Fishtown Taps Is Philly's Favorite Tuesday Tradition

Somewhere around 5:15 on a Tuesday, Frankford Avenue stops behaving like a weeknight.This is Fishtown Taps, and it has become the neighborhood's best-kept open secret: a two-hour window, once a week, where half of Fishtown decides the week is pretty much over.

Sourced via Fishtown Taps

So, What Exactly Is Fishtown Taps?

The mechanics are simple enough that the Fishtown District barely has to explain them anymore. Every Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m., through the end of September, more than twenty bars and restaurants scattered across Fishtown and into Kensington drop their prices to something resembling 2015. Cheap beer, cheaper wine, cocktails that don't require you to think about your bank account. What's more interesting than the pricing, though, is what it does to the neighborhood itself: for two hours, a strip of Frankford Avenue that's usually just a place you pass through becomes a place you're actually in, moving block to block with no real plan except the next door.

Where Should You Go?

The participating lineup gives you plenty of options, depending on what kind of Tuesday night you're looking for.

Some of this year's participants include:

• Barcade

• Evil Genius Beer Company

• Frankford Hall

• Front Street Cafe

• Garage Fishtown

• LMNO

• Murph's Bar

• Other Half Brewing

• Pearl's on the Corner

• Sancho Pistolas

• Stateside Vodka Bar

• Two Robbers

• Fette Sau

• Five Iron Golf

• Lloyd Whiskey Bar

• Mecha Noodle Bar

• The International Bar

• Cormorant Corner Bar

• Percy Diner & Bar

• Mamajuana Cafe Philly

The window is real and it's tight, with deals running exactly 5 to 7 p.m., so a plan beats a wander if you want to hit more than two or three places. Most participating spots also run a mocktail or zero-proof option at the same discounted price point, so a crawl doesn't require drinking to be worth doing. And the full, current list of who's participating changes slightly week to week, but the Fishtown District keeps it updated. It's worth taking a gander before you head out, if only because someone new always seems to have joined since the last time you checked.

Beyond that: go where you're pulled.

One more stop worth knowing about, even though it's not running Taps deals: Mixteca just opened on Frankford Avenue, in the old Martha space, from Please Don't Tell's Jeff Bell and Victor Lopez. It's an agave-forward bar with a genuinely deep margarita program, two house margaritas, eight rotating seasonal flavors, and a classics list (Paper Plane, Penicillin, Negroni). It's not a Tuesday-night bargain stop, but it's an easy one to fold into a bigger night on the avenue if you're already out there.