🍪 Philly’s hottest cookie spots

⚽ $3 Million to Philly Youth Sports

Mayor Cherelle Parker has announced an investment of $3 million into youth sports as a strategy for violence prevention in the city. The funds will be used to enhance local sports programs, including funding for national championships, as well as provide new equipment for the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation and bolster the Philly Youth Sports Fund. This initiative will benefit 28 local teams including youth football and cheerleading. [NBC10]

❄️ Increased Resources for Houseless Philadelphians

Philadelphia has declared its first Code Blue of the season, due to the temperature dropping below freezing. During a Code Blue, the city’s homeless services office provides 24-hour outreach and additional resources to those in need, including extra beds and housing. [PhillyVoice, City of Philadelphia]

🇮🇹 New Development Coming to the Italian Market?

A long-planned apartment project in the Italian Market has been scrapped in favor of a new retail complex. This proposed 23,500-square-foot development is intended to fill the vacant lot on the corner of Ninth Street and Washington Avenue, and includes a pavilion and outdoor space. [🔒The Inquirer]

It's National Cookie Day, and we know just where to celebrate. If you’re in Rittenhouse Square and walk four minutes south, you can get a Hot Cocoa cookie almost as big as your face at Blueprint Cookies. Or, you could go four minutes east of the park, where you can get a S’mores cookie (for about the same price) at Chip City Cookies.

An eastbound stroll could also take you toward a Chocolate Chip Walnut cookie at Levain Bakery, and a short venture north of the park could bring you to a PB Explosion cookie from the Taylor Chip shop.

Gourmet cookie shops have been proliferating throughout the country in recent years, and several brands have been descending upon Philly — specifically, Rittenhouse — over the past year. Each of the chains setting up shop in the area offers something a little different, but once they’re all open, this section of Center City will be chock full of options for massive, handheld confections that cost about $5 or $6.

What’s behind this trend? Hey Philly got in touch with the newcomers to ask what’s up.

Meet the Cookie Shops — and Find Out Why They Think They Stand Out

🍪 Blueprint Cookies | 268 S. 20th St.

• Where’s the company based? Florida (but the owners of this franchise are originally from Bucks County)
• What are the cookies like? It differs by flavor since they’ve got a few different base doughs, but a major common thread between all of them is that they’re HUGE.
• What’s the selection like? It rotates monthly. The chocolate chip cookie is always available, and the most popular cookie from the month before sticks around going into the current month. There are always two vegan and non-gluten options.
• What sets it apart from the others? Ciarlante says it’s their focus on hospitality: “Other companies … have good cookies as well. So [we try] to separate ourselves by hiring great team members, people that … enjoy working here, enjoy the process, obviously enjoy the product, but first most, love interacting with our guests.”
• When did it open? November 2023

🍪 Chip City Cookies | 204 S. 17th St.

• Where’s the company based? New York City
• What are the cookies like? It depends on the variety and flavor you choose. There are the classic cookies, meant for folks looking for a soft-in-the-middle experience, and then there are “Thin Chips,” the crunchier, chewier alternative. In terms of surface area, both categories are very large!
• What’s the selection like? Several core flavors are always available — like chocolate chip, alongside some weekly rotating flavors and seasonal specials. Occasionally, there are some “super specialities” that are available for one day only, per Phillips.
• What sets it apart from the others? “We do something pretty unique with our really extensive list of flavors,” said Phillips. “We're constantly innovating, constantly coming up with new flavors to delight our consumers.”
• When did it open? August 2024

Welcome back to “Where Is It?”, the weekly public art guessing game where I share a photo, and you tell me where it was taken. As always, let’s start with last week’s mural, pictured above.

📍 This mural is located on the corner of Germantown Avenue and Armat Street. (Speaking of Germantown Avenue, check out what else you can see and do on this street.)

🏆 Congrats to Edward from Fairmount for being the first correct guesser!

Here’s your next mural. Do you recognize it?