Little Baby’s Ice Cream Heads to East Market

Little Baby’s Ice Cream is the newest tenant to sign on at the under-construction East Market tower at 12th and Ludlow streets. When the 23-story building is complete, it will include the ice cream shop, a Wawa, and an Iron Hill Brewery. Today marked the “topping out” for the property, which means the final steel beam is in place.

The East Market development spans a city block, from Market to Chestnut and from 11th to 12th, with apartments, offices, a City Fitness gym, shops, including grocery store Mom’s Organic Market, and restaurants. The apartments are in two towers; the one topped out today is the second to go up. Its first two floors will be retail.

Little Baby’s Ice Cream, which made a splash with its unusual flavors and very weird commercial when it opened in East Kensington in 2012, now has three more locations, in West Philly, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. (that one is a weekly pop-up). It’s also slated to open in the new food hall at the University of Pennsylvania next year.

Pete Angevine, CEO and co-owner of Little Baby’s, had this to say in a statement:

We believe that “Ice Cream is a feeling” and to be able to serve the world’s best and most distinctive Ice Cream flavors at East Market — a place that is creating such a distinctive feeling of community — is a great fit for us. Our core values focus on investing in and engaging our neighborhoods, our local economy and our regional food system. With our fourth store set to open in 1199 Ludlow Street, we are excited to do exactly that, playing an active role in reenergizing this historic retail corridor.