What Gladwyne and South Philly Have in Common (And What They Absolutely Don't)

Twelve miles separate the Italian Market on South Ninth Street from the Guard House Inn on Youngsford Road in Gladwyne. Twelve miles and, depending on which direction you're traveling, what feels like a complete change of civilization. One is dense, loud, block-specific, built on the principle that everyone within earshot knows everyone else's business. The other is private, quiet, deed-restricted, where reputation travels at the speed of a whispered recommendation between people who already knew each other before they had anything to recommend. They operate on exactly the same principle. And if you serve either market, the most important thing you can understand is not what they share — it's how that shared principle expresses itself completely differently in each.