A Guide to Eating Local at Philadelphia Union Games

Eliminate that obligatory stop at Wawa or Primo’s for your next Union pregame meal. Instead, support a handful of local businesses that offer some pretty great food. My son and I embarked on a tour of places less than a mile from the stadium that are typically open on Saturday nights, and here’s what we found.

The Dependable Must-Try’s

Top on the list has got to be OBs Jamaican Restaurant, right on 2nd street if you’re coming from the east. I’ve had just about every jerk option they have. Nothing beats the chicken, but they have plenty of options for the adventurous, from Oxtail to fish varieties to veggie. The food is terrific and they are open until normal game times. Make sure to get a side of the Coco Bread. 

Aunt B’s Country Kitchen is a great choice close to the stadium. They normally close at 5:30 so you’ll need to be planning a decent tailgate, but again the food is unique and terrific. The cornbread is excellent (they gave us a sample while we waited) and they have everything from burgers to seafood. Their flagship sandwich is the Game Changer, which is essentially a seafood cheesesteak, and an amazing mess.    

Aunt B is a little tough to find from the street. Look for an awning that simply says “Market Place” from 4th street. There is parking right next to the building to make it easy to grab your food and go, just two blocks or so to the stadium.

Humdiggidy’s is in the same market as Aunt B’s and the food is a worthy rival. They are famous for their salmon cheesesteak, which was delicious, but you’ll need a knife and fork. It’s so messy as to be unholdable. My son has had the cheesesteak (he reports solid) and the chicken fingers, which were very good. The chicken was visibly juicy and the frying was very light. The fries are also really good.

Humdiggidy’s is also open until only 5:30, but the owner said he often stays open later, depending on traffic.

There’s also a candy shop and a cake stand in the same market, in case you need dessert.

Two J’s Sandwich Shop is an OG cheesesteak joint. The hours are posted until 6pm but they seem to close randomly earlier than that, so this shop is not fully dependable. However, if you can grab a cheesesteak here before the game you won’t be disappointed. The cheese was excellently blended through the meat, which could have used more seasoning, but was plentiful.

Further Out Chicken Spots

If you want to check out one of the local fried chicken spots, we tried a few. The two closest are Chester Fried Chicken and New York Fried Chicken and Grill. A little further away is Krispy Krunchy. My son says that Krispy Krunchy has the best fried chicken, but they are all solid, if never spectacular. The menus have a lot of variety, which might be a lure.

The surprise item for me was at New York Fried Chicken and Grill. I ordered the Gyro sandwich and it was surprisingly great. I went back a second time just to make sure it was that good, and it was!

The Landing Spot

None of these places near the stadium have a great ambiance for sitting and eating. You’ll want to get the food to go and bring it to the game. If you don’t want to bring a table and chairs and tailgate, a great landing spot is The Larimer Beer Company. They have outside seating and offer a great variety of their local brews. They also occasionally have food trucks outside, but you can’t count on knowing what will be there.

There’s also the newly announced Union Yards, the Union’s outdoor beer garden, which will open this weekend.

Here’s the map with all of the spots we checked out. Please let us know if we missed any spots in the comments, and we’ll definitely add to our list.