James “Chicken” Herman, 64, and his wife, Lauren, 27, live above Kung Fu Necktie, next to the Neon Clown Dream Lounge. He owns both North Front Street venues. The building is also where they met. They got engaged on local television in October 2025 and married at City Hall this year, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Their 37-year age difference is far outside the national norm.
The couple was profiled by reporter Zoe Greenberg for The Philadelphia Inquirer's “Life Partners” series on non-traditional relationships across the region. The profile says Lauren started a conversation with Chicken at Kung Fu Necktie.
Kung Fu Necktie remains a stop for touring acts. Hoodline reported on a Lauren Ash pop-punk tour stop at the venue.
A Venue Becomes a Home
Chicken’s nickname dates to his time as an artist in New York City in the 1990s, the Inquirer’s profile says. He opened Kung Fu Necktie in September 2008 in the space of a former neighborhood bar called The Penalty Box, according to Philadelphia Magazine. The venue is a dive bar with high ceilings and tables made from reclaimed bowling alley lanes, according to Scoundrel's Field Guide.
The couple got engaged on Fox29's Good Day Philadelphia in October 2025 and married at City Hall this year. Lauren is studying drawing and painting at the Community College of Philadelphia, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. They live in the second-story space above Kung Fu Necktie, next door to the Neon Clown Dream Lounge, which Chicken also runs.
A Clown-Filled Home Above the Bar
The Neon Clown Dream Lounge occupies a space that once served as a secondary performance room above Kung Fu Necktie, until a Department of Licenses and Inspections officer ordered it closed in 2018. The shutdown prompted Chicken to repurpose the space during the pandemic, according to reporting from the same Inquirer piece on the lounge. It now houses roughly 120 salvaged clown artworks, art deco furnishings, and upcycled industrial objects inspired by 20th-century French expressionist painter Bernard Buffet, who was known for his skeletal clown paintings.
Occupancy Rules for Public Gatherings
For Philadelphia businesses offering social entertainment such as live or recorded music, dancing or DJs, a special assembly occupancy license is required when the lawful occupancy is 50 or more people, according to the City of Philadelphia. Department of Licenses and Inspections guidance also says a Certificate of Occupancy is required for a change in intensity of use, including a substantial increase in occupant load at an A-2 restaurant or nightclub. These are general requirements, not findings about either North Front Street space, according to Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections guidance.
Philadelphia’s Music Economy and Venue Rules
A City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce study estimated the music industry's annual economic impact at $6.1 billion within Philadelphia and $6.6 billion statewide. That figure measures the industry's broader economic role; it does not provide a count of independent live-music venues or measure recent pressures on them. The city’s licensing and occupancy requirements, outlined above, provide regulatory context for some entertainment businesses but are general rules, not findings about either North Front Street space.
The Couple’s Age Difference in Context
The Inquirer reported that Lauren's parents were surprised by the relationship and that her friends were initially skeptical.
The Inquirer also reported that the couple expressed different expectations about aging and care.
How Rare Is a 37-Year Age Gap?
Nationally, couples like the Hermans are a statistical outlier. The average age difference between American spouses narrowed to 2.2 years in 2022, down from 4.9 years in 1880, with 51% of opposite-sex married couples now roughly the same age, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. Opposite-sex marriages with a 20-year-or-greater age gap make up only about 1% of all such marriages in the country, compared with 5% of same-sex marriages, per U.S. Census Bureau figures.
Wide age gaps do show up more often in remarriages: just 5% of men in their first marriage wed a partner 10 or more years younger, but that share quadruples to 20% among men remarrying, Pew's analysis found. Americans are also marrying later overall — the median age at first marriage climbed to 30.2 for men and 28.4 for women in 2023, an eight-year rise since the 1950s, according to Census data cited by Statista. Against that backdrop, Lauren and Chicken's marriage sits well outside the national norm.
