Charlie was a sinner. has held the corner at 131 S 13th Street since 2014, a candlelit Midtown Village cocktail bar where every drink and every plate is vegan and almost nobody notices.
That last part matters. This is not a health food counter with a liquor license. It is a dark, moody cocktail room first, and the all vegan program reads as a quiet fact rather than a sales pitch. The Infatuation ranks it among the most popular vegan spots in the city and notes the interior looks ready for a film set.
The drinks lean botanical and house made. The bar works with fresh juices, organic spirits, barrel aged gins, and tea infusions, per the menu at charliewasasinner.com. Small plates run from caramelized eggplant bao buns to artichoke sliders.
The room itself does half the persuading. Low light, dark walls, candles on every surface, and a long bar that seats the solo drinkers comfortably. The Infatuation's line that the interior looks ready for a rom com group hang scene captures the energy: stylish but not stiff, loud by 9pm on weekends, conversational before that.
Drink Philly covered the opening back in 2014, when an all vegan bar on 13th Street read as a gamble. A decade later the bet looks obvious. The block has become one of the city's densest eating and drinking strips, and Charlie holds its corner against far bigger operations.
The deal hunters' move is the late night window. Sunday through Thursday from 10pm to close, cocktails drop to $6 and a short list of vegan bites tops out at $4, one of the better late night specials in Center City. Full price drinks sit at the premium end, so the discount changes the math considerably.
What to order: a barrel aged gin cocktail from the standing list, the bao buns, and whatever tea infused special the bar is running. Wine and beer exist on the menu, but ordering them here misses the point. The bartenders build around house cordials and syrups, so the right move is naming a spirit and a direction and letting them work.
A standard happy hour also runs Monday through Friday from 4 to 6pm, which bookends the night nicely: cheap early, full price through prime time, cheap again after 10. Weekend nights skip the discounts entirely and still pack the room, which tells you what the full price product is worth.
Who it is for: dates where one or both of you skip animal products, cocktail drinkers who want a serious room on 13th Street without a password ritual, and night owls chasing the $6 window. The wider field is ranked in our guide to the best cocktail bars in Philadelphia and the category page for Philadelphia cocktail bars.
A note on expectations: the kitchen serves small plates, not dinner. Plan to eat properly elsewhere or order in rounds, the way the menu intends. The room seats fewer than most of its 13th Street neighbors, so parties beyond six should call ahead at (267) 758-5372 rather than gamble on a Friday walk in. Solo drinkers do well at the bar itself, where the staff narrate the tea infusions without being asked twice.
Best time to go: weeknights after 10pm for the specials, or 4 to 6pm for a quiet first round before the Gayborhood crowd arrives. For harder hitting cocktails nearby, Ranstead Room and Hop Sing Laundromat are both a short walk, and our complete Philadelphia guide covers the rest.
Sources: Charlie was a sinner. (official) · The Infatuation · Yelp · Drink Philly · Tripadvisor
