Moriarty's

1116 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Location: Center City, Phila, PA

Phone: (215) 627-7676

Click Here for Map/Directions

Overall Rating (1 to 10): 7

What I’d Do To Improve the Place:

Nice presentation outside, nicely done on the inside. It's hard to offer a suggestion when the place has all of the bases covered.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Final Problem, the world is first introduced to Professor Moriarty. Moriarty's intelligence and cunning makes him one of Holmes' most beguiling foes. Well, that's about all I'm going to say about this bar's namesake, because the only Sherlock Holmes' Mystery I ever read was The Hound of the Baskerville's, beyond that I'm out of material.

As for the Philadelphia Pub by the name of Moriarty's, we've got plenty to discuss. Moriarty's is the next door neighbor of the Forrest Theater. (The photo above was taken on the curb in front of The Forrest.)

The storefront of Moriarty's looks very inviting: Green awnings, Irish flag waving, the windows filled with various neon Beer ads and the brick and mortar facade.

So let's proceed up the three steps pictured above and through the double doors into Moriarty's. Like many establishments in Center City, Moriarty's is a narrow but extremely deep building. You have a few tables set up directly under the windows pictured above. There is a long bar which stretches up the right hand side of the establishment accommodating 20 patrons. The bar stops short of a rear section of the room, in which the area opens up to seat about 40 - 50 dining patrons.

It is interesting to see the walls in Moriarty's have an upper border comprised entirely of Forrest Theater Playbills. The sheer quantity of playbills are a testament to the longevity of the Forrest Theater. And it's not bad that behind glass, the playbills are a nice touch and fit in quite well with the English/Irish bric-a-brac posted around the walls.

There are about 20 beers on tap. It's hard to say exactly how many, since the beer taps are scattered up and down the oak and brass adorned bar. There are television sets behind the bar, so you can keep track of the latest scores on that Eagles game (yeah like you'd want to).

On my visit, the only beef that I had was that service was a bit slow. Since there was no room at the bar, I had to settle for a table. It appeared as though there were enough waitresses, but you never know what's going on behind the scenes.

Moriarty's is situated in an opportune location. It's neighbors are the Irish Pub (across the street), the Forrest Theater and Dr. Watson's (around the corner). So if you're looking for a place to go before the Theater, or you just want to partake in a mini-pub crawl, give Moriarty's a visit.

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