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Jul 15, 2023

Bankroll sports bar selling gently used equipment in an online auction

Bankroll, a splashy sports bar with a purported $25 million budget, opened March 3 near Rittenhouse Square. Only five months later, its contents are being sold off in an online auction at

Bankroll, a splashy sports bar with a purported $25 million budget, opened March 3 near Rittenhouse Square.

Only five months later, its contents are being sold off in an online auction at Bidspotter.com, including all of the equipment and furnishings of a 350-seat restaurant, spread over 13,000 square feet on two floors in part of the former Boyd Theater. The auction is among the city’s largest single such sell-offs in recent years.

Quaker City Auctioneers divided everything into 1,244 lots, which were catalogued and photographed — from the nine leather sofas, 26 video screens, and 82 bar stools to the smallest spoons and shot glasses. Pots and pans and bread baskets and water pitchers. Mixers and bins and scales and refrigerators. A DJ mixer and rugs and booths. The liquor license itself.

“All the ice scoopers you’d ever need,” said Mike Anderson, manager of the nearby Cavanaugh’s Rittenhouse sports bar, touring Bankroll during the one-day inspection on Thursday that launched the online auction.

“You never know what will come in handy,” Cavanaugh’s co-owner Kenneth Hutchings said.

The auction, arranged by the owners and apparently not a forced sale, ends Aug. 16. When the sale was advertised last month, management suggested that the auction was only one option going forward. There have been rumors of one potential buyer taking over the whole place as the fall sports season draws closer.

» READ MORE: Bankroll going up to auction

Management would not discuss plans this week. The pre-auction viewing was open to the general public, but The Inquirer did not have permission to photograph inside.

Eric Merback, third-generation owner of Quaker City, said the items’ conditions were largely pristine. “I mean, when you see barstools for sale from a bar, normally you see a torn cushion or a shaky base,” he said. “This stuff is all brand new.” Because the buyer must pick up the items and remove them, “the only difference is it’s not being delivered by the vendor,” he said.

“You take a place that has multiple restaurants throughout the city, and they can literally outfit [their places] with all new tables, all new chairs,” he said. “For the same money that you’re buying lesser quality, you can buy top of the line.”

“They have every top-notch piece of equipment in that kitchen that you could ask for,” said Tom Jordan, a sales representative with Termac Corp., which provides dishwashing equipment to restaurants, as he walked through. Though he will not bid, he said he would use his firsthand account to counsel customers who might need something.

Stemware filled tables as well as the bar top in the cavernous Big Game Room, where its video walls (also offered for sale) cast a blue glow. Even more glasses were packed in boxes. In the adjacent restaurant space, boxes had been opened to reveal uniform shirts and slacks wrapped in their original plastic. On a counter in the kitchen were stacks of plates and saucers embossed with Bankroll’s QR code — likely of little use hereafter.

In the kitchen was a Southbend 4367D gas range with oven and stainless-steel backsplash.

New, it sells for about $6,200.

Just a few months out of the box, the opening bid was $1,500.

There are two of these ranges.

The restaurant’s Pizza Master PM733ED, a three-deck pizza oven, retails new for about $40,000. The online bid Thursday night was $7,500. Pizza peels? Check Lot 942 — some were never used.

There was no joy in this for Hutchings, of Cavanaugh’s. On one level, Bankroll was a competitor, but “it’s disappointing that something’s going out of business in the neighborhood,” he said. “We like building up the neighborhood as opposed to something closing down.”

Danny Cardona, general manager of the nearby Rec & Royal, said he was interested in speakers. He saw a few setups, including subwoofers, and made notes on his laptop.

“I never actually got to experience it while it was open, unfortunately,” said Anjelica Martinez, a Rec & Royal manager and coworker of Cardona’s. “It’s gorgeous, now that I’m seeing it.”

She looked down at a dress shirt, brand new, still wrapped in plastic.

“It’s just so sad.”