Philadelphia restaurants rally to support abortion access

When news of last week’s Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade reached Amanda Shulman, she was struck with an overwhelming helplessness. “It was a horrible day,” says the chef-owner of Her Place Supper Club, who processed the information alongside her manager Julianna Bursack during pre-shift setup at the restaurant.

As a result of that meeting, the duo rallied 20-plus restaurants around Philadelphia to donate proceeds from Saturday, July 2, sales to AbortionFunds.org, which allocates donations to communities and clinics helping people directly affected by lack of access to abortions.

“I didn’t want to just put up an Instagram post and let people know how I felt, I would rather do something,” she says. “My staff is primarily women — we felt like we needed to do something to respond.”

On an Instagram post from the restaurant posted Thursday evening, the team wrote, “We thought it would be more impactful if we invited our friends to join in, so we reached out to bars, restaurants, purveyors, and distributors.”

For their part, Her Place Supper Club is donating all proceeds from its 8:30 seating to the organization, while other spots will run specials and deals throughout the day. High Street and Fork will donate 100% of sales from day and evening service, while Essen Bakery will donate babka sales; both El Merkury’s Reading Terminal Market and Chestnut Street locations will sell a “Women’s Rights Churro” benefiting the cause, while a number of others like Sor Ynez, Jet Wine Garden, and Rex will donate sales from specific items. Participating bars include Lloyd Whiskey Bar and Jose Pistolas, among others. A full list can be found on Instagram, or listed below.

Relatedly, South Philly’s Devil’s Den is re-upping its Cocktail For A Cause special, a featured cocktail or craft beer with a portion of proceeds benefiting a local charity. From now through Labor Day 25% of sales of Triple Bottom Brewing’s Seeds of the Revolution Pilsner or the Mai Choice cocktail (a Mai Tai riff) will be donated to the Abortion Liberation Fund of PA.

“The scary part is we’re lucky we’re not affected today, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna be affected tomorrow,” says Shulman. This isn’t Her Place’s first foray into charity work — the restaurant regularly works with the Sunday Love Project to cook meals for unhoused people. “This is all just step one for us. This isn’t a one-and-done charity dinner — I want our work to be representative of the restaurant.”

“I know people tell us not to bring politics into our business but this is not an option for me,” she says. “This is too big of a deal.”

Participating restaurants:

A. Kitchen

Cafe Ynez

Del Sur

El Merkury

Essen Bakery

Fork

Friday Saturday Sunday

High Street

Irwins

Jet Wine Garden

Jose Pistolas

Kalaya

Lark/Landing Kitchen

Laser Wolf

Laurel

Lloyd Whiskey Bar

Middle Child and Middle Child Club House

Mish Mish

Poi Dog

Rex

River Twice

Royal Izakaya

Sally

Sanchos Pistolas

Sor Ynez

Spice Finch

Sweet Amalia

Third Wheel Cheese

Vernick Wine

Update: Shulman said the day’s effort raised $28,390 “and counting.”