Philadelphia shuttered its bars and restaurants on March 16 (aside from takeout) and allowed them to reopen only in May. Since then, Oscar’s Tavern, a dimly lit bar in Center City Philadelphia, has struggled to get by. Philadelphia shut down indoor dining again in November amid the surge of COVID-19 cases.
Oscar’s is another famed Philly institution that turned to GoFundMe to stay afloat. The bar has been in Richard Chodak’s family for 48 years. He’s hoping to raise $20,000 to help cover Oscar’s mortgage and utilities and to help out his staff.
“The way I’m looking at it is, I have to survive January and February. Those are the months that are really going to hurt the most,” he said.
Others are doing the same. Dirty Frank’s, a windowless dive where Philadelphia’s poet laureate works the door, has raised $28,700; The Bike Stop, the city’s only leather bar, collected…
