Curran’s pub has ‘no business’ in the wake of road closures and detours. Here’s how area businesses are feeling the aftershock of the I-95 collapse.

As traffic inched steadily onto the I-95 ramp outside Curran’s Irish Inn, business inside the Tacony pub crawled to a near-standstill.

“There’s no business,” said owner Michael Ditro, seated in his upstairs office around lunchtime Wednesday. Downstairs, a couple of patrons sat at the bar in the otherwise empty restaurant. “If it lasts a year, we won’t be here.”

In the days after Sunday’s bridge collapse, officials closed many of the area’s east-west roads, including adjacent Longshore Avenue, where most of Curran’s patrons park. As a result, business plummeted early in the week — Ditro estimated it was down 95%. On Thursday, police opened access to Curran’s Longshore Avenue parking lot, and the pub put out a sign alerting customers that they could turn off the detour route and park there. Whether the change will entice more customers is yet to be seen.

Along State Road, the local detour route for drivers traveling south on I-95, business owners said Wednesday that they had already felt an impact from the new, often-changing traffic patterns and road closures.

At several bars and restaurants, owners said that large parties had canceled, not wanting to deal with potential congestion, and fewer people seemed inclined to stop in for a bite or a beer.

“Everyone is just tired of sitting on 95 and wants to get home,” said Chris Wilson, a founding partner of Sharkey’s Grill & Ale House. He motioned outside the restaurant’s windows to the steady stream of cars being funneled off the highway onto Bleigh Avenue, then onto State Road, to be directed back on the highway less than a mile later outside Curran’s.

Across the Northeast, restaurateurs, retailers, and other shop owners said they were anxious to see whether customers would still come out for Father’s Day, typically a busy weekend for their businesses.

In a visit to the collapse site on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said reconstruction of the roadway would happen “as quickly as possible,” with the demolition already days ahead of schedule.

In the meantime, city officials and the police department are working to ensure customers and employees can get to local businesses, said Mayor Jim Kenney, who encouraged people to report any road closure- or detour-related business issues to the Department of Commerce.

The I-95 collapse is only the latest obstacle in a series of difficulties for local business owners who are still recovering from the pandemic. They’ve also dealt with rising costs, struggled to hire workers, and tried to assuage customer concerns about crime and safety in the city.

On State Road, congestion has been an issue for more than a decade, ever since I-95 reconstruction began in 2008, Ditro said.

He’s dealt with past road closures, which have at times boosted business. When the local roads are accessible, they see more customers, Ditro said. “Now, through whatever logic they’re using, all they did is shut out the neighborhood east and west, and it’s ludicrous.”

For a couple of days, parking for Curran’s patrons and staff consisted of six spots in a tight, easy-to-miss lot, right before cars are directed onto I-95 southbound. Across Longshore Avenue, a larger lot that could fit a dozen cars sat empty and inaccessible. The road’s closure also cut off all street parking.

Cars couldn’t stop on State Road, either, making takeout orders — which are about 40% of the pub’s business — almost impossible.

Staff had been talking with police directing traffic outside, alerting the officers when someone would be arriving soon to pick up an order and asking that the customer be permitted to pull over temporarily in the middle of the cattle chute onto I-95. But, Ditro said, some customers have driven right by, perhaps confused or overwhelmed by the new traffic flow, and then canceled their order.

Down the road at Sharkey’s, six regulars sat around the large circular bar Wednesday afternoon. Usually, Wilson said, there are about 25.

Still, he said, “we’re trying to stay positive.”

Across the street, Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse, a BBQ restaurant, is seeing half as many customers as it usually does. Co-owner Brooke Higgins said they’re keeping staff busy working on catering orders, which are still doing as well as before the collapse.

“Our regulars have been really supportive,” she said. Some have bought gift cards online even though they’re not coming in right away to eat.

For now, the restaurant isn’t going to adjust its hours. This weekend, Sweet Lucy’s has 300 scheduled reservations for its Father’s Day lunch buffet and hasn’t had cancellations since the collapse.

“It’s kind of like, we survived COVID. We’ll figure this out,” Higgins said.

Farther from I-95, the aftershocks of the collapse were less pronounced.

Several business owners along the commercial corridors of Frankford and Cottman Avenues, more than a mile from the collapse, said they had yet to see a tangible impact on business, though traffic in the area had increased.

At Butcher Boys, a hoagie shop, owner Terry Jones was busy fulfilling scheduled orders for graduations. Down the road, Penn Hardware received a delivery of items on Tuesday from a warehouse in Wilkes-Barre without issue. At Giggles Gifts, Joe Veneziale said he worries more about crime, not the collapse, keeping customers away.

At Stein Your Florist Co., longtime employee Dana Condron said she isn’t worried about a long-term impact.

Many people place flower orders online, and Stein’s has another location across the river in Burlington. With deliveries, “we’re doing our best” getting orders to their destinations by the customer’s desired time, she said.

Business had been “off” in the days after the collapse, she said, but employees and customers will adjust.

“It gets trafficky, and people don’t want to stop and get flowers,” she said. “Of course, we have to just bear with it.”

Debbie Keefer, who works at Mayfair Fitness, said getting out of parallel parking spots on the road has been more difficult. When traffic isn’t backed up, people seem to be driving faster.

She yelled at a few cars speeding by: “This is not I-95, this is Frankford Ave.”

At the clothing store Art History 101, owner Jay Pross has used the collapse as inspiration. On Wednesday morning, an employee behind the register folded a pile of limited-edition items: Black tees etched with the words “Avoid Northeast Philly” atop an image of road construction.

It had already been selling well online, with exactly 95 shirts being sold in the first three hours, said manager Eric Bamberger. As he talked, two customers came into the store to buy the new shirts.

For Art History, which has a strong following in Bucks County, any negative effects from the I-95 collapse would just be another bump in the road after having survived COVID-19 and a fire that burned the store down in 2021.

But it is too soon to say what impact, if any, the detours will have on business.

“The weekend will be the real tell,” said Bamberger.

Closer to the collapse site, business owners were waiting to hear more from city officials before deciding whether to adjust hours or staffing.

Sharkey’s canceled its popular Quizzo night Monday due to congestion, Wilson said, then closed entirely on Tuesday for staff to regroup.

If traffic patterns continue, intensifying around 4 p.m. and keeping dinner customers away, the restaurant may start closing earlier, he said.

At Curran’s, where customers can’t easily access the pub, Ditro said he could have to make harder decisions about the future of the 24-year-old institution.

“We’re on a bubble now. Do we stay in business?” he said. “How long is this going, and what is the endgame?”

“If they say to us it’s a two-week endgame, we’re all going to suck it up. It is what it is,” he added. “But there are no answers here.”