Adult Entertainment: Philadelphia's Penthouse Lounge

The Penthouse Lounge and Grille, a stunning new club in the space formerly occupied by Emerald City, is worthy attempt at bringing night crawlers into an ambiguous and unpopular area of Philadelphia. Situated between the artsy enclave of Northern Liberties and upscale Old City, the Penthouse sits on 2nd Street in a long and boring stretch of warehouses, old factories, and self-storage units. Previous tenants have had a tough time drawing the local crowd to any event, having to live off the tender mercies of suburbanites who loved the ample parking. Emerald City threw several fun parties and drew substantial crowds occasionally, but they never put enough cold, hard cash into the operation. By first impressions, the Penthouse team has opened the checkbook in an attempt to draw a wide-range of barflies and club kids.

Streaming into the building, it's easy to spot the money spent on renovations. Emerald City was a nice place, but Penthouse has taken the interior to a more elegant level. Lighting is mostly in reds with matching passionate tones on the bars and walls, while tables, chairs, lounge areas, and gorgeous bartenders are all decked out in deep dark black.

And yes, the bar staff is gorgeous. Almost entirely women, the ladies are classy and polished, polite and pleasant - even in the face of a huge hungry crowd of drinkers. For the female customers, the staff of bouncers and security is extremely visible and very attractive. (But don't get too excited -- bouncers are far less approachable than the cute blonde behind the bar.)

If the décor and bar staff aren't enough sexual stimuli, Penthouse has a long slim box cutting through the center of the room holding several attractive dancers. The dancers, more ballet and exotic then stripperella, are obviously intended to keep crowd energy up, but on opening night they seemed to have a hard time competing with the multitude of flat screens circling the room. The dance platform was surrounded by lounge areas but the energy never really got going. As the night moves on, Penthouse should consider moving some of the tables and opening up the area behind the dancers for less professional dancing. Why you'd open a club with a hot DJ and professional dancers and not let the crowd get their groove on is beyond me.

Penthouse also has a healthy kitchen, and the menu had plenty of options that sounded both delicious and interesting. You'd think the management would have worked the crowd with some free noshes, but I didn't see anyone eating more then a wedge of lemon.

Even without any cocktail weenies or dancing, the opening night of Penthouse Lounge and Grille was a smashing success. Hosted by Paperstreet (the successful promotions team that seems to have a lock on heterosexual big-time fun in Philly), Penthouse needed a good following to fill up the joint on opening night, and P-street delivered a healthy crowd by the time the doors opened at 9. There were enough good-looking single people there well after the open bar was over for the night to qualify as a hit. And while that might sound shallow, let's face it -- sex, and sexuality are the major attractors for young singles willing to drop several dimes for a good time, Penthouse Lounge and Grille is off to a good start in serving up that kind of chemistry.