Get Ready for More Beer Gardens this Summer

Belmont Plateau | Photo by Flickr user Rich Lee

Let’s fantasize together for a moment: It’s a beautiful Saturday in the summertime. You have no plans. While thinking about what to do, you get a text from a friend who lets you know that there’s a new beer garden at Belmont Plateau and they want you to come.

Okay, I know it’s February and it just snowed, but summer will be here before we know it and drinking a cold beer in one of Philly’s parks sounds nice right now.

Lucky for us, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation in partnership with the Fairmount Park Conservancy has plans to select vendors to operate temporary food and beverage gardens throughout the Department’s park system. In other words, we are going to have more cool places to sit outside and have a bite and a drink.

The main goal of this program is to get people outside to experience the city’s parks, history, and culture as well as come together to revive the old mid-19th century tradition of biergartens (thanks, German immigrants).

Some possible locations for the pop-up food and beverage gardens include Paine’s Park, Schuylkill Banks, Lemon Hill Mansion, FDR Park, Belmont Plateau, and Hawthorne Park. The vendors will serve their food and beverages for up to five consecutive days and will have seating for 50-200 people.

The are a few requirements that must be met in order for vendors to run a mobile food and beverage garden, but here are a couple:

• Vendors must have a minimum of three years of experience operating one or more food and beverage venues that are successful and currently in business 
• Vendors must have a current Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board license(s) in good standing

For any vendors interested in being considered for the program, the city is holding a mandatory pre-proposal meeting on Thursday, February 18 at 10 a.m. at the One Parkway Building on 1515 Arch Street in the City Planning Commission Meeting Room (18th floor). The final deadline for proposals is March 31 at 10 a.m.

For all of the info, here’s the link for the Mobile Food and Beverage Garden Program’s RPF, appendices, and forms.