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Finnigan's Wake 537 N 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123 |
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Location: Corner of Spring Garden and 3rd Streets
Phone: (215) 574-9240 Overall Rating (1 to 10): 8 What I’d Do To Improve the Place: Do something with the third floor. Make the room a bit darker, throw some couches or big-ass booths around the room and, voilà , hip area for us twentysomethings to congregate. |
| I stumbled upon Finnigan's Wake back in late 1997/ early 1998,
and I‘ve been hooked ever since. For one reason or another, I seem to hit this place at least once per month. On my first visit I didn’t even
know that there was a downstairs pub called The Quiet Man. We bandied about upstairs trying to find a spot in the bar where our eardrums weren't being blown out by the loud music and at that point I'd almost written the place off as just another bar trying to capitalize on the Irish Pub
thing.
Maybe it's the location of the band in the bar or maybe the PA system just needs some work, but the live acts upstairs always seem to come across as overbearing and annoying. Granted the management of Finnegan's has done a great job in bringing some of the area's top cover bands to the bar, but I'm a much bigger fan of The Quiet Man Pub located downstairs. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there is a third floor that overlooks the second floor but the only thing going on up there is a bar (with no legit taps - beer bottles only) and some bathrooms. There is a spiral staircase leading up to this level, which is cool in my book, but one spiral staircase does not make a bar. This third floor looks like it was going to be something, but it kinda fizzled out. If there wasn't a Quiet Man Pub downstairs, this third floor would be thee place to hang out since you can actually talk to your hoochie without shouting. I don't know, I guess if I were going to do something with the upstairs section, I'd load up the room with couches or booths to make it a cool place to kick back, away from the music but still overlooking the live band below. But the real gem of Finnigan's Wake is the Quiet Man Pub, downstairs in what might be called the basement. After you pay the cover charge, they make you walk through The Quiet Man Pub in order to get back upstairs to the dance floor. Smack dab in the middle of The Quiet Man Pub is the bar and off to the right is a small stage. Nine times out of ten, the acts will be performing Irish acoustic music. During the summer months, the managers of the bar hand over the stage to bands that are just starting out. Most of the acts that I have enjoyed at The Quiet Man were total unknowns who mix traditional Irish folk songs with new Irish music from the likes of U2, Van Morrison and Oasis (yeah I know they're not Irish but I've heard some of the acts do Wonderwalls and Don't Look Back in Anger.) What you'll find on tap are beers like: Bass, Guinness, Harp, Cider (yes, Virginia alcoholic Apple Cider), Sam Adams, Yuengling and Bass. To me there's nothing like a good Bass and some interesting live acoustic music to fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way.
A Corner Shot of Finnigan's Wake |
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