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If people have any doubt that South Philadelphia is growing and booming, they need only count the construction fences. The projects keep coming south of South Street and in varied forms. The Pennsport and Whitman neighborhoods are starting to see their share of fences go up, too, with construction in full swing on Oregon Avenue for what will be a South Philly outpost of Oron Daskal’s North Bowl.
Steps from Tony Luke’s, 39 E. Oregon Ave., Daskal is poised to open a bigger, better and newer version of his successful Northern Liberties bowling alley, as he reports, “we’re reaching the finishing stages for sure.” He won’t exactly be replicating the alley, arcade, bar and restaurant model he’s been perfecting. He plans on tweaking it for 2014 and for Whitman.
“We’ve been through it and we’re ready to do it again,” he said. “We’ll find our niche and we’ll find what the people want and need – we’re excited to be down there.”
The 27,000-square-foot building at 19 E. Oregon Ave. was once a tomato-packing plant, but before the summer is over will open its doors with 26 lanes, two bars, a full kitchen with an emphasis on wood-fired pizza, arcade games and many TVs to watch sports on while one bowls.
“Working with Whitman [Council] has been great,” he noted, saying it’s been nice “to be embraced with open arms.”
Daskal seems happy to be in on South Philly’s boom and primarily with the best intentions.
“We’re committed to living in the city and seeing this city grow,” Daskal, a resident of Northern Liberties, near his first baby bowling alley, said. “It just seems like people’s heads are in the right place right now in terms of all sorts of development,” he added and said he doesn’t want to see everybody building upwards but working on improving neighborhoods with experiences.
With all the pier improvements from the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. (including the popular Spruce Street Harbor pop-up park), it seems like businesses and families might be heading east. Just north of Daskal’s sports-plex is another business on the up, 2300 Arena, 2300 S. Swanson St., the former ECW Arena and Viking Hall, which has been hosting fights and wrestling and is in possession of a liquor license. Whispers of big bar buildout have been drifting up to Adventurer’s Mini-Golf, 38 E. Jackson St.
A mélange of industrial and retail spaces, the home to Fright Factory sits beside JoMar Textiles Inc., 22 E. Jackson St. Robert Dudzieck, a partner at All Season’s Entertainment, which produces the popular fall haunted house destination, wanted to use their space to create a year-round destination and as early as next week will be in business with a black-lit mini-golf course, arcade and birthday party space.
“Just by working in that area for a while there’s nothing for kids — there’s nowhere for kids to go,” Dudzieck said. “It was a pretty depressed area with fields of trash, and we see it growing,” he added, and hopes his 4,800-square foot mini-golf course will continue to improve the neighborhood.
All Season’s has been helping the South Philly Vikings for years now with sets, mechanical assistance and backdrops. The mini-golf course it has built is an original concept with hand-painted characters.
“It’s not fun if you’re not doing it yourself. Everything’s in-house,” Dudzieck boasted, describing the three cartoon characters they’ve created to anchor the narrative. “One’s the nerdy smart girl and the boy who always gets into trouble, [and] as you’re playing you’re going through Egypt and then into the arctic and then into the jungles.”
He saw a need for reasonably-priced birthday party spaces and plans to satisfy it with 60- and 40-seat party rooms that, eventually, will be able to connect and host bigger parties like charity and corporate events. Something Daskal intends, as well.
“People are tired of Chuck E. Cheese,” he quips of the corporate chain just up the street at 9 Snyder Ave., adding that he’d heard of folks paying $1,000 for birthday parties for 20 kids at the Please Touch Museum in Fairmount Park.
While Dudzieck and his team put the finishing touches on their party spaces, Sean Mellody was presenting his intentions for an impending development at 1800 E. Moyamensing Ave. His Mellody Brewing is the first of a handful of potential businesses that may be finding a home in an empty Pennsport warehouse.
Mellody, a resident of Third and Carpenter streets, said he’s had his eye on this property for more than a year and presented his case at a Zoning Board meeting last week to mixed but primarily positive responses.
The Queen Village inhabitant plans on boosting Pennsport’s positive developments, saying his brew business will be “tying in [Jefferson Square] park and all the development that’s going on – exciting things are happening on that stretch and to have an opportunity to be in on that is exciting as well.” His business will not be a bar; it’s a brewery that will fill growlers and wholesale beer to businesses in the city.
“I got the feeling when I left the meeting that the zoning board will be in full support, and we’ll make sure to keep the dialogue open,” he reported.
Of course, most concerns from the neighborhood were about parking. But Mellody’s hoping that the business that will join him at the address will be, like his, daytime businesses that won’t affect folks coming home from work and trying to find a parking spot.
The end of July will be the final zoning board meeting, and construction wouldn’t start until fall. Though Philadelphia is a rich terrain for beer-lovers, there are only three other breweries in city limits: Yards Brewery in Northern Liberties, Pennsylvania Brewing Co. and the brand new St. Benjamin Brewing Co. that opened in May, both in Kensington. He’s had interest from Mummers, neighbors looking for work and new culinary opportunities and the Second Street Irish Society, 1937 S. Third St.
It doesn’t seem like parking concerns will be enough to thwart his determination.
“It just may take a little bit of wrangling,” Mellody admitted. “I’ve been trying to do this for a very long time, and I’m sticking with it – I can’t see it not working out.”
Bill C
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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