Craft Brewery Planned for a Soon-to-Be-Unrecognizable Stretch of Washington Ave

Dock Street Brewery, the long-running craft brewpub in West Philly, is opening a second location. Similar to 50th and Baltimore when Dock Street relocated there in 2007, the new address is something of an unlikely spot. The upcoming brewery and taproom will fill 11,000 square feet in a former warehouse at 2118 Washington Avenue, on the border between Graduate Hospital and Point Breeze. The current brewery/restaurant/tasting room in West Philly, set in an old firehouse, will stay open. Dock Street, which bills itself as Philly’s first microbrewery, started in 1985.

Most of the beer production — including the cannery, which was added in West Philly last year —will relocate to the South Philly facility, slated to open in spring 2019.

The wide swath of Washington Avenue west of Broad Street is better known for its industrial warehouses, building supply wholesalers, auto mechanics, and abandoned factories. Until recently, you could stroll block after block and not find a restaurant, in contrast to the other side of Broad with its concentration of Vietnamese eateries.

Kermit’s Bake Shoppe, a pizzeria and bakery, opened at 2204 Washington in 2013. Café Ynez, the excellent Mexican BYOB, opened at 2025 Washington the following year. Kermit’s closed in 2016. Chick’s, a casual neighborhood bar/restaurant that’s consistently crowded at 18th and Washington, started serving in the spring of 2017. And that was about it directly on this stretch of the street.

Google Maps

Now, Dock Street is just one of a slew of big projects in the works. The 150-year-old Frankford Chocolate Factory at 2101 Washington, across from the planned brewery, is being torn down to make way for more than 40 townhouses, 20,000 square feet of retail, and 20,000 square feet of “public space,” Curbed Philly reports. According to Philly.com, that retail space might include a supermarket. Developer Ori Feibush is also buying property across the street with plans to replace it with apartments, townhouses, and 14,000 square feet of shops fronting Washington.

Graduate Square, another new residential and retail development, is coming to 25th and Washington. In the other direction, the 300,000-square-foot Lincoln Square is still under construction on the northwest corner of Broad and Washington but leasing apartments in anticipation of a late summer opening. It will house a Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store, a Target, a PetSmart, and a Starbucks.

• First Look Inside Dock Street’s New Tasting Room
• Chick’s on Washington Avenue Has an Opening Date
• Ori Feibush buys historic chocolate factory for homes, retail [Curbed Philly]
• Group razing Frankford Chocolate Factory building to buy adjacent land for development [Philly.com]