Italian Market gets a cookbook store and community spaces

Catie Gainor came up with the idea of opening Binding Agents, a cookbook store in the Italian Market, during a fever dream. “Actually, I had a fever – I wasn’t feeling well,” the 34-year-old told Billy Penn.

Gainor was sick in bed, devastated about missing a work meeting she’d spent weeks preparing for. As she scrolled through social media, she saw a post from Book Larder—a Seattle-based cookbook store and a concept she thought would fit well with Philadelphia’s culinary scene.

“If I want it to be here, I have to do it,” Gainor realized. The support of her husband, friends and family for the idea encouraged her even more, but the deal was sealed when she came up with the name Binding Agents.

“It was like I had to do it now because I can’t get it done for free,” she said. “I don’t mean to brag, but I really love the name.”

Pun aside, the name reflects Gainor’s love of books – “there’s nothing like a real book… the binding and the page count are part of it too, and the smell” – as well as the unifying power they share with food when it comes to bringing people together.

The store will open at 908 Catherine Street, the former waiting room of the once adjacent Sabrina’s Café, a 32-square-meter space that Gainor is currently transforming into “a place to stop in and feel comfortable, I hope.”

“There’s nothing like a real book… the binding and the page count are part of it, and the smell.” For her new cookbook store, Binding Agents, Catie Gainor plans to offer a range of cookbooks in different themes, styles and formats, along with other titles “that are about food and celebrate it – whether fictional or not.” (Ali Mohsen/Billy Penn)

The shelves, which will soon be installed, will feature cookbooks on a variety of topics, styles and formats, along with other titles “that are about and celebrate food – whether fiction or nonfiction,” Gainor said. They will also include children’s books, “which can really impact the relationship that children have with food in their lives.”

While the store will always stock a collection of classic, regularly referenced cookbooks, the focus will be more on a diverse range of newer titles “that present a perspective that I think is current and relevant,” Gainor explained. “So people can expect to see books from the past few years and ones that have just come out, as well as a small selection of (titles) that have really made a splash and changed the way we cook in the past.”

In addition to the inventory, Binding Agents will host Silent Book Club-style evenings, with extended hours so visitors can shop, enjoy snacks and bring their own cookbooks to comment on together or read “in community, in a kind of silent contemplation, but not alone,” Gainor said. Author events are also in the pipeline, as well as partnerships with larger venues for cooking classes.

Ahead of its planned October opening, Binding Agents will participate in the Philly Bookstore Crawl on Aug. 24, with an in-store pop-up showcasing a selection of 2024 titles, as well as a “Build a Monster”-style workshop for writers ages 8 to 14, co-presented by Cosmic Writers and Molly’s Bookshop from noon to 3 p.m. “It has nothing to do with food,” Gainor said of the workshop, “but it’s going to be really fun.”

The cookbook store Binding Agents will open this October at 908 Catherine Street, the former waiting room of the once adjacent Sabrina’s Café – a 350-square-foot space that owner Catie Gainor is currently transforming into “a place to stop and feel good, I hope.” (Ali Mohsen/Billy Penn)

Visitors to the pop-up can also pick up Binding Agents bingo cards, with lines completed by finishing a book or following a recipe. The bingo cards must be submitted in an online form for a chance to win store discounts or giveaways from September 1 through the end of the year.

Gainor will also participate in the 2024 series of Cookbooks and Convos this fall, which highlights female chefs and authors from Philly’s culinary scene.

In the meantime, efforts are focused on completing the store. Gainor is working to “reimagine the space while maintaining the character that makes Italian Market so special.” Aside from the neighborhood she calls home, a location in Italian Market was crucial, she said, because “there’s just so much history and such a supportive community of business owners, customers, community members and residents.” She recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance the final leg of the redesign.

“My to-do list worries me,” laughed Gainor. “But we’re making great progress.”

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