Tavern On Camac

I usually really like this bar. Pretty neat venue and fun crowd but the music lately SUCKS. Saturday night, my friends requested something more along the lines of Britney Spears or at least something that can be danced to and the DJ’s reply was «this is a gay bar». With the DJ having such fantastic observational skills, you would think he would have noticed that no one was dancing (gay or straight). Get better music and you’ll make more money because people will actually stay as opposed to heading over to other bars in the area.

First, the restaurant is amazing. The dance floor is decent.
The piano bar? if the african-​american woman is playing, her voice is phenomenal and her song selection is awesome. The older white guy makes me want to slit both my throat and wrists and listen to Justin Beiber. There are plenty of uplifting, uptempo Broadway songs, but be sure this dude won’t play them. It’s like a musical suicide cult!
The owners would be doing a service to their clientele to dump that guy or at least mandate an uptempo song –or one from the current century– every so often. I want to come back, but DAYUM does this guy make it hard to do so.

I always have an amazing time when we visit the piano bar. Who doesn’t love showtunes? My buddies and I prefer the tavern over the other bars in the neighborhood. They have a great menu and make the best cocktails. Staff is always very friendly!

Why is no one dancing? Because your DJ cares more about his taste than the 60 people ‘wanting to dance’ yet unmoved by his ‘skills’. Figure it out TOC…

Pretty classy little establishment. Dance floor upstairs and piano bar on the main floor. Bartenders are kind and the facilities were clean. Can’t say much about the experience since there wasn’t many people there to chat with.

The bartenders were nice but I suppose they had to be since it was dead on a Saturday night. Where are all the people?

Nestled on historic Camac Street in Center City, the Tavern in Camac (TOC) is considered to be one of the oldest gay bars in Philadelphia. Known for many years as Maxine’s, the staff indicates it has been a piano bar since 1935! The modern version is a 3 story venue featuring a splendid mix of everything — great food (small plates, full entrées), a piano bar 7 nights a week with fabulous local entertainers and a small dance floor and bar on the upper floor (3^rd level).
The lowest ground /​below ground level features the Tavern and is generally the quietest /​most intimate space featuring food and drinks at the bar or in the dining room 6 nights a week. Rumor has it, the space once connected to the Underground Railroad. Generally on weekends when the upper floors are busy, the Tavern room is the only spot for food. The main level features the piano and a sizeable number of men (usually gay) singling along to old and new classics. Sometimes it’s like you’re at a Broadway Show the talent is so spectacular. It’s certain to be busy weekends, but don’t be surprised if every seat at the piano is taken on a Monday night too.
On the upper floor, you’ll find DJ’s and dancing available, but don’t expect the massive volume of people jammed into the space as you might at Woody’s. At the TOC, you’ll be able to move about and «usually» have a conversation at any level. Sundays is a very popular night with Showtunes starting at 9pm and a large (often wild) crowd singling along the videos from musicals and movies.
If you desire a classic predominantly gay venue, but modern by any standard with a friendly crowd and professional staff, you owe it to yourself to visit TOC. I have been visiting since June 2014 (after relocating to the East Coast) and much more so now that I live in Philadelphia. It’s a absolute stop when friends visit from out of town. While I didn’t see the space prior to renovations (completed in early 2014), I cannot speak to the former space, but I genuinely enjoy the new space as it exists today. Open minded people are always welcome, but the venue caters predominantly to the gay community.
If you’re dining, I can recommend from personal experience the Fish N Chips, roasted brussel sprouts, chicken sandwich, and on my last visit, the special which was sea scallops over risotto and asparagus — it was delicious! I highly recommend the Tavern on Camac (TOC) for the people, the piano, the tavern fare, and the element of history!

Open the door to a tiny little piano bar playing Donna Summers’ «I will survive.». 8 or so high-​tops spaced out around the dining room floor. Two barmen on. 25 – 30 pple around the bar. Two other tables looking to pay their tabs. It’s around 8pm so the Monday happy hour seemed to be winding down. My Wife and I wanted to check out this new place, grab a small bite & few beers before walking home. We score a table… Aaaaaaaand wait for 15minutes until one of the bartenders (fat one), Carl serves a table next to us food. Ok, some of the tables had b&b plates & rolled silverware, so I figure he’d bring over menus and our set-​up. Nope.. I try to grab Carl on first pass, but he completely ignores my first «excuse me.». On second pass when he delivers honey that was missing from the cheese plate to the table next to us, I ensure he doesn’t miss me twice. Asked if there is someone we can place an order with figuring he was just helping out running food. He says «no, you have to order at the bar.» Mind you, there are two deep around the bar so not sure how I was to get to the bar and he had not offered us a menu at this point so we had no idea what we wanted/​what they offered. He quips, «come along,» and does a finger wag behind his back as he walks off as if my Wife & I should follow him. He goes behind the bar and looks at me with disdain that I ignored his order. Doesn’t even start pouring drinks as no one was ordering. Remembering my drink order and handing it across the closest area of the bar was too challenging for fatman? two drinks??- let alone offering us a menu? Again, there are two barmen on. They were not in the weeds, so I was remiss in understanding if I should have placed my own order with the kitchen & made my own drinks? Not even having a menu presented to me suggested we were not welcome & the lack of the smallest inkling of attentive service made it obvious we were in the wrong bar/​restaurant. He says something to an aged man sitting at the corner of the bar and they both chuckle.
We left without ordering. We’ll never be back. If I wanted self-​service & ridicule for expecting decent service, I’d had stayed home or went to Golden Corral (god help me). Not sure what the hype is with this place, but with service such as theirs, I can’t imagine how many free meals and free drinks they have to give away to get their current reviews. Avoid at all costs. It’s not a restaurant at all but a bastardized version of Jolly’s Dueling piano bar. Plenty of other great restaurants looking to ensure their patrons are well fed and happy when they leave. Not here.

This is for the restaurant: best veggie burger ever!!! It’s not some frozen Garden Burger. This is the real deal: homemade with fresh ingredients. One of the best I’ve ever had!
The décor and atmosphere still leaves a bit to be desired. Still feels like a basement. I worry that it could detract from the elegance of the food, which is incredibly good.

Dj on saturday on second floor is horrible. Plays 3 lyrics and then plays filler music. Was a jerk when talked to. Drinks are eh. Environment unoriginal.

This was such a nice place! Loved the (hot) bartender who made awesome mojitos. The mean age of the clientele was rather high, and it was such a good atmosphere.
The piano player was skilled, and I absolutely loved the voice of the female singer. An old (ish) man also sang some, not sure if singer or one of the clientele? Great voice anyway, and really hope he was a regular there.
Really sad I won’t have time to come back here, this would make a great stop any day of the week.

What can you say about this place? It smelled like someone puked all over the place. I feel very sorry for the talent there. The fumes of the vomit and the heat. Very unpleasant.

This review is only for the downstairs piano bar because I didn’t even know there was a second floor dance floor! But the piano bar is classy and sparkly and I like it! Plus it’s about 3 steps from my house, so if I have too many cosmos I can swiftly stumble back home with a minimal amount of people to notice. The live piano is a nice touch too. Definitely recommend for a quick pit stop while walking down camac

Very nice piano bar downstairs with a dance floor upstairs. They’ve renovated this since the last time I was here and it looks great.
Friendly crowd, great music, reasonably priced drinks and good service. I’m a fan.

I’m going to tentatively give the new Tavern three stars. This was a solid five star gem before the shutdown. I love the new décor. They did a wonderful job with the design and the space, but there are some unfortunate underlying problems:
1. By opening up the space, you can’t hear the piano anymore. You can sit four feet from the pianist and can’t hear him: not good.
2. The open space, while definitely bigger, feels smaller, because there are no more nooks and posts to congregate around.
3. TOC was a place to go hang out, listen to the show tunes, and talk to people. You can’t hear who you’re talking to, and the setup does not promote conversations.
4. They went from two bars to one really nice one, but by doing so, they took away seats and jammed everyone into one space that loops out into the middle of the room. In the past, there was always an interesting split: quiet older folks interested in the music at the little bar, and younger rowdy folks at the big bar. That dynamic is gone.
The vibe is still friendly, the staff is still solid, and it’s still the best gay bar in Philly. TOC suffers from the same problem as an aging attractive person who gets a facelift: it traded all its character to fit in. We’ll give it plenty more chances; hopefully, it regains some of that old charm.

Someone had some work done. Sure, people were saying «Ooof, the years have taken its toll» and comments had been made that the place had seen better days. So off Tavern went, shut down for months, and reopened taut, tight, smooth with nary a wrinkle to be seen. Wait, who the heck are you, Tavern? Where d’ya go?
Don’t get me wrong, the renovations are a revelation. It’s so spanking (pun intended) clean. There were windows added — (hey there’s light!), spacious lovely tiled entry, drop ceiling removed, floor plan entirely re-​imagined. New everything. From flooring, a new refurbished piano, ample circular bar (with bag hooks — thank you! and outlets to charge your electronics), wall treatments — it’s like a entirely different place. Which is exactly my problem. There is nothing about this new place that reminds me or makes me feel like I’m at Tavern. Apart from the piano, and the tunes, there is nothing that is at all reminiscent of the old place. I missed the old space. The drab, dark, dreary dive-​y, kitch-​y place. The 80’s dance club upstairs. I loved it as it was. In my mind, the place was perfect as it was. There was something comforting about it. Hidden away on Camac — it was like a place frozen in time.
But onwards, and upwards, what was TOC is no more, and I have to embrace the times, and admit that yes, a little freshening up never hurt anybody — the only obvious change as well, is that the pours have changed, and so their drinks here no longer put me in my place, and well, hey, surgery (ahem) I mean renos don’t pay for themselves, you know!

Tavern on Camac’s restaurant is such a hidden treat! I recently went with a few friends for dinner, and we all were really satisfied. Their cocktail and beer menus have a lot of great things to offer. I got the Tulip and my boyfriend got the Bee’s Knees. Both were fabulous.
The staff was really friendly and attentive, though service was a bit slow in the beginning, I think it was just due to the amount of large parties ordering at once.
Our food was all really great, the Sriracha deviled eggs are DELICIOUS.
I went with the steak frites for dinner and it was perfectly seasoned and cooked.
I’ve never been late night for any dancing, but if you’re looking for a good restaurant with fun vibes, I’d definitely recommend ToC!

We wanted a post-​dinner bar and ended up in the Gayborhood much to our delight. We took the stairs down the basement level to the coziest little bar area, which was delightfully quiet for 11 p.m. on a Saturday night. The bar top itself was one the prettiest I’ve seen! The cocktails were $ 10, varied, and potent. I went with The Bee’s Knees, leading me to ask for «The Bee’s Knees, please.» (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy saying that.) It was a simple mixture of gin, honey, and lemon. The beau got the Sazerec, a mix of Bulleit Rye and Peychaud’s bitters with an Absinthe float. Both did the trick, though I didn’t feel mine until about 30 minutes later when we got back to our hotel room and I couldn’t figure out how to close the curtains for about five minutes.
Delightful! Absolutely!

Moving here in 2009, immediately made this my most favorite bar in the city. We would start at Knock, come here, hop to Woody’s then come back to Tavern on Camac (TOC) then head to Voyeur. The staff is so friendly, the coat check in the winter is affordable, you may not have to obtain a 2^nd mortgage on your home and the drinks strong and delicious.
Downstairs is fabulous if you love show tunes and a piano! She is banging on them keys and a Queen is squealing a favorite Broadway Show tune, definitely a show on its own. The dance floor is tiny but I feel like it can fit a lot of Dancing Queens. The music is great and there’s no icy cold, winter storm blast hosing you down like Woody’s dance floor, not that I’m complaining… hahaha

This review is for the downstairs part of the restaurant.
I came here on a random Saturday night. I really wasn’t too impressed initially. What really changed my perspective was the super hip bartender. Natalie suggested the perfect drink. As if I couldn’t ask for more, I did. She also gave me the scoop on the local haunt house. I’m a fan.