Who gets the next open stall at 8221 Germantown Avenue? Over the last year and a half, the answer has usually been someone who has never run a storefront before, or a brand that already has one somewhere else.
That pattern says more about Market at the Fareway than any single opening. The indoor market has become the place where small food businesses try out a fixed counter in Chestnut Hill. Some grow into it. Others move on to a different format. The stall stays open either way, and someone new moves in.
Seven Counter Changes Between February 2025 and July 2026
Taken in order, the changes show the pattern:
- February 2025. Liberty Kitchen, the Fishtown deli and market behind the kale Caesar cutlet hoagie that spread on TikTok, opened its third location at the Fareway. PhillyVoice reported a grand opening set for Friday, Feb. 7.
- May 31, 2025. Made by ME, the handmade chocolate shop run by MaryEllen Salamone, closed, as the Chestnut Hill Local reported.
- July 1, 2025. Hoser's served its final dish, according to the same Local story. The local, seasonal vegetarian and vegan kitchen had opened at the Fareway four years earlier.
- July 31, 2025. The Borscht Belt announced its Chestnut Hill opening. Co-founders Mike Dalewitz and chef Nick Liberato had started the New York-style deli in New Jersey in 2021, the Chestnut Hill Local reported.
- Nov. 15, 2025. Ka-Nom Nom, a Thai bakery, held its grand opening.
- July 2026. KP's Fine Meats left the market and went back to running a mobile butcher business.
- Late July 2026. Hearth and Soul, Sam Markow's scratch bakery, held its grand-opening ribbon cutting in the space Barry's Buns used to occupy.
Four of the arrivals came from one of two places. Liberty Kitchen and The Borscht Belt were adding locations to brands that already had kitchens elsewhere. Ka-Nom Nom and Hearth and Soul were opening their first storefronts. None of the arrivals was a long-established Chestnut Hill business moving in from down the Avenue.
What a Stall Solves for a First-Time Owner
The two bakeries both explained why they picked the Fareway.
Ka-Nom Nom
Tarmily Wen and Pinyada Wattanadamrongcharte had been selling homemade Thai-inspired desserts through pop-ups and partnerships with restaurants such as Grandma's Philly and Ratchada Thai & Laos Cuisine. They had never had a physical location. "We were looking for the next step," Wen told the Chestnut Hill Local.
The same Local story reported that the pair saw the market as a strong first location partly because they would not have to handle building maintenance. Wen described it as "a different version of Reading Terminal Market, but with a more homey feeling." The counter sells coconut, honey mango, Thai tea and matcha strawberry cakes, along with lava buns in flavors from black sesame to pandan. Wen also told the Local about a 10-year plan to open more locations around Philadelphia, "but let's just see how this one goes first."
Hearth and Soul
Sam Markow served in the Navy and then spent close to 30 years in corporate IT before taking over the former Barry's Buns stall. In the Chestnut Hill Local's June profile, he said he had been "trying to plan my off-ramp from IT for a couple of years now." He also said why he chose the Fareway: "The market is just the perfect place to start. It's got a good community. It's got a lot of other people in here who draw in business, and it's small."
The menu he described includes almond cookies, Swedish-style cinnamon rolls, cardamom oatmeal cookies, challah and an oat sandwich bread, plus cakes and chocolate chip cookies.
The two bakeries gave different reasons. Ka-Nom Nom pointed to a building it would not have to maintain and to the market's close-knit feel. Markow pointed to a small space and to neighboring vendors who already bring in customers. A standalone storefront on the Avenue usually offers neither owner what they were looking for.
The Owners Who Left Moved On to Other Formats
The departures follow the same pattern. KP's Fine Meats began in 2020 as an online delivery business run from Kevin and Amanda Penney's apartment. It opened a Port Richmond butcher shop in February 2022 and added the Chestnut Hill stall in late 2024. In July 2026, the company announced it was "heading back to our roots of being a mobile butcher business" and said it planned to quadruple the inventory available for delivery, according to the Chestnut Hill Local.
KP's held its counter for about a year and a half, and Hoser's lasted four. The Chestnut Hill Business District sees that kind of turnover as normal. "It's all part of the retail life cycle, especially in a district like ours, where many businesses are small, independent and personally run," Ann Nevel, the district's retail advocate, told the Chestnut Hill Local in its 2025 year-end roundup. She added that Chestnut Hill had seen 50 business openings since January 2022.
The Fareway packs more of that cycle into one building than any single block of the Avenue. A stall changes hands without a new lease on a whole storefront and without a build-out of a full restaurant, so the market's mix can change by one counter at a time.
The Counter That Has Been There Since 1982
Against all that turnover, one vendor stands out for how long it has stayed. The market's own page for Neidermyers Poultry says the stand has operated "since the first day the Chestnut Hill Farmer's Market opened in 1982." It names Twyla and Travis Weaver as owners and says the poultry comes from Lancaster County.
That 1982 date sets the baseline for everything else in the building. The stall arrivals since 2025 have mostly been first storefronts or expansions, and the departures have gone back to delivery or closed after a few years. A poultry counter with more than four decades in the same market is the exception.
It also matters this week. The same Neidermyers page says Thanksgiving is "a national holiday in the Neidermyer family" and that customers "order their turkeys right after Halloween." Halloween falls on Saturday this year, so by that custom turkey orders start in the first days of November. The page gives no 2026 deadline or pricing, so the stall itself is the place to ask.
The market's posted hours list common hours for all vendors:
- Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Wednesday and Sunday, many vendors open, with times varying by stall
Besides the newer arrivals, the vendor directory lists Chestnut Hill Brewing Company's wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, Chicko Tako, MoMos of Tibet, Saigon Noodle Bar, Smell the Curry, Southern Flames BBQ, Tokyo Sushi and Poppy's Cafe. The directory still lists KP's too, so check with an individual stall before making a special trip.
The Newest Counters Face Their First Full Holiday Season on the Avenue
The next several weeks will be a test for the newest stalls. Ka-Nom Nom marks one year at the market on Nov. 15. Hearth and Soul, about three months old, heads into its first holiday season. The Chestnut Hill Business District's 2026 calendar fills the Avenue around them:
- Holidays on the Hill, Nov. 18 through Dec. 31
- Stag & Doe shopping evenings, Dec. 2, Dec. 9 and Dec. 16, each from 6 to 9 p.m.
- Arts & Eats, Dec. 4, 5 to 8 p.m.
- Holiday Parade, Saturday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to noon, organized by the Chestnut Hill Community Association
The parade morning lines up with the Fareway's Saturday hours, which start at 8 a.m. The full schedule is on the Chestnut Hill Business District events calendar.
At Philly Home Advisors, we track Chestnut Hill one storefront and one stall at a time, because that turnover shows how the Avenue actually works. If you'd like to talk through what's changing on Germantown Avenue and what it means for your plans, schedule a consultation with our team.
