Bagels and beer as Spread Bagelry and Workhorse Brewing meet up in Center City
The street-level space on the end of the Walnut Street Bridge, once a Jose Garces-owned pizzeria called 24 Wood-Fired Grill, is a cafe and tasting room.
Spread Bagelry, the Montreal-style bagel shop now in the throes of expansion, has opened its so-called Spreadquarters at 2401 Walnut St. with an interesting partnership.
Spread shares the street-level space, once a Jose Garces-owned pizzeria called 24 Wood-Fired Grill, with a tasting room by Workhorse Brewing Co., out of King of Prussia.
The crossover appears seamless; customers walk in, order bagels, bagel sandwiches, and salads at the counter. Farther along in the space is the full bar, stocked with six Workhorse beers on tap, as well as two wines from Villanova’s Pear Grove.
There also is a patio overlooking the Schuylkill. The location is on the Center City end of the Walnut Street Bridge.
The taproom menu, unique to this location, includes flatbreads made of bagel dough and featuring such toppings as smoked salmon; Bachos, which are nachos made with bagel chips; Everything Fries, which are topped with everything bagel seasoning; and a major contribution to the Philly food scene: Pigs in Everything Bagel Blankets — everything-bagel-wrapped Hebrew National franks served with spicy mustard, Spread’s own black-pepper ketchup, and sriracha mayo.
Montreal-style bagels take a bath in honey water before they hit a wood-fired oven.
This Spread opens daily at 7 a.m. Workhorse hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Spread opened in 2011 at 262 S. 20th St. and followed up in 2016 with a bar-eatery at 36th and Chestnut St. Earlier this summer, Spread opened at Piazza Pod Park in Northern Liberties.
A location at 925 Lancaster Ave. in Bryn Mawr is teed up for mid-October, and a spot at the corner of Fifth and South Streets is targeted by the end of the year.