Bigger than a Big Box

The Grouse does not tout products or stores all that often, but today he's making an exception. Material Culture, in Philly. Like any physical place, you've got to get there, and the path to Wissahickon Ave is studded with fun.

• 95 South See billboard for the House of Wax, with a picture of a panther or something and the slogan "Prey. Slay. Display. " Man, you know we're taking the kids there.
• Exit 30, Cottman Ave: It's the kind of neighborhood we have none of down south. City Irish, with long decrepit row houses made of mixed brick and stone. Note the Block & Cleaver butcher shop. Very old school
• Left on Roosevelt Ave: Many are the attractions here, including Regan's Pub, with a separate "Ladies' Entrance". After that stop into the place advertising "24 Hours Billiards and Steaks"
• Right on Wissahickon. By now the neighborhood is all black and poor. You're almost there

Material Culture occupies a big rotting old factory building in the middle of a slum. Under mixed Turkish and Serbian management (no mean feat), staffed by groovers and people from the neighborhood. Football fields of space, with almost no climate control. It's hot in summer, today it was pouring rain and leaking inside. So they picked up Chinese copper basins from their inventory to catch the drippage. There's a pettable free range Weimaraner to entertain the kids.

What do they sell? Turkish rugs, Indian cabinets and other furniture, Romanian chests, various Chinese bits of furniture, some modern stuff, wierd folkish paintings of celebrities, tons more. Much of what ABC Carpets sells, for 1/3 the price. We paid $830 to have an antique Indian dining room table delivered too our house.

There's always a seasonally appropriate free snack and bev.

Midwesterners and Yankees like to fly to High Point, NC to buy new furniture. Which is fine. This is so much a better deal, for people from up this way. It's the coolest store I've ever been to. Makes me want to have a bigger house just to buy more furniture. It actually gives back to its neighborhood. Go there.