News of Joey Baldino’s Filippo Palizzi Club Literally Broke the Internet

Due to an overwhelming amount of applicants, the restaurant's membership servicing site is temporarily suspended.

 

On Monday, we let you in on a little secret: Zeppoli’s Joey Baldino is making his return to the Philadelphia dining scene in a rather unorthodox fashion.

You see, Baldino is the third-generation owner and president of Filippo Palizzi Club, a 30-seat private Italian social club tucked away inside a South Philly row home near 12th and Reed Streets. Instead of keeping its club members to close friends and family (the way it’s worked for the past 98 years), he’s opted to, instead, turn it into a members-only restaurant, open to the anybody willing to pony up the measly, one-time $20 membership fee.

And everyone wanted a piece of the action, so much so that, yesterday, PayPal had to temporarily shut down the membership servicing site.

PayPal, suspicious of the account’s spike in traffic, suspended purchases until further notice. Of course, Baldino has made every effort to fix the situation, but, apparently, verifying your business to PayPal takes a bit longer than you’d imagine. He’s hoping to have it back up and running shortly (within the next few days), but get this: there will be a cap to the amount of memberships sold. After the cap is met, applicants will be put on a wait list. So make sure you check out the website early and often so you don’t miss out.

Zeppoli’s Joey Baldino is About to Open a Members-Only “Restaurant” in Philly [Foobooz]