For the last few years, Arcadia Boutique has held down the retail space at 265 S. 20th St., right on the corner of 20th & Manning, right in the middle of one of our favorite commercial corridors in town. This store, along with their other location in Northern Liberties, offered shoppers clothing, accessories, and gifts with a focus on featuring sustainable designers and “eco-fashion.” But in the middle of last month, Arcadia’s Rittenhouse location closed its doors for good.

The closed store

According to a sign in the window, the space is currently available for sale or lease, though it’s not presently listed anywhere we were able to find online. And as we carelessly neglected to take down the phone number on the sign, we couldn’t even tell you asking prices at this time. Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop us…

We’ve covered vacant commercial spaces on South Street ad nauseum, and today we have a spot of good news regarding a space we’ve never even brought to your attention. The northeast corner of 2nd and South Sts., just a block south of the Shambles, has been empty for years. Honestly, we don’t even remember the last business that called this address home.

The space

Headhouse is up the street

You would think that this location would be desirable because of constant South Street foot traffic, as well as proximity to the Shambles, home of Headhouse Farmers’ Market. Perhaps nothing has opened here for years because of the curious layout of this intersection that’s friendlier to vehicles than to pedestrians. Or maybe the rent number was too high, we just don’t know for sure. What…

According to Michael Klein, 2046 Sansom St. will soon be the home of a new smoothie/froyo shop. The space was most recently a beauty shop, but in a raunchier former life served as a “modeling studio.”

Future froyo?

We imagine that the neighbors will be happy about this new use, but we’re not entirely confident that this concept will have an easy time at this location. With Capogiro at the corner of 20th and Sansom Sts., Yogorino at 18th and Locust Sts., and Sweet Ending at 18th and Chestnut Sts., the competition will be significant. After all, how much gelato and froyo can people eat?

The 2000 block of Sansom St. is one of the most diverse and interesting commercial blocks in town. It’s home to numerous…

Papered windows

A couple of weeks ago, the Potbelly Sandwich Shop at 12th and Walnut Sts. closed, leaving a commercial vacancy on a prominent corner in the Gayborhood/Midtown Village/Whatever You Want to Call It. According to Mealticket, a Chipotle might be the replacement tenant, but that rumor is unconfirmed at this time. With another Chipotle a mere three blocks away in the former Susana Foo space, this wouldn’t necessarily seem like the perfect location, but hey, what do we know about location management for huge national chains?

Should be a good spot for someone. Note the reflection of the Starbucks across the street.

If it’s not Chipotle, is there something different that locals would prefer over there? From what we can remember, sandwiches have been the primary product offering out of that…

Old City Frozen Yogurt joined the plethora of frozen yogurt shops late last week, just in time for the heat wave and holiday weekend. Located at 229 Market Street (former home of Bon Bon Gelato), OCFY is decked out in hot pink and lime green tones with modern décor and outdoor seating, perfect for drunk people watching. They offer 10 self-serve probiotic-filled flavors and a buffet of toppings that will run you just 49 cents per ounce (cash only).

OCFY is the first of its kind in this side of town, and we have to say that we love having a “healthy” alternative to Franklin Fountain. Philly already has plenty of these trendy frozen yogurt shops: two Sweet Endings, Tutti Frutti, Yogorino, Yogurt City, Phileo Yogurt, Berry Sweet, and