Philly restaurateurs to match soda tax with donations to local school

Most restaurant owners and corner stores have responded to the newly implemented beverage tax with concern, outrage, and, in one case, a promise to stop selling soda altogether.

But two married restaurateurs are taking a different approach.

Starting today, Chris Fetfatzes and Heather Annechiarico, owners of Hawthornes, the Cambridge, and Tio Flores, will be matching and then donating sweetened-beverage tax revenue to a local school in their neighborhood.

The 1.5 cent per ounce beverage tax is levied on distributors but merchants track how much they sell and, in this case, the owners will figure out how much tax revenue their eateries have generated, match and donate that amount to the Andrew Jackson School, a pre-K-to-8^th grade school at 12^th and Federal Street.

"It's law, you can't do anything about it other than get in the way of it or kind of get behind it," Fetfatzes said. "So we decided to kind of make lemonade out of it and we're going to be good corporate citizens."

There's a more personal reason, too. Fetfatzes' 3-year-old son Leo will start pre-K in the fall and his one-year-old daughter isn't too far away.

The couple has fund-raised for the Andrew Jackson School before so it seemed like a natural fit, he said. The initiative will run through the school year.

Hawthornes and the Cambridge are both known for an extensive beer selection but sweetened beverages are also a big seller, especially at brunch, which Hawthornes is famous for.

"When someone has an upset stomach, they're drinking ginger ale — you want a burger and fries, you're going to drink a Coke," he said.

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