The Women Behind the Gayborhood

The women behind 13th Street’s Renaissance (photo by Wesley Mann)

As Philadelphia magazine’s “Best Of” picks are officially made public today, we wanted to congratulate two women who have changed the Gayborhood with not only great restaurants and shops, but also a new attitude that has recreated 13th Street into a must-see destination.

Chef Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran, partners in life and business, have been named among The 10 Best Philadelphians. Here’s what the editors have to say about them:

In a city where what has been usually dictates what will be, in a neighborhood that nobody else wanted or cared about, two women came in and breathed change all over everything. There was no grand vision—it was just that it was their block, and they had ideas. Then Stephen Starr’s El Vez came; so did Capogiro. And suddenly, their unloved, unlovely swath of 13th Street wasn’t just the center of Philly; it was the heart. “What Marcie and Val have been able to accomplish, in such a short amount of time, is astounding,” Starr says.

Val simply says this: “We’re neighborhood people. And that’s what Philly is: neighborhoods. That’s why this all works.”

Click here for more on this dynamic duo. Plus: Find out who else is being honored.