Source Urban Brewery is pouring its final pints in Fishtown this weekend, closing the doors of its Frankford Avenue taproom for good after five years in the neighborhood. The brewery announced the closure on social media, telling customers it had decided not to renew its lease at 1101 Frankford Avenue and inviting them in for one last celebration before shutting down.
According to WhatNow, the brewery's team framed the closure as bittersweet, thanking the neighborhood for five years of support. “Source Urban Brewery in Fishtown will be closing its doors,” the team said, according to the outlet, encouraging regulars to stop by one more time, eat the brewery's award-winning smash burger, and “grab a beer and raise a glass.” The team also expressed appreciation for the relationships it built with the community during its run.
The final celebration weekend is set for this Saturday and Sunday, and once the taps run dry, Fishtown loses a spot known for its 32-tap system, a 7-barrel brewhouse, an outdoor beer garden, and a full-service kitchen serving craft beer and pub fare under a farm-to-glass concept. Customers have already been sharing memories and sadness on social media, with one calling it one of their favorite spots in that part of the city, per the same account. The closure will remove a nightlife venue from a stretch of Frankford Avenue that has become one of the city's busiest dining and entertainment corridors.
A Space With Its Own Brewing History
Source Urban Brewery opened at 1101 Frankford Avenue in September 2021, according to Breweries in PA, stepping into a space that already had its own brewing pedigree. The address had previously housed Fishtown Brewpub, which operated from July 2017 until it closed in November 2020 during the pandemic, and Source repurposed that operation's 7-barrel brewhouse and seating layout when it moved in. When Source outfitted the space in 2021, it installed specialized Lukr side-pull lager taps and nitro faucets as part of a plan to grow the company's overall production from 3,000 to 8,000 barrels annually, according to PhillyVoice.
The building itself has a much longer history than either brewery. Originally built in the 1850s as the Landenberger Hosiery Mill and later used as an elevator factory, the structure sat vacant and blighted for years before a 2014 redevelopment turned it into 15 residential apartments with ground-floor commercial space, according to OCF Realty. Hoodline previously featured loft rentals inside that same building back in a 2018 look at Fishtown rents.
Source Brewing's Flagship Remains Open
The Fishtown closure does not mean Source Brewing is shutting down as a company. Source Farmhouse Brewery, the brand's flagship location, opened in 2019 on a 130-year-old former dairy farm in Colts Neck, Monmouth County, New Jersey, and continues operating its farm-to-glass concept there, per PhillyVoice. That New Jersey location was launched by co-founder Philip Petracca alongside Keri Petracca and Greg Taylor; Petracca previously appeared on ABC's Shark Tank in 2016, securing a $2 million investment for a beer-dispensing device called Fizzics, before leaving that company in 2017 to launch Source Brewing.
Part Of A Wider Wave Of Taproom Closures
Source's exit fits a pattern playing out across the region this year. Just a day earlier, Pennsylvania's Sly Fox Brewing Company announced it would permanently close its last Pittsburgh taphouse after five years, also citing a decision not to renew its commercial lease, as Hoodline reported in coverage of Sly Fox's Pittsburgh exit. In May, Naked Brewing Company announced the permanent closure of its Bristol Borough taproom, citing skyrocketing costs for ingredients, supplies, and labor alongside shifting consumer drinking preferences.
Not every regional brewery is retreating, however. Earlier this month, South Jersey's Chimney Brewery announced plans to move from Hammonton, New Jersey, into a 5,000-square-foot facility in Philadelphia's Port Richmond neighborhood, a $500,000 buildout expected to triple its brewing capacity. And competition along lower Frankford Avenue itself has only intensified since Source arrived, with Brooklyn-based Other Half Brewing Co. opening at 1002 Canal Street in 2021 in the former Goose Island Brewhouse space near The Fillmore.
The Frankford Avenue corridor has also seen broader commercial turnover in recent months, including the departure of five-year neighborhood fixture Vince's Pizzeria, detailed in an earlier Hoodline report on shifting tenants along the stretch. For now, Source Urban Brewery's remaining hours in Fishtown are down to a single weekend, with the brewery's team asking longtime customers to come raise one final glass before the taps go quiet for good.
