Center City Sips Will Return With Needed Improvements

Center City Sips is a beloved annual tradition in which bars, restaurants, and breweries throughout the heart of the City of Brotherly Love offer after-work food and drink specials every Wednesday night throughout the summer. It was recently announced that the event will return for its 15th year, but with some improvements and changes to policy that will hopefully counteract problems that city officials say have marred the CC Sips in the past: namely, underage imbibing and drunken misbehavior.

Center City Sips will return for a 15th year, but with changes and improvements meant to make the event better.

The original aim of Center City Sips was to provide a treat to young professionals working in the downtown district by offering cheap food and drinks in the dog days of the year. Towards that end, says the Philadelphia Voice, the city will try and return to serving that demographic by raising prices throughout the event and upping police presence during the nights that the event takes place. The Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Delaware River Port Authority police, the PATCO police, and the SEPTA police are all in partnership with the Center City District to ensure that no revels get out of hand. You’ll have to shell out an extra couple of bucks on drink specials, too: beer, wine, and cocktails will go for $4, $5, and $6, respectively.

“We want everyone to be able to enjoy themselves at all of the great bars and restaurants that take part in Sips on Wednesday nights,” said Frank S. Spera from the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in a statement. “However, we want to make this perfectly clear: If you’re underage, or if you’re traveling into Center City with the goal of drinking excessively and behaving badly, you should stay home.”