Has Swanky Bubbles gone flat?
The Old City club, redone by a reality show last spring, is closed this weekend.
If what I'm hearing is correct, the Spike TV series Bar Rescue ultimately couldn't save the Old City nightclub Swanky Bubbles.
It's dark tonight -- a Saturday night and prime time for its bread-and-butter: spirited bachelorette parties.
Staffers learned Friday that their services were no longer needed, according to a source. I'm awaiting a return call from owners.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court records show state tax liens as well as a legal tussle between landlord Janice Rimmeir and the owners over the liquor license. According to Liquor Control Board records, the license is inactive, which in theory should prevent the club from serving alcohol. (LCB records online do not indicate when the license status changed.)
On Oct. 27, Common Pleas Court Judge Arnold New barred the owners from selling the license while Rimmeir obtains business records.
Swanky Bubbles, boasting a champagne theme, opened in the late 1999 on the onetime site of the fancy French restaurant La Truffe. A Cherry Hill version, which boasted the most expensive liquor license ever purchased in New Jersey ($1.6 million), was open from 2007 to 2010. The space in Short Hills Shopping Center is now Dublin Square.
Swanky Bubbles had lost its effervescence earlier this year when partner John Frankowski allowed bar expert Jon Taffer to remake the bar in May, reflagging it Sheer for a nationwide audience. But the Swanky Bubbles name never really went away.