Olivieri's lawsuit against Reading Terminal Market Corp. and the nonprofit's countersuit against Olivieri are slowly ripening in Common Pleas Court, with no resolution imminent.
In the meantime, as the merchants there say, "Let's go make money."
And making it they are.
"We're still operating, and things are going very well," said Olivieri, 42, part of the third generation of the family that claims to have invented the steak sandwich about 75 years ago. "On any given day, I'll have 20 people walk up and say they're happy to see I'm still open."
As for the market, general manager Paul Steinke said it just posted a record number of monthly visitors - 556,000 - and in August, no less.
The market had always drawn the most visitors, including the previous record of 555,000, in March, when the Philadelphia Flower Show is held at the adjacent Convention Center, Steinke said.
He believes the market benefited from several strong conventions in August, he said.
It was also the first August the market was open Sundays, an experiment that began Oct. 15, 2006, the first Sunday openings in market history.
Though Sunday openings are voluntary, 47 merchants - almost 75 percent - participate, Steinke said. Sunday has become the fourth-busiest day for the market, and Steinke said he believed that reflected national trends showing most people shop for groceries on Sunday.
"Anecdotally, what we see is people from Center City coming in to do their shopping," he said.
Steinke and Ricardo Dunston, board chairman of the nonprofit that operates the market, have been pushing to reinforce the market's historical role as a farmers' market.
They say even a nonprofit farmers' market must serve an increasingly upscale Center City residential population that otherwise will go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, both of which have opened stores downtown.
