Back in the late '80s, the neighborhood just north of the Schuylkill River in the city's Northwest corner was a depressed, former-manufacturing community whose textile factories and jobs had been lost over the course of the previous decade. But then a funny thing happened: an upscale restaurant/bar named Jake's opened up on Main Street, and its popularity became the proverbial tent-pole for a total revitalization of the area into a tourist and bar-hopper friendly nightlife outpost, a trend that probably peaked in the late '90s and early aughts.
Now, the place has settled into a solid groove of upscale bars and restaurants and college-student abiding nightclubs. It might not have the sizzle it had a decade ago, but it remains a vital entertainment cog in the Philly nightlife machine.
