Manayunk staple Jake's & Cooper's Wine Bar to close after nearly 40 years

One of the oldest restaurants along Main Street in Manayunk is preparing to close its doors after nearly four decades in business.

Jake's and Cooper's Wine Bar will close Oct. 19, exactly 39 years after owner and head chef Bruce Cooper first opened the Philadelphia restaurant in 1987.

Cooper, now 72, said he had long planned to retire at this point in his life. The closure comes as he reflects on nearly four decades of changes in the restaurant industry. 

"We actually opened on Black Monday," Cooper said.

That was Oct. 19, 1987, the day the stock market suffered a historic crash.

"I didn't even know it happened until it was the second day," Cooper said. "I certainly wasn't aware. We were too busy working."

Despite the ominous first day, Jake's became a fixture on Main Street.

Longtime customer Janet Levit remembers visiting in the early years.

"It was the new age of the late 80's, a new kind of restaurant at that time," Levit said.

She said she got hooked on Cooper's signature barbecue salmon dish. 

"I never had it any place else," she said. "I'm not a fish person, but I would actually come here just for that." 

Over the years, Jake's has changed along with Manayunk and the restaurant industry. The business expanded into the neighboring space in 2008 during the Great Recession. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted restaurants more than a decade later, Cooper pivoted again, offering takeout and selling wine.

"Instead of investing outside in booths, which it was January — I didn't think it was going to go well — we did a wine wall," he said. "Which has been very good since the day we started it."

Through those changes, Cooper said a loyal community of customers continued coming through the doors.

For some, the relationship became quite literally etched into the restaurant.

Chris Michaels has been a regular for about a decade and has his own personalized glass behind the bar.

"You see my special glass. It has my name etched in it," Michaels said. "Everyone knows when I come, they get my glass out."

The restaurant also became a second home for Cooper's son, Bruce Joseph Cooper II, who is now its general manager. 

"I had my own little corner of the kitchen where I watched everyone work — it was the coolest thing in the world," he said.

Cooper said the industry has continued to evolve, with higher food costs and changing dining habits among the challenges restaurants face today. 

"A lot of things have changed. You know, the cost of food has changed. The cost of proteins are extremely dangerous for a business to operate," he said.

But he said the decision to close was personal: At 72, he is ready to retire.

That will bring Jake's story full circle.

On Oct. 19, the same date Cooper opened the restaurant 39 years earlier, Jake's and Cooper's will close instead of entering its 40th year.

"That's the date we picked," he said. "I just want to get to that date."

In the months leading up to the final service, Cooper plans to welcome former employees back to dine, reminisce and celebrate the restaurant's history.

For the Cooper family, the relationships formed there are what they expect to remember most.

"You have been loved. You will always be loved," Bruce Joseph Cooper II said. "Manayunk is a great community, and it's always booming with community and love."