Bower Cafe and Root & Sprig to open at Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion

Homegrown coffee shop Bower Cafe will join Root & Sprig, a healthful concept from Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio, at Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion, opening Oct. 30 on 33rd Street across from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in University City.

This will be Colicchio’s second Root & Sprig after July’s launch at the Children’s National Research and Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C. The menu will offer mainly vegetarian breakfast and lunch options, plus soups and salads, and a few entrees. Targeting health-care facilities for Root & Sprig’s business model, Colicchio told the Washington Post that another Root & Sprig location is due to open in Denver.

Although aimed at Penn Medicine staff and visitors, the eateries are open to the public.

Bower owner Thane Wright’s menu will include coffees and espresso plus pastries and sandwiches with a focus on natural ingredients.

Wright, a coffee-industry veteran with long terms at La Colombe and Bluestone Lane, opened Bower in 2018 at 263 S. 10th St. in Washington Square West, around the corner from Pennsylvania Hospital, one of the oldest public hospitals in the United States. That shop also sells cured meats.