Cary Neff is a chef. A really good one. He also had a cook supply shop, a knife shop across the street, a teaching space, and a catering business — and none of them looked like they belonged to the same person.
That’s not unusual. Businesses grow the way life does — one thing, then another, then another. Nobody stops to ask what it all adds up to.
So I asked.
The answer became Cary Neff & Co. — an umbrella that holds everything together and still lets each shop be itself. The logo family took its cue from the vintage hand-painted signs on Cary’s storefronts on East Passyunk. Neighborhood, not corporate.
Then we put it everywhere — the website, separate Instagram accounts for each business, signage, bags, stickers, merch and business cards. Every place someone meets Cary, it feels like Cary.
The part I love most? People kept calling Cook Supply to ask if they sharpen knives. (They do — across the street.) Good branding isn’t just pretty. It tells people what you actually do.
And this year, C.M. Neff Knife Shop was named Best of Philly. 🖤
— Jen
