I used to work at a bar at 40th and Walnut. It's a weird fucking area in terms of clientele. You have: entitled Penn students, who may be from rich families but who are themselves cheap and don't know how to tip or behave; people from the section 8 / public housing a few blocks away who can also be shitty; professionals, mostly who work for Penn. The first two of these groups fucking suck from a service industry perspective. They are demanding, cheap, and can be disruptive.

I don't think that area can consistently support anything other than fast food and fast casual when the two largest groups of customers are like this. Especially when there's such a large number of competitors - there are a ridiculous number of storefronts and vendors serving food in U city.

That McDonald's was always the most consistent place in the area, and it hosted a large number of drunken fights for years while being possibly the most disgusting, awful food service establishment I've ever seen.