Hotel front desks on Broad, Chestnut and the Square
The simplest romantic address in the city, because somebody is always at the desk. The Rittenhouse on the Square, the Bellevue at 200 South Broad, Hotel Monaco on Chestnut opposite Independence Hall, the Logan on Logan Square, the Sofitel on 17th, Loews in the PSFS tower on Market, and the Four Seasons in the Comcast Technology Center, whose reception is sixty floors above the street. Send the reservation surname as booked and aim for the hour before check-in.
Society Hill, Queen Village and the trinity houses
Colonial-era blocks off Pine and Spruce and the courtyards below, where the trinity house — three rooms stacked, one to a floor — is reached by a winder stair that a tall vase genuinely cannot clear. Low and compact travels; leggy and top-heavy arrives damaged or not at all. Cobbled stretches around Old City add the other complication, which is that a driver may be on foot for the last block. Worth saying if the entrance is off a courtyard rather than the street.
Dinner on East Passyunk, in Old City and around Rittenhouse
Philadelphia's romantic restaurants are small and frequently byob, which changes what can be sent. Rooms along East Passyunk past the Singing Fountain, the Old City corners near Zahav and Fork, Vernick and Friday Saturday Sunday west of Broad, Vetri on Spruce, Laurel and Royal Sushi in South Philly, Kalaya and Suraya in Fishtown — most seat their couples at two-tops with no room for a vase. A low piece left at the host stand under the reservation name, arranged beforehand, is the version that works.
Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Fairmount and Graduate Hospital
Where most of this page's home deliveries actually land: new construction with a stoop and a video doorbell beside century-old row houses with neither. Frankford Avenue and Girard, the blocks below Spring Garden, Fairmount around the avenue, Graduate Hospital south of South Street. Deliveries go well when somebody is expected home and badly when the surprise depends on nobody being told. A rear door or a neighbor named in the notes solves most of it.
Bala Cynwyd, Wynnewood, Ardmore and the Main Line
Out past City Avenue the doorway problem disappears and the drive becomes the constraint. Rosevelt Flower Philly on Bala Avenue works this corner from inside it, Overhill Flowers comes along Lancaster Avenue, Florals Ampler covers Lafayette Hill and Whitemarsh from 515 Germantown Pike, and Leary's Florist on West Chester Pike takes Broomall and Newtown Square. Driveways and porches make an unattended delivery safe here — exactly what is not true downtown.
Proposal walks on the Parkway and both rivers
The Art Museum steps, Boathouse Row from Kelly Drive, the Schuylkill Banks boardwalk, Race Street Pier under the bridge, Elfreth's Alley, the LOVE sculpture on JFK Plaza and the AMOR on the Parkway, the Water Works, the Morris Arboretum a short way from Rothe Florists, and Bartram's Garden on the same Lindbergh Boulevard as Didden Florist. All involve walking, so the build is a hand-tied bunch with wrapped stems and nothing breakable — one hand carries it while the other is occupied.
