Fishtown District highlighted as an emerging micro-city
The Philadelphia Business Journal recently featured the Fishtown District in an article about the Evolution Along the El, describing Fishtown as an emerging micro-city. Since 2020, about 30 restaurants or other retail businesses have opened or finalized leases in the business improvement district, said Marc Collazzo, executive director at Fishtown Kensington Area Business Improvement District.The blocks surrounding the go-to Fishtown concert venue Fillmore Philadelphia were completely overhauled during the pandemic, for example, with new businesses like Brooklyn, New York-based Other Half Brewing; Louliga Cigar Lounge; Brooklyn Bowl; and The Fin by Crab Du Jour taking over the Allen Street corridor. New York-based Five Iron Golf is similarly building out a new Fishtown location at 27 E. Allen St., while New Jersey-based Source Farmhouse Brewery opened in the former Fishtown Brewpub space at 1101 Frankford Ave. nearby and fourth-generation, family-owned concept Vince’s Pizzeria opened at 965 Frankford Ave.The fast-evolving Frankford Avenue business corridor has essentially become Fishtown’s “restaurant row,” Collazzo said. That coupled with the entertainment complex that has sprung up along Allen Street and the new retail shops that have opened have effectively shaped the area to rival Center City as a dining and entertainment destination, he added. The next phase in the evolution of the Fishtown and Olde Kensington area is to become a “traveling destination” for out-of-towners, Collazzo added.
