Townsend in East Passyunk Returns as a Wine Bar
Tod Wentz is reopening the old Townsend on East Passyunk Avenue as a French-focused wine bar.
Photo by Jason Varney
All the fun of the original Townsend happened at the downstairs bar. Upstairs was beautiful and fine and Very Serious French, but downstairs was boisterous and loud and filled with people spooning into chocolate soufflés and glugging Picpoul till last call. And then last summer, in a surprising move, Tod Wentz closed Townsend on East Passyunk Avenue and moved it to Rittenhouse.
He held onto the space at 1623 East Passyunk, and now he’s ready to announce his next step. On February 14th, Wentz will open Townsend Wine Bar on a preliminary basis for a weekend-long Valentine’s Day pop-up, serving a $65 four-course tasting menu with optional wine pairings.
Townsend Wine Bar will be open 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., through Sunday, February 16th, and then will close for the following week, and will officially open with regular hours for East Passyunk Restaurant Week, which runs February 24th through March 6th.
In addition to a French-focused wine program with options by the glass, on tap, and by the bottle, guests can expect a food menu of French dishes, including classic Townsend favorites mixed in with new dishes. Structurally, the space will remain basically unchanged, with a few cosmetic retouches.
