{"id":157969,"date":"2026-04-05T19:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157969\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:44:06","slug":"volpes-sports-bar-closes-after-nearly-two-decades-in-emmaus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157969\/","title":{"rendered":"Volpe’s Sports Bar closes after nearly two decades in Emmaus"},"content":{"rendered":"

A longtime sports bar has said goodbye after nearly two decades of operation in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n

After opening for a final late night, Volpe\u2019s Sports Bar closed early Sunday morning at 501 Broad St. in Emmaus, bar and property owner Fran Volpe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know this is a little painful going through this now and never great with the employees trying to figure out their situation as well, but it\u2019s something that had to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Volpe\u2019s family business dates to over 80 years ago, according to the bar\u2019s website<\/a>, when Fran\u2019s grandfather, Italian emigrant Americo Volpe, around 1940 purchased the property that now hosts Volpe\u2019s Sports Bar at 19th and Tilghman streets in Allentown.<\/p>\n

Fran said his father, Robert, has operated the Allentown property since 1984, back when it was known as the Lafayette Inn. The sports bar there will continue to operate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in that,\u201d Fran said. \u201cJust around that business all the time. When I was old enough, I bartended it. I grew up cutting the grass, just doing everything around, so I understood the business at an early age.\u201d<\/p>\n

After leaving the mortgage business following the Great Recession, Fran said he opened the Emmaus bar in late 2008.<\/p>\n

A few thing caused the closure, he said, including the fact that people don\u2019t seem to drink<\/a> or stay out as late as much as they used to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that trend, I could see that coming for a long time,\u201d Fran said. \u201cAnd the nighttime business, which is what we were \u2026 we were a drinking establishment that \u2026 a big percentage of our business was alcohol and a smaller percentage was food. And we\u2019ve tried over the years to do more and more food, and I think we\u2019re at the point now where \u2026 I would not open up a bar the way we were when we opened here. Like that business model, I think, just isn\u2019t the same as what would be successful today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fran\u2019s priorities have also shifted to other responsibilities, like family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started this business when I was 30 and was single and didn\u2019t have kids, my life was a little different,\u201d he said. \u201cMy priorities were a little different. Now I have teenage kids and I coach. I\u2019m also the wrestling coach at Parkland High School for the girls. So I\u2019ve kind of gotten myself into some other things that take me away from this business, and I just got to the point where I think the changes that need to be made in order to make this place successful again \u2014\u00a0 successful enough in my eyes \u2014 I feel like the changes would have to be pretty big, and I\u2019m just not in a position that I want to do that at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fran said he closed without a plan for what happens next at the Emmaus property, but that he\u2019d consider arrangements such as opening a different business there, bringing on a partner, renting the property to another operator or selling the property.<\/p>\n

No matter what, Fran said, he imagines it will need to be something new \u2014 a new name and new menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think now for this place to be successful, [it] has to be more of a food-driven \u2026 because I do think that Emmaus has an opportunity for a good restaurant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Those with inquiries for the property can reach Fran at info@volpessportsbar.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A longtime sports bar has said goodbye after nearly two decades of operation in the Lehigh Valley. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,60,182,435,436,289,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-157969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-restaurants-food-and-drink","14":"tag-retail","15":"tag-things-to-do","16":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}