JUST $UPER
Eagles championship means big bucks for area businesses
Ampro in the Primos section of Upper Darby was busy making Super Bowl champion T-shirts as soon as the big game was over.
In a familiar scene the past few weeks, excited Eagles fans enjoy the game at a local restaurant. From back, Hrant Stepanian, Gary Diloyan and Arsen Diloyan take in the action at Miller’s Ale House in Springfield.
After a devastating fire, the owner of Barnaby’s on West Chester Pike in Haverford pushed to get the popular eatery open again in time for the Eagles season. It’s a popular gathering spot to watch the games, and business was booming there during the playoffs and Super Bowl.
Bill Daley sat behind his desk in an unusually quiet moment in a basement office at Barnaby’s of America in Havertown as he paused for a moment recently basking in the afterglow of the Philadelphia Eagles season and its impact on his establishments.
“Unbelievable,” he said with an enormous grin that spread from ear to ear. “There’s two things that people love – the Eagles and Barnaby’s.”
While Barnaby’s reaped the benefits of a joyous Eagles run, they were certainly not the only business in Delaware County to see an uptick in sales.
“It’s too soon to say what the direct impact of the Eagles Super Bowl win had on the economy in Delaware County, but it is obvious that Modells has been packed for days and we have seen what the win has done for Ampro, who printed more than 30,000 T-shirts less than 12 hours after the Super Bowl win,” Trish McFarland, president of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, said. “More important is the overall positivity in the air which will lead to people to go out and celebrate.”
That’s something agreed by Barnaby’s general manager and executive chef, Dan Hurst.
“For us,” Hurst said, “we’re a business in the Philadelphia market – your team won the Super Bowl, the gap between professional football ending and March Madness when people get really frenzied for sports again, the gap is much smaller this year and people are continuing to celebrate. They want to go out, they want to be with friends, they want to have fun and that’s what Barnaby’s is. So that’s why it really benefits us. That’s where it really comes together; basically what everybody wants – that’s our product.”
Over in Springfield at Thunderbird Pizza on Saxer Avenue, the crew was also reflective of the season past.
Thunderbird owner Steve Landers recalled the progression.
“Right before Carson Wentz got injured, people were starting to get on board,” he said. “Just looking on Facebook, seeing mothers who are friends who don’t normally post things about the Eagles, getting to know different players on the team was a good signal it was really catching on.”
Then, the injury happened.
For a week or two, there was a little downturn, Landers said – but then it started to pick up.
“As we started winning again, the fever really got going,” he said. “(We) got to the playoffs, it was crazy, the playoffs were crazy. The Super Bowl, it was just non-stop prep here getting ready for the Super Bowl.”
He said he had the most people working on a shift they’ve ever had last Sunday – and Thunderbird’s been operating since 1990.
Yet, there they were cranking out the wings, pizzas and rollettes, which come in cheesesteak, buffalo chicken and cinnamon cannoli in orders of 5 to 60.
He said the key as business surged was “keep your customers happy, keep the quality the way it normally is in the face of the volume that you have.”
Landers, a 1995 Spring-
field High School graduate worked at Thunderbird through high school, with his brother, Joe, who graduated in 2003. Eventually, Stephen bought it and the rest is history and the Eagles win is a part of that.
“The parade was just the culmination,” Landers said. “It felt like a monthlong celebration.”
But, Springfield is a festive town, Landers said.
“Our next big event is the St. Patty’s Day parade,” he said. “We’ll have that going on March 10. Then, it’s Dining on Saxer nights. We have a lot going on in Springfield.”
Over in Havertown, the executive chef and the owner spoke about the season, especially emerging from their own tragedy.
On May 7, the popular establishment was closed after a lit cigar had smoldered and caught fire after the last employees left shortly after 2 a.m. The deck was demolished and the interior of the restaurant sustained heavy smoke and water damage. It had to be closed for 14 weeks to rebuild, but there was no question in owner Bill Daley’s mind that that’s exactly what was going to happen – and in time for football season.
“We became the underdogs that people wanted to see us get back up and we did, we did,” Hurst said.
Daley added, “That was a four-month journey here to put this place back together. All our help were involved. All the cooks were all involved in hard hats, masks. (Hurst) designed everything.”
They said the parade felt like a culmination for them too.
“All the compliments,” Daley said. “The food, it was crazy ... People were telling me how great it was. It just makes your heart warm.”
And, they said, it doesn’t have to end.
“It was great,” Daley said. “It really was. It was so festive, you know? It really was. And, we have here in the entire place, we have 57 televisions. What we also have is Surround Sound so you’re there.”
Through that, prices never increased.
“We never raise our prices ever because we’re such a viable business here with a tremendous customer base,” Daley said. “Our customers love that.”
They also love the specials, too.
Hurst explained how during each season, they have specials geared toward the sport of the day.
The two big favorites during Eagles season were the Nick Foles Reuben with house-roasted corned beef, sauerkraut, fresh rye bread, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese and the Philly special with turkey pastrami, cole slaw, provolone cheese, Russian dressing and rye bread.
And, those items will be kept on the menu for a little while, the two said.
Of the season, Daley added, “They’re going to make a movie out of this one. Trust me. They’ll definitely do it.”
His executive chef agreed.
“This season from the first game you could see it,” Hurst said. “There was just a kind of a buzz around it. Everybody really bought in, really bought in and it coincided with us reopening. So it was just this unbelievable amount of energy.” Daley savored every moment of what this historical season was for the Philadelphia Eagles and his patrons.
“The customers bought in, the team bought in, the coaches ...” the sports bar/ restaurant owner said. “It’s just ... This was destiny. It doesn’t happen often.”
“This season from the first game you could see it. There was just a kind of a buzz around it. Everybody really bought in, really bought in and it coincided with us reopening. So it was just this unbelievable amount of energy.”
— Dan Hurst, Barnaby’s general manager and executive chef