Best Nightlife/Bar hop areas apart from Old City (Chester: neighborhood, university)

[Yepega]

Hi everyone, I'm new to Philly and in need of some advice.

What are the best areas to bar hop in Philly apart from Old City?

[banjozac]

Fishtown, particularly Frankford Ave. E Passyunk Ave in South Philly. Plenty of bars in Manayunk.

[MarketStEl]

In terms of liveliness, none of them are sleepy, but I would rank them, from most happening to somewhat happening:

Manayunk
Fishtown
East Passyunk Avenue

Manayunk gets the Main Line college-student crowd, which makes its bar scene distinctive from any other in the city. Fishtown is probably the most hipsterish of the four (including Old City), and East Passyunk Avenue the most neighborhoody, which says something about its neighborhood.

You'll find a more grownup bar scene in Chestnut Hill, of all places.

[rowhomecity]

Midtown Village is definitely a prime bar-hopping spot in Center City.

[Redddog]

Old City is not what I would call hipster, even a little. It's a combination of Tourist, Jersey Bro, Millennial and GenX/Baby Boomer.

You might find a hipster who might have accidentally gotten off the El mistakenly on his way to Fishtown but that's about it.

[Patmcpsu]

When I grew up, South Street got lots of hype for its bars, but I was never impressed by it and see that nobody is recommending it. What's the story with it?

[KansastoSouthphilly]

Most of Center City is good for bar hopping. Aside from old city the main areas tend to be:


-S 13th Street (really all of midtown village/Gayborhood/Wash Square West)
-S 15th Street (with several bars branching off at locust)
-S 18th Street/Rittenhouse Square
-Sansom Between 15t and 20th.
-E South Street between Front and 8th (many people feel this area has declined)
-W South Street between Broad and 24th is significantly less busy but has a good number of bars and not as many problems with flashmobs and kids acting like idiots.


Outside of center city look to neighborhood commercial corridors. North 2nd Street in northern liberties is popular as is the area of fishtown near Frankford and Girard. Girard Ave in brewerytown has some bars but it is a work in progress. Fairmount Ave is good for a more laid back night. East Passyunk is great but focuses more on restaurants though there are many bars and Pats/Genos are still popular late night destinations. West Passyunk is also developing some nightlife.


There are also quite a few bars in University City but I can't think of a major cluster. I would start near 40th and Walnut.


In NW philly Manayunk is the obvious bar hopping destination. There are many bars and restaurants along main street but the scene is geared towards college kids or just out of college kids. As someone in his thirties I kind of like this because it means I can easily get a seat at a restaurant at 7pm because the college kids don't go out until 11pm.


We have quite a few bars in Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill but the crowd is older and probably not what you are looking for. Many will close by 11pm/Midnight.


There are also quite a few suburbs with barhopping options. The best is probably West Chester followed by Media, Phoenixville, Ardmore/Bryn Mawr/Wayne, Ambler, and Conshohocken. I am sure there are others.

[KansastoSouthphilly]

Originally Posted by Patmcpsu

When I grew up, South Street got lots of hype for its bars, but I was never impressed by it and see that nobody is recommending it. What's the story with it?

The recent increase in crime/flashmobs has changed the perceptions for the worse IMO. I've never been a huge fan but the riff raff seems to have gotten worse in recent years. For example I went to Lorenzos around midnight not too long ago and two different fights broke out while we were in line/eating out pizza. The whole areas feels like it has a bad vibe now. At least at night.

[Flyers Girl]

I was thinking of the good ol' days of South Street just this morning on my drive to work. I was listening to First Wave on Sirius XM and Punk Rock Girl came on. The very first line in the song brought me right back to my youth: 'One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead...'

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Flyers Girl

I was thinking of the good ol' days of South Street just this morning on my drive to work. I was listening to First Wave on Sirius XM and Punk Rock Girl came on. The very first line in the song brought me right back to my youth: 'One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead...'

This made me laugh especially folks posting about riff raff who want to clutch their pearls.

Were you around back in the day when there were streakers on South St?