This Sunday, September 17th, West Chester will be hosting the 38th Annual Restaurant Festival, courtesy of the West Chester Parks & Recreation Department. I talked with Jon Traina from Side Bar about this restaurant’s new beer garden, which took two months to plan and coordinate.
“Along with beer and cider, we’re featuring wine from Wayvine,” Jon stated. “It’s a family-operated business right here in Chester County. They only sell to us right now.”
Jon stressed the importance of having good relationships with these local businesses because there really is no better way to promote West Chester businesses 
than keeping all business transactions close to home.
“It’s not some just guy 3,000 miles away. We know every single person who buys from us, and we buy from them,” he said. “It’s the West Chester Restaurant Festival — we might as well keep it as local as possible.”
One of the most notable aspect in my mind that will make this Side Bar beer garden stand out is its collaboration with Yori’s Bakery.
“Yori’s will donate Bavarian pretzels to us,” Jon explained, “and every sale that we make on them will go to hurricane relief. So it’s all going to charity.”
Jon and Side Bar have participated in the Restaurant Festival every year since it’s been open — so nearly eight years. But this is the first time they will be setting up a beer garden. But the most important goal that Jon has is that everyone has safe fun this Sunday at their beer garden.
“We want everyone to enjoy good beer the entire time to keep it like an extension of here,” he said. “We just wanted to partner up with other good businesses that we like supporting and they like supporting us. Every business in town benefits from this festival.”
Check out the Parks & Recreation department online for more information about the 38th Annual Restaurant Festival.
