WHEN PHILLY’S ONLY ALL-VEGAN grocery store opened in late 2018, it became a go-to shopping destination for vegans and omnivores alike. For years, partners Carmella Lanni and Carlo Giardina ran a food blog (the Food Duo) together and then flirted with veganism. “One New Year’s Eve, we decided to try being vegan and figured we would try it for a week,” Giardina says. “A week turned into 10 years!” The Food Duo became an all-vegan blog, and the couple started selling groceries at vegan pop-ups in their then-home of New York City and also in Philadelphia.

Lanni and Giardina liked Philly so much that they moved here and scouted a 1,100-square-foot retail space that eventually became V Marks the Shop. Today, the South Philly store sells hundreds of vegan products.

V Marks the Shop’s best sellers are cheese, jerky and chocolate. It also sells Blackbird frozen pizza, scrapple, cookies, macarons (made with aquafaba, the leftover water from cooking chickpeas), burgers, Philly Tempeh, macaroni and “cheese,” lasagna, soy curls, Italian “cold cuts,” local kombucha and matzo ball soup from Miss Rachel’s Pantry. All of it is vegan and some satisfies other food needs, such as gluten-free and soy-free. “More than half of our customers are not vegan,” Giardina says.

According to Giardina, there are only about 25 stores like this in the country. He prides himself on selling items that people can’t find elsewhere. V Marks the Shop still holds pop-up events, many of which feature makers from underrepresented groups, including women, LGBTQ people and people of color.

V MARKS THE SHOP
1515 McKean St., Philadelphia
vmarkstheshop.com