Wedding DJ at The Twisted Tail in Philadelphia, PA

The Space

George Reilly opened The Twisted Tail in late 2011 in Philadelphia’s historic Head House Square, and the concept traces back to his own travels through Tennessee, Mississippi, and Texas, where he noticed a social dynamic in Southern restaurants and bars that he felt Philadelphia was missing. Reilly is a blues guitarist and a former bartender himself, and both show up directly in the venue: live blues music and a cocktail menu he had a hand in shaping.

The space is bi-level, with a formal, higher-end dining room downstairs and an upstairs Juke Joint built around an elevated stage that hosts live music, often with no cover charge, six nights a week. A horseshoe-shaped bar anchors the room and stocks more than 120 whiskies and bourbons, and a sidewalk patio out front adds a third, outdoor setting to the two indoor levels.

Capacity & Layout

The Twisted Tail holds 120 guests seated or standing, a size that fits a rehearsal dinner, a full buyout wedding reception, or a private party comfortably without the room reading half-empty. Both full and partial rentals are available, so a couple can take over the entire bi-level space or book just one level, most likely the upstairs Juke Joint with its stage, depending on the size of the group.

Because the venue is genuinely bi-level, with a formal dining room on one floor and a stage-equipped Juke Joint on the other, a wedding here can put dinner downstairs and dancing upstairs, using the two floors the way a single large room could not. The sidewalk patio adds outdoor overflow space for guests stepping out between the dining and the dancing.

Amenities

Catering runs on site with a charcoal grill and flexible menu options, including slow-cooked pig roasts for private events, and the full bar carries the same 120-plus whiskey and bourbon selection served at the regular bar downstairs. Wheelchair access is available, and the venue has car park access nearby for guests driving in rather than relying only on the neighborhood’s street parking.

The upstairs Juke Joint comes with its own elevated stage, already built for live music six nights a week, which means the room is set up acoustically and physically for a band or a DJ rather than being converted from a plain dining space. The Twisted Tail won a 2024 Diners Choice award, a recognition that speaks to the kitchen and bar rather than the event side, but it points to a consistently run operation behind both.

Location & Getting There

The Twisted Tail sits in Philadelphia’s Society Hill neighborhood, in the historic Head House Square area, a walkable, colonial-era stretch of the city rather than a stadium district or a suburban strip. Guests arriving from elsewhere in Philadelphia or from New Jersey are coming into one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, with the sidewalk patio putting the venue right at street level among it.

We have worked an event in this room, and the built-in stage upstairs in the Juke Joint means the sound system and stage footprint are already sorted out rather than improvised, so a DJ can plug into a room designed for live blues six nights a week, while the downstairs dining room, being the more formal of the two levels, tends to carry sound differently and calls for a lighter touch during a seated dinner.