INTERVIEW: William Reed
Restaurateur William Reed on restaurants, music, and books (and cannibalism, Sylvester Stallone, and climate change deniers).
By Michael Ferrence
February 27, 2019
MF: You somewhat recently opened The International. Can you talk a little about that?
WR: Sure. It being our third place, Paul Kimport and I are 50/50 in Standard Tap and Johnny Brenda’s, so to do the 3rd place we had sort of almost opposed requirements for it in that it would be, we still wanted to be able to bike or walk, a big part of my quality of life is to be able to get to work without driving, and so the other requirement is that you don’t cannibalize your own businesses either. So you’re kind of like, it’s hard to be right next door, almost, and still be something different and draw differently. Paul and I were looking around for a long time and we found that place, and almost overlooked it because the building was in such good shape and the neighborhood was really nice. With the other two places, when we bought Standard Tap and Johnny Brenda’s, the buildings were a wreck and the neighborhoods were completely overlooked. When we took it over we decided, for so long we’ve been doing local beer, and there’s different ways to be about great beer, so we decided to do beer from all over and actually move cocktails to the front, cocktail forward as they say. Food-wise, it’s a small kitchen, it’s not really a big place, so it’s sort of along the lines of international street food kind of thing.
MF: Where’d you get the name? It’s cool.
WR: Weirdly there was a building across the street from Cafe Olé, a coffee shop down in Old City, that had that sign on it for years, and it was a packaging supply place. I don’t even know what that means. I don’t know if they sold Styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap or what. I don’t actually know. It had never been in business when I went into the coffee shop. Somebody rehabbed the building and I always thought the sign was so cool. And then all of a sudden the sign was gone. At first I was just kind of bummed like you usually are when you see something cool disappear. But I was like, I bet one of those contractors over there probably knows where it is. I went over and talked to him and long story short, we got the sign. It took 6 months. Then we just took a heat gun and took off ‘packaging’ and put ‘spirited’ on there to keep the sign as original as possible.
MF: How much and what kind of planning goes into opening a new place What’s your approach? How long does it take to go from idea to open?
WR: Well, I think we’re kind of, I don’t know if we’re unique, maybe unusual to some extent, Paul and I. We don’t really have a solid plan of what we want to do when we go out to find a building. We end up looking around at interesting buildings and thinking ‘What’s the highest use we can picture in that building?’ We’re always adapting what we’re doing, instead of trying to shoehorn our idea, because we’re not building from scratch. We love old stock buildings, and we love Philadelphia for that reason, having all these crazy old buildings, and I think you do have to kind of think about it, it’s part of the equation of what the place is gonna be.
MF: Do you get to meet all the bands at Johnny Brenda’s? How often do you attend shows? Any cool stories?
WR: I don’t get to meet all the bands. I imagine I can insert myself more than I do, it’s not really my style. I certainly see shows a lot, a lot more often than I would if I didn’t have it. I think the space is such a great, intimate space.
When we were doing Standard Tap, we were thinking about the bars that we loved anywhere in the world, Philadelphia in particular, food can make you fall in love with a place. You can really crave that great meal. When we started doing Johnny Brenda’s we thought about that too, and we were like, well, music, is like… There’s times I’ve gone out to see music, the Khyber or other venues in Philly, at the Troc or something, and they’re indelibly burned into my brain. Such a strong impression. So that was one of the things we thought of. We wanted to do live music, not just DJ nights and stuff, we really wanted to have that.
MF: It’s so true. I can think of 3 great shows from Johnny Brenda’s that stand out. Jim James solo, that was a pretty awesome show. Sean Lennon was so cool. The son of this legend standing like 2 feet in front of us at this awesome place playing rock music just because he loves it so much. And I remember even once years ago, this major snowstorm, my buddy and I were so psyched because we both work in education and school was cancelled so we had off the next day and we were seeing Dawes when they first came out and it was really cool.
(I have to mention that I am no longer a fan of Dawes, subsequent albums have not done it for me, so much so that now even the first one has lost me, but that was one hell of a night.)
MF: How often do you get this request: ‘My band is awesome, but nobody knows who we are, can we play at Johnny Brenda’s?’
WR: A lot. We get that one a lot. We respect our bookers. We have 2 guys who do this full time, it’s all they do is book bands. I’m not going to overrule them to have someone’s cousin’s band play.
(Laughs)
(Hurriedly deleted follow up question asking if I could play solo or my cross-continental two-piece band, Paper Cloud could play Johnny B’s.)
MF: ‘Creed’ filmed at Johnny Brenda’s. What did that do for business? What do you think would have happened to business if you made the mistake of letting them film ‘Solo’ there?
(Blank stares. Silence. Closed-mouth smile. He hadn’t seen Solo.)
WR: You know what’s funny. It wasn’t the first time we were scouted for a Rocky movie. The first time we’d only been open a little bit, and a location scout came in and said, ‘Yeah. You know, we’re scouting for Rocky.’ He was trying to sell us on it, saying ‘Sylvester Stallone would be behind the bar making drinks and…’ I was like, I’m thinking about the movie and I’m like this is the low point of his career isn’t it? I don’t think I really want to do it. So when Creed came around, we asked him about it, and it sounded cool. You never know, it could have sucked. It’s really hard to tell if a movie’s gonna be any good, even when you’re watching it being filmed. But, I was super happy.
MF: My wife and I have gone to Standard Tap every March 28 since 2006. (Nobody cares) It’s the anniversary of our first date. (See previous parentheses) Is there some way we could be officially recognized for that, maybe name the second floor after us, or something?
(Laughs)
MF: So, that’s a no…
(Laughs)
MF: Do you know Kutztown University alum, former Buffalo Bills wide receiver, and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Andre Reed? Any relation?
WR: I don’t.
(Ooooooookkaaaaayyy.)
MF: Do you read a lot? What are you reading?
WR: I read a lot. Nonfiction I’m reading something called Democracy in Chains, which is the history of the far right from the early economics underpinnings. It’s fascinating. Really, really good. As polarized as the country is, there’s a lot of books that tell you, ‘Yeah, you’re right. That guy is the worst’ or whatever. This book I actually feel, like, some real insight. I could never understand some things about conservative thought, like climate change denial, I just could not figure it out. You’re kind of like, OK, I get why the oil companies or maybe the coal companies or the Koch brothers maybe don’t want to hear about it, but average people, what could they possibly be so worked up about, or why would you possibly believe, or what could the left be getting from this, you know? And I could never really figure it out. Actually this book doesn’t really talk about climate change, but it just hit me. The only solution is collective action for the common good. That’s what they fuckin hate. You know? They don’t want to see a problem that the only solution is the antithesis to individual liberty. Because individual liberty ruins the climate. Read that one.
MF: Any fiction stuff?
WR: I always have some kind of sci-fi thing going on. I’ve been reading this Vernor… I can’t think of his last name. Vernor… Something. It’s like a weird, civilizations that are basically spiders. Some weird shit.
(Looked it up. Googled, ‘Vernor sci-fi spiders. Pretty sure it’s Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky.)
MF: Have you ever considered opening a place in Fairmount or Brewerytown, and if not, would you please consider it?
(Laughs)
WR: Yeah. I can imagine it. There are other people doing cool shit over there for sure. It’s always cool to see neighborhoods transitioning and changing.
(Translation= Not happening)
MF: Did you know early on in your life that this is what you wanted to do?
WR: I should have known, but I didn’t. I’ve been working at restaurants since I was 14. Busboy to all through the kitchen and all around, always thinking it’s just a job, or working my way through high school or college, or wherever I am, and I was going to Drexel for computer science, and I realized one day, partly when I couldn’t afford tuition anymore, I’m working in a restaurant. I’m working in a restaurant. I’m thinking I’m gonna end up working in a restaurant. That’s what’s gonna happen. And it was that stage in my life that I started working with Paul. We both realized we’re probably gonna keep working in restaurants, the only way out, in a sense, is to start our own.
MF: My wife and I, and our family and friends have had many great times at your places over the years. Thank you so much. And thank you for taking the time to talk with me.
