I had Louise and Steph over at my apartment for an evening in of cooking, chatting, and eating. It was their first time in the suburbs of Philly, as they’re Penn students and so are in the city of Philly all the time, and they were struck by Haverford’s “small town life.” I had never thought about my town like that before as it had always been my normal, but when they commented on it, I realised what a contrast it was from the city. In the evenings, it was quiet. When the occasional car passed by, you could hear the friction of tires on asphalt. String lights shaped as snowflakes decorated the street lamps (they’re there all year round, not just the winter). I began to see my town as my own lil Stars Hollow. But then I visited the town of Ambler, and boy is that town a Stars Hollow!
On the first day of spring break (a few weeks ago), Victoria and I decided to head out to Ambler to check out Pie & Plate Cafe. We had to catch a train into Center City, wait an hour for our transfer (it was the weekend, so trains were less frequent), and then go from there to Ambler, totaling two hours. It was out of the way, but spring break was as good a time as any to make that trip.
Every street corner had signs not only for the name of the streets, but also with names of all the stores down those streets. When the amount of shops down a street can be written on individual street signs and stuck on a single pole, that’s when you know you’re in a small town!
As Victoria and I were walking toward Pie & Plate Cafe, we saw a sign pointing to the local tattoo parlour. I bet it’s a hotspot for the local edgy teens. But wholesome people that we are, Victoria and I continued on our merry way, passing by signs on streets and signs in display windows with antique typography, until we finally spotted the charming Tiffany blue exterior of Pie & Plate Cafe.
We had originally planned to have brunch at Pie & Plate Cafe, but it got pushed back to a lunch date, and now we had finally arrived at 2:00PM. Miraculously, the cafe was pretty much empty, so we got our pick of the tables, and we nabbed a low table by the storefront windows with cushy chairs (the cafe started filling up around 3:30PM). The table was metal, and although I sometimes view those kinds of tables as cheap and flimsy, there was something very homely and diner-esque about it.
After much pondering, I ordered a mac and cheese pot pie with a side of chips, chocolate peanut butter pretzel pie, and honey lemon rooibos tea, and Victoria ordered a mushroom risotto pot pie with a side of fruit, lemon cream gingersnap pie, and plum ginger green tea. It was hilarious comparing our palates. I loved my mac and cheese, but of the dessert pies, the lemon cream gingersnap was definitely my favourite!
Side note: I browsed Pie & Plate’s website whilst writing this post and realised that each item on their menu is named after a nearby street, i.e. my mac and cheese pot pie is called “Forest Avenue,” which is on the block of the cafe, and my chocolate peanut butter pretzel pie is called “Tennis Avenue,” which is two blocks down from the cafe. When the food on your menu honours landmarks in your town–well, that’s small town life for ya!
Our prime seating offered us a view of the town as we munched on our pies. A dude wearing a Pie & Plate shirt (or maybe apron, I can’t remember anymore) walked out onto the street and leaned toward a car parked on the side of the road to chat with the driver, and the two of them stayed there chatting for at least ten minutes. Adjacent to them, three young hooligans ran down the street, alternating between throwing snowballs at each other and ducking for cover. I’m tellin’ ya. Wholesome. Small. Town. Life.
It made me think about what it would have been like if I hadn’t moved from the suburbs of Los Angeles to the suburbs of Beijing. What if I stayed in the suburbs of Los Angeles and grown up with my neighbours and their families? Would I have continued biking around the cul-de-sac with my brothers and our neighbours at least through middle school? Would our neighbour’s dad have made more and more extravagant obstacle courses for us with spare bricks and planks? Would I have warrior scars to show for them? Would we still pop by our neighbour’s house to snack on salted edamame beans? Would it become an essential part of my diet?
As I’m nearing the end of my senior year of college, I recall a conversation I had with my friend Ami, in which we were talking about our first year of college and everything that happened in between. She asked whether the end of undergrad was starting to make me feel nostalgic, and I replied saying, “Not reaaally. I mean, I’m nostalgic for kindergarten, ya know?” I’m sure it’ll hit me soon, but for now, I’m just enjoying the people I have in my life right now in the place I am right now.
43 N Main St
Ambler, PA 19002
(267) 468-7171