PHILLY
EVENTSCommentary: Say Goodbye to the BYOB
It's time for Philadelphia's restaurant scene to grow up
MY FIRST RESTAURANT job was in the kitchen of the much-loved Under the Blue Moon in Chestnut Hill, opened as a BYOB in 1976 by Phyllis and Gene Gosfield, graduates of the first class of the Restaurant School. Blue Moon and many of the other fondly remembered restaurants of that era — like the Gold Standard and Knave of Hearts — were BYOBs, started by counterculture types intent on creating a new way of dining in a city bereft of restaurants, where the best food was often to be had at private clubs.
Thirty years ago, I was an enthusiastic participant in this first Philadelphia Restaurant Renaissance. But today, as our city is experiencing a second restaurant resurgence, I feel like I’m in a time warp as small, imaginative, low-budget storefront BYOBs pop up like dandelions. These demi-restaurants were the right thing for a fledgling restaurant scene, and perhaps necessary given the obstacles presented by the Liquor Control Board, but they represent the entirely wrong direction for our city’s culinary future. It’s time to grow up, Philly.
I know why Philadelphians love BYOBs: You can go out to eat for less, and bring along that really good bottle of wine. Restaurateurs like them because start-up costs are lower and they’re simpler to run, lacking the headaches of building a wine cellar and bar, maintaining stock, training staff and controlling theft. But BYOBs are starter restaurants that just can’t offer the complete dining experience.
I never made it to Django under the original owners. Nor have I been to Pif, Little Fish, Chloe, the Birchrunville Store Cafe or Marigold Kitchen. The hassles of buying wine — what kind to choose, how many bottles to bring, how to transport them, and at what temperature — is too much of a turnoff. Even Aimee Olexy, an original co-owner of Django, one of the first and the most influential of this new generation of BYOBs, agrees that “the product is diminished if someone brings in something lousy to drink with a fantastic meal” in a restaurant without a liquor license.
Thirty years ago, I was an enthusiastic participant in this first Philadelphia Restaurant Renaissance. But today, as our city is experiencing a second restaurant resurgence, I feel like I’m in a time warp as small, imaginative, low-budget storefront BYOBs pop up like dandelions. These demi-restaurants were the right thing for a fledgling restaurant scene, and perhaps necessary given the obstacles presented by the Liquor Control Board, but they represent the entirely wrong direction for our city’s culinary future. It’s time to grow up, Philly.
I know why Philadelphians love BYOBs: You can go out to eat for less, and bring along that really good bottle of wine. Restaurateurs like them because start-up costs are lower and they’re simpler to run, lacking the headaches of building a wine cellar and bar, maintaining stock, training staff and controlling theft. But BYOBs are starter restaurants that just can’t offer the complete dining experience.
I never made it to Django under the original owners. Nor have I been to Pif, Little Fish, Chloe, the Birchrunville Store Cafe or Marigold Kitchen. The hassles of buying wine — what kind to choose, how many bottles to bring, how to transport them, and at what temperature — is too much of a turnoff. Even Aimee Olexy, an original co-owner of Django, one of the first and the most influential of this new generation of BYOBs, agrees that “the product is diminished if someone brings in something lousy to drink with a fantastic meal” in a restaurant without a liquor license.
