The Tilted Kilt Sicklerville restaurant on Cross Keys Rd. in Gloucester Township is closing after Sunday night, April 23rd. Sunday Night will be the last beer poured.
A new locally based owner is taking over the property and will be introducing a new concept for the building, in line with a traditional American-Irish pub experience.
Update: The new restaurant will be called The Local G.O.A.T. and will be a “trendy casual” restaurant and bar. The ownership also has the successful Rack’s Pubs, but with The GOAT the promise something completely different! Click here to read more on The Local G.O.A.T.! or keep scrolling for more on Tilted Kilt closing
The new owners are expected to take 5 to 8 weeks to implement a variety of changes and upgrades on the property, and then reopen with the new concept.
I do know who the new owner is and shared some messages with them today.
I will be chatting with them over the next few days regarding their full plans, and will publish a new article hopefully early in the week. Seems fair to let Tilted Kilt have it’s “swan song” weekend, and then for the new restaurant we can focus on it, in a separate post!
I have also chatted with Amol who is the Tilted Kilt owner (selling the business). He is a local entrepreneur owning several South Jersey restaurants and businesses.
Amol informs me that the existing staff will be extended an opportunity to continue working at the new Pub when it opens.
Tilted Kilt Sicklerville – Change Was Coming Regardless
The Tilted Kilt concept for Sicklerville has been on its way out for almost a year, as far as I can tell.
Amol had been planning his own new concept and had started that process earlier in 2022.
In fact, while the location still maintained the Tilted Kilt branding and uniforms, the Sicklerville location had been removed from the Tilted Kilt Corporate site at least 9 months ago!
And then last fall the original owner had gained approval from the Gloucester Township Planning Board to significantly upgrade the building further, which was to coincide with a full rebranding.
He fully intended on retaining ownership going forward, under his own new brand!
I’ll add that the Tilted Kilt Sicklerville business was never put up for sale.
But it seems word of the planned change of concept got out within the local business community. This caught the interest from an area business person who then made an offer to take over the property.
Tilted Kilt Sicklerville – 8 Years of Food and Fun
42Freeway was on site back in October of 2015 when the all-new construction Tilted Kilt Sicklerville opened on Cross Keys Road.
I had been following along with construction updates, and was then invited to the VIP Preview Event Party.
I had my fancy camera with me to capture details of the new building, the festivities of the day, and of course the beautiful servers working at the Tilted Kilt.
Tilted Kilt describes itself as a modern American, Scottish and Irish sports pub.
The design of the Sicklerville building both inside and out definitely carries that theme very, From the large dark wood bar and dark wood accents, to entranceways with Celtic sayings on them… Everything about the place said high end American-Irish sports pub.
The building design is very smart. A large square room with a large bar off to the right (also serving an outdoor patio bar), and a variety of table seating options in the center of the room, and left.
While the space is very open, it is large enough that it offers different dining options… those wanting a more quieter table dining experience could be seated further away from the noisier sports bar area.
Tilted Kilt Brand
Of course probably the most distinctive and talked about aspect of Tilted Kilt is the beautiful female servers and bartenders, and their signature Tilted Kilt uniforms.
Clearly the Tilted Kilt female uniform is designed to show off the female form.
Based on a Scottish kilt, it is designed with a fully exposed mid drift section and a top piece which, let’s be honest… accentuated the upper portion of the female body.
This put them in a category of restaurants such as Hooters and Twin Peaks. But Tilted Kilt seemed to feel they were a step above the other restaurants in their category.
A 2014 article at Business Insider states that at the time Tilted Kilt had 94 locations. Today, less than 10 years later, they only list 9 locations on the main website!
There’s a variety of information out there regarding challenges at the Corporate level over the years, but I really don’t see the need to rehash here.
But I’ll also state the obvious that everyone has recognized… that even as amazing as the servers are at the Tilted Kilt, many members of the general public would prefer that the uniforms were a little more conservative…. And shied away from spending time and money at the eatery.
Sure the Tilted Kilt is serving quality food and cold beers which should appeal to all members of the general public, but most families aren’t taking the kids and Grandma out for her 70th birthday party at the Tilted Kilt.
Just consider the Cinder Bar just a mile down the road pulls in huge numbers of people and still has long waits on the weekends… targeting all demographics.
Well, so I would imagine the new concept for the Tilted Kilt property will be much more “all members of the public” inclusive.
I’ll have more on the new concept likely after this weeklend!
Links and Locations
Tilted Kilt Sicklervile (Closing end-of-business Sunday Apr 23, 2023)
645 Cross Keys Rd
Sicklerville, NJ