While not the first area many people think to visit a Friday night, the Art Museum/Fairmount section of the city offers diverse options for any taste or budget.

Looking for a great happy hour crowd?  Try The Bishop’s Collar at 24^th and Fairmount. The name comes from an expression to describe a perfectly poured pint of Guinness. The crowd ranges from college kids to young(ish) professionals.  There are a number of beers on tap, both domestic and imported.  Same goes for the bottles.  The food here is fairly standard ” appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches ” but it’s all good and very reasonably priced. 

Want an inexpensive dinner and great beer selection?  Go to Bridgid’s at 24^th and Meredith.  Bridgid’s offers some of the most affordable food in the city, and, maybe more importantly, one of the best beer menus around - with over 100 bottled beers from around the world!

Looking for a standard?  Visit the < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />London Grill at 23^rd and Fairmount.  The London Grill is a 200-year old establishment, one of the oldest in the city, and sits in the shadow of the Eastern State Penitentiary.  In addition to a menu offering a wide array of dishes, happy hour beer prices and an eclectic happy hour menu are served Monday ” Friday, from 5 pm ” 7 pm. 

How about a (relatively) new favorite?  Rembrandt’s, at the corner of 23^rd and Aspen, has been a popular site since opening in 1985.  They offer a smoking bar and non-smoking cafe.  Even more fun happy hour runs from 4:55 pm 7:05 pm, the longest happy hour anywhere in the city.  There are plenty of big screen TVs to catch the latest sports action, in addition to a selection of fine wines and beer.  Also, the mussels are the best I’ve had anywhere!

Need some culture with your food and drink?  Check out the Art After 5 program at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Here you will enjoy table service, cocktails, appetizers and desserts in the Great Stair Hall, all while listening to the soothing sounds of jazz (except on the first Friday of each month when a mix of international music can be heard).

Philly’s 5 Greatest Happy Hours

Working for Comcast, Aramark, and PECO can drag a person down.  40 hours of wage-slaving in Philadelphia’s corporate trenches recquires a person to be highly lubricated with plenty of alcohol.  Luckily Philadelphia is still provincial enough to have some healthy happy hours that will not break a person’s bank account.  

The Khyber :  Hand’s down the town’s best.  1 dollar bottle beer from 6 to 8.  Relaxed atmosphere, interesting crowd, enlightening music it’s always memorable at the Khyber.

McGlinchey’s: A good place to go to happy hour if you have had a bad week and just want to get drunk in semi-darkness, not be bothered, and feel better about yourself by looking at all the 35-year-old bike messengers.

Good Dog:   Relatively cheap drinks and food and is good if it is just a couple of you; or you are meeting your girlfriend after work.  Slightly more upscale then the first two, it’s less artificially trendy then other spots near Walnut.   

Copa:  Best happy hour/horny hour combo. Most likely score a girl for the evening if you are into that sort of thing but it is definitely more pricey than your average happy hour.

Dirty Frank’s: Where you go to if all other outlets are exhausted and you just want to watch a freak show. Enter burned-out from work, leave completely wrecked. 

Top 5 Places to Pick Up Chicks

The big city can get cold and lonely, and every human animal occasionally needs a little of affection.  The City of Brotherly Love isn’t Cupid’s most frequent destination, but it has a healthy enough libido to keep Trojan working 3 shifts.  After extensive research, I’ve discovered the best places for romance, love, and lust.  Let this be a lesson to the lads, and a warning to the ladies. 

1)       Making Time parties @ Transit bi-monthly: Hand out free can’s of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Sparks for two hours to all the hipsters in town, and you bound to get laid by 2.  Often times a pretty girl will come with an extra bonus, a gay male “helper” (if you swing that way).  Sticks of gum and free cigarettes are harder to get then sex at this party. Most aggressive girls are at Making Time. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. The only way you don’t get laid is if you try very hard not to.

2)       Thursday night Drag Night @ Bob and Barbara’s : Drunk art school girls, drunk Temple girls, drunk UPenn girls, drunk Drexel girls, drunk male-2-female transsexuals.  Best place to find a partner to help you work your kink out.  No questions asked, no quarter taken.

3)   700 Club or Standard Tap, Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights: Homes of the single and hip career girl on the move.  Less drunk then previous two possibilities, but may require more chatting and discussion.  Have witty commentary on new Belle & Sebastian album and the latest BYOB.    Seasoned dating pro’s, still ready to toss the panties.  

4)   Dirty Frank’s after 1 AM, weekend nights:  Incredibly dicey selection, but almost impossible to screw up.  Generally a home run any time, if your willing to occasionally set sights lower then expected.  High competition, but plenty of meat to pass around.    

5)   Irish Pub: College age floozies and New Jersey and South Philly’s finest out for a big night.  Cheap prices and low IQ’s make it easy to score a one-nighter.  Girls travel in large herds here, and it’s a good spot for an occasional bachelorette trainwreck.  

Runner’s up include Shampoo (Wednesday Goth night), late night’s at Emerald City, Fast Cheap and Out of Control Party @ Fluid.

Worst Spots:  The Bike Stop, Denim, and Rouge.