Beer Radar

I’m hearing lots of noise in South Philly, and I’ll be writing at length about new developments soon. To me, the most exciting news is the plans for not one, but two big-time sixpack-to-go shops (beer by the bottle, not case).

The folks behind South Philly Tap Room have said they’ll open Bierista, an 800-bottle shop at 15th & Mifflin. Meanwhile, I just got off the phone with Chris Fetfatzes of Bella Vista Beer Distributor who tells me he has plans to open a 1,200-bottle shop at 11th and Fitzwater.

Bella Vista is already building a massive, new beer warehouse on 11th Street, where it’ll re-locate its operation in September or October. After it vacates its current facility, the plan is to convert part of the building into a bottle shop under a second liquor license. “The two businesses are separate, but they’ll complement each other,” Fetfatzes told me. “You’ll be able to try out a single bottle or, if you like it, walk across the street and buy an entire case.” 

I realize out-of-staters scratch their heads in astonishment at what we have to go through here to buy bottled beer. But in Pennsylvania, this amounts to a revolutionary convenience.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 10:44 am and is filed under Beer etc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.