Bomb Bomb Bar-B-Q Grill Italian Restaurant and Bar

It's Where We Drink

by Will Dean

1026 Wolf St., 215-463-1311

Bomb me once—shame on you. Bomb me twice—shame on me. That's a lesson the original owners of South Philly's Bomb Bomb Bar-B-Q Grill should've kept in mind. Maybe they would've avoided at least one explosive encounter.

In the early hours of Feb. 17, 1936, Wolf Street was rocked by the roar of Jimmy's, the tavern's name at the time, exploding.

Police weren't sure about the exact composition of the bomb that caused the catastrophe, but it was strong enough to shatter windows up and down the block and to break every bottle in the bar.

According to Frank Barbato, Bomb Bomb's present co-owner, the trouble revolved around a chef. "Vincent Margerita, the owner, [had] hired a chef away from a rival tavern," he says. "The rival owner got angry, and demanded the chef return." When Vincent refused, someone tried persuading him a little more forcefully.

Undeterred by the attack, Margerita continued employing the chef. Then, on April 5 of that same year, the Margerita family awoke to find another large hole in the front of the building.

Barbato renamed the place when he acquired it, and has newspaper articles recounting both of the bombings hanging in the bar.

"All the old Italian guys in the neighborhood called this place 'Bomb Bomb' from what happened, so when me and my wife took over, we decided to name it that," he says.

As for Margerita, he got rid of the chef the second time around.