Walnut Garden, shuttered by the city in June, is cleared to reopen
The new beer garden near Rittenhouse Square had been closed since June 27 over zoning issues.
Walnut Garden, the Rittenhouse beer garden shut down by the city earlier this summer for building-code violations, reopened Sept. 8.
The city acknowledged that FCM Hospitality had remedied building code violations at the outdoor setup, which opened May 31 at 1706-10 Walnut St. It occupies the former site of three buildings that were looted and torched during a night of protest in May 2020. A new mixed-use tower is expected to be erected on the site, far in the future.
On June 27, city officials shut down Walnut Garden, and it remained closed for the entire season.
Avram Hornik of FCM, who has developed many outdoor bar-restaurants in the city such as Winter Fest and Parks on Tap, attributed the delay to differing interpretations of the building code for such a novel setup. “Everyone was just doing their job, but they just didn’t know what box to put us in,” he said.
City records show that Walnut Garden received a zoning permit shortly before its May 31 opening, approving it as a take-out restaurant.
“We transformed an empty lot that was essentially a hole in the ground into like an outdoor garden restaurant within 45 days,” he said.
Although FCM had the permit for a temporary restaurant, the main rub was zoning. Walnut Garden occupies three parcels of land. “We submitted probably 12 different building permits for different lots,” Hornik said.
Hornik credited Elizabeth Baldwin, chief code engineer for the city’s Department of Licenses & Inspections, for “untangling the whole thing and coming up with a commonsense solution.”
Walnut Garden has picnic-table seating, restroom facilities, children’s activities (including a wooden Jeep with a slide), and shipping containers converted into drink and food sales on 11,500 square feet of space. There’s also a 40- by -60-foot canopy tent for shade, a large-screen TV for sporting events and movie nights, and a soft-serve ice cream station. Hours are noon to midnight daily.
Hornik said he plans to keep Walnut Garden open through at least Jan. 1 with seasonal themes. After Thanksgiving, he plans a Christmas village theme that will include sales of trees, and open for a second season in spring 2024.