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Philly chefs get naked to help Revivalist Gin raise money for hospitality workers

Chester County's Revivalist Gin is playing off a two-decade-old ad campaign. The company will donate to an emergency fund for hospitality workers.

Baker Joel Singer is shirtless in the photo for Revivalist Gin.
Baker Joel Singer is shirtless in the photo for Revivalist Gin.Read moreKEVIN YORK

You may have seen Barry’s Buns, warm from the oven, at Market at the Fareway in Chestnut Hill or at the Bourse in Old City.

As for Barry’s pecs? Well, they’re covered in flour, while “Barry” himself — whose name is Joel Singer — is shirtless as part of a series of cheeky photos in a social media campaign by Chester County’s Revivalist Gin.

Revivalist’s Scott and Don Avellino dipped into the annals of print-advertising classics and found a popular series from two decades ago in which chefs posed nude with their Vita-Prep blenders. Marc Vetri did one, wearing a bandanna and a slight smile. He got a $400 blender in the deal, he told me at the time.

The Avellinos decided to revive the idea to add levity to their gin promos. (Revival … Revivalist … get it?)

They rustled up photographer Kevin York to shoot four chefs posed next to various Revivalist bottles. Besides Singer, the photo subjects are Keith Taylor of Zachary’s BBQ & Soul Kitchens, Reuben “Big Rube” Harley, a fried chicken specialist/photographer/impresario, and Hilary Hamilton, chef at Jasper’s West Side in West Conshohocken and Jasper’s Backyard in Conshohocken.

The Avellinos will donate $1 for every Facebook share, and $1 for each Instagram repost, up to $5,000 to the Hospitality Assistance Response of Pennsylvania, which provides emergency help to hospitality workers.