Thrillist Names Wayne The Epitome of Cool in Philly’s ‘Burbs
The editors of Thrillist managed to get their White Dogs confused when they ran their ranking of Wayne with a photo of the West Philly original. Here’s a picture of the White Dog Cafe in Wayne.
The Philadelphia region happens to be unusually well endowed with cool suburbs that boast walkable Main Streets, interesting shops and great places to eat—great Millennial bait, in short. We could rattle off a litany of them—and will now: Ardmore. Bryn Mawr. Collingswood. Conshohocken. Doylestown. Glenside. Jenkintown. Haddonfield (though it skews older). Media. Merchantville. Others, such as Burlington, Lansdowne and Upper Darby, are loaded with potential, some of it even being realized.
But what’s the coolest of them all? According to the folks at Thrillist, the bible for Millennials seeking advice on what’s hot, what’s fun and how to drop what money they have on stuff, that distinction belongs to Wayne.
In its recent tally of “The Coolest Suburb in America’s 35 Biggest Metro Areas,” Thrillist picked Wayne for the Philadelphia honor largely on the strength of the recommendations of some fellow Thrillist national writer-at-large Kevin Alexander knows who he called Ramsey. He says Ramsey is “obsessed with food.” Ramsey lives in the Philly ‘burbs, so his assessment of the glories of Wayne carried extra weight with Alexander. Among Wayne’s strengths:
“We have a super-old vintage movie theater.” That would be the Anthony Wayne Theater, one of four three 1920s mini-movie palaces still showing films on the Main Line.
“Train ride into Center City is 28 minutes on express. One of handful of express stops in Philadelphia suburbs with direct access to Philadelphia.” Last we looked, every express stop on SEPTA Regional Rail, including the others on the Paoli/Thorndale line, has this.
“Valley Forge Park. George Washington passed through here, a lot of people died. Google it.” Better still, visit it. It’s one of the finest memorials to the Revolutionary War anywhere.
Then there are the eateries and drinkeries:
“Margaret Kuo’s: They have a lot of awards.”
“John’s Deli. Place is money.” (And has a cool history: it opened in 1978 in one of the oldest storefronts in Radnor Township. By the way, if you’re not in tune with current slang, saying something is “money” means it’s the best.)
“Teresa’s Next Door bar: Voted best whiskey bar in all of Philadelphia by Philly Mag. Look it up.” We did. It won Best of Philly in 2014.
Ramsey apparently isn’t a shopper, for he had nothing to say about Wayne’s shopping scene, but it’s pretty cool too, from what we’ve heard. “He also said stuff about schools being No. 2 in the country* and taxes being low, but the point is, if Ramsey can’t sell you on moving to Wayne when you have to get out of Philadelphia proper, you should probably just move out of Pennsylvania,” wrote Alexander.
We beg to differ: there’s Ardmore, and Jenkintown, and Media, and… to choose from as well. But we must admit that for a man of few words, Ramsey makes a very strong case for Wayne.
*Actually, the Radnor Township School District was ranked No. 3 in the state by Niche.com this year, behind next-door Tredyffrin-Easttown, the No. 1 school district in the country, and North Allegheny outside Pittsburgh. It ranked 20th nationally.
