"On the busy streets of the Italian Market, there’s a cheery sandwich board that, for a certain type of person, works like a siren song. With coloring and typeface evocative of the classic cover of The Joy of Cooking, the sign invites passersby to 'Discover the … joy of cookbooks.' Accept the invitation and you’ll enter Molly’s Books & Records, a multifaceted shop which also happens to be the best cookbook bookstore in Philadelphia. A third-generation bookseller, owner Molly Russakoff operates her shop as a family business. Her husband Joe Ankenbrand is in charge of the records, and her son Johnny, in addition to collecting movies, is knowledgeable about the entire stock. (Shop cat, Mrs. Stevenson, is the muscle.) Russakoff, an accomplished poet, is responsible for the shop’s literature section, and she counts cookbooks in that category. She also painted that sandwich board, and when I told her how it drew me in, she threw her fists up in triumph and exclaimed, 'It worked!'" - Abigail Weil
