Why Fountain Porter raised the price of its iconic burger

In 2026, you either die a bargain or stay around long enough to get hit by inflation. In other words, Fountain Porter’s iconic $6 burger is now $7, roughly the price of a fancy latte or a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with cheese after tax.

The East Passyunk neighborhood bar made the nearly 17% price increase official last Wednesday, said owner Evan Clancy, after months of watching the prices of ingredients creep up.

Five days later, a post appeared in the popular r/PhiladelphiaEats subreddit breaking the news like a bargain hunting, beer-loving version of Paul Revere. “Recession indicator: Fountain Porter has officially raised the price of their burger,” the post read. “End of era.”

Commenters were aghast.

“Noooooooo,” bemoaned one Redditor. “Bring back boiled peanuts!” shouted another. A third cried of shrinkflation, alleging that the patty had gotten smaller. But most agreed on one thing: the burger is still dirt cheap and delicious.

“I still ate three total this past weekend,” wrote another Reddit user, undeterred by the change.

This isn’t first time inflation has come for Fountain Porter: When Clancy opened the bar at 1601 S. 10th St. in 2012, its burgers were just $5. Somewhere along the way — Clancy couldn’t recall when — he raised the price to $6 in recognition of the labor his staff put in to running a pub that, in many ways, also doubles as a burger factory.

Fountain Porter makes upwards of 800 burgers a week, Clancy said, with the three cooks alone dedicated just to grilling and flipping patties. It’s also the platonic ideal of the sandwich, comprised of a modest beef patty with a salty char topped with American cheese, crisp lettuce, and a tomato slice on a Martin’s potato bun with two pickle chips on the side.

The burger and its price — along with the bar’s deep beer list, dirty martini, and solid Guinness pour — has cemented Fountain Porter’s status as a Philly icon, beloved equally by world class chefs and people who just really like eating and drinking.

» READ MORE: From 2025: The 18 most supremely satisfying burgers in Philly

“Their burger is the perfect size — not too small, not too big — and their lettuce is always cold and crispy,” Rachel Lorn, the co-owner of acclaimed South Philly restaurants Mawn and Sao, previously told The Inquirer.

The burger will remained unchanged despite the price increase, Clancy said. He also doesn’t think it will harm the bar’s reputation, and was shocked that people cared enough to post about it on social media.

“If the burger is not good at $7, then it’s really not that good at all. And that’s not on me, that’s on whoever is heaping the praise,” said Clancy. “It’s never been about a budget burger. It’s about being fair and honest. That’s what a burger is supposed to be.”

The change was borne out of necessity, Clancy explained, driven by the across-the-board inflation that has plagued grocery store items for the past several months, with explanations ranging from climate change and supply chain bottlenecks to war.

The price of the beef Fountain Porter uses in its burgers nearly doubled over the past two months, Clancy said, and he expects it to keep rising. The cost of tomatoes has also risen sharply and varies daily due to a mixture of tariffs and crop shortages, making it difficult for Clancy to budget. And, Clancy said, that despite Fountain Porter’s high volume of burgers, “we’re not making a lot of money off them.”

Besides, Clancy wondered, why shouldn’t his burger be allowed to get more expensive if everything else is?

“I know it’s a change, but we raised the price twice in 13 years, Clancy said. ”Tell me something else that hasn’t changed the price a lot in 13 years."