Last night, not all Philadelphia bars were open to St. Patrick's Day celebrants.
Top Dog Sports Bar recently abandoned its location at 36th and Chestnut streets, forcing would-be patrons to find other holiday hosts.
According to Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 274 union, Top Dog vacated the premises on Saturday, March 6. The bar's management reportedly shut down the operation late at night without having told anyone of their exit.
Although the official cause of the closing remains uncertain, Local 274 officials cite past Top Dog legal problems as a probable explanation.
Top Dog management could not be reached, and employees at a sister restaurant in Cherry Hill, N.J., refused to comment on the situation.
The sports bar had attracted students from both Penn and Drexel universities. Several customers said they had not recently patronized Top Dog, citing increased prices as the deterrent.
"We used to go to watch football games on Sunday, but we stopped when they started charging more money," College sophomore Adam Dean said.
Specifically, Dean said that he and his group of four were charged $8 for glasses of tap water one Sunday. They had never been charged before, he said.
Top Dog first entered the Sheraton location in the fall of 2002, taking over for Shula's Steak 2. At the time, the restaurant owners allegedly violated Philadelphia's worker displacement legislation by failing to honor the Shula employees' 90-day grace period.
Top Dog "did not retain our people," said 274's Charles Murphy. "They were never given the opportunity to keep their jobs."
In September 2002, Top Dog's management met with Murphy to discuss the current labor situation. Ultimately, the negotiations yielded no resolution.
After the unsuccessful meetings, Local 274 members began informational picketing outside the sports bar. The protests have continued for the past 1 1/2 years.
Picketing has been performed in order "to inform the public of the erosion of area standards," according to Murphy.
The HERE member also noted the other recent troubles of Top Dog.
"There were a lot of legal fees, the business had been reduced, and they've had a couple of large fights in the location recently," Murphy said. "In my opinion, they were a nuisance bar, and the business they were getting was disruptive at best."
For these reasons, the bar's sudden and unannounced closing "wasn't a total surprise," according to Murphy.
While the legal consequences of the Top Dog closure remain unclear, Murphy said that HERE 274's goal had not changed.
"Local's interest is for the workers to be able to retain their jobs," Murphy said. "It's the statement we made in September of 2002, and it's the same statement we are making now."
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