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🌆 Condo combo in the city | Morning Newsletter

And the ultimate guide to soft-serve.

Mindy Hauptman looks on as her husband, Bill Hauptman, plays the Steinway piano in their newly renovated Academy House condo in Philadelphia.
Mindy Hauptman looks on as her husband, Bill Hauptman, plays the Steinway piano in their newly renovated Academy House condo in Philadelphia.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

It will be an ideal day for ice cream, just be prepared to eat it quickly. Temps are expected to reach the low-90s.

In today’s newsletter:

🌆 Rewarding: Over the last year, we followed a couple moving to Philly when everyone was fleeing the city.

🍦Refreshing: Those of you who know me know I don’t mess around with ice cream. We have the ultimate guide to soft-serve ice cream in Philly, the burbs and down the Shore.

🍝 Appetizing: Craig LaBan reviews a stellar solo restaurant debut in Ambler.

If you see this 🔒 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.

— Ashley Hoffman (@_AshleyHoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

🎤 And now I’m handing over the microphone to real estate reporter Michaelle Bond:

Last July, I got an email from Bill Hauptman in Voorhees. He said he was a fan of The Inquirer’s real estate section and thought I might be interested in hearing about the home renovation he and his wife were starting soon. I get a lot of emails. But this project stood out for a few reasons.

One, the Hauptmans were recent empty nesters building the next phase of their lives, and we’d been featuring people making these kinds of life changes. Two, they were moving from the suburbs to the city when a lot of the talk at the time was about people fleeing cities for more space (and, presumably, less COVID) in suburbs. So they were bucking a trend. Three, I had written about the strain the pandemic was putting on the construction industry. So I wanted to see how the renovation went. And four, they were taking the uncommon step of combining two adjacent high-rise condos.

We followed their progress over the last year.

What you should know today

  1. Declaring “a crisis of Black manhood,” five community groups issued a collective call for help from Philly’s men to address the gun violence crisis.

  2. Sporting his newly minted gold Hall of Fame jacket, revered former Eagles coach Dick Vermeil used a majority of his speech to thank the numerous people who helped him throughout his storied career.

  3. We have the ultimate guide to soft-serve ice cream in Philly, the burbs and down the Shore. Just try to resist these flavors.

  4. Black and white spaghetti alla chitarra? Craig LaBan has a thoughtful review of an Italian Montco debut from a Vetri alum. 🔑

  5. A Fringe Festival superfan can help you navigate the lineup.

  6. Darren Daulton is inspiring cancer patients the way he did the 1993 Phillies.🔑

  7. Local Coronavirus numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.

❓Pop Quiz❓

What’s Juliana’s nickname from Amy Rosenberg’s Jersey Shore love story Taylor told you about the other day?

A) Little Miss 6500

B) Terrapin

C) Joisey

D) Little Miss Wildwood

Find out if you remember the answer.

🧩 Unscramble the Anagram 🧩

EQUILENIN SECANTS

Hint: America’s 150th birthday — “largely remembered as a flop as the celebration lost millions of dollars because of a low turnout for the World’s Fair-like exposition in South Philly.”

We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Send us your own original anagram to unscramble if you’d like. Email us if you know the answer.

Photo of the Day

🎶 For today’s Sunday track, I’m listening to “We’ve been having fun all summer long.”🎶

👋🏽 I’m headed to Dewey Beach soon. Send me the best thing you’ve done all summer for a chance to be featured in Your Essential Philly.