For every ballyhooed success — Minnesota’s Travail, raising a quarter-mil — there’s a project like Philly’s own Yachtsman, which earned some derision for its (successful) late-inning tactics. Supporters laud the simplicity of the act: Why jump through all those flaming SBA hoops when you can get the cash infusion you need from your own customer base? Detractors, meanwhile, resent the implication that they should help pay for an establishment that’s already planning to take their money.
Tony Montagnaro, a member of the cooperative developing W/N W/N (“Win Win”) in a former Thai restaurant in the Eraserhood (931 Spring Garden St.), has been grappling with this issue since they began work on their cafe-bar-restaurant in early 2014.