We’d been hearing rumblings about it all along, but did not want to believe or spread it until the mighty Dan Gross uttered it: The now-homeless Grape Street Pub could be moving to — shock, horror — Northern Liberties. Oh, come on, don’t act like you can’t see this choadfest slipping right into the Finnegan’s/McFadden’s/Tiki Bob’s axis of evil like a Roofie Romeo. (Presently, however, the Grape Street dude-rock load seems to be being shouldered by the World Cafe Live, kind of like that girl you dated after college because you just wanted something safe and stable until you figured this whole real-world thing out.) But a Northern Graperties? Horrifying, yes, but dealable? Also yes. We’ve all known for ages that the Delaware Ave. slide has been lurching inland since the late 1990s — hello Old City and the aforementioned strip of Spring Garden — but our main fear is this: What if the Grape Street decides to plunk down somewhere north of Spring Garden? The early adopters among us have long noticed The Unwashed Dave Matthews fans slinking into Ortleib’s and The Abbaye, to say nothing of the beloved Standard Tap and North Bowl. But a Grape Street Pub, we think, would be a shot across the bow in the Northern Liberties culture wars that none of us could abide. Before you know it, you’re gonna have to go all the way to friggin’ Bridesburg to get your Scene Points Card punched.
PhillyGossip: Nothing Gold Can Stay
NoLibs.org: Whatever, IT’S STILL NOT A WHOLE FOODS, AND WE WON’T STOP BITCHING UNTIL THERE IS ONE.
Previously: Grape Street Pub Closes, Narrowing The Field Even Further For Local Smash Mouth/Collective Soul Soundalikes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pm.