Best of Philly

2021 Kept Secret That We're About to Ruin Forever

Richmond Bottle Shop Inside the IGA

In the past two years or so, we saw an influx of independently owned wine shops open all around Philly — many of them run by restaurant owners and bar managers who take their wine programs very seriously, sourcing and stocking only the natural, or the local, or the hard-to-find stuff. We also saw Acme and Whole Foods get into the wine game here in Pennsylvania — ­though their selections are, um, heavy on the Sutter Home. And then there’s the IGA, a pretty generic grocery store in a pretty blah strip mall on Aramingo Avenue, not particularly boutique-y or high-end. Just a plain ol’ grocery store. Unlike Acme and Whole Foods, though, its wine selection is vast and fairly priced and downright thoughtful. There are traditional bottles — the chianti classicos, the Châteauneuf-du-Papes — but there are orange wines from Georgia, too, and pecorinos from Abruzzo, and natural and biodynamic wines everywhere you look. You’ll leave and wonder a lot about this place: Who’s running this shop? How do they keep the prices so low? And how the hell is it still such a secret?

2497 Aramingo Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19125; therichmondshops.com/bottle-shop.html