Is it a good idea to debut your Center City bar on Super Bowl Sunday?
For Garage Rittenhouse, its third location, "we needed a goal when we started to build," says one of the owners. "We couldn’t predict the future, but had faith the Eagles would make the Super Bowl."
Five months ago, construction started on Garage Rittenhouse, a mammoth sports bar at 15th and Spruce Streets in Center City. The Eagles' record was a so-so 1-1.
“We needed a goal when we started to build and we couldn’t predict the future, but had faith the Eagles would make the Super Bowl,” said Jason Evenchik, one of four partners in Vintage Syndicate, which runs other Garage locations in Fishtown and South Philadelphia.
“They did their part, and we will do ours.”
Garage Rittenhouse replaces a Fox & Hound location that closed in July 2021 after 18 years. It will open officially on Super Bowl Sunday — typically the busiest day on a Philly sports bar’s calendar, and especially so this year. (Garage, around since 2013, has no affiliation with the Kelce brothers’ beer brand or Garage Sale Vintage, a clothing store and bar coming to Philadelphia.)
Vintage signed the lease in 2023, about eight months after the Eagles’ last appearance in the Super Bowl.
So is opening Sunday a good idea? “Maybe,” Evenchik said. “We’re ready, though. This is what we do. We’ve got a great staff and an amazing manager in Brandon Neiburg.” Neiburg was assistant general manager at the Fishtown location since it reopened following the pandemic.
The new venue seats 225 people at barstools, long tables, booths, and chairs in the game area.
During a soft opening Thursday night, all that was left to do was to hoist a red 1978 Honda CT70 Trail 70 motorcycle on hooks above the bar.
The space is reminiscent of the other Garage locations with its 18 rotating drafts (including a nitro line for Guinness), 200 different beers by the can (including nonalcoholic varieties), hubcap-lined walls, Skee-Ball games, and pool tables.
A bumper from a 1970s-era Pontiac GTO hangs over the entrance.
Corporate chef Pat Szoke and chef Emmett Akeley have set up a menu that is similar to the others' (wings, onion rings, fried cheese curds, multiple burgers), but they’ve redone the chicken sandwich, whose crunchy crust is panko and cornmeal.
This Garage location, ironically, is the only one not set up in a former auto garage, though it is located beneath a Parkway Corp. auto garage. There are no roll-up doors.