New Bower Cafe location opens, featuring a see-in podcasting booth - The Philadelphia Inquirer

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The new location of Bower Cafe, which soft-opened last week, has a panel of story-high windows facing busy Walnut Street in Washington Square West. When owner Thane Wright signed the lease last year, he knew exactly what that feature could lend itself to: arguably Philadelphia’s most visible podcasting studio.

For generations, television stations have faced studios toward the sidewalk to build a sense of community and vérité.

Why can’t a coffee shop do the same thing with a podcasting booth? Wright wondered.

“People can look in here and be like, ‘What is going on in there?’” said Wright, who views the soon-to-be-completed booth as a marketing and public relations tool — not only for Bower Cafe but for his staff and friends, who are thought leaders in a variety of fields, such as hair salons, restaurants, and social causes.

“I look at it as a platform for people’s voices,” Wright said.

The studio, insulated just enough to provide a coffee shop-like background murmur for the podcasts, will double as a DJ booth. During brunch, for example, DJs can spin house music. After hours, anything goes when the cafe, which has soaring ceilings and removable seating, becomes an event space.

Coffee shop customers will get a QR link printed on their receipt to direct them to the podcasters. “Say they buy a latte and ask, ‘What’s going on in there?’ I’d say, ‘If you want to hear it, here’s the link,’” he said.

Bower serves La Colombe coffee, a modest food menu, and — in another quirky line extension — sliced cured meats. (Charcuterie is a tribute to Wright’s late father, Lester, who smoked his own meats for the family in North Jersey.)

Bower’s showstopper is a breakfast sandwich on a pretzel bun with eggs, sharp Cheddar, bacon, green onion, radish slices, garlic seasoning, and sriracha tarragon aioli.

Wright plans to expand the menu beyond open-faced sandwiches, panini, and yogurt and chia bowls. He’s working on a curry potato skillet, with bacon, grape tomato, green onion, and feta, served in a cast-iron pan. He also plans to offer pan breads, which his dad used to make for breakfast with jam and butter in the middle. His version will include butter, with a topping of poached pear and ricotta.

Wright, 46, started in the coffee business in 2001 as a dishwasher at La Colombe and moved up the ladder before leaving in 2015 to oversee the Philadelphia stores of New York’s Aussie-inspired Bluestone Lane Coffee.

In 2018, Wright opened his first Bower Cafe on 10th Street near Spruce. Last year, he opened a second, smaller Bower at Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion, across from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in University City.

Wright closed the 10th Street store over the winter to prep for the new store at 1213 Walnut St. (The former location is now a location of Bodhi.)

Wright’s mother, Beverley, a Shakespeare fan, named him after a title of royalty in medieval Scotland (Macbeth is Thane of Glamis and later Thane of Cawdor). Wright chose Bower after the Australian bowerbird, whose males build a nest decorated with bright objects to lure a mate.

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New Bower Cafe location opens, featuring a see-in podcasting booth - The Philadelphia Inquirer
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