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The Five Spot 1 S. Bank Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 |
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Location: Bank Street, Right off Market Street
Phone: (215) 574-0070 Overall Rating (1 to 10): 9 What I’d Do To Improve the Place: There isn’t much bad here. If anything, I would make the area in front of the band (upstairs) bigger. When the swingers start kicking up their heels, they needs plenty-o-room. |
| The exterior of the bar looks very inviting. I guess when you get right down to it, I’m a sucker for the ol’ brick and mortar look. The owners of the bar have been really investing some heavy duty
cash in revamping the downstairs bar and it shows. I suppose with the resurgence of swing – much attributed to the 1996 movie Swingers (I’m contractually obligated to attribute any mention of swing dancing in
the 1990’s to the movie Swingers, otherwise Vince Vaughn will show up at my door and drag my sorry ass to Atlantic City to blow all my money on a $100 blackjack table) has increased the base clientele at The Five Spot exponentially.
As you enter the establishment you are faced with two choices: upstairs to the left or hang a right into the street level lounge. The live acts are always held upstairs. The dance lessons are held in the street level lounge. The upstairs bar is wonderfully refined with a smart look about it that reminds you of what bars must have looked like back in the days when WW2 was over and there was a baby boom occurring. I really love the kidney shaped bar with the nook off to it’s right surrounded in a lighted tube curtain. The live acts perform up here also but I can’t imagine the dance floor ever being large enough to accommodate a gaggle of swing dancers. When they start be-boppin’ and scattin’ all over the place, they "needs" some room! If there is a good live act playing, good luck attempting to swing dance on the dance floor in front of the band. It seemed like more people were getting bumped into each other than dancing. I have noticed that during the summer months there seems to be less crowds (probably because most people head off to the shore) and the dance floor is just about the right size. On both sides of the band riser, three booths extend out to border the dance floor on both sides. The booth seats are the "money seats" if you go to the five spot and want a good view of the band and action on the dance floor. But for me personally, I'll stick to the kidney shaped bar throwing back G&T's until the cows come home, or they toss me out on my butt. If you come to The Five Spot to swing dance, head downstairs to the street level bar where there is plenty of room to kick up your heels without worry of stepping on anyone‘s toes. I once bore witness to one of their FREE swing dance lessons. The instructor did a great job of showing his “students” the basics. And hey the lessons are free, so if you don’t pick up the moves on your first night out, come back a few nights later and start over again. This guy has the right idea, choose the cutest girl out of the lot of students and demonstrate the dance moves with her. I'm only disappointed that I never thought of this. So you learned a few dance steps, you're styling with your G&T in hand and you're debating whether you should "step" to the dame with the platinum blonde hair. What the heck, you’re so money and you don’t even know it! |
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