Bankroll, the new $25 million sports bar, says it has scaled back operations for the summer

Bankroll, the splashy sports bar that opened in March in the former Boyd Theater, announced Monday that it had scaled back its operations for the summer — closing its Big Game Room and restaurant to walk-in customers in favor of private events — and furloughed most employees.

The restaurant, which had served dinner five nights a week and brunch on weekends, was open Sunday. Staff was notified Monday, a spokesperson said. A source in the company said about 50 people have been on the payroll full- and part-time.

In a statement, Bankroll announced that it had seen “strong interest” in private events. “With a lighter professional sports schedule and many Philadelphians traveling to shore points and other locations during the summer, Bankroll’s operating partners decided to use this idle time to optimize the venue’s spaces and operations,” it said.

The statement said regular hours and operations would return “in time for the NFL season.”

The spokesperson said furloughed employees would be offered hourly roles for events work.

“They did what they had to do,” said Scott Swiderski, the executive chef, who learned midday that he was out of work. Other kitchen employees will handle forthcoming events, he said.

Bankroll, whose reported $25 million build-out was backed by Bucks County venture capitalist Paul Martino, opened in March in the front of the Boyd, which had been redeveloped. The Boyd, a circa-1928 art deco movie house at 1910 Chestnut St., less than two blocks from Rittenhouse Square, had become a symbol of benign neglect as it sat empty after closing in 2002. Bankroll’s cavernous two-level Big Game Room sits behind the theater’s restored marquee while the restaurant occupies the former Gap Outlet store next door.

With an array of screens showing betting odds and events, Bankroll positions itself as a high-end sports parlor catering to the new generation of customers who enjoy app-based gaming on their phones. It is not a sports-gaming parlor, per se.

The project faced opposition from neighbors in the William Penn House, a building across the street. In April, just weeks after Bankroll’s opening, Common Pleas Court Judge Anne Marie Coyle ruled that the city Zoning Board of Adjustment had ignored evidence that the bar would worsen traffic congestion and impede emergency vehicles. She overturned the board’s decision to approve its zoning request. Meanwhile, Bankroll was allowed to continue to operate because it had secured a new zoning permit for “assembly and entertainment,” a use allowed under the zoning rules.

Preservationists and nostalgists had lobbied for years to save the Boyd, the last of Center City’s grand movie houses. Plan after plan went nowhere. Demolition began in 2014 for a new movie house that never happened. Then came a new developer, Pearl Properties, creating an apartment building called The Harper behind it. When it razed the Boyd’s ornate auditorium in 2015, Pearl agreed to maintain the facade, foyer, lobby, and some fixtures.

Martino’s project, announced in 2021, initially was a partnership with Starr Restaurants — an affiliation that was touted during Bankroll’s zoning hearings. Shortly before the opening, Bankroll and Starr confirmed that Starr had left the project but declined to specify when that was.

Martino declined to comment Monday.