The Peabody, located on Temple University’s campus, is being reimagined with a renewed focus on community, campus culture and creating memorable experiences.
Garis Pierre Eddington of Fork and Lobby Hospitality Group, a restaurateur with over 20 years of experience who launched his first venture while still in college, aims to make The Peabody “the number one college bar in Pennsylvania.”
“When you can reimagine how college kids consume food and entertainment, having years behind it, it’s easier to try and give them something that they can not just enjoy but have an emotional connection to, that favorite location.”
The sports bar will feature a 90-foot wall at the back, equipped with three massive TVs for watching college football on Saturdays and other major games. When there’s no big game, the wall transforms into an entertainment screen, syncing vibrant visuals to the music for a dynamic nighttime experience.
The Peabody will feature two bars, including a second-floor bar near the jumbotrons. The space will offer booth seating so guests can enjoy the game, while also providing plenty of room for the nightlife crowd.
A private room will be available for rent, perfect for birthday parties, celebrations and other events. The venue also plans to host Madden tournaments in this space.
The design will showcase a Temple University-inspired theme.
“It will be Temple themed, but we’re not going to go crazy Philadelphia theme because a lot of the students coming in aren’t from Philadelphia,” he said. “We want them to just be comfortable with being that this is my university.”
Eddington said he wants The Peabody to be a space for everyone, from freshmen nights where guests under 21 can enjoy a fun, alcohol-free experience, to happy hours for faculty and parents visiting their students.
“We’re just trying to bring it in a professional manner where parents can actually laugh and smile and when they look up the bar, they’ll be like, ‘I’ll be there too’ because it’s making the parents remember their first time at college as well,” Eddington said.
Eddington said all menu items will be made fresh, never frozen. The menu will include Dorito nachos, Philly cheesesteak and chicken egg rolls, fresh salmon and Black Angus beef sliders along with wings.
“They’ll have 10 flavors of wings. They’ll have wing eating competitions over there and see who can eat the atomic wings,” he said. “It’s going to be fun.”
Eddington also wants to put an emphasis on hiring Temple University students.
“We want to make sure that everything’s covered and the staff is trained correctly,” Eddington said. “It’s a real amazing training program. They’ll learn a lot about hospitality when they work with us. We’re going to teach students how to run a high volume hospitality location.”
While Eddington hasn’t set an official opening date for The Peabody, he hopes to debut the bar in late September or October.
Tailgate Sports Bar
The Peabody isn’t Eddington’s only upcoming Philadelphia project. Tailgate Sports Bar is set to open in the city’s Northern Liberties neighborhood. What Now Philadelphia previously reported on the expected opening, and new details have now emerged.
The sports bar is set to open this September at 1033 North 2nd St.
“Tailgate is a little intense,” Eddington said. “It’s a place that we want all consumers to gather and create the most intense sports moments and share the most intense sports moments that we all do at home.”
Tailgate will feature more than 30 TVs and an interior designed with sports fans in mind. Inside, a “Did You Know?” wall will highlight little-known moments in sports history.
Outside, the bar will boast Philadelphia’s second-largest patio—behind Xfinity Live!, soon to be Stateside Live!—complete with cornhole to recreate a classic tailgate, a golf cornhole setup for chipping competitions and a six-foot-tall adult Jenga.
While Tailgate will deliver an intense sports experience, it will also feature a more upscale, elevated side of the bar.
“Tailgate is more of a high end sports bar because it’s not just set up to come and do sports,” Eddington said. “You can actually come here and enjoy real wine and real cocktails. There’s lounge furniture imported from Greece with fire pit areas on the other side of the venue.”
The menu will feature southern fried fish and chips, quesadillas, loaded chicken tenders and 14 wing flavors, with “a lot more secrets up our sleeve,” Eddington said.
“Tailgate is made for and designed for people in the community,” he said. “Northern Liberties has had such a great run and then it got revitalized with all new stuff in the last couple of years. We want to bring that new energy that comes with the area.”
Beyond the September debut, Eddington plans to franchise Tailgate Sports Bar, bringing its intense and sophisticated atmosphere to other cities.
