Food and Drinq

The venue itself was fantastic for live shows but they really needed to draw national acts and pair them w/ up-and-coming local acts. They dug their own grave.

From Grape Street's MySpace bulletin:

"The Grape Street was closed permanently this past Saturday February 2nd 2008. The owner and the management made the decision last week. The reasons for the closing were not based on lack of business or profitability but rather a larger tenant coming in and occupying the space the Grape Street currently resides. The building owners met several times with the Grape Street’s owner to discuss this issue. We decided that it would not be in the Grape Street’s best interest to try to match the newer tenant’s rent increase and the owner of the club respectfully declined the offer to match. This was a legal and legitimate business transaction.

I would like to thank all the patrons, staff, bands, purveyors, booking companies, record labels, beer and liquor representatives, radio stations, and everyone else not represented in the aforementioned groupings for their support of the Grape Street over the past twenty years. This club was home to many people including myself for almost a decade. The club’s closing was abrupt but not without thought.

My work email address will be functioning for the next several days and I will be closing up my office this week. I will try to answer everyone’s questions over the next couple of days but I too must look for work now. I want to apologize in advance to all the bands that will have their shows cancelled.
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I will be taking down the Grape Street’s Myspace page at the end of the working week. The Grape’s official website will be shutting down soon as well."

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I don't think the impact of the loss of this venue can be underestimated. Grape Street did attract a number of national acts - ones that would appropriately fit into a mid-size venue. There was no grave to be dug.

What the city has lost is a mid-size venue that supported national and local artists, that drew meaningful support from local commercial radio stations (a big deal given the current state of affairs with commercial radio), and was an integral part of the live music and arts scene.

It's a void that will not be easy to fill, if it's ever filled at all.

Now where will we go for under-aged drinking on Thursday nights?

I was the original owner of The Grape St Pub which opened in 1985. It was very rewarding both creativly and personally to see it continue as one of the standard bearers of live music in the Philadelphia area over the last 20 years. The very first musical act to play there at the opening on September 7, 1985 was Dave Crum and Mike Boni. At that time, we carried over 125 brands of beer and had live music, Thursday through Saturday. To this day, old customers approach me and relate a story about a good time they had at Grape St. I have been as far away as Los Angeles and Jamaica where local muscians mentioned the venue.
Sorry to see it close but all things must pass.
Steve Sendzik
ssendzik@aol.com