One of Philadelphia’s most popular beer gardens was forced to close yesterday after being served with a Cease Operations order by the Department of Licenses & Inspections. According to the sign that was put up on the property, the Walnut Street Beer Garden was closed due to a number of violations which included: Building, Electrical, Plumbing, Zoning, Fire, and Licensing issues. In fact, the only violation that the beer garden didn’t fail was the Property Maintenance category.

Put simply, it may be a short while until Walnut Street Beer Garden re-opens again due to these various defects. While you’d expect issues such as plumbing to be a relatively quick fix, building problems could potentially take months to repair, while licensing issues could also get bogged down in bureaucracy and red tape.

It looks like this closure may well be in the interest of the beer-drinking public. This is because we found this Google review from just two weeks ago – and it doesn’t paint a nice picture:

“First of all they have no potable tap water which is required for all establishments that serve food and/or alcohol. The bartender explained they have no water and ran out of bottled water. Absolutely insane to have a place with no water! Secondly, the floors are a nightmare. Clearly thrown together haphazardly and a terrible tripping hazard. Lastly, the table I sat at was riddled with splinters. Pieces of wood came off multiple times and i got a splinter myself. Honestly the only good part of the experience was the bartender who profusely apologized for having no water. He at least understood how terrible that is for a place like this.”

Not only this – but its employee rating on Indeed.com is 2.2/5 from a total of 15 reviews – meaning that the staff aren’t particularly happy with it either. Time will tell if this place can get back on its feet, but judging by what we’ve seen lately, it will need a lot of work not just to re-open, but to also win the hearts of the Philly public too.