Launched in 2021, Aaji’s is first and foremost, a family affair. Co-founders Rajus and Poorva Korde created the brand based on Rajus’s grandmother’s tomato lonsa recipe — a tomato-based dish that incorporates coastal Indian spices like asafoetida and turmeric. Aaji’s currently offers an original tomato lonsa, as well as garlic, spicy and spicy garlic flavors.
MoreJust off South Street, pink neon lights up the new sign outside Worm’s Emporium, a boutique-style vendor art mall. Inside the light, airy space, handcrafted fine art and craft pieces delicately line shelves constructed by cofounder Sabrena Wishart. Vendor stalls showcase a variety of mediums including ceramics, drawing, upcycled clothing, stickers and much more. Each
MoreThe modest Belgrade Street retail shop that houses Fishtown Seafood offers high-quality, mostly sashimi-grade seafood that is preserved at peak freshness using a super-freezer. The space also has an entire wall of seafood and culinary equipment, from fish spatulas to grapeseed oil. “I want people to be successful with preparing their seafood at home,” says
MoreGrowing up in the ’90s, Lakisha Bullock was bullied for her appearance at her West Philly middle school. “I had big thick hair. My mom didn’t know what to do with it,” she says. At the time there weren’t a lot of Black hair products that weren’t relaxers and straighteners, she says. So, in high
MoreTo Greg Trainor, executive director of Philly Reclaim, deconstruction is a no-brainer. An environmentally-friendlier alternative to demolition, deconstruction diverts building materials from the landfill and enables, through reuse, preservation of the embodied energy therein. And because systematically dismantling a building is more labor-intensive than leveling it with an excavator or a wrecking ball, deconstruction promises
MoreThe nickname “B” has followed Yasmeen Brown around most of her life. She also happens to be a bug enthusiast, with a deep appreciation for bees especially. “I’m obsessed with insects that do things,” she says. “Insects that pollinate, insects that dig, ladybugs, bees … ” She always dreamt of starting a brand that uses
MorePhiladelphia-based Kitchen Garden Textiles, which sells napkins, towels, aprons and even coffee filters produced from sustainable fiber sources such as linen and reclaimed cotton, will provide table linens for Outstanding in the Field, a national “roving restaurant without walls,” according to its website, which holds dinners on long communal tables in outdoor settings such as
MoreSustainable businesses of the 2000s paved the way for the innovative ventures of today
Successful businesses always start by filling a need or relieving a “pain point” for a target market. In Grid’s launch year 2008, when sustainability and “going green” were working their way into the common lexicon and Michael Nutter was elected Philadelphia’s mayor on a sustainability platform, the pain point was really located in the consumer’s
MoreFor the past two years, Ray Daly has spent many of her days bouncing around Philadelphia’s parks. Pulling up to farmers markets and other events in her Ray’s Reusables van, outfitted as a mobile refill station, she’s made a name for herself by bringing low-waste, plastic-free lifestyle products to neighborhoods across Philly. This week she
MoreIt’s a wet, snowy, bitterly cold Friday in January in Fishtown, as Roya Williams steps into a bright room, lined with colorful artwork. Her dog, Jack, immediately starts to bark and play with a French bulldog named Chuey, the cute, welcoming “guard dog” at Stash Spot. Williams is greeted by founder Debbie Anday, who gives
MoreWhen the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, entrepreneur Dan Tsao’s multiple businesses were devastated. As the owner of the restaurants EMei in Chinatown and General Tsao’s House in Rittenhouse and the publisher of two Asian weekly newspapers since 2007, Tsao sent out an email to his newspapers’ more than 43,000 email subscribers. The feedback
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