Three rooms in Fishtown, a few blocks apart, run by one team. Book one for a Tuesday happy hour, a client night, a team dinner or the whole-company holiday party — from a table of forty to a floor of eight hundred. Every number is on this page.
The one people talk in. Low light, plants, copper tables, vintage furniture, and a bar that builds every drink by hand. Two house projectors, so a logo or a slide goes on the wall without renting anything.
Outside, under hanging greenery and rattan lanterns, with string lights once the sun drops. It is closed by 9 PM under the city curfew — which is to say it is built for precisely the window you want.
The big room, and the only one open all day — 10 AM to 2 AM, so a morning all-hands and a midnight holiday party are both on the table. Seats 300 for dinner around an elevated centre stage, with a balcony, three bars, and a real light, sound and video rig run by its own technical team.
| Detail | Margolis | The Patio | Fabrika |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | ~150 standing | ~150 standing | 800 standing · 300 seated |
| Midweek minimumSunday–Thursday. This is the one to book. | $2,000 | $2,000 | $5,000 |
| Weekend minimum | $3,000 Fri & Sat | $3,000 Fri & Sat | $7,000 Fri · $9,000 Sat |
| Event length | 4 hours · +$1,000 per extra hour | Ends at 9:00 PM, no exceptions | By arrangement |
| Fits the 5–9 happy hour | Yes — and can keep going after | Yes — it is the whole window | Yes, and daytime too (10 AM–2 AM) |
| Presentations & slides | Two house projectors | No house projection — outdoor room | Two 6,000-lumen projectors, two 135″ ALR screens |
| Speeches & microphones | Not guaranteed — flag it on the form and we will plan for it | Not guaranteed — flag it on the form | Two Shure wireless mics in the booth |
| Sound & production | House sound, DJ setup on site. No sound engineer provided. | House sound. Outdoor, so weather-dependent. | Elevated centre stage, plus house audio, lighting, video and rigging — run by Fabrika’s own technical team. |
| Food | Kitchen on site, plus the shared packages | Kitchen Fri & Sat; Mon–Thu and Sun with a $2,000 total minimum spend. Outside catering allowed with approval. | Full kitchen, brunch through late night |
| Step-free entry | Steps at the door — a lift and elevator are available with notice | Ground level | Ground level |
| The look | Warm and lived-in. Copper tables, hanging greenery, books and records. Reads vintage rather than corporate, which is the point. | Garden party. Greenery overhead, mosaic tilework, neon at the entrance, string lighting after sundown. | Theatrical. Stage lighting and a balcony over the floor at night; the same room opens up bright for daytime. |
| Address | 9 W Wildey St | 1104 Frankford Ave | 1108 Frankford Ave |
5 to 9 PM. Two hours of open bar on the company, then it flips to a cash bar and people buy their own. Passed hors d’oeuvres all evening.
The $2,000 midweek minimum is met by the open bar on its own.
5 to 9 PM outside. The company puts out food and covers the room; everyone buys their own drinks. This is the cheapest real version of the night.
Assumes the room clears the $2,000 bar minimum on its own — sixty people over four hours usually does. If it comes in under, you cover the gap and nothing more.
6 to 10 PM, seated. Three hours of open bar, a plated or family-style dinner, the room’s own lighting and sound, and a stage if somebody has to say something.
Well past the $5,000 midweek minimum. The same night on a Saturday starts from a $9,000 minimum instead.
The room has a number to hit and your guests’ own purchases count toward it. Spend less than the minimum and you cover the difference; spend more and you owe nothing extra.
$20 per person, per hour against the venue’s minimum — the company covers every drink for the agreed period, full bar or a curated selection. Named per-person packages are below.
A card goes on file with a spending cap. Drinks charge to the tab until the cap is reached, then guests buy their own. The cleanest option when finance needs a ceiling.
Guests buy their own drinks all night. Nothing is charged to the company beyond the room’s minimum.
Priced per person, per hour. Minimum two-hour commitment, no shots. Quoted before 10% PA sales tax and the 20% service charge.
Yours. A private event is a full buyout of the room for your agreed hours — no ticketed crowd, no walk-ins, no other party in the corner.
It is a floor on what the room spends, not an invoice. If your guests buy $2,400 at a room with a $2,000 minimum, you owe nothing toward it. If they buy $1,400, you cover the $600 difference. On an open bar you are paying it directly, so the minimum is usually met by the package on its own.
Yes — that is what the consumption tab is for. A card goes on file with a spending limit; drinks charge to it until the limit is reached and then guests buy their own. The other common shape is open bar for the first two hours, cash bar after.
That is what Fabrika’s centre stage is for — an elevated round stage, 10 feet across, in the middle of the main hall, so a speaker has the tables all around them instead of a crowd looking sideways at a corner. Two Shure wireless mics, two house monitors, a Midas M32 desk driving twelve Turbosound line-array tops and eight subs, thirty moving-head and wash LEDs, and two 6,000-lumen projectors onto 135-inch screens.
Fabrika’s in-house technical team runs all of it, and there is a half-ton hoist above the stage plus two side hoists if you are flying a banner or a backdrop. Seated, the room takes 300.
At Margolis, yes — two projectors are part of the house setup. At Fabrika, two 6,000-lumen Panasonic projectors and two 135-inch ALR screens, driven from a video control laptop and run by Fabrika’s technical team. The Patio is an outdoor room with no house projection.
At Fabrika, yes — two Shure wireless mics live in the DJ booth. At Margolis and The Patio a microphone cannot be guaranteed, so flag it on the booking form and we will plan for it rather than find out on the night.
All three. Bring your own DJ equipment or use the house setup — at Margolis that is a Pioneer XDJ-RX3, a Yamaha 12-channel mixer, a sub, four corner speakers and two projectors. A playlist is a perfectly good answer for a work night. Fabrika’s in-house technical team will help integrate whatever you bring.
Tell us on the form. Custom menus are our specialty — the packages are a starting point, not a fixed list, and the form asks about allergies directly.
Fabrika and The Patio are ground level. Margolis has steps at the entrance, but there is an elevator in Fabrika and a wheelchair lift — give us advance notice and we will have it ready.
Fishtown. There is a paid lot on W Wildey St directly across from the Margolis entrance, which is the reliable option, plus residential street parking in the surrounding blocks. The Patio and Fabrika are a short walk away on Frankford Ave.
We review it, check the date is genuinely free, and come back in writing with acceptance or a couple of questions. Then two things: a card goes on file (not charged), and we invoice your deposit. Your date is confirmed once the deposit is paid and you have our written acceptance — not before.
A $300 cleaning fee for damage, spills or mess beyond normal use. Smoking is prohibited inside, with a $300 fee if there is evidence of it. Damage to the venue, furniture or sound equipment carries a minimum $1,500 damage fee. None of these apply to a normal night.
No. The deposit that holds your date is invoiced, and you can pay it by ACH, check or card by phone — whatever your finance team is set up for. Give us a PO number and it goes on the invoice. We can also send a W-9 and a written estimate before anything is signed, and an itemised invoice after the event.
A card does still go on file, but it is not the deposit and is not charged when you book. It sits there to cover a bar-minimum shortfall, damages or fees, exactly as your terms set out.
25% of your room’s minimum — $500 midweek or $750 on a Friday or Saturday at Margolis and The Patio, $1,250 to $2,250 at Fabrika depending on the day. It is credited in full against your final bill, so it is not an extra cost, it is the first part of what you were going to spend anyway. It is non-refundable if you cancel, which is what makes it a hold.
The date is held once the deposit is paid. Until then it stays open to other enquiries — we won’t quietly sit on it and we won’t quietly sell it either. Tell us your PO timeline when you enquire and we’ll tell you honestly how much interest there is in that date.
The date, a rough headcount, and what the night is. We will tell you which room it belongs in and what it will cost.
ruby@margolisphilly.com > Prefer to talkFifteen minutes on the phone, at a time you pick. Best if you are still deciding between rooms or dates.
Pick a time > Checking a dateThe live calendar for all three rooms. Open dates can be requested; a date is only held once we accept in writing.
Open the calendar >