A decade after Bok Bar’s uproarious debut, its Center City sequel, in a former UArts courtyard, is practically a secret

When it debuted on the top of a shuttered public high school in summer 2015, Bok Bar — initially dubbed Le Bok Fin, in honor of Bok Technical High’s former culinary arts program — was a lightning rod for debate.

As a gathering space, it was an instant hit. Customers flocked to the eighth-floor art-deco rooftop for rosé, Parisian-style hot dogs, and possibly the best view of the Philadelphia skyline, period. The school building’s new owners, the then-tiny development team behind Scout Ltd., invited patrons to imagine what the sprawling school building could house, scratching out suggestions on chalkboards dragged out from old classrooms.

Skepticism of Scout’s plan was high, and the sociocultural backlash was fierce. A local nonprofit launched an online protest campaign that summer, labeling the seasonal pop-up “disaster tourism.” Columns in Al Dia and The Inquirer termed the project “tone-deaf” and an “obvious symbol of gentrification.”

While some coverage at the time praised the fact that anything was happening with the empty school at 9th and Mifflin — Philadelphia School District closed it in 2013, along with nearly 30 others — the real bone of contention seemed to be that Scout’s first move in creating a community space was to open a beer garden.

“Let patrons know that Le Bok Fin is a sick joke,” read the protest campaign site. “Ask them if they really want to be part of an economy that replaces its schools with expensive popup beer gardens.”

Flash forward to present day. Scout’s reimagining of the Bok Building has proved an unqualified success, housing over 200 small businesses in its studios, from playspaces to a James Beard-nominated patisserie. It’s become a model for developers in Philly and beyond.

When Scout won a high-stakes bidding war on yet more shuttered school buildings earlier this year — successfully purchasing UArts’ iconic Hamilton and Furness Halls — basically every Philadelphian following the saga cheered. The firm’s plan to transform the Broad Street buildings into a sort of “Baby Bok,” preserving existing workspaces while recasting its old dorms into affordable housing for artists, earned the support of various Philly politicians and investors.

Enter Frankie’s Summer Club, which launched relatively quietly in June in the Furness Hall’s courtyard near 15th and Pine. Once again, the developer’s opening gambit was to kick off with a beer garden.

The leafy, sun-dappled space is located through a newly installed purple archway at 355 S. 15th St. The canopy provided by the courtyard’s crop of cherry trees was so dense when Scout’s design team took over this spring, they had to pare back overgrowth and dead wood. Amidst the trees, shrubs, and left-behind sculptures, there’s room for 250 customers between the seating at curved MDF “squiggle tables,” wraparound benches, and bleachers, all spray-painted a vibrant yellow.

To enter, you have to become a “member” (i.e., go to Frankie’s website and enter in your email address, similar to how PHS beer gardens work). Head to the bar to order drinks (natural wines, spritz, espresso martini, Spaghetts) and snacks from acclaimed chef Michael Vincent Ferreri, who heads up the Bok-based, Scout-owned restaurant Irwin’s. The savory menu leans Italian — marinated Castelvetrano olives, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, plus prosciutto and soppressata — as does some of the best-selling soft-serve lineup. Swirls of vanilla made with a dairy base from a New Jersey farm get topped with your choice of “grilled vanilla olive oil,” Sicilian pistachios, chocolate cookies, or strawberry rhubarb jam. (There’s lime-coconut granita for the lactose-averse.)

The reason to lead with food and drink all over again is twofold, according to Scout creative marketing director Kelley Garrard. “It gets people in the doors that maybe wouldn’t normally come to see an artist space,” she said. On top of that, it makes public a space that was once literally gated off to everyone outside of UArts.

“Even when we were starting to construct the bar [at Frankie’s], we had neighbors coming by and being like, ‘Oh, wow, I’ve lived here for 30 years and I’ve never been inside this courtyard,’ because this was owned by a private institution,” Garrard said.

Whereas Bok Bar’s incredible vantage point made it a destination on day one, a dormitory courtyard needs more zhuzhing. “We wanted to go for a slightly higher level of design, a little more architectural,” said Scout director of architecture and design Whitney Joslin. “I think there were higher expectations of this.”

That explains the structure housing Frankie’s bar: a lemon-colored cube topped by a three-story-tall scaffold swathed in translucent fabric of the same shade. The boxy design was inspired by a never-implemented Louis Kahn proposal that had been drafted for UArts in the ’60s.

“[Kahn] had proposed these crazy geometric volumes that would essentially be light tunnels and bring light down to the ground floor for more art studios for that kind of soft, borrowed light,” Joslin said.

Scout worked with Olde Kensington’s ISA Architects and North Philly-based fabricator North Standard on the Frankie’s design. The goal was to make it feel different from any other beer garden in Philly — no wood, no shiplap, and no twinkle lights — so they custom-made the squiggle tables and benches to accommodate the trees and give them more flexible seating options. The sunny color palette riffs on Ferreri’s menu, specifically the olive oil-topped soft-serve.

“Olive oil color is very summery, very saturated,” Garrard said. “When I was thinking about the colors against the red brick, it just feels like it really bounces.”

Frankie’s came together in about two months, and it has generated exactly zero uproar. Aside from opening notices and write-ups in design publications, the online reception to its debut has been comparatively muted — just nine Google reviews (averaging 4.6 stars), one TikTok, and a mention on a Reddit thread asking for suggestions on where to enjoy outside beers in Rittenhouse. “Doesn’t have the greatest beer selection but is a 10 out of 10 outdoor vibes,” sdpizzaguy wrote.

The lack of buzz notwithstanding, it seems to be on its way to becoming one of Center City’s chillest hangouts, drawing in neighbors and passersby with live music and drink-and-draw nights.

“The people who come, they come again and again and again, and they stay for a really long time,” said general manager Heather Jackson. “We’re just trying to get the word out more so we have that line out the door.”

That might be nice, but at least Joslin is contented with what Frankie’s has achieved already. “Looking over and [seeing] someone here by themselves, having a glass of wine, reading a book,” she said, “these are the things that make me feel like we have done our jobs.”

Frankie’s Summer Club at 355 S. 15th St. is open Wednesday 4 to 9 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 4 to 10 p.m., and Sunday 2 to 8 p.m. It’s expected to be open through October.