PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The historic City Tavern in Old City, one of the city’s oldest restaurants, has announced it is closing its doors for good because of the pandemic.
Longtime chef and proprietor Walter Staib said after 26 years, the conditions proved to be too much to go on.
“If you ask me today how I feel, it’s bittersweet. I kind of feel bad that we got so much local following, we just could not sustain it, the pandemic was just too powerful,” he said.
City Tavern dates back to 1773. It burned down once and was rebuilt, according to the original plans in 1975.
Staib has been operating the tavern since July 4, 1994 and said the once bustling tavern had a staff of 85 at the peak of its operations. Now, they have less than 20 people.
The tours that brought international visitors and groups of senior citizens are now nonexistent.
“I lost all of my overseas clients. I had Italian tourists, Chinese tourists, Japanese tourists, and of course the local following, it just didn’t make any more sense,” he explained. “People who dwelt in history, or people who are interested in what happened in 18th century America would make City Tavern in Old City a part of their pilgrimage.”
Staib said he and the staff will finish out their contract with the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior before closing — but hopefully, not forever.
“For sure the building is going to be around. It’s too important a building to be mothballed, it’s — everything happened here in 1773 to 1774,” he said.
Staib said the Department of the Interior is expected to bring the building into code for the Americans with Disabilities Act, and maybe there will be a new concessionaire down the road.
But he doesn't think that will happen anytime soon.