedestrians still without closing the street.”

The Terminal plans to close Filbert Street on Feb. 25 to celebrate its 130th birthday. Depending on this December’s weather, Allman said, the market may use the new space for holiday programming. And next June, the market will host the Bearded Ladies’ mobile cabaret during Philly Pride 2023. The outdoor area, like the rest of the market, will also be available for private events.