PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Summer in Philadelphia is all about the beer gardens and pop-ups, and a new one has opened in LOVE Park.
The Lawn at Loveluck is in the newly redecorated stretch of greenery in the park, sitting behind Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran’s future restaurant.
“Loveluck will be in the Welcome Center — the big, round, glass spaceship-looking building,” Turney said. “We’ll start that project back up probably in the fall.”
The pair, who co-own Safran Turney Hospitality, said the coronavirus pandemic pushed back the opening of Loveluck. But when Philadelphia Parks and Recreation asked if they would do a pop-up in the park in the meantime, they jumped at the chance.
“We’re committed to this park and we said ‘absolutely,’ ” Turney said.
Customers can sit in the park in Adirondack chairs with a drink and watch their kids play in the fountains or sandboxes.
“Our No. 1 seller is our watermelon mint margarita,” she said, while food is served out of a big, green food truck. “We have a nice Asian cucumber salad that’s super crisp and cold with watermelon and sesame and ginger and tamari. We’ve got zucchini baba ganoush with some warm pita, and then we’ve got things like chicken taquitos, old school taco nachos, your Love burger.”
However, Turney said the menu is not representative of the food they will serve when the restaurant opens.
“This is a pop-up,” she noted. “We’re doing it on a food truck.”
The popup will be open until November, when the park must start reorganizing the landscaping to make room for Christmas Village.
For more on The Lawn at Loveluck, listen to the KYW Newsradio original podcast What’s Cooking on the Audacy app.