Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Lucio J. Mancuso & Son

Phil Mancuso holds court with Avenue old-timers and still makes fresh cheese - mozzarella, basket cheese for Easter, and the city's sweetest ricotta - just as his Calabrian dad and grandfather taught him.

Basket cheese from Mancuso's in South Philly. ( Jessica Griffin / Staff photographer )
Basket cheese from Mancuso's in South Philly. ( Jessica Griffin / Staff photographer )Read more
    by By Craig LaBan, Restaurant Critic
    Published 

Step into a time capsule of East Passyunk Past at this South Philly cheese and import shop, 75 years old, and still selling dried bacalao out of wood crates, sardine tins, and a countertop display of olives and salumi like it's 1940.

More important, elder statesman Phil Mancuso holds court with Avenue old-timers and still makes fresh cheese - mozzarella, basket cheese for Easter, and the city's sweetest ricotta - just as his Calabrian dad and grandfather taught him.

Come summer, the housemade chocolate and lemon water ices (filled with pithy bits) are worth the visit alone.