State Sen. Nikil Saval’s favorite glimpse of Philadelphia comes at dawn, on the return leg of his run across the Ben Franklin Bridge. Lately, he’s been listening to Lizabeth Cohen’s 2019 book Saving America’s Cities along the way.
“It feels like you’re experiencing the city at a moment of total possibility,” Saval, 43, said.
Saval was a journalist before he was a politician, writing about architecture and design for the New York Times and the New Yorker and publishing Cubed: The Secret History of the Workplace, a book about the evolution of white-collar work.
When he first ran for state Senate in 2020, the New York Times dubbed him the “N+1 candidate,” a reference to his time as co-editor of the Brooklyn-based literary magazine. (He remains on its board).
Now, the Democratic Socialist represents the Pennsylvania Senate’s 1st District, stretching from the Philadelphia International Airport across South Philly up to Port Richmond. He is perhaps best known for sponsoring the state’s Whole-Home Repairs program, which funds homeowners to repair and adapt their homes and served as a model for a federal pilot program that became law last month.
He lives in the Italian Market with his wife and two young children. On his perfect Philly day, he buys fresh tortillas, strolls down Fabric Row, and plays a game at the Philadelphia Museum of Art inspired by the Surrealists.
5:30 a.m.
I’m up slightly before my children. It’s a magic hour and I try to go for a run. My favorite route at that hour is to go up Fifth Street to the Ben Franklin Bridge, and then over the bridge to Camden and back. You get the best view of the city on the way back.
7 a.m.
My kids are up. We’ll make coffee and put breakfast together at home. We’re usually supplementing that with another coffee at some point. I’m a partisan supporter of Shot Tower Coffee in Queen Village. I feel like everyone gathers there — there have been times when it’s so populated that we will defect to Gleaners Cafe in the Italian Market, which is warm and friendly.
9 a.m.
My son has been taking golf lessons through First Tee at the Walnut Lane Golf Club, which is a public course in East Falls. I’m not a golfer, I have no interest. But he’s gotten into it. First Tee is really diverse.
It turns out to be this nice morning ritual. He’s chipping balls with a bunch of kids, we sit at the snack bar with our younger son while he colors. We read the newspaper, and he eats a pretzel, because that’s naturally what you have for breakfast.
11 a.m.
Then we’ll go to Headhouse Farmers Market. We’ll get the lonsa from Aaji’s, a local brand. It’s Indian tomato relish, and it’s amazing. I give those out as Christmas gifts to my colleagues in the Senate.
We’ll get chips and pico de gallo from Tortilleria San Roman, tortillas from Casa Mexico. We’ll get other produce from Charlie’s and pasta from Claudio Specialty Foods.
12 p.m.
We travel by SEPTA to the Art Museum. They have an Art Kids program, where we drop off our younger son to do an art project.
Then we’ll spend an hour and a half with my older son in the galleries. We’ve developed this game that came out of the Surrealism exhibit. We’ll do an “exquisite corpse,” where someone draws the top third of a drawing, and then someone does the middle third, but you don’t look. Then you unfold the paper at the end and see what you come up with.
Each of us will choose a sculpture or a painting to draw as one section.
2 p.m.
Next we go to South Kensington. There’s a really good vegan Puerto Rican place there, Casa Borinqueña. We also love the falafel from the Al Amana Grocery store that’s attached to the Al Aqsa mosque. They’re the best in the city.
3 p.m.
We take a post-lunch stroll on Frankford Avenue. We visit the Philadelphia Record Exchange, and Lot 49 Books on Girard Avenue, which is awesome.
Then we take the 57 down to Fourth Street, Fabric Row. It’s one of these great commercial corridors because it maintains everything that’s historic, but over time it has integrated new businesses that are of a piece, like Approved Textiles. They sell really amazing products, especially this brand of Palestinian soap that we buy there. Yowie has awesome designers for goods as well as clothes. Brickbat Books has great records and an extraordinary selection of books.
6 p.m.
We get a babysitter and order from Tamalex, a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood. We have a go-to order of nachos that the kids like.
6:30 p.m.
We love Mish Mish. It’s a good place to go with friends and get lots of things. I’m vegan, and there’s always something exciting there.
8 p.m.
Then we go see performing arts, anything that’s unexpected. We’re members of the Film Society, so we’ll go to a “Surprise 35!″ showing. Once a month, they’ll show a movie on 35 mm film; you don’t know what it is until it starts. We’re in a good age of repertory film in the region — the Philm Club newsletter is a good resource.
We go to shows at Solar Myth, where they have free jazz. We also have an Opera Philadelphia subscription. That’s always novel and shocking. They’re frequently new productions. You pay $11. The audiences are totally transformed.
10 p.m.
If we had the energy for a post-all-of-this drink, I would go to Southwark. It feels boisterous, but private in this way where you can have a conversation. The bartenders are incredibly welcoming.
The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
