Cedar Park - Philadelphia, PA Area Guide

Cedar Park developed as a “streetcar suburb” in Philadelphia, starting in the mid-1800s. Most of the residential architecture in the neighborhood was built between 1850 and 1910, when Cedar Park was originally developing from farmland into one of West Philadelphia’s streetcar suburbs.

The Queen Anne-style architecture, characteristic of Cedar Park, lends a distinctive look to the neighborhood. The area has been enjoying the gentrification wave that has been affecting the University City neighborhood in general, particularly in recent years.

Cedar Park hosts a variety of cultural resources including galleries like Seeds Gallery, an art gallery that also helps to educate artists about the business side of the art world. The Curio Theatre Company, a professional theatre ensemble, stages productions ranging from Shakespeare to modern adaptations of classic tales.

Concentrated mostly around the Baltimore Avenue corridor, Cedar Park offers some of the most enticing and eclectic dining venues in University City. Try Dahlak, one of the area’s several Ethiopian restaurants, Fu Wah for popular Vietnamese style hoagies or Vietnam Café for authentic Vietnamese food and tropical drinks. The Gold Standard Café serves great breakfast dishes and sandwiches, Mood Café is the spot for killer chaat and lassis and Satellite Café has some of the best vegan fare.

Little Baby’s Ice Cream chose Cedar Park as its only other location in Philly, apart from the flagship shop on Frankford Avenue. Little Baby’s mixes up Philadelphia-style ice cream and vegan options, handmade in small batches with premium ingredients. Little Baby’s extensive menu of exciting flavors ensures that there’s something for everyone’s tastes, including more traditional flavors like Bourbon Bourbon Vanilla.

Vientiane Café, the only Laotian/Thai restaurant in University City, serves its unique fare in a small and cozy space on Baltimore. Locals love the Laotian influence that sets it apart from standard Thai restaurants. Authentic Laotian dishes like spicy green papaya salad and pad-kee-mao are favorites, along with a helping of Lao sticky rice of course. BYOB is an added bonus, but remember that Vientiane only accepts cash.

Dock Street Brewing Co., University City’s only microbrewery, serves up a unique selection of award-winning beer and tantalizing food, including some of the best artisan pizza in the city. For a taste of Europe, try the Flammenkuche with carmelized onions and apple-smoked bacon and the Fig Jam pizza is truly inspired. Locals also love the Trio of Fries, featuring white potato, sweet potato and leek fries. Special events for new beer releases, seasonal beers and a rotating beer menu keep things fresh and exciting.

Open late, a good part of the nightlife in Cedar Park revolves around the Dock Street scene. Dock Street offers late night happy hour specials and weekly movie nights to further cater to the late night crowd. Several of the bars and restaurants in the neighborhood feature special live music events as well.

Spruce Hill offers good public transportation options and bike lanes line the streets, where a high concentration of bicyclists has taken to the roads. Also pedestrian friendly, it’s a delight to walk around Cedar Park’s sidewalks.

The Baltimore Avenue commercial corridor in Cedar Park has developed around the Baltimore Avenue trolley line, one of the iconic green Subway-Surface Trolley Lines that run through West Philadelphia. The trolley lines provide quick, easy and affordable access to Center City Philadelphia.

Free on-street parking can be found throughout the neighborhood and the area provides easy access to one of Philadelphia’s main highways, I-76 (the Schuylkill Expressway). Car-sharing services like Zip Car and Enterprise Car Share also have cars located at on-street parking spots throughout the neighborhood. Taxi services dispatch drivers to the area quickly when called, and UberX offers a popular alternative to taxis.

Traveling to and from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), about 7 miles away, usually only takes 15-20 minutes by car. The trolley lines in Cedar Park also connect to the 30th Street Train Station where SEPTA shuttle trains travel back and forth from the airport every half hour.

The Cedar Park neighborhood gets its name from Cedar Park, a park that occupies a small green space by the intersection of Baltimore Avenue and 50th Street. Despite its petite footprint, Cedar Park offers a vibrant environment and hosts an annual community picnic, live music including a summer jazz series and other community events. The park also has a small playground with unique equipment like a seesaw arch and perpetual motion seats that make it a popular park for local children.

The Chester Avenue Dog Park, an official members-only dog park, offers the only fenced-in green space in University City for off-leash fun. Cedar Park also hosts several of University City’s pop-up Parklets, which provide public seating and green spaces on converted parking spaces. Popular Cedar Park locations include a Parklet on 47th Street, hosted by Fu-Wah Market, and a spot on Catherine Street, hosted by Little Baby’s Ice Cream and Hibiscus Café.

The cost of living in the University City neighborhood, including Cedar Park, averages roughly 28 percent lower than in Center City Philadelphia. The median price of a one-bedroom apartment in University City costs approximately $995 a month. Cedar Park has been one of the most affordable neighborhoods in University City, but gentrification has resulted in a recent jump in median rents from $900 to $1,100 a month.

Gas prices run around 10 percent higher than the national average, and a ride on public transportation from Cedar Park in to Center City Philadelphia costs a flat fee of $2.25 in cash or $1.80 with a SEPTA token. Most bars charge around $4 for a standard pint of beer, with happy hour specials as low as $2 per pint.

Baltimore Avenue serves as the main commercial corridor in the Cedar Park neighborhood. Cedar Park’s stretch of Baltimore Avenue, decidedly representative of the neighborhoods independent spirit and unique flair, offers a wide variety of shops including discount stores, a wine and liquor store, unique boutiques and specialty stores.

The Marvelous, the only independent record store in University City, is a cool old-school vinyl store that also sells music instruments and gives solid support to the local music scene. VIX Emporium offers handmade products from over 150 artisans, including local talent. Available items include jewelry, bath products, pottery, home wares and fashion accessories. The shop, located in an old millinery, still has some of the original cabinetry, which perfectly compliments the crafty and funky vibe of the inventory.

The Mariposa Food Co-op, the only food co-op in University City, epitomizes the nature of the Cedar Park neighborhood. The cooperative provides an excellent selection of local, sustainable and organic food products and provides nutritional education for the neighborhood residents.

Firehouse Bicycles sells used bicycles and offers a full suite of bicycle repair services. For the green thumb, there’s Greensgrow West, located in a vacant lot on the Baltimore Avenue corridor. Greensgrow offers an outdoor garden center with gardening supplies and a wide selection of plants, flowers and trees.

The semi-annual Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll event spans the area of Baltimore Avenue in Spruce Hill and Cedar Park. During the stroll, merchants offer select foods, drinks, goods and services for only $1. A huge area attraction, the Baltimore Avenue Dollar stroll is the perfect way to sample the wide variety of restaurants, bars, shops and community resources that define this distinctive strip of Baltimore Avenue in West Philly.