A South Philly bar and restaurant once thought to be a casualty of COVID-19 is roaring back from the dead. 

Royal Tavern, the popular spot on East Passyunk Avenue known for its burgers and beer selection reopens on Thursday, Nov. 9, more than three years after it shut down at the start of the pandemic.

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Royal Tavern’s surprise return, which the bar announced in an Instagram post on Wednesday, is accompanied by updated food and bar menus. The revised menu is created by former Kyber Pass Pub chef Nic Macri, who now leads the kitchen, and will include the the original and beloved Royal Tavern burger that helped establish the bar as destination beyond the neighborhood when it opened in 2002. 

The bar’s owners, who also own nearby Triangle Tavern, near Reed Street and East Passyunk, and Cantina Los Caballitos, on East Passuynk Avenue near Morris Street, said the revived Royal Tavern will open everyday at 4:00 p.m., with the kitchen closing at 1:00 a.m. The bar, serving 10 draft beers and two wines, plus a variety of cocktails, will stay open until 2:00 a.m.

Royal Tavern closed on March 15, 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began shuttering businesses worldwide – and just a month after ownership announced the return of its brunch menu. Just prior to pandemic shut down, in late summer 2019, the bar closed for months for extensive renovations to its interior.  

Since closing in 2020, Royal Tavern has undergone further enhancements, like adding more dining room seating and aesthetic upgrades.

While many of the city’s bars and restaurants pivoted to take-out service and outdoor dining during the pandemic shutdown, Royal Tavern remained closed, leaving many of its patrons to mourn the loss of its famous burger and ponder on social media if the bar would ever return. 

Thursday, those once-bereaved regulars of Royal Tavern get a much welcomed, if somewhat delayed, answer to that question.