Thank you, Kurt: 700 Club co-owner Kurt Wunder is a Philly revolutionary worth remembering

At the end of 1997, before opening his 700 Club with bartending pal Chris Sey and Mel’s Rockpile bassist Tracy Stanton, Kurt Wunder spoke with me about his then newly purchased butcher shop turned corner saloon.

Situated on the corner of 2nd and Fairmount long before Northern Liberties became whatever the hell one would call it today (ask Sey and he readily refers to the then battered-and-sparsely lived in neighborhood as “not tainted”), Wunder, who lived in Old City at the time, explained the direction for his bar-playhouse, which he referred to as “kitsch without being hokey.”

In a former life, Wunder was a bartender at Khyber and played a fish while shirtless in an earlier incarnation of Mel’s Rockpile. He also served a stint as the suave DJ and host of Rat Pack nights at Silk City. To top it off, he became a bar owner and scene explorer.

All of this made him a revolutionary.

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