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The fourth annual manifestation of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s pop-up efforts kicks off this week with a tropical-themed beer garden and park at 1438-46 South St. The Kenny Gamble-owned property sits adjacent to Lisa Wilson’s Jamaican Jerk Hut, 1436 South St., and when Wilson got a call from Gamble that she’d be hosting a summer of tropicalia, she flipped.
“We’re gonna be boomin’ – we can’t wait. It’s a blessing,” Wilson, whose business is typically open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. though she’ll be staying open another hour to feed beer and cocktail-guzzling masses well into the fall, said.
She even had a window built into her kitchen for easier and quicker access to a boon of clientele about to descend upon her nearly 23-year-old business.
“’Hey, Lisa, I got some good news for you,’” Wilson said of the music legend’s call. “I screamed and said thank you.”
She’s already hired a good crew from the neighborhood to help her meet the sudden swell in demand.
“Bring it on! We’re ready!” she exclaimed, when asked if she and her team would be able to handle the spike in business. “We’re so excited. This is truly a blessing, and we’re just thankful that the pop-up garden pops up right next to us and for Kenny Gamble to make it happen. We’re really thankful and grateful.”
The first two PHS pop-up gardens, at 20th and Market streets in 2011 and at 1919 Walnut St. in ’12, were successful but were dwarfed by the success of ’13’s beer garden on South Broad Street across from the Kimmel Center. It pulled in nearly 30,000 visitors and boasted as many as 500 to 700 visitors on big nights.
“It’s at least as large if not a little bit bigger. The design theme is sort of South Beach, tropical and urban chic,” Alan Jaffe, PHS’s director of communications, said, pointing to the recycled Philadelphia Flower Show zelkova trees that will be strung with hanging lights, the palm trees covered in LED lights and IKEA-donated furniture on the hard patio that rises out of cedar chip beds.
“That’s what PHS is all about – take horticulture and add in the element of fantastic design and you’ve got another form of art,” Jaffe said.
According to the PHS release: “Proceeds from the Pop Up Garden support the PHS City Harvest program, which creates green jobs and brings together a network of community gardeners who raise fresh, healthy food for more than 1,200 families in need each week.”
The garden, indeed, has all kinds of benefits that reach deeper than programs like the City Harvest program.
“It’s looking for those spaces that are really underperforming and really turning them around and bringing the messages of PHS at the same time,” PHS President Drew Becher said. “Plants are wonderful creatures and they’re pretty cheap and they can transform spaces.”
It doesn’t take an economist or city planner to pick up on the success of PHS’s pop-ups, with the Spruce Street Harbor Park’s bustling crowds and the much-hyped arrival of an Independence Hall pop-up beer garden helmed by Top Chef contestant Travis Masar.
“Well, I think some of the major indicators of success is the amount of people doing these pop-up spaces in the city,” Becher said. “It’s not copying – imitation is the best form of flattery.”
The South of South Neighborhood Association and South Street West Business Association are on board, as well. Lauren Vidas, SOSNA’s chairperson, also heads up the successful Blocktoberfest, which started as “a block party on Christian Street with 5 to 10 kegs,” but has really taken off since its move to South Street.
“Last year we raised over $100,000, and we gave about $80,000 to local neighborhood causes,” Vidas stated. “We’re really excited to have them as a partner over the summer and into the fall.”
The park is set to close in “early fall” and will open at 11 a.m. on weekdays, 2 p.m. on Saturdays and noon on Sundays. Food and drink will be available for purchase on weekdays from 5 to 10 p.m. (until midnight on Fridays), with open-to-midnight availability on Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. on Sundays. The bar will be run by the beverage purveyors who operate Time, Vintage Wine Bar, Bar and Garage. And in addition to the Jamaican Jerk Hut’s offerings, food trucks will back into the back garden via Kater Street.
Hari Dasa, the 29-year owner of Govinda’s, 1400 South St., is pumped to see the progress of West South Street.
“The transformation has been just incredible. We used to meet years ago, and we used to dream of the corridor becoming occupied and somewhat nicer, but it has far exceeded our expectations,” he said, starry-eyed at the park’s progress just days before Tuesday night’s grand opening party.
“It’s more than a dream come true,” he said. “We don’t have Rittenhouse Square, but look what we do have.”
Though this isn’t a site specific to PHS’s Philadelphia Land Care program, which cleans and greens spaces in an effort to reduce crime activity and up property value, the effect is still the same. Jaffe reports around 8,000 lots have been transformed since the 1970s.
“You take a vacant lot and you turn it into something beautiful and it has an immediate impact on the community,” he said.
“I know I’m not the only person that walks by and says ‘I wish something would happen here – this needs to be cleaned up’” Becher mused.
When he first walked by the 2011 pop-up, he had a similar thought.
“This is such an ugly piece of property in such a beautiful place, and we’ve got to be able to make this better,” he remembered saying to himself.
Though the horticultural society may best be known as the creators of the time-honored Flower Show (occurring annually since 1829; the Society was founded two year earlier), it may soon be known as the founder of Philly pop-ups.
Vidas has been gauging any neighborhood skepticism and says there really isn’t any.
“I think given PHS’s reputation and the fact that this is their fourth one, and a lot of folks were very familiar with the one on Broad Street, that probably did a lot to tamp out any concerns,” she said. “The only concern was that it wasn’t opening fast enough.”
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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