US Gov't Tells Philly's City Tavern: We're Closed, So You're Closed
By Robin Culverwell, Pat Ciarrocchi
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's another casualty of the federal government shutdown: City Tavern closed today at 3pm, ordered to do so as a concessionaire of the National Park Service.
So, for the forseeable future there will be no cornmeal fried oysters, no romaine and roquefort, no braised rabbit.
The opportunity to try a meal that our forefathers might have enjoyed was snatched from the table by the current members of Congress, who have failed to end the federal budget deadlock.
"We have reservations every day of the week, and we've called the individuals who've planned their birthday celebrations, their anniversaries, their out-of-town guests," says Molly Yun, City Tavern's public relations director. "They wanted to bring them to City Tavern, and I feel so bad that we're disappointing them in that way."
Yun says she knows that she and her fellow restaurant workers are not alone in this but notes that for many international travelers, City Tavern, at Second and Walnut Streets, is part of a quick itinerary that includes New York City and Washington, DC.
