BYOB is the cheapest way to throw a party in this city
At a licensed bar or restaurant, the drinks are the cost of the party, whether that arrives as a minimum spend or a bar tab. At a BYOB restaurant, you bring the alcohol and pay only for the food. For a group of twenty-five people who intend to drink, that difference is large enough to change what kind of party you can afford.
Philadelphia has an unusually deep BYOB scene, concentrated in South Philly, parts of Fishtown and Northern Liberties, and scattered through Center City and University City. Many take group bookings and some have private or semi-private rooms.
Two questions for a BYOB booking
Is there a corkage fee, and is it per bottle or per person? And is there a limit on what you can bring, since some BYOBs accept wine and beer but not spirits. Both are easy to establish and both change the total.
The three pricing models
- BYOB with a food spend. You pay for food, bring the drink. Cheapest for a drinking crowd by a wide margin.
- Minimum spend at a licensed venue. Free room if the group spends enough on food and drink. Fine for a drinking crowd, expensive otherwise.
- Hourly rental. You pay for the room and supply everything. Best for daytime, for groups not drinking heavily, and when you want to decorate or control the music.
Where to look, by group
| Area | Suits | Note |
|---|---|---|
| South Philly | BYOB dinners, 15-40 | The strongest BYOB concentration in the city |
| Fishtown and Northern Liberties | Younger, drinking-led, 25-70 | Bars and converted spaces, good late licences |
| Old City | Nights out, 25-60 | Character and walkability, difficult parking |
| Rittenhouse and Center City | Polished, more formal parties | Higher minimums, excellent transport access |
| Kensington and Brewerytown | Larger or louder parties, 50+ | Warehouse spaces, usually hourly or flat rate |
| Manayunk | Group nights out | Compact strip, easy to move between places |
Questions that decide whether a space works
- Is the private room genuinely enclosed, or a section of the main floor
- Can we bring a cake, and is there a cutting fee
- What plays music, and can we control it
- Does the booking window include setup, or is it party time only
- Are guests under 21 permitted at our time slot
- In winter, is there anywhere to put a hundred coats
That last one is a genuinely Philadelphia problem for four months of the year and is almost never mentioned in listings. A room with no coat provision in January produces a pile of coats on a table and several that go home with the wrong person.
Under 25 guests rarely needs a private room
This holds particularly well here, because a BYOB restaurant with a large reserved table gives you most of what a private room would, at the cost of the food alone. Private space starts justifying itself around twenty-five to thirty guests, or earlier if you need to decorate, control the music or run something structured.
Timing
Four to six weeks is comfortable. Book earlier for Saturday evenings and for December. Popular BYOBs are small, so their private rooms go faster than their size suggests, and a fortnight's notice is frequently not enough for the well-regarded ones.
