Noel Davis
After a car crash left her with chronic back and leg pain, Noel Davis rehabilitated herself with resistance training. Now she’s helping others get stronger thanks to her Old City gym, Paris Fit; pop-up workouts throughout the city (including an annual National Fitness Day event); an app for personalized training plans; and at-home gear like bands and sliders. 221 Vine Street, suite B, Philadelphia, PA 19106, getparisfit.com.
Classic Auto Fitness
There's a reason auto dealerships and gearheads from as far away as the Main Line send their rides to Ryan Kates's Classic Auto in South Jersey. He's just as obsessed as they are with their cars, transforming each one personally. Got a beat-up Honda? A 1963 Corvette Stingray you love more than you do most family members? He'll treat both with equal amounts of TLC. 447 Commerce Lane, Suite C, West Berlin, NJ 08009, .
Lux Natural Teeth Whitening
It’s time to accept that we’re all so vain (cue Carly Simon) and just want to look good. And when it comes to getting pearly whites, Lux takes the gold with its plant-and-mineral-based gel that’ll lift your teeth up to 12 shades in a single visit. No irritated gums, no worn-away enamel, no waiting forever to see results — time to throw away those lame at-home strips. 1650 Market Street, suite 3600, Philadelphia, PA 19103, lux-whitening.com.
Michelle Lombardi
When Lombardi, an ICU nurse at Phoenixville Hospital, learned that one of her patients — an unhoused man who’d been living with his dog in his car — would be hospitalized for a lengthy stay, she volunteered to take in his pup for the duration, and cared for it until the owner was back on his feet and in an apartment of his own. Her above-and-beyond earned her an award from the Daisy Foundation, a nationwide org honoring extraordinary nurses — and the everlasting gratitude of the man and his beast.
Provenance
Photograph by Ed Newton Twenty or so dishes; artistic, architectural plates; top-shelf ingredients; complex flavors; a kitchen built around a custom imported stove with a price tag like a luxury car; and a staff featuring some of the most talented cooks in the region — all these hallmarks make for one of the most daring (and expensive) tasting menus in the city right now. Is it a marathon? Absolutely. But it’s worth experiencing for yourself, if only to see how remarkable Philly’s food scene has become, and to get a glimpse of where it’s headed. 408 South 2nd street, Philadelphia, PA 19147, provenancephl.com.
The Delco Pooper
There comes a time in every person’s life when they have to ask themselves one question: Should I forgive this road rage incident and go on with my life, or should I pull down my pants and poop on the hood of their car? (If you haven’t been forced into this situation yet yourself, it’s coming.) For Delco resident Christina Solometo, the answer was (allegedly!) simple, and we’re all now somehow living with the consequences of that decision. Next time maybe just keep your pants on and head home, Christina.
Timecycle Couriers
I find bike riding in the city perplexing. I know people do it all the time, but the combo of swerving taxis and buses that share biking lanes provides enough excuses to keep me firmly on my feet. Jorge Brito, a veteran messenger for TimeCycle, understands. It's things like this, he says, shaking his head as we maneuver around a car illegally parked in a bike lane. Our first pickup: GreenStreet Coffee Roaster in Point Breeze, whose owner serves us java as he gives instructions for out drop. From there we bike to Rittenhouse Square, then two jobs in Kensigntown assignments Brito gets via smartphone or the radio strapped to his chest. Brito is among the two-wheeled, tattooed, messenger-bagged concrete crusaders at TimeCycle who have long kept the city's daily commerce (Stephen Starr's latest menus, an architect's plans, important legal contracts) reliably moving, at the fast pace that life and Philadelphia demands. We cut through gritty neighborhoods, ride against the occasional one-way street seasoned bike messengers know how to get around. Brito, 31, used to work as a teacher in North Philly. He says the key to delivery is keeping tabs on your packages, and on the errant car doors and oblivious drivers. There was a time when he didn't wear a helmet, and got a shattered collarbone and a brain hemorrhage in return. He wears a helmet now. Keeping up with him is literally an uphill battle. My legs burn as I flip through gears; I battle a bat-out-of-hell driver; a miniv<pan cuts me off. Brito just glides along. He'll cover anywhere between 25 and 50 miles on a typical day. Not many people get to do a job that they love to do, he says. I don't wake up and say, 'Oh I gotta go to work.' I wake up and say, 'Yeah, let's go.' 230 North 2nd Street, Suite 1C, Philadelphia, PA 19106, timecycle.com.
Pro-Team Collision
You don’t go to a body shop because you want to go to a body shop. You go because some dingus let a shopping cart go and it slammed into the side of your brand-new car, or you got rear-ended on the Blue Route. So it’s always nice to meet a crew like those at Pro-Team Collision, who handle your work with care and a sense of urgency. Need to (sigh) work with your insurance company? Pro-Team will do that work for you, to save you a bit of hassle. 378 Crooked Lane, King of Prussia, PA 19406, proteamcollision.com.
The Railroad Street Bar and Grill
There's a reason why when you cross the border into certain distant exurbs, every other car on the road is sporting a trunk magnet with the double-R logo of Railroad Street. This place has everything you want in a great beer bar -- a dozen-odd rotating taps, a huge bottle list packed with weird stuff, a staff that actually knows about all that weird stuff, some salty things on a menu that's better than it needs to be, and a back room filled with vintage pinball machines to play when you're drunk. 36 Railroad Street, Linfield, PA 19468, railroadstreet.com.
Uber
Forget Philly's stinky cabs. Just download the Uber app to your iPhone or Android, register your credit card number, and anytime you want a uniformed driver in a brand-new, spotless, tinted-windowed town car-for just dollars more than a cab ride, in most cases-simply click a button. Within seconds, you'll get an accurate ETA (under 10 minutes in Center City) and a photo of your driver. Never again will you have to argue with a cab driver over why you don't have cash. 00000, uber.com/cities/philadelphia.
The Tale of the Teeth
Bear with us here, because this one is complicated and unlikely. Last February, a local driver named Greg (understandably, his last name’s been withheld) rammed into the car of Ambler’s Cecilly Rudalavage on the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge. While they were exchanging info, Rudalavage, a sales rep for implant maker Ditron Dental USA, noticed — well, Greg’s lack of teeth, long an embarrassment and handicap for him. Through her professional contacts, she arranged for Fairless Hills surgeon Simon Oh to rebuild Greg’s jawbone and implant a full set of new teeth … for free. Now? Everybody’s smiling.
The Washington Avenue Redesign Drama
A three-act tale of Philadelphia government dysfunction: 1) City spends years researching bike-and-pedestrian-friendly redesign ideas for Washington Avenue. 2) City announces a “final design decision” (three lanes) preferred by a majority of community members, only to abandon it for a more car-centric version (a mix of three, four and five lanes). 3) City can’t even implement the revised plan because Kenyatta Johnson (see: Best Reason to Vote in the 2nd District) has unilateral veto power thanks to councilmanic prerogative, which means the portion of the road passing through his district will likely remain the same as it ever was — five lanes. Can we at least agree to fix the potholes?
Maeve Sherry's Rush-Hour Birth
Well, really the only good thing to happen in a Tesla. With their three-year-old son Rafa in the back seat, Wayne residents Keating and Yiran Sherry were driving to Paoli Hospital one morning last September when they hit rush-hour traffic just as very-pregnant Yiran’s labor contractions sped up. Luckily, they drive a Tesla, so Keating switched on the autopilot and comforted his wife while she gave birth to daughter Maeve (her job as a yoga instructor helped with the breathing) and Rafa demanded, “Is Mommy okay?” “Our hope for this was that it was going to be a natural birth,” Keating said afterward. “Never in our wildest dreams would we expect it to happen in the front seat of our car.”
Black and Mobile
David Cabello, founder of Black and Mobile, is both incredibly ballsy and a little bit crazy. In a delivery economy dominated by behemoths like Caviar and Uber Eats, his idea was to launch a small, local delivery service that focused exclusively on Black-owned restaurants. He tried a Kickstarter campaign (which failed). He got hit by a car. He launched an app (that he designed himself) in Philly in October, with the goal of keeping jobs and money inside the Black community, and it worked. In March, he expanded to Detroit — right before coronavirus hit. And now he’s looking at Atlanta, too, with his biggest challenge being managing the speed at which his business is growing. All of this in under a year. Oh, and also? Cabello is 25 years old, so he’s just getting started. blackandmobile.com.