Uptown Beer Garden moves to Penn Center, creating a party zone near Philadelphia City Hall

Penn Center — traditionally a sleepy part of Center City outside of office hours — is getting outdoor food and drink action beyond the pop-up beer garden Air Grille in Dilworth Plaza next to City Hall.

The Lawn at Loveluck opened in late June on JFK Boulevard near 16th Streets, outside of the old spaceship-shaped visitor’s center (1599 JFK Blvd.).

Directly across the street is Uptown Beer Garden, which spent a few pre-COVID-19 summers outside the BNY Mellon Center at 18th and JFK. Thursday, July 1 is the soft opening/preview of its permanent, year-round digs nearly three blocks away, where it takes over the plaza outside of Two Penn Center (1500 JFK. It sprawls across 18,000 square feet.

Uptown owner Teddy Sourias (Tradesman’s, Bru, Blume Burger, Finn McCool’s, Tinsel, etc.) says the beer garden will seat 350 people to start and will eventually accommodate 700 people for private events.

Sourias’ crew installed two open-air bars, traditional table seating, high tops, swings, benches, private cabanas, shade, greenery, trees, flowers, and a water fountain and koi pond made from recycled beer taps. Restrooms have replaced the former 7-Eleven store.

Food by chef Craig Meyers, served out of a large truck in the middle of the garden, will be more ambitious than in previous seasons.

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The menu includes a full line of sandwiches and salads, as well as not-the-usual dishes such as crab gravy poutine and a whole-grain bowl.

Hours: 4 p.m. to midnight Monday to Friday, noon to midnight Saturday and Sunday. It will open at 4 p.m. Thursday, July 1 to Saturday, July 3 and at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 4.

In late June, Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran (Barbuzzo, Bud & Marilyn’s, Little Nonna’s, etc.) opened The Lawn at Loveluck, a 9,000-square-foot pop-up bar-restaurant in LOVE Park, on JFK Boulevard just off 16th Street.

The Lawn at Loveluck is set with Adirondack chairs, picnic tables, hanging lights, greenery, just a few feet away from Loveluck, their new, permanent restaurant, which will take over the former spaceship-shaped visitor center. Cocktails, canned beers, and nonalcoholic beverages make up the drink list, and the food side includes burgers and sandwiches, and a few starters such as zucchini baba ganoush and taco nachos.

Hours: 3 to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting.