June 30, 2026
Jon Tuleya/PhillyVoice
Broad Street Brewing, Rival Bros Coffee and High Street Hospitality will be the new tenants behind a year-round destination at the LOVE Park Welcome Center, which has been vacant for the last decade. Broad Street Brewing will host a beer garden on the plaza starting this weekend and continuing through the fall. The coffee shop is slated to open in spring 2027.
The long-vacant Love Park Welcome Center finally has a trio of new tenants who will bring beer and coffee to the "flying saucer" building, starting with a beer garden over the Fourth of July weekend.
Broad Street Brewing is teaming up with Rival Bros Coffee and High Street Hospitality Group to create a year-round destination for food, drinks and events at the circular hub on the corner of 16th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation said Tuesday.
“The iconic landmark has long been a place where people come together, and this new operation helps honor that legacy while creating a sustainable future for one of Philadelphia’s most important public spaces," Parks & Rec Commissioner Susan Slawson said in a statement.
Broad Street Brewing, which was founded three years ago in Bristol Township, Bucks County, will host a beer garden on the plaza outside the Welcome Center starting this holiday weekend and continuing through the fall.
“LOVE Park is one of those places that belongs to everyone, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly,” Broad Street Brewing co-founder Brandon Wellington said in a statement. “Our goal is to create a welcoming place that showcases some of the region’s best local partners while respecting the history of this incredible space. We’re excited to help bring fresh life to the park and be part of what’s ahead as Philly celebrates America’s 250th birthday.”
After the holiday weekend, the building will undergo more renovations ahead of a grand opening of the coffee shop slated for spring 2027. High Street Hospitality Group's restaurants in the city include Fork, High Street, a. kitchen + bar and the Bread Room.
The circular, glass-paneled Welcome Center was built in 1960 and originally served as a hospitality hub where tourists in Center City could get brochures promoting the offerings of Fairmount Park. The building was renovated in 2016 as part of the overhaul of LOVE Park and added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places to protect it from future demolition.
But in the years since the renovation, the city struggled to find a tenant to occupy the building. Plans to open a restaurant in the space fell through when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the city conducted several unsuccessful searches for new operators in the years since.
The new vendors were chosen through a competitive process with the goal of getting the space activated in time for the nation's 250th anniversary. Earlier this year, city officials said they were hopeful the flying saucer could become a valuable revenue source for Parks & Rec.
Katie Burns Kay, head of business development for Parks & Rec, said the department received more than 30 different proposals for the space. In January, she said she expects adding vendors and events to the flying saucer will go a long way toward drawing more people to LOVE Park.
"I really believe the foot traffic and heat map of the park is going to drastically change once this building is activated," Burns Kay said. "It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the activities of the park shape around having a new business drawing attention. The LOVE sign can't get jealous."
