Yards Brewery splintered in 2007, with the newly spawned Philadelphia Brewing Company taking over the former Weisbrod & Hess building in East Kensington, and Yards opening a new brewing facility at 901 N. Delaware Ave. after a serious buildout effort. Now here we are, nearly a decade later, and both companies are thriving. PBC beers are all over the city, and they opened a bar next to their brewery earlier this year. And Yards has outgrown their 38K sqft space and will be moving, in the near future, to a 70K sqft facility at 5th & Spring Garden. With that move on the horizon, Philly.com recently reported that a new business has signed on to take over the space after Yards clears out.

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Future Craft Hall

The concept will be called Craft Hall, and it’s the brainchild of restaurateur Avram Hornik, who has opened maybe a dozen places around town over the last twenty years and currently owns Morgan’s Pier and the Dolphin Tavern. Hornik envisions a space that has numerous offerings, with brewing (‘natch), a BBQ kitchen, and a bakery listed among the different possibilities. Customers will not only have the opportunity to consume, but Craft Hall will be a food-making place where customers can learn how to do it themselves. Executed properly, this place could become a major culinary destination.

Of course, for Craft Hall to happen, Yards must first move to their new space. If you check out the scene at 5th & Spring Garden, you’ll quickly note that the progress is quite evident. The most obvious sign is the collection of tanks that have appeared on the northern side of the building. Since it doesn’t yet look like the rendering though, we know it’s not finished.

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Future Yards, on Spring Garden St.
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Closer look
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Brewery rendering

Once it’s done, the new Yards will not only have more space for brewing beer, but it will also include an enlarged tasting room and an event space. We look forward to checking out the new Yards, and eventually the new Craft Hall, perhaps a few months later. We can’t promise we’ll be terribly coherent in reporting back on either place, but we assure you we’ll have a good time doing the research.