Rich Colli, 44, owner of Varga Bar who served beer with love, dies

Rich Colli ran his establishment with empathy. Varga Bar was known for its carefully curated tap list but also for being a safe haven in Washington Square West. Which is why, when it went dark earlier this week, locals were confused. A few peered inside the windows. Some left notes on the door, and flowers on the sidewalk.

Mr. Colli, 44, who lived around the corner from Varga, died unexpectedly on Feb. 24. The city Medical Examiner’s Office said the cause of death was hypertension and chronic cardiovascular disease.

Mr. Colli was at the epicenter of the Philadelphia beer community — the glue that brought together breweries, bartenders, and drinkers.

Mike LaCouture, the owner of Broken Goblet Brewery, experienced this firsthand. He met Mr. Colli in the late 2000s. His wife, Heather, was close friends with Mr. Colli’s sister, Mary Jo. They’d all grown up in South Jersey, where they attended Gloucester High School.

When LaCouture decided to transition from being a musician to being a brewery owner, Mary Jo suggested that he talk to her brother. The Philadelphia beer scene could be difficult to penetrate; there were far more aspiring breweries than there were taps, and not all bar managers were willing to go out on a limb.

Mr. Colli was. Shortly after LaCouture opened Broken Goblet in 2014, Mr. Colli did a tap takeover at Varga. It gave LaCouture instant validity: If Rich Colli liked Broken Goblet, you should, too.

“He put us on the map, because we were tiny,” LaCouture said. “It was like, ‘How did this little brewery get into Varga?’ It meant a lot. But to him, it was nothing. It was just like, ‘Yeah, man, whatever. Cool.’”

Mr. Colli’s dedication to both Varga and the Philadelphia beer scene was immense. For years, he served as a board member for Philly Loves Beer, a nonprofit that hosts events and fund-raisers — including the long-running Philly Beer Week — to support the local beer industry. This was an unpaid job, but Mr. Colli worked hard at it. He set up meetings and events, and volunteered for tasks no one else wanted to do, colleagues said.

“He was the guy who helped me everywhere,” said the organization’s executive director, Christina Dowd. “During Philly Beer Week, he would sleep at Varga on a cot.”

Mary Jo Colli was not surprised by her brother’s career path. After high school, he attended the College of New Jersey, where he studied business management. Throughout college, he worked at a campus bar and grill. His first full-time job was at Triumph Brewing Co. in New Hope. When Triumph opened a location in Old City, Mr. Colli moved to Philadelphia. After that location closed, he stayed in the city.

Restaurateur George Anni opened Varga in 2009, and hired Mr. Colli as a manager a few months later. Mr. Colli would work seven-day weeks, building the tap list and keeping the bar running. In 2011, when a fire started in the basement, it was Mr. Colli who went running downstairs with an extinguisher in hand.

“He was always doing something for the place, and it wasn’t even his,” Anni said. “He treated Varga like it was his own.”

When Anni decided to sell Varga in 2019, the first person he turned to was Mr. Colli. The deal became official in 2020, amid the pandemic, a tough time for the bar and restaurant industry. Sometimes, Mr. Colli would forgo his own checks to pay his employees, colleagues recalled. “He wanted to make sure we would be good if anything happened,” Chris Taylor, Mr. Colli’s coworker, said.

He had a knack for creative ideas and events. In 2012, when Varga got a few shipments of Pliny the Younger, a triple IPA that is released only over a two-week period, Mr. Colli decided to hold a black-tie affair. He rented a white stretch limo to pick up the keg, rolled out a red carpet onto the sidewalk, and dressed in a tuxedo.

These events weren’t limited to the confines of the bar. Every July, Mr. Colli would buy 100 to 150 Phillies tickets and host a tailgate outside of Citizens Bank Park — complete with matching shirts he designed — for Varga regulars, friends, family, coworkers, and people in the beer industry.

“It’s literally just a shirt that says ‘Rich Loves Me,’” Morgan Jezierski, Mr. Colli’s friend, said. “So you’d have 100 people walking into the stadium with shirts that say, ‘Rich Loves Me.’ And every single one of those people was like, ‘Yes. Rich loves me and I love him.’”

Jezierski met Mr. Colli through her fiancé, Patrick Kolb, who has worked at Varga since 2015. Before then, Kolb was running a sports bar in Chicago, where he was used to serving “a Budweiser and a shot of Jim Beam,” he said. Mr. Colli took him under his wing.

There were strictures to these teachings. Mr. Colli would not let Kolb — or anyone else — touch the Varga draft list, which often featured smaller breweries run by people whom Mr. Colli knew personally, like 2SP.

“Our tap list is populated by people he loves,” Taylor said, as he walked past the taps at Varga on Wednesday. “He was there for them.”

Friends, family members, and colleagues said Mr. Colli will be remembered for a lot of things — his love (and anguish) for Philadelphia sports, his knowledge of craft beer — but above all, for his compassion. He was a caring brother, son, and uncle to his 14-year-old niece, Ilaria.

Employees remembered Mr. Colli treating his workers like equals, and as willing to do anything and everything to help. He’d bus tables, run food, and man the bar. In the days before Christmas, he would prep food alongside his chefs. On Feb. 14, while the Eagles held their Super Bowl parade, he stood outside Varga Bar in 30-degree weather, checking IDs.

“In any given 15 minute period of time, you would see him shake hands with 10 people, pour four beers, make a cocktail, run food, then clear a table to get another table of guests seated,” LaCouture said. “He just sort of flitted around.”

As much as Varga was known for what was on tap, it was a neighborhood bar. Mary Jo said that this was what her brother had always envisioned. He told his employees that they weren’t just bartenders; they were also protecting the community.

“I like to say that 50% of the people that come here on a daily basis are within a three-block radius,” Taylor said. “We look at the same people through the windows every day. And that was something he instilled in all of us. He was like, ‘Be aware. We’re always looking out for people.’ I can’t say the number of times I’ve seen a car clip a bicyclist, and then all sudden, we’re asking, ‘OK, where are our doctor regulars?’”

Before the Super Bowl, one of the bar’s busiest days of the year, Mr. Colli put a QR code for Broad Street Love, a local charity that helps Philadelphians experiencing poverty, on the bar’s windows and in its bathroom. He made countless gestures like these, colleagues said. On winter days, he’d provide hand warmers to unhoused people; in the summer, ice water.

In turn, Washington Square West has rallied around Varga. Former coworkers have offered to pick up shifts. A few local bars and restaurants have said they’ll donate kegs and food for a celebration of life on Friday.

Jezierski isn’t surprised.

“They just want to come here and help,” she said, “because that’s what he would have done for them.”

Mr. Colli is survived by his parents, Nancy Colli Clemency and John Clemency; a brother; and three sisters.

There will be a viewing for Mr. Colli on Friday, Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to noon at the McCann-Healey Funeral Home in Gloucester City. Friends and family are invited to attend.

A celebration of life will follow from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Varga Bar, 941 Spruce St.

As of now, the future of Varga Bar is unclear, but Anni says he knows what Mr. Colli would’ve wanted.

“Rich would say, ‘Keep it going,’” Anni said. “Keep it going.”