Grocery Outlet bargain market is closing dozens of stores nationwide, including eight in the Philadelphia area.
The closures were first referenced earlier this week in the company’s earnings report. The California-based grocer recorded an operating loss of $221.7 million last year, much of which it attributed to “certain underperforming stores” that will now close.
These include five Grocery Outlets in South Jersey, two in Philadelphia, and one in Kennett Square, according to real estate marketing released Thursday.
A company spokesperson did not return a request for comment about when the stores would close.
The impacted Philly-area stores are located at:
4004 U.S. Route 130, Delran
401 Harmony Rd., Gibbstown
345 Scarlet Rd., Kennett Square
190 Hamilton Commons Dr., Mays Landing
2017 W. Oregon Ave., Philadelphia
2524 Welsh Rd., Philadelphia
3174 U.S. Route 9 S., Suite 5, Rio Grande
677 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd., Sicklerville
People shop at a Grocery Outlet in Philadelphia in 2022.
After the closures, the chain will still have several locations in the city, collar counties, and South Jersey.
Grocery Outlet calls itself an “extreme value retailer.” It was founded in 1946, and has expanded from 128 stores to 570 stores over the past two decades. Many locations are operated by entrepreneurs who live nearby.
“Consumer pressure intensified, federally funded benefits were delayed, and competition grew more promotional in the fourth quarter,” Potter said in a statement. “In response, we have begun to sharpen our focus on what matters most: delivering clearer value and a better in-store experience.”
Customers and employees inside a Grocery Outlet in Philadelphia in 2023.
A Wakefern spokesperson said the company planned to refocus on its flagship stores in South Philadelphia and Rittenhouse, as well as its growing online business. The move, spokesperson Maureen Gillespie said, would be “a positive reset that allows us to preserve and elevate the in‑store tradition while growing the brand’s reach in meaningful new ways.”
The conversation reared its head again this week after a New Jersey Girl Scout troop set up shop outside of a Mount Laurel recreational marijuana dispensary to sell Thin Mints and Caramel deLites. Owners of Daylite Cannabis dispensary had been trying for years to make this possible, and were excited to share the news of a “pilot program” at their store, owner Steve Cassidy said in an article for NJ.com.
“Being community-minded is a core part of our mission at Daylite. We’re a locally and family-owned business, so supporting local organizations and helping them raise funds in the community is very important to us,” Cassidy said, who runs the dispensary alongside his wife and parents.
What they didn’t expect was for it to become a national and global headline, upsetting higher-ups at the Girl Scouts of America. A representative for the Girl Scouts of Central and South Jersey said that there was no formalagreement to allow Girl Scouts to sell cookies in front of a dispensary and don’t approve of the practice.
“Our guidance for Girl Scout cookie booths is that girls should not set up booths in front of any businesses that they themselves could not legally patronize,” the representative said. “It’s just unfortunate that [the owner] was quoted as saying this is a ‘trial’ because that is factually incorrect.”
The Girl Scout troop, which Cassidy did not identify, sold cookies outside the dispensary on NJ Route 73 in February to much enthusiasm from customers, Cassidy said. Some customers even bypassed the marijuana to go to the cookies first, he told NJ.com.
Girl Scouts of Central and South Jersey said they do not know how the miscommunication occurred. Cassidy said he was told by a member of a local Girl Scout organization that a “small pilot program” had been approved.
“Our intention was simply to support a local troop and be part of our community. We’ve seen an overwhelmingly positive response from people who enjoyed supporting the girls, and we hope that enthusiasm helps encourage similar community partnerships in the future.”
Girl Scout cookie season runs from January to April, providing young girls the chance to exercise the entrepreneurial spirit and engage with their community. Girl Scouts started selling cookies in 1917, but Girl Scouts selling cookies in front of weed dispensaries has been making headlines for more than a decade.
At the time, Lei’s mom told press that she encourages her daughters to “set up shop at various points around San Francisco so they can learn about different environments while earning some cash” and to use it as an opportunity, “to start a conversation about drugs and how some people use marijuana as medicine while others just get high.”
Spirit, the docuseries on George Washington High School national cheerleading championship run, is now available for streaming on Peacock.
The four-part series follows the underdog team’s rise to become the first cheer squad from the School District of Philadelphia to compete in the National Cheerleaders Association High School Nationals, the biggest cheerleading event anywhere.
Aaliyah Armour, center, and the George Washington High School cheer team practicer their routine at Cheer Athletics in Plano, Texas on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Cheer Athletics is regarded as one of the best cheerleading gym in the worlds. The George Washington High School cheer team became the first Philadelphia School District cheerleaders in history to qualify for nationals, where they spent the weekend competing in Dallas.
Produced by basketball star Steph Curry, the series had previously aired to limited audiences on Comcast’s Black Experience platform.
Directed by Philadelphia filmmaker and La Salle University alum, Matt Howley, who learned about the team through a 2022 Inquirer story, the series tracks the 15-person coed squad from its humble beginnings, including collecting change to scrape their way to the nationals.
The series delves into the trying home lives of students, like star player AdamarisLopez, who competed while successfully fighting her father’s deportation.
“A lot of us come from poverty,” Lopez, who now studies nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, says in the first episode. “People don’t really expect us to come from low-income houses to win a national championship.”
Other players discuss traumatic home lives and the loss of loved ones from gun violence. Despite placing 10th in the nation, many of the George Washington students had no previous experience in cheerleading, a pricey sport where many children begin young.
Irsida Kola gets ready in the mirror for the first day of competition as teammates Josiah Jeudy, front, and Roland Williams enter the room before the team departs at The Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. The George Washington High School cheer team became the first Philadelphia School District cheerleaders in history to qualify for nationals, where they spent the weekend competing in Dallas.
“Matt did a tremendous job capturing the dynamic of the team and the individual stories,” said Coach Michelle Sorkin-Socki. “It really showed that it was more than just cheerleading. They were able to overcome their individual adversities. They found that power within each other.”
The team, which placed fourth in the nation this year, and has been to nationals now five years in a row, attended a ritzy red carpet premier of the series at the Franklin Institute last year.
Many of the players have moved onto college, but keep in contact about the film, said Sorkin-Socki.
(L-R) George Washington High School’s Josiah Jeudy, Sarai Jeudy, Irsida Kola and Roland Williams before the premiere of “Spirit,” at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, on Thursday, February 27, 2025. “Spirit,” is the story about the George Washington HS cheer team, the first Philly public school team to make it to nationals in a sport that’s dominated by wealthy suburban (and majority white) teams.
“It’s bonded us,” she said.
All of it — the national rise, the series, the attention — has been surreal, said Sorkin-Socki.
“But I think the students felt heard,” she said. “I think they felt seen.”
The series has not only had an impact on the former players, the coach said. But on younger ones too.
“They know they can do great things,” she said. “Their trauma doesn’t define them.”
Joel Embiid will be reevaluated in approximately one week as he continues to recover from an oblique strain in his right side, the 76ers announced Friday afternoon.
Embiid, who has missed the last three games with the injury, will remain on the sideline as the Sixers travel to face the Hawks on Saturday night in Atlanta. Embiid has started individualized strength and conditioning work but has not participated in on-court practices.
Including Saturday night’s game against Atlanta, the Sixers will play four games before Embiid is expected to be reevaluated next Friday.
“I don’t think we’re too far away from him getting on the court,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said.
Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe (77) suffered a back bruise on this play against the Spurs on Tuesday night.
VJ Edgecombe was listed as doubtful for Saturday night’s game on the team’s official injury report. The rookie guard did not participate in Friday’s practice, but he did go through an on-court session.
Edgecombe was injured in the final seconds of the first half of the Sixers’ loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. He was ruled out of Wednesday night’s win over the Utah Jazz with a back bruise. The Sixers will get back one starter for Saturday night’s game, as Kelly Oubre Jr. will return after missing back-to-back games against San Antonio and Utah with an illness.
Oubre, a starting wing in his 10th NBA season, has averaged 14.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 38 games this season. Edgecombe has played in 57 of the Sixers’ 62 games this season, averaging 15.3 points and 5.5 rebounds.
At least that’s what Frank Reich is hoping. The new Jets offensive coordinator is reportedly eyeing Carson Wentz as New York’s preferred option at quarterback, per SNY’s Connor Hughes. Wentz, a pending free agent, signing with the Jets would mark the third time the pair have crossed paths. Reich previously coached Wentz, now 33, with the Eagles and the Colts.
A source told SNY that “no one loves Wentz more than Frank.”
As the Eagles offensive coordinator, Reich coached Wentz during the quarterback’s rookie season of 2016 and then in 2017. In his second year, Wentz was the MVP favorite, throwing for 3,296 yards and 33 touchdowns, before tearing his ACL in Week 13. Without Wentz, the Eagles would go on to win Super Bowl LII behind the heroics of backup quarterback Nick Foles.
After the Super Bowl victory, Reich was hired as head coach of the Colts. The offensive guru looked to build a contender behind then-Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, but Reich only got one year out of the Stanford grad. Luck abruptly retired at age 29, leading to a carousel of quarterbacks during the rest of Reich’s five-year Colts tenure.
In the 2021 season, Reich reunited with Wentz — who was ousted alongside former Eagles head coach Doug Pederson — via trade. Wentz passed for 3,563 yards with 27 touchdowns in 2021, leading the Colts to a 9-8 record. In the final game of the season, with a playoff berth on the line, the Colts mustered just 11 points against the lowly 3-14 Jaguars. Wentz was traded to Washington for draft capital that offseason.
The Washington Commanders are one of the five teams Carson Wentz has played for since leaving the Eagles.
After a 2-4 start in Washington, Wentz suffered a broken finger and was replaced by Tyler Heinecke for the remainder of that year. Since then, he has bounced around the league in backup roles with the Rams, Chiefs, and most recently the Vikings.
Meanwhile, Reich lasted with the Colts until a 3-5-1 start in 2022 led to his firing. He was hired as the Panthers head coach in 2023 but was fired after a 1-10 start. Before taking the Jets OC job this offseason, Reich was most recently the interim head coach at Stanford.
In the midst of Wentz’s rookie season of 2016, Reich described Wentz as “mentally and physically very tough” in an interview with The Inquirer. “You’ve got to be able to play the position and certainly to play here in this city, and he welcomes that, and we welcome that,” Reich continued.
Ten years later, the same can be said for the situation the two would enter together in New York. The Jets have not had a winning season since 2015 and finished last year 3-14 behind the play of Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook at quarterback.
NFL free agency kicks off Monday, as players and teams can begin negotiating deals, which can be officially signed on Wednesday.
BATON ROUGE, La. — The ambitious liver doctor would go just about anywhere in his home state to give people the hepatitis B vaccine.
Bill Cassidy offered jabs to thousands of inmates at Louisiana’s maximum-security prison in the early 2000s. A decade before that, he set up vaccine clinics in middle schools, a model hailed nationally as a success.
“He got that whole generation immunized in East Baton Rouge,” said Holley Galland, a retired doctor who worked with Cassidy vaccinating schoolchildren.
About the same time, a lawyer and environmental activist with a famous last name was starting to build the loyal anti-vaccine coalition that, two decades later, would move President Donald Trump to nominate him as the nation’s top health official.
Today, a year after now-Sen. Cassidy warily cast the vote that ensured Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ascension to that role, the Louisiana Republican’s life’s work — in medicine and in politics — is unraveling.
Newborn hepatitis B vaccination rates in the U.S. had plunged to 73% as of August, down 10 percentage points since a February 2023 high, according to research published in JAMA last month. In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices — remade by Kennedy — voted to revoke a two-decade-old recommendation that all newborns get the shot.
The next month, Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, a Cassidy challenger in what’s shaping up to be a competitive Republican Senate primary. Letlow’s foray into politics began in 2021 when she took the seat won by her husband, left vacant after he died from COVID.
KFF Health News made multiple requests for comment from Cassidy over three months. His staff declined to make him available for an interview or provide comment. Letlow’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Rise of the skeptics
As the May primary nears, some Louisiana doctors are worried they’ve begun a long trek down a dark road when it comes to vaccine-preventable diseases.
Last year, on the day Kennedy was sworn in a thousand miles away in Washington, Louisiana’s health department stopped promoting vaccines, halting its clinics and advertising. Its communications about an ongoing whooping cough outbreak in the state have nearly ceased. It took months for the state to announce last year that two infants had died from the illness. A Louisiana child’s death from the flu was confirmed this January, and a couple of cases of measles were reported last year.
Spokespeople for the Louisiana Department of Health did not respond to questions.
When parents have concerns about vaccines, pediatrician Mikki Bouquet of Baton Rouge, La., offers them a handmade folder she created that addresses common misconceptions or fears about vaccines.
“It’s so hard to see children get sick from illnesses that they should have never gotten in the first place,” said Mikki Bouquet, a pediatrician in Baton Rouge. “You want to just scream into the void of this community over how they failed this child.”
As anti-vaccine forces have taken hold of the state and federal health departments, Cassidy has lamented the consequences.
“Families are getting sick and people are dying from vaccine-preventable deaths, and that tragedy needs to stop,” he wrote on social media last fall.
But while it is Cassidy’s duty as chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to conduct oversight of the health department, Kennedy has appeared before the committee just once since he was confirmed.
The secretary speaks at a “regular clip” with Cassidy, said Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon.
Kennedy’s department has elevated Louisiana vaccine skeptics. The state surgeon general who terminated Louisiana’s vaccine campaign, Ralph Abraham, was named deputy director of the CDC. (He left the role in February.) And Kennedy handpicked Evelyn Griffin, a Baton Rouge OB-GYN who later replaced Abraham as the state surgeon general, for an appointment to ACIP. Griffin has suggested the COVID vaccine had dangerous side effects for young patients.
Research has shown that serious side effects from the vaccinations are rare and that the shots saved millions of lives during the pandemic.
Cassidy “has really not had an outspoken chorus of policy supporters” when it comes to inoculating people, said Michael Henderson, a professor of political communication at Louisiana State University. “There’s not a lot of political stakes in doing that in Louisiana if you’re a Republican.”
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry reprimanded Cassidy after the senator called for the state’s health department to ease access to COVID shots.
“Why don’t you just leave a prescription for the dangerous COVID shot at your district office and anyone can swing by and get one!” the Republican quipped on X in September.
On ‘eggshells’ in the exam room
On a sunny February afternoon, as Carnival floats were readied to parade the streets of New Orleans, pediatrician Katie Brown approached a basement apartment on a well-child visit. Cowboy boot pendants dangled from her ears, and a pack of diapers were clutched tightly in her arms.
The patient, a toddler who waved at the sight of visitors, was up to date on her immunizations. But when Brown suggested a COVID vaccine, the girl’s mother quickly declined, noting she had never gotten the shot either.
Many of Brown’s young patients — seen through Nest Health, which offers in-home visits covered by Louisiana’s Medicaid program — are current with their vaccines. Brown said home visits make parents more comfortable immunizing their children, but she’s still spending more time these days explaining what they’re getting in those shots.
“After COVID vaccines, that’s when some people just decided, ‘I don’t know if I trust vaccines, period,’” she said.
Across the state, vaccination rates have declined since the pandemic, falling short of the levels scientists say are required to achieve herd immunity for some deadly diseases, including measles. About 92% of Louisiana’s kindergartners have had the recommended two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.
The New Orleans Health Department has tried to step up with a $100,000 immunization campaign of its own, with clinics and billboards, during this year’s flu season, said Jennifer Avegno, the department’s director.
But the state’s absence is felt. Other parishes across Louisiana have not taken similar action, leaving doctors largely on their own to promote immunizations.
“I’ll say that with certainty,” Avegno said. “It’s been a blow to not have a statewide coordination.”
A day after Brown’s home visit, a mother in Baton Rouge shook her head when Bouquet offered a flu shot for her 10-year-old daughter in an exam room.
In the waiting room, parents could thumb through a handmade book that offers scientific facts to counter fears about vaccines. A laminated guide placed in each exam room explained the benefits of each recommended immunization.
Bouquet said she’s experimenting with ways to educate parents about vaccines without seeming overbearing. She still hasn’t figured out a surefire formula. Some parents now shut down any vaccine talk, and she worries others skip scheduling appointments to avoid the topic entirely.
“We’re having to walk on eggshells a bit to determine how to get that trust back,” Bouquet said. “And maybe these discussions can come up in future visits.”
Pro-Vax, pro-anti-Vaxxer
Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit that Kennedy helmed, worked to erode vaccine trust during the pandemic — falsely claiming, for instance, that COVID shots cause organ damage and that polio vaccines were at fault for a rise in the disease. The organization also sued the federal government over the mRNA-based COVID shots, hoping to get their emergency authorizations from the Food and Drug Administration revoked.
When Kennedy came before Cassidy’s committee in January 2025 as Trump’s nominee for health secretary, the senator-doctor saw risks if the prominent anti-vaccine lawyer was confirmed.
Cassidy described a time years ago when he loaded an 18-year-old onto a helicopter to get an emergency liver transplant. The young woman had acute hepatitis B, an incurable disease that is spread primarily through blood or bodily fluids and can lead to liver failure.
It was “the worst day of my medical career,” he said, addressing Kennedy at the witness table in front of him. “Because I thought, $50 of vaccines could have prevented this all.”
Cassidy started in politics in 2006 as a state senator, winning election to the U.S. House two years later. When he first ran for the U.S. Senate, in 2014, he charmed Louisiana voters with campaign ads showing him dressed in scrubs and a white lab coat, talking about his work with Hurricane Katrina evacuees and patients at Baton Rouge’s public hospital.
But some Republicans soured on Cassidy after he voted to convict Trump on an article of impeachment charging him with inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The impeachment vote has hampered Cassidy’s reelection bid this year in a state where Trump captured 60% of the vote in 2024.
“Cassidy has things that are associated with his name: the impeachment vote in 2021,” Henderson said.
Cassidy’s loyalty to Trump was tested again with Kennedy’s nomination. Cassidy said he endorsed Kennedy after extracting pledges that he wouldn’t tinker with the nation’s vaccination program.
But since taking office, Kennedy has largely ignored those promises, and Cassidy hasn’t publicly rebuked him.
Former Texas congressman Michael Burgess served for years with Cassidy in the House, where they were founding members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, started in 2009. He said Cassidy’s discomfort with some of Kennedy’s actions is palpable.
“You could hear some of the pain in Sen. Cassidy’s voice when he was addressing that the secretary wanted to drop the birth dose of hepatitis B,” Burgess said. “You got cases to nearly zero on hepatitis B. It was painful to him to think about taking this away from the population.”
Retired Baton Rouge nurse-practitioner Elizabeth Britton has switched her party affiliation so she can vote in the closed Republican primary for Cassidy, with whom she vaccinated inmates decades ago.
She doesn’t quite understand the “mess” in Washington that resulted in the senator voting to confirm a vaccine critic.
Watching Kennedy and others promulgate doubts about shots she once administered has made her “profoundly sad” and “angry,” she said, but most of all worried.
“It puts a pit in my stomach, because I know the consequences of people not getting the vaccine,” she said.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
From the department of weirdly random, gratuitously hurtful actor observations about the world, Timothée Chalamet has informed us that opera and ballet are passé:
“I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though, like, no one cares about this anymore.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”
After suggesting that both art forms were wanting for support during a talk with actor Matthew McConaughey at a Variety and CNN town hall in University of Texas at Austin, the American and French actor joked: “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”
Chalamet then mimicked an opera singer, the event video shows.
Opera and ballet figures all over have seized on his comments, and Philadelphia — where both opera and ballet fill the hall regularly — would like to have a word with the 30-year-old actor.
BalletX dancers Ashley Simpson, Itzkan Barbosa, Minori Sakita, and Lanie Jackson (back) in Amy Hall Garner’s “Petrushka.”
“I am a huge Timothée Chalamet fan, and I was shocked,” said Christine Cox, artistic and executive director of BalletX. “It was so dismissive and hurtful of entire industries. I see generations of people coming to this art form. We shouldn’t be putting each other down, we should be lifting each other up.”
BalletX’s spring run of seven performances this month are nearly sold out, Cox pointed out.
Philadelphia Ballet chief executive officer Shelly Power said that “Mr. Chalamet is obviously living outside the majority of the ballet world and out of touch. If his comments were true, why are our ticket sales and attendance numbers hitting all-time highs? We saw 10,000 more patrons from 2024 to 2025 in The Nutcracker alone.”
Its subscriber base, Power said, has returned to pre-pandemic numbers.
This season, most Opera Philadelphia performances have sold out or sold close to capacity. General director and president Anthony Roth Costanzo said that “in terms of whether I agree that no one cares about it, no, obviously I don’t agree with that as someone who cares about it a lot.”
But Costanzo says he prefers to focus on the underlying question of how to get even more people to care about both opera and film.
Anthony Roth Costanzo (right), countertenor, and Leah Hawkins (left), soprano, perform during ‘Home for the Holidays’, a concert part of Opera Philadelphia’s ‘Pipe Up!’ series at The Wanamaker Building’s Grand Court on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.
“Timothée was talking about making film as relevant as it can be, and in that context, he said that he didn’t want to work in something that wasn’t relevant, to try and make it more relevant, and that’s what I’m doing. So in a way I feel allied. He’s just saying that he doesn’t want to do it in a medium that’s more difficult, so I guess he’s a little bit more of a wimp than I am.”
BalletX’s Cox said that Chalamet’s comments were surprising coming from someone whose mother, Nicole Flender, was a Broadway dancer, and someone who attended a performing arts high school. Chalamet attended New York City’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
At left is Dayesi Torriente, playing Gulnare leaps in front of Angel Corella, artistic director, Philadelphia Ballet during rehearsal for “Le Corsaire” at the Philadelphia Ballet, Wood Street, Philadelphia, Wednesday, October 2, 2024.
“I bet you he’s going to be at a ballet soon, because he’s going to have to fix this,” Cox said.
As for Chalamet mimicking an opera singer during his talk with McConaughey, Costanzo has an idea.
“I invite him to star in an opera whenever he wants. Because after he said that, I saw some contrition as he tried to then sing an operatic note. And I thought, ‘Okay, there’s some promise there.’ So if he wants voice lessons, I’m available.”
Philadelphia’s oldest wine school says a competitor is attempting to erase its existence from the internet through a “cyberbullying” campaign and trademark infringement, according to a federal lawsuit.
In the suit, PhillyWine LLC alleges that Keith Wallace and Alana Zerbe, the husband-and-wife duo behind the Wine School of Philadelphia, took extraordinary steps to confuse customers and piggyback on PhillyWine’s prestige, causing PhillyWine economic and reputational damage. The suit, filed Feb. 26 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, also accuses Wallace, the founder of the Wine School of Philadelphia, of fabricating his credentials and using aliases to open businesses that promote his school.
Wallace and Zerbe “have made it their mission to destroy” PhillyWine “by attempting to erase its existence and take over its name,” the suit says. The two schools have coexisted since the early 2000s — “although not always peacefully,” the suit notes — but tensions escalated at the end of 2025, when Wallace secured what the suit calls a “fraudulently obtained trademark” for the name “Philly Wine School.”
A screenshot from the Philadelphia Wine School’s website using the Philly Wine School name, which PhillyWine alleges infringed on their brand.
Armed with the trademark, Wallace convinced Instagram to suspend PhillyWine’s account in December, according to the complaint, and he has since attempted to take over the school’s Google business listing and shut down its website. Meanwhile, he was propping up his own business through a “self-legitimizing web of deception,” the suit says.
PhillyWine’s enrollment and attendance have been down since December, co-owner Matt Kirkland said in an interview, declining to share specific figures.
“The name confusion has disrupted student registration and appears to be redirecting traffic” to Wallace’s sites, said Kirkland. “I think there needs to be clarity in naming and clarity for students so they sign up for the classes they think they’re signing up for.”
PhillyWine is asking a federal judge to issue an injunction that would prohibit Wallace from using Philly Wine School, or any other confusingly similar name, and from attempting to disable PhillyWine’s online accounts. Without an injunction, the request said, PhillyWine would face an “existential threat.”
“These attacks must end now, and PhillyWine must be allowed to resume its business under normal conditions without further harassment,” the LLC said in court filings.
The lawsuit seeks profits the Wine School of Philadelphia earned from misappropriating PhillyWine’s name through trademark infringement, unfair competition practices, and false advertising. It also asks a judge to nullify the trademark.
Wallace denied the allegations and characterized the complaint as a way for PhillyWine to “bully” him out of the business he spent decades building.
A wine war ferments
Created by former owner Neal Ewing in 1999, PhillyWine is the city’s only wine educator fully accredited by the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, a nonprofit organization which sets international standards for alcoholic beverage education. PhillyWine is one of 47 programs globally — and the only in the tri-state area — approved to teach the trust’s full wine diploma, which PhillyWine has leveraged to host classes with Drexel and James Madison universities.
The Wine School of Philadelphia, founded in 2001 by Wallace,is not accredited by the Wine & Spirits Education Trust. It hosts wine tastings as well as semester-long sommelier courses using curricula from the National Wine School, which Wallace also founded. About 3,000 people attend Wine School of Philadelphia classes annually, according to Wallace.
In 2019, the education trustsent Wallace a letter asking him to cease comparing his school with PhillyWine on his site, the suit says. Wallace said he had “no idea” if he ever received such a letter.
When Ewing retired in 2022, he sold the business to current co-owners Kirkland, a Penn surgeon, and Noelle Allen, a former banking executive andcertified wine educator. Then, a digital wine war began to ferment.
That August, the school learned that Wallace had claimed the Instagram handle @PhillyWine to “antagonize” Ewing, the suit said, and it had to compromise for the now-defunct @PhillyWineSchool. The account @PhillyWine currently has a photo of Wallace as its profile picture and features videos of Wallace and Zerbe filming their wine podcast.
Wallace denied obtaining the Instagram handle togrind an axe, but acknowledged a rift between the two wine schools. “Everyone knows — including my wife and therapist — that I have a sharp tongue, and I have always been critical of certain ways of [teaching] … but I have never said anything nasty or even a little mean” about PhillyWine, he said. “They just do not like me.”
In late 2024, Wallace filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark “Philly Wine School” for use alongside food and wine classes. He obtained the name in December; it had no prior trademarks.
Themove blindsided PhillyWine’s owners. “We frankly saw no reason and anticipated no need for a reason to try to trademark something,” Kirkland said.
The lawsuit alleges Wallace lied in his trademark application by attesting that the Philly Wine School name “has acquired distinctiveness in the marketplace through nearly two decades of continuous use.” But there is no evidence he used that name on his school’s website before filing the application in November 2024, according to the suit.
Wallace chalked the sudden use of “Philly Wine School” on his website up to pride in having the trademark. “When you get something, you show it off,” he said.
Bringing a ‘bazooka’ to a ‘wine fight’
Once the trademark was issued, Wallace “immediately used the document to inflict cyberbullying on PhillyWine,” the suit said.
Wallace successfully asked Instagram tosuspend PhillyWine’s account, according to the complaint, and has attempted to claim the school’s Google Business profile. He also filed a takedown request with SquareSpace, the host of PhillyWine’s website, and created a Google Maps listing for a “Philly Wine School” at 109 S. 22nd St., the Wine School of Philadelphia’s address. Kirkland said the latter action has led to PhillyWine, which teaches three blocks away at the Fitler Club, receiving negative reviews for classes taken at Wallace’s Wine School of Philadelphia.
“A review like that — where someone posts about us and they’re not our student and have never taken our classes — is direct reputational damage,” said Kirkland. Lawyers representing PhillyWine sent a cease and desist on Dec. 31, asking Wallace to abandon his trademark and “discontinue his efforts to take over” or remove the school’s online accounts,according to documents reviewed by The Inquirer.
Wallace confirmed receiving the cease and desist, but rejected allegations of using the trademark to bully PhillyWine or its owners. Instead, Wallace said, he’s the true victim.
“If they wanted these things, they could’ve done them too,” Wallace said. “We’re nothing but peace, love, and happiness. They just have this tiny little lawsuit, and they filled it with all this nastiness.”
A negative PhillyWine review on SOMM, a website operated by Keith Wallace, owner of The Wine School of Philadelphia.
The lawsuit also alleges that Wallace has been untruthful about his credentials and used aliases to start businesses such as the National Wine School and the website somm.us in order to promote his school. (Wallace said he founded somm.us in 2015 and maintains a relationship with the website, but doesn’t control its ratings or content.)
Wallace’s biography on the Wine School of Philadelphia website previously stated he graduated from University of California Davis and was a professional winemaker in Napa Valley. Neither are true, according to the suit.
Wallace declined to say when he matriculated at or graduated from UC Davis or elaborate on his stint in Napa Valley. UC Davis has no record of a person with Wallace’s name or date of birth ever attending, a representative for the university said via email.
The lawsuit’s allegations, he said, have him fearful for the future of his school.
“They brought a bazooka to a knife fight,” Wallace said. “This isn’t even a knife fight, it’s a wine fight.”
If you’re looking to find an artistic escape with your night out, Philadelphia Ballet’s new (to them) The Merry Widow is a good match.
Set in the Belle Époque era in Paris, it is all glittering dresses, tiaras, stunning ballrooms, and beautiful gardens. The main characters change costumes several times. The movement mixes in waltzes and folk dances (from a fictional country), along with pointe work and partnering.
A romantic comedy, period piece, and visual feast, it is sort of the Jane Austen of ballet.
While it’s called The Merry Widow, there are two strong principal couples. On Thursday night’s premiere at the Academy of Music, Mayara Pineiro was Hanna, a rich widow, and Sterling Baca was Danilo, an aristocrat who broke it off with the young Hanna years ago when she was a poor peasant. The leaders of their fictional country, Pontevedro, would like them to marry to keep their homeland afloat.
Philadelphia Ballet dancers Yuka Iseda (top) and Ashton Roxander in “The Merry Widow.”
The second couple is Valencienne, danced on Thursday by Yuka Iseda, and Camille, performed by Ashton Roxander. The third wheel in the relationship is Valencienne’s much older husband, Baron Zeta, a character role performed by rehearsal director Charles Askegard.
Iseda was the best surprise of the night. Her reactions and comedic timing were on point and helped move the narrative along.
The partnering from both couples was top-notch, and the dancing as a whole was rich and lush.
The sets and costumes, by Roberta Guidi di Bagno, are reason enough to see The Merry Widow. Occasionally the costume changes make identifying the characters confusing, but all is forgiven when Pineiro enters in a white gown and an impossibly lavish feathered scarf.
Philadelphia Ballet dancers Sterling Baca (left) and Mayara Pineiro in “The Merry Widow.”
Ronald Hynd adapted The Merry Widow in 1975 for the Australian Ballet from the operetta and the Franz Lehár score was arranged for the ballet by John Lanchbery.
The original Danilo for the Australian Ballet, John Meehan, was a répétiteur for the Philadelphia Ballet, along with Steven Woodgate. So the dancers learned the choreography from an original source.
Artistic director Angel Corella said last week that he had wanted the company to perform The Merry Widow since he came to the company in 2014.
“It’s one of my favorite ballets. It’s so much fun,” Corella said. “Great dancing, beautiful music, beautiful story.”
Philadelphia Ballet dancer Mayara Pineiro (center) in “The Merry Widow.”
The group dances add a lot of depth to the ballet — and more stunning costumes. From the ballroom scenes to the folk dances of fictional Pontevedro, a cancan scene, and men performing in tails, the stage nearly vibrates with color and sparkle. The ballet has many dancers to cast, from the advanced levels of the school through the professional ranks, so these large scenes are impressive.
For a fairly recent ballet, there is some Orientalism in the folk dance scenes. But since it is set in a made-up place, any passing likeness to Turkey or the Middle East is easier to take.
Philadelphia Ballet in “The Merry Widow.” Through March 15. Academy of Music. $29-$274.40. 215-893-1999 or ensembleartsphilly.org
The Flyers made their first big move of the trade deadline early on Friday, trading winger Bobby Brink to Minnesota for defenseman David Jiříček.
Jiříček will start his career with the Flyers organization in Lehigh Valley, but he’s got the potential to be a big part of the Flyers’ future. Here are five things to know about the organization’s newest blueliner.
Jiříček, whom the Flyers really liked at the time, was picked sixth overall in the 2022 NHL draft by Columbus, one pick after the Flyers selected Gauthier. Famously, Gauthier never played a game with the organization, requesting a trade out and getting swapped for Jamie Drysdale in January of 2024.
2. His brother is an NHL prospect, too
Jiříček‘s brother, Adam, was the St. Louis Blues’ first-round pick in 2024. He’s also a right-handed defenseman, and was one of the stars for Czechia in their silver-medal campaign at the 2026 World Juniors.
3. He’s on his third NHL team
Despite his draft pedigree, Jiříček hasn’t been able to stick at the NHL level yet. He bounced between the Blue Jackets’ AHL and NHL squads, even making the 2023 AHL All-Star team, before being traded in 2024 with a fifth-rounder to Minnesota for defenseman Daemon Hunt and first-, second-, third- and fourth-round picks. He spent time with the Wild’s NHL and AHL clubs before being flipped for Brink. He will start his Flyers career in Lehigh Valley.
New Flyers defenseman David Jiříček’s calling card is a booming shoot.
4. He’s got a hard shot
One of Jiříček‘s best attributes is his hard shot from the point. The big selling point during his draft year was his strong offensive toolkit, especially on the power play, but he hasn’t been able to carve out power-play time in Minnesota. Currently, the Flyers have Drysdale and Cam York running the two power play units.
5. He’s tall
Jiříček stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 204 lbs., according to the NHL media site. He’ll instantly be one of the Flyers’ biggest defensemen, behind just Travis Sanheim — especially with Rasmus Ristolainen likely on his way out.
