Center City workers aren’t happy houring like they used to. Bar owners are hoping Sips deals can lure them back.

Happy hours, once the bright spot at the end of a long day at the office, aren’t what they used to be. Despite many Center City offices transitioning to post-pandemic hybrid work, workers haven’t returned to their usual watering holes.

The weekday happy hour crowd “really hasn’t come back in true,” said Joe Crouse, owner of Drinker’s Pub at 19th and Chestnut. “I don’t know if it ever really will.”

This week, Center City Sips officially returns for its 18th summer, and restaurant and bar owners are hoping for a big boost from the weekly summertime happy hour event.

Sips, which is run by the Center City District, was once known for rowdiness more akin to a frat party where you could pay $3 for a beer (in 2017). Now, proprietors see it as an opportunity to attract new customers and make more money at a time when restaurants are still recovering from pandemic losses.

“We’re chomping at the bit to get to Wednesday and see everybody out enjoying themselves,” said Matthew Pagano, owner of Pagano’s Market & Bar, traditionally a popular Sips spot thanks in part to its large outdoor courtyard.

Last summer, when Sips returned from its two-year COVID hiatus, Center City streets saw about 17,000 more pedestrians on average — and a 14% increase in nonresidents — compared to other weekday evenings, said Center City District president Paul Levy said, citing cell phone data the district uses to track foot traffic.

Restaurateurs said they are cautiously optimistic that this summer could be even better. In September, Comcast told 8,000 employees to return to its Philadelphia offices three days a week. Other employers followed, bringing workers back to the city a few days a week. Foot traffic has risen in Center City over the past year, and this spring the business district around the Comcast Center saw the most nonresidents since March 2020.

From his bar-restaurant at 20th and Market, Pagano said he misses the days when offices were full of potential customers. Pagano’s is at the bottom of Commerce Square, a 940,000-square-foot office building complex that is one of many containing empty space. More than 202,000 square feet of office space is available to rent there. And Pagano said he sees few workers coming and going.

“The majority of our happy hour business relies on the attendance in the building,” he said. Foot traffic around Commerce Square has been so low that Pagano decided to no longer open at all on Friday, a day that many hybrid workers work from home.

But, he added, “Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday have been incrementally better in the last few months.”

At Con Murphy’s Irish Pub at 17th and the Parkway, a block from the Comcast Center, happy hour business is about half of what it was pre-pandemic, managing partner Ulana Chmara Kelly said. More corporate happy hour parties are being booked, Kelly said. And more people are coming in around 3 p.m., when the bar’s happy hour starts, perhaps an indication that work schedules are increasingly flexible.

But even expanding happy hour hours and making the deals more competitive hasn’t been enough to make a full recovery. The pub is doing Sips this summer — “without question,” she said.

Farther south on 17th, a block off Rittenhouse Square, Black Sheep Pub’s happy hour has bounced back to about 75% of what it was pre-pandemic, said owner James Stephens. In the coming weeks, the bar is adding food specials to its happy hour menu for the first time since before the pandemic, he said, and Stephens hopes that he’ll see the same 20% bump from Sips that he did last year.

“If we do the same this summer, we’ll be thrilled,” he said.

Restaurateurs Valerie Safran and Marcie Turney never participated in Sips pre-pandemic. Last summer, Barbuzzo joined a slew of other 13th Street restaurants that took part and saw a 20% bump in business on Sips nights compared to other Wednesdays.

“The Sips I had heard of in the past when we didn’t participate — all the crazy stuff — we didn’t see that,” she said. “We just saw people coming out. And people love happy hour.”

Because of how Barbuzzo fared last year, Little Nonna’s and Bud & Marilyn’s are also on the Sips roster this summer, as is the couple’s newest restaurant, Darling Jack’s. Safran said she is hoping the extra business can make up for the loss of lunch crowds, and the dip in late-night business due at least in part, she believes, to the perception that Center City is unsafe.

“When this started, this was an after-work happy hour, and clearly in the last two years, this is very much part of a broader recovery strategy we’re carrying out,” said Levy, of the Center City District, which represents downtown business interests.

At Sips’ peak in 2018 and 2019, about 90 establishments participated, Levy said. As of Tuesday, 75 had signed up, a decline Levy said was primarily due to businesses not surviving the pandemic.

Center City District used to charge each Sips participant $300, which covered some advertising costs, Levy said. The district has yet to reinstate that fee — though Levy said they may do so in summer 2024 — because it knows businesses are still recovering.

It’s not only the weekly bump in business that helps restaurants. Sips can leave a lasting positive impression on customers who have yet to get back in the habit of going out regularly in the city post-pandemic.

While crime has skyrocketed across Philadelphia as a whole, as it has in most other large cities, a recent study from the Brookings Institution found Center City to be “remarkably safe.” Yet the same study showed fear of downtown crime persists.

Several restaurant owners and executives said some customers, particularly nonresidents, are still staying away, especially later at night, due to crime concerns, and their crowds have skewed noticeably younger.

Sips “shows the city as a safe place to shop and dine,” said Michael McCaulley, director of beverages at Schulson Collective, which has eight restaurants, including Independence Beer Garden, Sampan, and Harp & Crown, participating in Sips. “It’s safe to travel to and from the city using public transportation.”

“13th Street is still rocking,” Safran said. “People in the burbs, I hear them say things. I don’t know what they think is happening in Center City. ... We’re still here and still thriving.”