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Friday, December 11, 2009
Doc Watson's next life? Elementary!

Doc Watson's (216 S. 11th St.), a fixture across from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital since 1971, is just weeks from final sale and a shutdown, during which it will be transformed into a veddy English pub called Sherlock's Tavern.

A partnership of Bob DeBolt, John Dunfee, and Greg Dodge -- they're behind Steve Gonzalez's soon-to-open pizza-wine bar Zavino at 13th and Sansom -- has bought the building from longtime owner Barry Sandrow.

The buyers expect to get the keys in January, and then work begins.

Among the touches: a new facade, and add a white marble-topped bar, lots of black and gold finishes, bookcases behind the bar.

DeBolt says they weren't even thinking about Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movie opening Christmas Day. They simply wanted to play off Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sandrow, who employed such luminaries as "Tex" Cobb and Dominick Irrera, ran Doc's from 1971 to 1997, when he sold it to an operator who was shut down in a notorious 2005 raid that discovered 100 underage drinkers stashed in a fourth-floor apartment. Sandrow sorted through the legal mess and reopened it in 2007 as the more proper Dr.Watson's.

Meanwhile, Sandrow says his last day has not been determined, as the deal awaits a sign-off by the Liquor Control Board.

Posted by Michael Klein @ 4:21 PM  Permalink | 8 comments
Comments   
Posted 05:13 PM, 12/11/2009
elex
I hope that they have live English Premier League football on big screens at the bar.
Posted 05:31 PM, 12/11/2009
goexplorers
elex indeed. New owners: I live around the corner. I'll be a regular if you show the EPL.
Posted 05:31 PM, 12/11/2009
Old German
Doc watson's is a hole
Posted 10:34 PM, 12/11/2009
beezer77
VIVA LA CONNIE'S RIC RAC!!!!!!
Posted 10:39 PM, 12/11/2009
bingo
another Philadelphia Landmark bites the dust
Comment removed.
Posted 12:51 PM, 12/15/2009
Pelti
Elex- there are already a fair number of bars that show the Prem live in this city
Posted 04:32 PM, 01/05/2010
OldCityJoe
Pelti-the more the merrier.. I'm with elex.
8 comments
About Michael Klein
Michael Klein chronicles local people, places and things (in easy-to-digest portions) three days a week in his Inquirer column "INQlings." He also covers the restaurant scene in his Thursday Food column, "Table Talk." See his work at http://is.gd/5Ozz7
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