Lokal Fishtown Opens in Fishtown Where Philadelphia Needs More Hotels Because

In our quest to bring “Bespoke Hotels” and Vacation Homes to you guys, we’ve opened our 3rd location and 2nd boutique hotel in Philadelphia in our favorite Philly neighborhood – Fishtown.

Fishtown is our favorite town outside of Center City Philadelphia. It’s where we moved to buy a house with a yard. It’s where we started a family and a few businesses and made a lot of great lifelong friends. It’s also a rising hood on the national scale for great eats and drinks and generally where bright and interesting people want to live and work. It’s growing each year on the list of places to visit as well. Whether you are going to Philly or just Fishtown. Well there in only one hotel here with four rooms (a lot like us!) so we thought it could really use one more to bring the total number of hotel rooms in Fishtown into the double digits with 10 total!

The Goals

The first location was and still is amazing. We are grateful for the neighborhood, the team and the building that helped us launch this new hospitality concept and make it successful enough to build a few more under the same brand.

Lokal Fishtown was our chance to check off some boxes we weren’t ready to do with the first one though. We got to build a new construction building where we could do anything we wanted from a blank slate with the help of local firm KJO Architecture. We had more time and budget to tap into more #lokalmakers in and around #PortFishington. We got to take a chance on brand a firm we loved that wanted to branch out into their first interiors job – True Hand Society. We got to build an urban garden with a rad transplant from Brooklyn – Ferox Studio. We got to burn a lot of wood and build a 4-story interior green wall. We got to meld a lot of our favorite design terms together into one building – wood, matte, black, white, brass, local, reclaimed. We were able to dump an egregious amount of budget into the local maker economy that would have otherwise gone to less local and less small businesses. All in all, this location is the culmination of a lot of dreams and wish lists we’ve had for over 10 years.

The Location

If you’ve been to Fishtown, you know what it’s about. If you haven’t and you love cities then you should. You can also read more about it here or here and here if you love fooding. This map below is to illustrate that Fishtown is not Center City. Just like Brooklyn is not Manhattan. Sorry. I had to use that because it’s true and helpful. We are one of only two tiny hotels in Fishtown. So if  you want to stay in the hippest neighborhood in Philly or you don’t particularly need to be downtown, it’s a really great choice for something different. And you like to travel different just like us if you are reading this fare.

I don’t want to say it’s “off the beaten path,” because it’s only a 10 minute cab or train ride to center city. So give Fishtown a try. You won’t regret it.

The Building

The building sits on the site of two very old townhomes that were falling down. It is 100% new construction and very modern and energy efficient. You enter off of Front St via a gate with a code we email you prior to your stay and enter a covered hallway that takes you to the stairway inside or all the way back to the shared urban courtyard in the back.

The courtyard is quite nice. I was designed by Ferox Studios and has locally sourced furnishings. The plantings are native, pollinator, perennials that support the birds, bees and butterflies in our city. It’s also quite pretty year round even when the plants are dormant in the winter. We light it up softly at night so you can enjoy a nightcap after a night on the town just as easily as you can your morning coffee.

You enter the building in the middle of the covered hallway to the center stairway that features a 4-story green wall. This is a walk-up and we are not trying to hide that. It’s just too small of a building to fit two stairs and an elevator. Both units on the ground floor are accessible without stairs and the rear unit off the garden is fully ADA compliant should that be a requirement.

There are four floors total. Rooms are in the front and back of the building off the central stairwell so no rooms are actually sharing any walls and all have privacy. The rooms in the front face the city and the rooms in the back face the courtyard. We’ve tested them all out and they are all different in their own right, but all quite lovely.

The Apartment Hotel Suites

We named them Jawns… Because. Well. We Philly.
 

Front Jawn

The Front Jawn is, well, in the Front. It’s a small studio apartment, but still has a full kitchen, living room, closet storage and a work desk. You could easily stay here a week. It’s our lowest priced unit and great for people who love ramps or hate stairs or want to be close to the garden.

Garden Jawn

The Garden Jawn is also on the ground floor and faces the garden. It has its own semi-private section of the garden to enjoy. It’s still connected to the common area of the garden, but has a fence separating the two parts except for one passageway. It’s quite romantic and fantastic if you love connecting your indoor and outdoor spaces like we do.

My Jawn

My Jawn is a slightly larger studio apartment unit on the 2nd floor in the rear of the building overlooking the courtyard. If you are staying for a bit longer or really have a lot of stuff, these 2nd floor units are for you. So much closet space. So much. And the extra five feet of width or so really makes a difference in the living areas. I’d say this is one of our most private units as well for what it’s worth.

Your Jawn

Your Jawn is a mirror image of My Jawn on the 2nd floor facing the front of the building. It’s real nice too.

the Big Jawn

The Big Jawn is the first of our really big two bedroom, bi-level apartment hotel units on the 3rd and 4th floors. These things clock in at 1,000 SF and you could literally live in them forever. These unit have the living area on the first level with a powder room and two separate bedrooms with their own vanities on the upper level. There is shared shower room, toilet room and another vanity to the hallway on the bedroom level and one of the bedrooms has a soaking tub right in the room.

The Big Jawn has the best views of the city. By far. You get a fun view of the El Train going by during the day on the ground floor and the views of the Philly skyline from the upper level are unmatched.


 

the Baller Jawn

The Baller Jawn is the first room we named and what convinced us to stick with the Jawn theme. It was the first room we completed and where we held over 30 photo shoots so you may have seen it the most out there on the interwebs. It overlooks the courtyard in the rear and is a mirror image of the Big Jawn. We made these two units especially huge for wedding parties or people just generally celebrating something with some loved ones.

They are also both perfect for families as the bedrooms are completely private just like at home. It really beats your kids sleeping next to you in the same room or having to reserved two adjoining rooms. Don’t forget these are apartments with all the things. We love our boys and travel with them often and these rooms beat most spots out there that we find…
 

The Rest

The rest is up to the future. We will continue to write here about all the reasons we love Fishtown and all the ways in which we think you’ll love visiting it instead of a status quo hotel downtown. We’ll continue to do our best to promote the local businesses here and the creative and genuine folks behind those businesses. We love it here and we want you to love it as well. Even if it’s only for a night or two. Especially if it’s only for a night or two. Part of our job is to make your one or two nights staying in a town away from home the most home they could be. You don’t have to hotel the way everyone else does.

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