Love City Brewing opens second taproom in Manayunk on Main Street

Love City Brewing’s second taproom opened on Main Street in Manayunk, giving the Philadelphia brewery a new home at 4323 Main St. just as its Callowhill flagship at 1023 Hamilton St. keeps doing the heavy lifting. The move, which landed on Friday, May 8, put the brand into the former Fat Lady Brewing space and marked Love City’s first major expansion in nearly eight years.

That timing tells the real story. Love City did not chase a scattered citywide rollout. It picked a neighborhood with steady foot traffic, a built-in weekend crowd and a location that can work as an all-day stop near the Schuylkill River Trail and the Manayunk/Norristown rail line. Melissa Walter said the brewery had been looking for the right expansion opportunity for a long time and wanted a place with both energy and people on the street. In a city where plenty of breweries overbuild or overreach, this one looks more like a deliberate second outpost than a vanity project.

The new space stretches 5,884 square feet over two stories. The first floor holds the taproom and bar, with room for about 75 people, while an upstairs loft is set up for roughly 60 more. Love City has said the loft will host private parties and other events, and earlier plans pointed to live music, local vendor markets, bingo, quizzo and drag shows. Vintage-inspired signage and retro decor give the room a different personality from the standard polished-industrial brewery look, and the official Manayunk page leans into the idea of a community space for post-bike beers, family hangs and neighborhood celebrations.

On the beer side, the tap list mirrors the flagship’s mix of core brands and rotating one-offs. Love City Lager, Sylvie Stout and Lime City Lager all made the jump north, alongside experimental pours such as a pale ale, a Czech-style amber and a grissette. The bar program is broader than beer, with cocktails, mocktails, canned seasonal drinks, wine, cider and non-alcoholic options on the menu. Citywide specials and flights round out the offering, which should help the taproom function as more than a beer destination.

Food is part of the pitch, too. Sophie's BBQ is the partner at the new taproom and will also cater Love City’s event and party spaces, with pulled pork, coffee-rubbed brisket, St. Louis ribs, cornbread, collard greens, nachos, mac and cheese and a vegetarian meatless meatloaf on deck. Inspections delayed the food counter during the first weekend, but the pairing still fits the space: a neighborhood brewery with enough room to serve regulars, event traffic and people drifting off Main Street.

Love City’s expansion also says something about where the brewery sits now. The company distributes to more than 200 bars and restaurants and produced around 2,960 barrels in 2025, but the Manayunk opening shows a local brewery can still grow by planting a second taproom in the right neighborhood. With Source Brewing renovating the former bank building at 4334 Main St., Main Street is starting to look like one of Philadelphia’s more interesting beer corridors, and Love City just claimed a serious piece of it.