Herman’s Coffee is a nondescript brick cafe in Pennsport that offers the usual trendy drinks like espresso tonics and Vietnamese-style lattes. It also sells a “custom-made, faux-leather” red basketball for $70 and a spaghetti-meatball screen-printed ashtray by local artist Liz Colyar for $65.

Further south, Mish Mish, the chic, Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in East Passyunk, is offering not only a branded tote bag for $38, but also a $28 “Mish Mish x Particle Goods” candle that smells like the restaurant’s restroom and a $160 Mish Mish x All Play dyed work shirt embroidered with apricots (the restaurant’s Arabic namesake).

From Fishtown to Rittenhouse, you can hardly walk around these days without seeing someone advertising a neighborhood hangout, classic dive bar, or fancy new cafe on a shirt, baseball cap, or even rolling papers. But as restaurants increasingly take their cues from the fashion industry, restaurant merchandise has reached new heights of whimsy and style.

” READ MORE: Middle Child vs. Middle Child, Philly vs. Vegas: Restaurants are embroiled in a trademark dispute

At the same time, restaurant merch in Philly still serves the same purpose as ever: to support restaurants, foster a sense of community, and fulfill the desire to express one’s identity.

“It all comes down to this: We need to have a nice look in the store, good food, nice employees and merchandising,” says Matt Cahn, owner of Middle Child, which recently sold 30 T-shirts in honor of its seasonal BLT sandwich. “I think people just expect a lot more from a restaurant today than they used to.”

We are what we eat – and more

In some ways, the concept of restaurant merchandise is as old as restaurant branding itself. Every deli or pizza place makes shirts for its employees, says Johnny Zito, who owns the South Fellini clothing store in East Passyunk with his podcast co-host Tony Trov. Branded shirts are “just part of the aesthetic of a mom-and-pop shop in Philly,” says Zito, who still wears a red T-shirt from Pat-George & Sons – the butcher shop Trov’s grandfather owned on the corner of 11th and Wolf streets until it closed in 1987.

Rick Cao, co-owner of streetwear shop P’s & Q’s and Vietnamese restaurant Le Viet, believes something started to change in 2010. That’s when his friends in California started begging him to ship tie-dyed Wawa Hoagiefest T-shirts across the country. The shirts (and their retro hoagie mobile), Cao said, seemed to mark a moment when the line between fashion and food began to blur.

There are two reasons why anything food-related is currently fashionable—from cocktail dresses and ketchup-shaped handbags to anything with a tomato print—dominates the national trend cycle. In the 2010s, major food brands began capitalizing on the fact that they were in the lifestyle business. In 2016, Taco Bell opened a merchandise shop on the Las Vegas Strip, followed by a McDonald’s “McDelivery Collection” in 2017 and a Dunkin’ pop-up shop in 2019—predecessors to Panera’s more recent soup-and-salad-inspired swimwear, Chick-fil-A’s pickleball racket, and the pièce de résistance of McDonald’s merch, Grimace socks.

” READ MORE: A viral tweet generated $10,000 in sales of SEPTA items in one day

Second, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Countless restaurants began selling merchandise to keep the power on, while people stuck at home made cooking a personality trait and boutique olive oil and canned fish brands became status symbols. The result: an undeniably merchandise world.

In Philly, restaurant merch became the “new band t-shirt” because local patrons already viewed their favorite cafe, restaurant or bar as an extension of their personality. The reasoning behind Kismet Bagel’s “Bagel Lover” tote bag is simple: “We made it because we want everyone to know that we love bagels,” said co-owner Alexandra Cohen. “Plus, it’s exciting to be part of something bigger. You want people to ask you where it came from so you can tell them about this cool (bagel) shop.”

But diners are looking for items that are more than “just slapping a logo on a shirt,” says Chance Anies of Tabachoy. The Filipino restaurant in Bella Vista sells T-shirts and hoodies by local artists depicting the Tabachoy pig in their own interpretation. “People come into the restaurant, see our little merch station, eat dinner and immediately say, ‘I have to have that pig hat,'” Anies said.

Destination pub Tattooed Mom, which opened on South Street in 1997, has been selling merchandise practically since the beginning, says owner Robert Perry. While the original heavy metal T-shirt design — a skull, crossbones and racing flags — is still one of the bar’s best sellers, the limited-edition T-shirts made in collaboration with local artists stand out. “(The shirts) are a part of who we are,” Perry said. “A lot of these artists are part of the community that has come to support us since the beginning.”

At Herman’s Coffee, owner Matthew Falco doesn’t understand why his customers buy merchandise, but he has fun with it. Falco’s collection is intentionally random, with dog toys and Christmas ornaments next to ashtrays and basketballs. “Why does it always have to be coffee-related things?” asks Falco. Customers tell him the pieces are “conversation starters.”

Middle Child also likes to spark conversation. The sandwich shop sells rolling papers featuring a stoned Bart Simpson and Garfield and once offered placemats featuring Monopoly boards in collaboration with local artists like James Paris and True Hand Design.

Cahn, however, wants to move away from kitsch. The former advertising executive says he is focused on building a “timeless” brand that will endure in the ever-changing industry, much like the hats he wears at traditional Jewish delis like Katz’s. “We’ve been at this for seven years now — I don’t want to be a flash in the pan,” he said.

Building an “all-consuming” business

Gilda co-owner Brian Mattera “didn’t think anyone would buy the T-shirts that staff wear at the Portuguese cafe,” but customers started asking for them. Now a corner of the store is dedicated to crewneck shirts with smiling nata pastries, along with hats and tote bags printed with “Take it easy,” their slogan.

“It’s a really great marketing tool and so on,” he said. But customers, he says, are what motivates the cafe to offer more merchandise. “We need new stuff because people are asking for it.”

Whatever a restaurant’s reasons for producing merchandise, it can provide a revenue stream that helps offset the industry’s razor-thin margins. “A perfect business is all-encompassing, right?” says Alex Tewfik, the former food editor of Philly Mag. and the owner of Mish Mish. “Bringing Mish Mish into your home, into your hands and onto your body – it’s just a good idea from a business perspective.”

Mish Mish seems to take this perhaps more literally than most: His signature candle is a Particle Goods candle that evokes the restaurant’s intended atmosphere with a custom scent profile of palo santo, apricot wood, saffron and sandalwood. But Tewfik started selling them out of necessity: He was going through three candles a week in the bathroom, so it made sense to strike a deal with the manufacturer to buy in bulk and sell the excess. Still, the benefits for the brand are tangible: Not just good marketing, but also the opportunity to create a brand world that extends beyond the confines of the restaurant.

Many Philadelphia restaurant owners are also pleasantly surprised by how far their merchandise reaches. Jason Kelce once wore a Kismet hat at a celebrity golf tournament, Cohen said. Perry has seen Tattooed Mom T-shirts on strangers at the airport in Seattle. A Tabachoy hat even showed up Good morning Americain addition to farther afield places like Greece and the Philippines, where the word means “chubby” in Tagalog. “I think people want to not only take their favorite places home with them, but also take them with them when they travel,” said Anies of Tabachoy.

That sense of solidarity makes Philadelphia restaurants’ merchandise stand out on the national scene. Anies, whose collection ranges from sandwich shops like Middle Child and Cleo Bagels to upscale restaurants like Royal Izakaya, almost exclusively carries T-shirts and hats from local restaurants. What they all have in common, he says, is that their branding is “timeless.”

Nearly every restaurant owner the Inquirer interviewed also said Philly’s merchandising is different because it’s driven by collaborations with local artists, but also because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. For Gildas Mattera, it’s the cartoon designs of Kismet and the now-closed Cuzzy’s Ice Cream that bring him the most joy. “Any (merchandise) with a character on it is dope — I fell in love with that little Kismet bagel man and thought he was the cutest thing ever,” said Mattera, who eventually turned to Kismet’s designer George Murphy to create Gildas’ own mascot, the happy Nata.

“Something different and a little wild,” similar to the Philly Phanatic, Mattera said. “But there’s a lot of thought and a lot of pride in it.”