Wedding DJ at Philadelphia Distilling in Philadelphia, PA

The Space

A 15,000 square foot former foundry in Fishtown houses Philadelphia Distilling, and the building still shows its industrial bones: two copper stills and four 800 gallon wood fermenters sit visible from the tasting room, where a 30 foot marble bar looks straight out at the equipment actually making the spirits being served. The main event space, called The Lab, occupies the fourth floor and looks out toward the Ben Franklin Bridge.

The company was founded in March 2005 by Robert Cassell, who trained at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh after working in quality assurance at Victory Brewing, and it was the first craft distillery to open in Pennsylvania since before Prohibition, so new that the state liquor board had to create an application form because none existed. The distillery moved into this Fishtown building in 2017, and Heaven Hill acquired the company in 2022, though the distilling and the event space both stayed put.

Capacity & Layout

Ceremonies here run up to about 120 guests and receptions up to about 150, sizing the venue for a mid sized wedding rather than a large one, with The Lab on the fourth floor serving as the dedicated ceremony space separate from the main tasting room below where the reception typically happens. Semi private dining for 12 to 25 people is also available for a rehearsal dinner or a smaller gathering.

The main tasting room, lounge, and patio give a reception three connected areas to move through over the course of a night, useful for separating dinner seating from a bar and dance area without leaving the building. Because the space is a working distillery first, the layout keeps production equipment, the stills and fermenters, visible rather than hidden, so the room itself doubles as decor.

Amenities

Catering runs in-house, and the bar pours the distillery's own spirits and cocktails, including Bluecoat gin and other house made products, which gives a couple a genuinely distinct drink menu rather than a standard open bar. The building also houses a retail bottle shop, so guests curious about what they are drinking can take a bottle home afterward.

An enclosed patio adds outdoor space without leaving the building, useful for cocktail hour or a breather between courses. Regular tasting room hours run Thursday and Friday 4pm to 11pm and Saturday and Sunday 1pm to 11pm, and while private events are scheduled outside those hours, they give a sense of how the space normally operates.

Location & Getting There

The distillery sits in Fishtown, one of Philadelphia's denser, more walkable neighborhoods, with parking available both on site and nearby for guests who do drive in. The building's history as a foundry before it became a distillery is part of what gives the space its exposed, industrial character rather than something built new to look that way.

Between the tasting room's hard surfaces, copper stills, and marble bar, and The Lab's more open fourth floor layout, sound behaves differently depending on which room hosts which part of the day. A DJ working the tasting room accounts for the reflective bar and equipment nearby, while a ceremony or reception up in The Lab benefits from a more open floor plan that lets sound spread evenly across the room.