What’s up with Uptown Beer Garden’s dress code for Center City SIPS?

Last week marked the kickoff of the 20th season of Center City SIPS, the weekly Wednesday happy hour featuring $7 cocktails, $6 wines, and $5 beers at 90 downtown bars and beer gardens. The event reliably brings out both lovers and haters, in person and on social media. This year is no different.

On Wednesday, Philadelphia resident Dena Ferrara Driscoll, director of development and communications at a local nonprofit, took to X (formerly Twitter) to bemoan the return of the often-debauched summer tradition. In this case, the behavior was beyond sloppy: Driscoll had to wait for a bar-goer to finish urinating outside the door of the lobby at 2 Penn Center to exit the building.

“So glad [Center City District’s] SIPs is back and Uptown Beer Garden privatized the courtyard outside of my work,” Driscoll tweeted. “PS this is the only door you can leave my office at night out of and this man had a bladder of an elephant.”

On her way out, Driscoll snapped a photo of Uptown Beer Garden’s SIPS dress code policy, posted on a sign outside the beer garden’s entrance: “No hats. No boots. No inappropriate clothing.”

The tweet sparked conversation: “A dress code for $5 cocktails? What a joke!” “No hats is no good for us bald dudes in summer sun.” “Every year SIPS happens. And every year I hate them THAT much more.” But Driscoll’s main point was to underscore the history of restaurant dress codes, which are often unevenly enforced and have been the basis for some establishments turning away Black customers.

“I work adjacent to Uptown,” Driscoll elaborated in a message. “It’s really disappointing that they continually post discriminatory dress codes year after year. We know that policies like this are not applied to patrons evenly. Uptown is an outdoor Beer Garden that often blasts explicit music starting in the afternoon. [T]he idea that they need to have a dress code because they are an elevated venue is just pretense.”

Conrad Brenner, the host of the Art Outside podcast from WHYY, who also tweeted about the dress code, said that “in my opinion, dress codes are ridiculous. They are nearly impossible to uniformly enact. And they give people the power to engage with their own personal prejudices. Eliminate all dress codes!”

Center City District, which organizes SIPS across participating establishments, does not have any role in Uptown Beer Garden’s dress code or business practices, according to CCD senior manager of retail marketing and events Giavana Suraci.

Uptown Beer Garden owner Teddy Sourias denies there’s any discrimination or pretense afoot. The dress code is functional and has been in place for several years, Sourias said. “It’s there to protect anybody from losing a toe and, for us, to get our staff through the crowd,” he said.

Of the many establishments run by Craft Concepts Group, Sourias’ growing bar and restaurant group, Uptown is the only one with a dress code. Even then, it’s only enforced during SIPS — every Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. until Aug. 28 — which sees lines around the block and a throng of customers so dense that Sourias says it gives him anxiety.

Sourias explained that Uptown staffers wears CCG-branded hats to differentiate themselves from patrons, and Uptown security guards use the hats to spot staff within a crowd, then escort them through the crush of people — imperative for Uptown’s fleet of barbacks, who lug kegs, buckets of ice, and bottles of booze across the 10,000-square-foot courtyard space. To maintain that visibility, he says, Uptown disallows any hats whatsoever. “It’s not like we’re pinpointing hats,” Sourias said.

Boots became part of the code after a few flip-flop-clad patrons were badly injured. “A girl literally almost lost her freakin’ toe at the old Uptown,” Sourias said. Accordingly, Sourias said, the bouncers use discretion to decide which boots pose a risk to those in open-toed shoes. (Steel-toe boots: definitely out.)

The final part of the dress code — no inappropriate clothing — is admittedly nebulous, but Sourias said it’s meant to apply to overly revealing outfits. “Nothing exposed that should not be,” he said.

Sourias admits the Uptown dress code has gotten stricter in the past two years, saying that it’s become more necessary to keep operations running smoothly and safely. Almost any other time, there’s ample room in the sprawling beer garden, whether Sourias likes it or not.

“I wish I had those crowds every day,” he said.