We love a PHS Pop-Up Garden about as much as we loathe the vacant lots they appear upon. Over the years, gardens have appeared on Market Street, Walnut Street, and Broad Street, and this year PHS has chosen South Street West for a temporary summer oasis. Remember, we told you a few months ago that a lot on the 1400 block of South Street, used for years by the Jamaican Jerk Hut for outdoor seating and live music, would be redeveloped into a new mixed-use building. Then we told you that the restaurant would possibly be moving those activities to the large vacant lot on its other side.
Before that happens officially, PHS will be opening a pop-up garden on this site, according to Uwishunu. Like last year, the garden will offer food and drink seven days a week all summer and into the fall. Food will come from the Jerk Hut, as well as a rotating cast of food trucks. Drink will come from a temporary bar, built into the site. Also, expect all kinds of temporary foliage, with a tropical theme. Ooh, and there's gonna be hammocks!
The garden is set to open in the middle of June, and run through October. What will happen after the garden finishes its run is anyone's guess. Will the Jerk Hut continue to use this lot, as we predicted several months back? Will the lot instead sit fallow, as it has for many years? Or will owner Kenny Gamble sell the parcel to a developer? Only time will tell the future of this lot, but the next few months just got much more exciting not only for the lot and the block, but for the entire surrounding neighborhood.