Emily Gabos and Monica Pagan dine at Liberty Point on Penn's Landing in Philadelphia. They were one of only a few tables at the restaurant on the 95-degree day.
Installing new A/C in a restaurant kitchen may be a necessary step during heat waves, but it’s no small order, costing thousands of dollars, Cordova said. “We see people show up, they get excited about the beer garden when they’re in the air-conditioning inside the tap room, and then they’ll push open the door,” Lacy said. “We watch them go up to the beer garden and then immediately turn back around and say, ‘No, it’s just too hot.’”
At the heart of Center City SIPS, the district’s weekly summer happy hour, Uptown Beer Garden is weathering the heat waves thanks to infrastructure investments. Isabel Rosenberg, assistant director of Craft Concepts Group, which oversees pop-up venues like Uptown, points to the beer garden’s retractable pergola canopy that can be adjusted and extended throughout the large garden to provide shade during the daytime.
“The heat is not something we can control, so we try to make it more pleasant with misters, cold towels, kiddie pools, and ice for guests,” she said. “We have delayed our openings during heat advisories during the day for the safety of staff and guests.”