Ralph’s Italian Restaurant, located at 760 S. Ninth St. in the heart of Philadelphia’s Italian Market, was dimly lit but bright with laughter when my boyfriend, Manny Nkrumah ’26 and I visited for dinner one Sunday evening in early March. The mosaic-tiled floor and closely-sat tables reminded me of Italian restaurants in old movies.

When we arrived for our reservation, which you have to make most nights if you want a chance at a table, a host told us to go to the back and up the stairs to the second dining room and ask for Anthony. We bustled our way through the lower dining room to a small archway that led to windy, dark wooden stairs.