Join us at the Standard Tap tonight for the fourth and final Publetters of September. Trophy Bikes will have a nice selection of postage stamps; Casa Papel will provide fine stationery to write upon and envelopes to stamp. Starts promptly at 7 p.m upstairs at the Tap, 2nd and Poplar Streets. Yards Brewing Company has given us a very nice T-shirt, which we will award to the 7th person to finish their letter!
Letters were heading all over the place after last night’s second Publetters at the Standard Tap. We wrote to California, Portland, Nashville, Alabama and Brooklyn-–and for a first--Northern Ireland, and Uganda!
This quartet were all writing to the same good friend; she’s entering basic training in the US Air Force.
The night’s total was 31 handwritten, sincere (we checked!) letters, all stamped and mailed well before last call. As always, there was a posh spread of quality stationery courtesy of Casa Papel. Once again, the Tap offered drink specials if you ordered in writing, and Trophy Bikes laid out a selection of 1st class stamps to choose from.
Casa Papel’s Nestor Torres talks stationery with a Publetter writer. The vintage mantelpiece makes a great paper display.
If you haven’t been out yet, there are two more Tuesday night Publetters this month at the Standard Tap–Sept. 23rd, and the 30th. Starts at 7 pm, FREE, of course, and goes a couple hours. Stop by, have a drink and write a letter to someone who will really be glad you did.
P.S. Thanks for reading, and Don’t Forget to Write!
P.P.S. Please tell a friend about http://www.publetters.com.
Letters went to California, Tennessee, the Garden State of New Jersey, and to every corner of Philadelphia. We were very happy to write to Mr. James Spinelli of Quaker Shoe Repair in Haddonfield. He’s retiring at 94–after 84 years of saving soles. (sorry!)
Drinks and Ink mix quite well, as this aerial picture shows.
Please join us and bring your address book*. As always, we will provide fine stationery courtesy of Casa Papel, and 1st Class postage sponsored by Trophy Bikes. Starts promptly at 7 Pm, and of course, it’s FREE. Please tell a friend about PUBLETTERS, and like us on Facebook, which we all know is no substitute for a nice, handwritten, heartfelt letter. With kind regards, Mike and Nestor, your Publetters hosts, and the cast/crew of the Standard Tap. Below: our stack–37 handwritten letters (and one Rides a Bike postcard)–all mailed before last call:
The nights’ production: 37 mailed, plus three headed home; “forgot their addresses,” we were informed. In the background, a half of PBC Kenzinger, we also had a nice brew from Yards!
* We always bring a cheat sheet of addresses, so that you can write to the Mayor of Atlantic City, Pope Francis, Kevin Bacon or the poor guy who handles Vladimir Putin’s PR, among others.
PS: The New York Times recently had a chat with some notable performers about the love letters in their lives.
Please join PUBLETTERS at the STANDARD TAP, 2nd & Poplar Streets, starting Tuesday, September 9th (and the 16th, 23rd & 30th)
New home of PUBLETTERS for September
It’s FREE, it’s 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and you still get great stationery (thanks to Casa Papel) and first class postage stamps (from Trophy Bikes) . Drink specials? Of course–if you order in writing. Join us, write a letter, drink a beer–repeat as desired. Bring your address book; we’ll have some great people to send a letter to.
Thanks–and don’t forget to write!**
**We welcome and will answer all correspondence to our land mail address: PUBLETTERS c/o mcget, 627 S. 27th St. Phila. PA 19146)
OUR STORY THUS FAR:
The very first PUBLETTERS was held on Tuesday, July 8th, 2014, at Doobies Bar. The last PUBLETTERS of the summer was July 29th. Over four Tuesdays, we enjoyed meeting all sorts of people–who handwrote more than 195 letters and cards!
The last session was no exception; we wrote 45 letters to record shop owners and best friends, Tour de France winners and avant-garde composers, sons and daughters, soldiers and civilians. Letters went out as far as Hawaii, Australia, Germany and Vatican City, and others bore addresses just a short walk from our “official” mail box, down the street from Doobies.
Below, a smartphone sits idle as three letter-writers do their thing at Doobies (on lovely stationery from Casa Papel, of course).
WHAT’S NEXT? We will soon announce the September Publetters location, a nice bar in somewhere in NORTHERN LIBERTIES–still on Tuesdays, still starting at 7 p.m. Fear not, Center City dwellers; Publetters will carry on at Doobies as a monthly event–also on Tuesday evenings. Details will be announced here and through various other means. Trophy Bikes is stocking up on more postage stamps (including, hint: the great lady who sang, “Combination of the Two”, “Piece of My Heart” and many other soulful hits), and Casa Papel is searching out even more interesting paper and envelopes for you.
As we prepare for the fall, please accept our thanks for coming out and helping keep letters alive. Your words on paper are what made Publetters happen–along with the United States Postal Service–the greatest mail system on earth!
With Kind Regards,
Nestor (Casa Papel) , Patty (Doobies Bar) and Mike (Trophy Bikes), hosts of Publetters.
PS — See you in September, and Don’t Forget to Write!*
• • •
* We mean it most sincerely–Drop us a line at:
PUBLETTERS, c/o McG, 627 S. 27th St. Phila. PA, 19146, USA.
Our third and *penultimate weekly PubLetters was a happy, sad, and official evening.
We filled every table, and set a new record of 79 hand-written cards and letters.
Benedict Cumberbatch will be pleased; we also wrote Mom and Dad, President Barack Obama, and sent a note to the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association in Camden. The Pope should also be happy to find something in the Papal mail box this morning.
We wished a Happy Birthday in card after card to little Danny Nickerson; he’s got terminal cancer and his humble wish was for lots of birthday cards in the mail to his home in Foxboro MA home. Here you go, Danny. We also sent to some Thank You notes to our soldiers via Operation Gratitude. Be safe, soldiers.
And, as we hoped, half a dozen U.S. Postal Service Letter Carriers were on hand–the National Association of Letter Carriers union was holding their big convention in Philadelphia this week. We invited all 8,000 of them, and it’s probably just as well they didn’t all show up at once–they see enough lines at their Post Office jobs, we reckon. Above, Doobies’ owner Pat chats with these friendly Letter Carriers from Georgia as they take a break from delivering letters to write a few. Thank you, Letter Carriers, for your official stamp of approval–and for getting our mail to the people we love.
Each week, we seem to discover some new angles to this old and lovely communications art: for the first time in my life, I used a wax seal to secure a letter. Thanks, Alexandra. And our stationery sponsor, Casa Papel, brought a classic air-mail style sheet: write on the page, then it folds into its own envelope. Minimal, beautiful.
*Yes–the (for the nonce) last PubLetters will be this Tuesday, July 29th at Doobies. Come on out and write a “How I Mis-Spent My Summer” letter or whatever you like. Don’t worry about postage–Trophy Bikes will have a nice selection of 1st-class stamps, as always.
PUBLETTERS WILL TAKE AUGUST OFF-then return Tuesdays in September at a NEW, Northern Liberties location TBA. “But I like PubLetters at Doobies,” you say, not unreasonably. Fear not, PubLetters will live on as a monthly event at the bar where it was founded. Watch this space for details.
Thanks–and Don’t Forget to Write!
Mike (Trophy Bikes), Pat, (Doobies Bar) and Nestor (Casa Papel) — hosts of PubLetters.
Since Sunday, some 8,000 of the men and women who deliver the mail will be in Philadelphia, for the biannual National Association of Letter Carriers meeting at the Convention Center.
Tonight, about 4,000 of them are going to watch the Phillies at Citizens Bank. That leaves 4,000 to come to DOOBIES BAR tonight, for Publetters. This is an important convention for the letter carriers. Powerful private services have been trying to sabotage our Postal Service for years now–so they need our support.
Let’s welcome them to Philadelphia, and, we hope, to Doobies tonight, July 22, from 7 p.m. on.
We will also have some new addresses this week- including a young boy who really likes birthday cards–please swing by the card shop and get something that will make a 5-year-old smile.
see you at Publetters,
sincerely,
— Michael (Trophy Bikes), Patty (Doobies Bar), and Nestor (Casa Papel), your hosts.
On an evening when the National Weather Service warned of “drenching, gusty and disruptive storms”, our bold PubLetters crew came out in force, defying the forecasters. By hand, they wrote more than two dozen sincere letters and post cards to sons and daughters, friends and grandmothers, brewers (see below) and prisoners, and offered encouragement to composer and polymath Ryuichi Sakamoto, who is battling cancer. 
Mailed on July 15th!
DO NOTE: There are two more Tuesday night PUBLETTERS to come at DOOBIES BAR: Casa Papel, the exclusive stationery supplier for Publetters, will have beautiful paper and envelopes; Trophy Bikes will offer an array of First Class postage stamps, and Doobies will serve up drink specials. (if you order in writing–see below for some examples!) Those dates: July 22 and 29. Starts at 7 p.m. Free, of course; bring some addresses, a favorite pen and a friend.
When Britain was great:
A pub that’s also a Post Office–The Spread Eagle and Crown–have a look.
Oh, and accessible by dinghy–close to perfect.
Just a reminder, we will open a second page of PubLetters, this very Tuesday, 15 July, once again at Doobies (Located at 22nd and Lombard) , beginning promptly at approximately 7:01 p.m.
with Kind Regards,
— Michael McGettigan
Some lovely left-handed letter writing at PUBLETTERS’ first Tuesday night.
PUBLETTERS had a great opening night! Every table was full, every beer had a sheet of paper next to it, and everyone was scripting and printing furiously. In two shakes of a lamb’s tail, we had 43 hand-written letters and post cards–going to Minnneapolis, Vatican City, Toronto, South Philly, sunny California, the White House, and points South, East and North.
Casa Papel brought a selection of posh stationery, Doobies served up (written) drink specials, and Trophy Bikes put First Class postage on the envelopes and delivered them to the nearest mailbox by Brompton folder bike.
PUBLETTERS continues every Tuesday (July 15, 22, 29) at DOOBIES, starting 7 p.m. Bring some <landmail> addresses and your favorite pen or pencil, and invite your favorite person.
• • • • • • • •
Dear media: thank you for the shout-outs. Our most sincere appreciation to Foobooz, Joe Sixpack, Philebrity, Indy Hall, Paperclips 215, Beerscene, WHYY Newsworks and PostalMag –all helped spread the news about the old practices of letter writing and drinking beer!
SAVE THE US POSTAL SERVICE join us in OLD CITY on TUESDAY, June 23, lunchtime! 