More photos from the Denver Zombie Crawl here

Northeast Philadelphia, or “The Great Northeast,” as some like to call it, is a wondrous place for a visit. It’s got Russian supermarkets with aisles devoted to pickles, trails that go for miles back in Pennypack Park, and wacky thrift shops almost untouched by hipsters. It’s got Franklin Mills Mall and suburban sprawl.

We’ve been there in the trenches… We understand that sometimes you just need to get the f*ck out of Dodge. You keep seeing the same people at the same places and it’s worn thin. Or maybe you just need to experience another place as an observer to appreciate how great your life is (or isn’t, as it could turn out to be). Getting away to a foreign land can sometimes be prohibitively expensive, or take too long to get you back in the office on Monday morning. When you’ve got the time, you ain’t got the money, and vice versa.

Cities in Pixie Dust is a big fan of exploration of “foreign” lands. Sometimes this means other countries, or other cities nearby. But just as often – it means exploring unusual parts of your own town. You don’t always have ten days and $1500 to go on vacation when you need it. We aim to someday share with you which Port Richmond bar has the best pierogie through experienced taste tests and photo exposes, which Korean BBQ in Olney has the best karaoke, where we found $3 drinks in Manhattan, and so on.

Today’s post is the first in a short series about Northeast Philadelphia.

We bring you…

The Twistee Treat custard stand. Unfortunately it was not open for us to sample their offerings… But CPD will be heading back soon (sometime after 12 noon daily by the way!) for a taste test. Welcome to summer. We know it’s not technically official until June 20th or so, but we all know Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial first weekend of summer.

Located at Frankford and Longshore Aves. (you can see it on Google Maps satellite!)

You may wonder why we visited a custard stand which was closed. We know we are a bit quirky, but that’s just plain weird.
It was for the “roadside architecture” aesthetic appreciation. Robert Venturi would call this building a “Duck.” Sure. He’s totally wrong, because we can all see it’s not a duck, it’s a giant strawberry ice cream cone. But you can read more about “Duck architecture” or “mimetic architecture” here. Consider it your summer reading requirement. For more examples of interesting roadside architecture, check out Agility Nut’s website or flickr blog. And just for your reference, this ice cream stand isn’t too far from the Grey Lodge Pub.