Annotated Guide to Reading Terminal Market

Here's a selective and annotated compendium of the Reading Terminal Market vendors who sell food to cook and consume at home. More will be added to this list, last updated Feb. 28, 2020.

Cheese, Dairy and Deli

Bassetts Ice Cream. High-butterfat, low-overrun ice creams, plus sorbets, dry ice. Since 1862. Original tenant when RTM opened in 2892. Limited selection of pre-packed ice creams, but they'll stuff any of their flavors into pints or quarts for you.

Downtown Cheese. Widest selection in the market, including plenty of French gem. Italian and Spanish salamis, cold cuts, some locally made by Claudio's.


Hatville Deli. Commodity cheeses and cheese spreads, Pennsylania Dutch cold cuts. Also Amish style tub butter.


Lancaster County Dairy. Need milk? Buttermilk? Real cream (pasteurized, but not ultra pasteurized)? This is the place.


Miller's Twist. Ice cream from Lancaster County's Kreider's Dairy.


Riehl's Cheese & Deli. Operated by Samuel and Jake Riehl besides their butcher shop, L. Halteman Family Country Foods. Cheeses, cold cuts, butter, dips and spreads.


Smuckers Quality Meats. Moses Smucker occupies a stall long-used by meat sellers (including Charles Giunta's first solo venture in the mid-1980s). No selection of fresh meats but a must stop for anyone looking for beef jerky. Traditional Pennsylvania Dutch products like ring bologna, scrapple Lebanon bologna as well.


Meats and Poultry

Godshall's Poultry. The place to buy your bird. Competitively priced, very good quality. You can find more than chicken and turkey here: they regularly stock capons, ducks (Pekin and Muscovy), quail, guinea hen and (for the holidays) geese. If you like turkey-based deli products, they offer a nice selection.

Giunta's Prime Shop. Rob Passio took over this shop from Charles Giunta a few years back and kept the shop's name. Giunta opened with the goal of running a shop that sells only prime and naturally-raised meats. He gave that up, but Passio has brought prime cuts back. It takes a good meat buyer to pick out the latter, and Passio does.

L. Halteman Family.
 Jake and Samuel Riehl, who took over from Lester Halteman, sells a full line of fresh beef, pork and poultry. They offer many prime beef cuts, along with American waygu. With a forthcoming expansion, expect to see more lamb cuts. 

Martin's Quality Meats & Sausages. Martin Giunta, Charles' brother, spends most of his time at his New Jersey plant where he makes sausages for both the RTM store and supermarkets. And Martin's, like the other butchers, can always place a special order for a unique need.


Produce

Iovine Brothers Produce. Largest selection of fruits and vegetables at the market. In recent years brothers Jimmy and Vinnie have added plenty of freshly made juices and pre-cut produce.

OK Lee. Smaller than Iovine's but the competition keeps both greengrocers honest. OK Lee is the place for Asian vegetables and condiments if you don't want to talk to Chinatown.

Fish and Seafood

Golden Fish Market. More whiting than you'll know what to do with along with a full range of over seafood.

John Yi. This fishmonger's sign ("Eat Fish Live Longer"} is a center court landmark. Always a long line before Night of the Seven Fishes.

Umi Seafood & Sushi. Ideal for takeaway. Operated by Suzi Kim of John Yi and Yom Kim of the Bluefin restaurant group.