Interstate Drafthouse has held a corner of East Palmer Street in Fishtown since 2011, a Philly-style beer tavern with Southern flair on the plates and a rotating draft lineup behind the bar. It claims the Fishtown Iced Tea as its own invention.
Who would love it: craft drinkers who want a relaxed neighbourhood tavern with a kitchen, and anyone curious about a house cocktail with a local backstory. Who would hate it: visitors expecting a polished cocktail lounge, because this is a tavern first, comfortable and unfussy.
The room is a laid-back Fishtown corner bar, the kind locals treat as a default rather than a destination. Worn wood, a long bar, and a back room give it the feel of a tavern that has settled into its block over more than a decade. Palmer Street sits a step off the main Frankford Avenue drag, which holds the room a touch quieter than its better-known neighbours.
The beer is taken seriously despite the easygoing setting. The draft list rotates through craft options, with local and regional breweries well represented, and BeerAdvocate tracks the selection closely enough that the board has a following beyond the immediate neighbourhood. Ask what landed on tap recently, since the rotation moves faster than the printed menu, and the staff keep up with what is pouring.
The food leans Southern rather than standard bar fare, which gives it an identity past the taps. Plates run to creative pub cooking with a Southern accent, the kind of menu that makes the room a better dinner stop than most taprooms. Weekend brunch widens the menu further for daytime visits, and the kitchen keeps pace with a busy bar.
Order a fresh draft and a plate from the kitchen, then try the Fishtown Iced Tea, the iced-tea cocktail the bar says it originated and named for the neighbourhood. Happy hour on weekdays is the value window for both food and drink, and the rotating board rewards a question about what just went on rather than ordering off the printed list.
What regulars say: reviewers on Yelp and BeerAdvocate point to the tap rotation and the easy neighbourhood feel as the draw, with the Southern kitchen and the house iced tea as the talking points, while the slower kitchen on a packed night is the common gripe. It reads as a locals' bar that visitors are welcome to join rather than a destination built for them.
Best time to go: weeknights stay relaxed and conversational, a good time to work the draft board without a wait, while weekend evenings and brunch bring the crowd. It pairs well with a longer Fishtown stretch toward Frankford Avenue, where the bars sit close enough to walk between.
It belongs among the best craft beer bars in Philadelphia and in our wider craft beer bars guide. Plan the rest of the night from the Philadelphia bar guide.
Palmer Street sits in the heart of Fishtown, a short walk from the Girard and Frankford Avenue corridors and close to the Market-Frankford El, which makes it easy to fold into a neighbourhood crawl. Cards are accepted, and the weekend brunch service widens the reasons to come during the day. For a longer Fishtown route, the bars along Frankford Avenue sit within easy walking distance, and Interstate's quieter side-street position makes it a good place to start or finish away from the busier main drag.
For a quick read: a Fishtown corner tavern that pours a genuine craft rotation, cooks a Southern-leaning kitchen worth a dinner, and claims a house iced-tea cocktail that has outlived the trend that named it. The side-street setting keeps it calmer than the Frankford Avenue crowd.
Sources: Interstate Drafthouse official site; BeerAdvocate; Yelp (updated 2026); Interstate Drafthouse Instagram.
