Eric C.
Yelp
All of this happened, more or less.
Ortlieb's re-opened under the auspices of the Four Corners management group about two years ago.
The happy hour specials are unheard of--half off of most things, including top-shelf bourbons.
There is almost always live music, often without a cover (such as the Wednesday night residency shows). There are DJs many nights, even those nights when bands are playing. When the music isn't live or spun by a DJ, the staff makes sure to play a diverse mix that one does not often hear in what has become a sickeningly cliche hipster neighborhood--Northern Liberties.
The music. Good Lord, the music. The staff loves music, and this is a bar for music lovers. I feel at home here because music isn't a fashion ("Have you heard of Ogre's Milk--of course you haven't. They're this totally awesome indie band nobody's heard of, which makes them good) but rather a passion ("Let's play some classic country for happy hour, since drinking in a bar and listening to Merle Haggard croon is kind of what happy hour should be.").
The food is decent for a place that deliberately chooses to de-emphasize the kitchen as an element of the overall enterprise. See, even when they put something low on a list of priorities, Ortlieb's still kills it.
The only place to compare with Ortlieb's is Johnny Brenda's, but the latter doesn't matter--it sucks. The service sucks (as in the staff seems to think customers should be thankful to be served by such cool people as work at JBs). JBs is where tourists and yuppies playing hipster for the weekend hang. Ortlieb's is where actual human beings who prefer not to act as a walking pop-culture cliche choose to spend time. No ironic anything there.
Ortlieb's is what is now, and what a bar should be.
Even in Bizarro World ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_World ), Ortlieb's is the best bar in Bizarro Philadelphia, because that is how legit the place is. It can't suck, even in a world where it is supposed to.
On the seventh day, God created Ortlieb's so that she could have a place to hang out with her best pal, Lucifer (and so that Luke could have a job other than tempting petty humans).
Saturday nights see Ortlieb's become home to one of the most kicking EDM dance parties in town, as DJ GregD of the Wet Boogie may often be found there entertaining all the party people.
People who like cool shit must make a pilgrimage to Ortlieb's, as it is the Mecca of ripping good times. Are you into cool shit? Make your pilgrimage; make it with haste. Go to Ortlieb's--the beer is wet, the boogie is wet, and the place makes my undergarments wet just thinking about it.
Ortlieb's then, Ortlieb's now, Ortlieb's forever.
