#12: Cooperage Wine and Whiskey Bar

Gift Card Number 12 was used to celebrate Brendan and I's five year anniversary. Not the most romantic spot you could say, but we're all about convenience. And the fact that Cooperage was 2 blocks from the train we needed to take to a concert in Camden is what sold us. When researching Cooperage I found two addresses, which stressed me. Not knowing Old City very well- OK not at all- I wanted to know exactly where to tell the cab to drop us off and to avoid having to turn around 5 times searching for the place. We figured out that it was inside the Curtis Center. This also threw me off. When restaurants are inside an office building I get slightly disinterested. It just doesn't feel authentic to me. It reminds me of TGI Fridays or Ruby Tuesdays. And honestly my gut was right. Cooperage felt like a chain restaurant to me. I had to double check if it was or not (it's not). From the location to the menu to the service- I didn't get an authentic Philly restaurant vibe from this place at all. Even the mason jar water glasses seemed like a reach to make this place feel like a convincing whiskey bar.

I hate to be overly negative so I will point out some positives. We ate around 630 on a Friday. It was pretty packed with happy hour goers and they had a lot of good drink and app specials from 5-7.We got to take advantage of this and ordered some beers and guacamole and chips. The guac was fabulous! It was full of avocado chunks and had a spicy kick to it.

However, the beer offerings were... Annoying. I like to go into a bar and find a beer that I know and like and enjoy it. Not happening for me here. I am in no way a beer aficionado, but I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to beer. That being said, I literally knew 0 beers on the draft list and 1 beer on the bottle list (Yuengling). I attempted to be adventurous and order a random one and I hated it. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be talking about the positives here. Whoops. The food was good. Brendan got the French dip sandwich and said it was cooked perfectly. I had the veggie burger which was just okay. Super messy and difficult to eat.

Veggie Burger

French Dip

We finished off our meal with two shots of Jameson- in the spirit of a whiskey bar and to possibly help me forget about my experience here. Cooperage seems like a fun after work happy hour spot or a good place to grab something quick. Only in those two cases will I venture back.