South St Pedestrian Walkway

This guide to the South Street Pedestrian Walkway in Philadelphia opens with a fire, downed wires and a failing rooftop unit that shut Jim's South Street, the art deco cheesesteak counter at Fourth and South, in July 2022. It traces the shop's own history back through William Proetto and Abner Silver's original spinoff and the family that kept the grill running, then widens into the street's older story of colonial market stalls, Jewish delis, Italian grocers, and soul food kitchens that each changed what was cooking on this block. Stand near Fourth Street and you're standing in the smoke's old path.