The Venture Inn

I miss this place. I was there the night the boys claimed their Indian music was being discriminated against. Didn’t go down that way.

Venture Inn has been a friendly unpretentious neighborhood bar; like Cheers — where everybody knows your name. Sad to see the ownership change and I hope the workers find good places to work.

Just heard that they are finally closing the doors. Changing he menu scared off the main client base and the place simply never recovered. The great bartenders couldn’t make up for the loss of the dining room clients. Good luck to the staff.

After going here multiple times and talking about how good this place is, I will have to give one star because they truly deserve it.
My colleague and I have been going to Venture Inn since we moved to Philadelphia because we thought that this would be a place where we could have drinks and feel accepted. Venture Inn had a jukebox which had music from our country and since it was only two credits we decided to play a few tunes and enjoy our drinks like every other person at the bar.
While playing one of the songs, we hear the bartender John yelling at us saying «What the fuck is this music, I don’t understand it» and we told him we could translate because it was a nice song and he basically told us «translation rejection, and this shit sucks.» We were offended by the bartender’s comments, the way his pretentious gay friends were treating us, and did not feel accepted.
John and Henry who we thought were decent bartenders, lack cultural competency and do not provide adequate customer service.
And for the gay men that live in this neighborhood that support this type of behavior. If you want people who do NOT identify as LGBT, to accept your culture and beliefs, you need to start accepting the individuals in your own community first, who come from different backgrounds that identify as LGBT. It’s a shame that this type of behavior stills exists. We would never recommend any of our colleagues or classmates from Jefferson, Penn, and Drexel to come to this establishment.

Ok… Great vibe. Decent drinks. HOT as hell and humid in here. The calamaris were frozen I believe they were definitely not fresh. About my stake… It’s was the best stake I have had in a while in a restaurant like this. So it was good. I’d comeback again but would. It have the calamaris. Our server was super nice too. But no AC in here.

I had no clue when the slovenly disheveled elderly man came to our table; he was going to be the server smelling like a tobacco barn with soiled clothing. He was just as nice as he could be minus the assault on my senses.
For starters, we had a sampler of some sort. All of the items were delectable and unfortunately this is where the compliments become scarce. With the main course came the option of soup or salad. In a foreign atmosphere, I was a bit chilly: so without hesitation, I ordered the «Bacon, Tomato» soup a steak (medium) served with mashed potatoes under a bed of gravy and a side of vegetables. The wait was reasonable considering it was a Sunday evening during normal dinner hours. The soup was definitely tomato, as if it were poured directly out of a can. It had not a hint of bacon flavor, much less bacon bits. If you can recall when asked; my response was MEDIUM. As soon as the meal arrived, I sliced open the beef steak to discover it was cooked EXTREMELY WELL DONE. I could taste the char which ruined my appetite all together.
The impressive unisex bathroom is worth an honorable mention. I have no plans on returning any time soon.

Only for a drink on occasion — but the place REEKS from bleach!

Absolute WORST!!! Took my date there for valentine’s dinner and I was so embarrassed. The waitstaff were awful, the food was JUNK, and the atmosphere was trashy. I ordered a filet mignon and asked for it medium. It came out overcooked (beyond well-​done!) and the potatoes were UNDERcooked. While we choked down that slop, we could barely have a conversation over the trashy bar patron who did nothing but scream obnoxious obscenities the entire time. My date’s penne pasta was made with some scary looking lime-​green sauce that resembled ectocooler and tasted BAD!
Never ever ever ever again. This place should just be a bar. EX OUT THE «RESTAURANT» part! Just TERRIBLE!

This place has existed in some form or another since at least 1876. Let that sink in. It’s also a prior stop on the underground railroad and a safe place for gays since at least the early 1960s.
Now it’s a bar and restaurant with a sort of a small towny, neighborhood feel. Went there for the first time after doing some Christmas shopping at around 5:30p on a Saturday. The place wasn’t busy but there were plenty of obvious regulars.
The food isn’t fine dining and doesn’t try to be. We had chicken fingers, a burger, onion rings, spring rolls and a couple of Stella Atrois. Everything tasted fine and was prepared well. The waiter and other staff were super, duper friendly and the other customers were too.
The crowd was early 30-​somethings and up. The ambience was quiet and the décor was nice. Unusual restroom — most narrow I’ve ever seen! Hope to try the drag brunch one day soon.

Saturday evening.
Bar food plus cocktails and a friendly staff. One of the friendliest gay bars in the city.

After wandering around in circles for about 25 minutes with my somewhat-​significant other (and my feet were killing me) he said «let’s just go in and eat here».
«Fine», I said. I just wanted a burger, and wanted it fast. The burgers were OK, best part was the fries, actually. My burger was still a bit too raw for me, but I was so damn hungry that I just dumped on some more ketchup and wolfed down the fries.
The somewhat-​significant other ordered the French onion soup and he said it was awful (and he will usually eat anything), so I would say avoid that. All in all, I would say DON’T «venture in» to The Venture Inn!

I had such a blast at this bar. I was drinking cheap city wide specials (shot and a beer for $ 4) and then switched to stoli honey and oj ($ 3). So cheap it was ridiculous!
I also loved the atomosphere here. There were dancers flapping around and the music was 50s style which always make me wanna bop around like a school girl. Low lighting and fun dance music always makes for a good time.
Bathrooms are funny though cause they’re unisex. But hey, we’re all adults right?

Excellent service, well prepared meals, attentive staff and the menu was reasonably priced.
The atmosphere at the Venture Inn has changed to keep up with the times. The place is well kept, with the right amount of lighting, and neat.
I personally can’t care less about the age of the people around me, especially since all I am interested in having a nice dinner with my party. The age of other patrons in a restaurant has never ever influenced the price I pay for the food, nor the service I receive, nor the taste of the food I eat, so I’m not sure what’s the fuzz about people’s ages.
The food was delivered well cooked, exactly as I ordered it, and the waiting time for it was right. All in all, my experience was excellent.

Being gay and from Philly, Ashlei pretty much knows all of the spots. We came here one night after my flag football league had a shin-​dig at a near by bar (which is also on Camac, but I forget the name) and have been coming back sporadically ever since.
We don’t necessarily come for the drinks, but more for the VENTURE FRIES! I mean, OF COURSE we get drinks, but the sole purpose for the visit is always for the fries. Crispy waffle fries with bleu cheese and bleu cheese dressing, SOOOOOO GOOD! I know it doesn’t sound like much, but they are everything! If you’re thinking «I’ll just dip my fries in bleu cheese dressing», STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!” It is NOT the same :-) I think they throw them under the broiler so the bleu cheese is warm and actually sticks to the fries.
The service is cool, maybe because Ashlei used to be a regular and knows one of the bartenders, but I’ve witnessed pretty good service for everyone across the board. Oh and they have a jukebox! Woop, woop! As I said in another review, I am SUCH a whore for a juke box! Juke Box Hero should be my theme song ;-)

Venture’s reputation as a place for older gentleman is over. The last time I was there, the crowd was not only friendly as always, but also varied in age. My favorite part of the Venture has to be bartender «Sandy» Beach who never fails to take care of your thirst for alcohol or conversation. A nice, fun, inexpensive local pub with good food and a new look. The main bathroom was re-​done wonderfully to accommodate the shy male and lady customers.

This is a great local, gay, dive bar. I live next door and have started to love popping in for a few drinks when Henry is working. He’s hilarious and always has funny stories when you’re sitting at the bar drinking their reasonably priced beers and mixed drinks.

Philadelphia’s Gay bars can be cliquey and exclusive, even though it’s Philadelphia and the gay population is fairly small. The atmosphere also promotes a certain pressure to be «on» whenever” you’re out. You must be dressed well and on the prowl and sporting a bubbly mood.
The Venture Inn damands none of this. It’s dark, caters to a mature crowd who only want some peace, a drink and conversation. Socially, it is an oasis from the rest of Philly’s gay scene.
The bartenders are attentive, good natured and pour a good drink. The food is less than stellar and the price doesn’t merit it, but no place is perfect.

I love the Venture Inn, its your favorite old man dive bar and gay. Perfect place for pregame drinks before going to clubs in the area, or a good place to have a drink and talk. Often called the denture inn because of the advance age of the clientele.
I think they have food but have never ordered. Recently they redid the bathrooms so the one on the left of the bar is much more female friendly, now the bathroom is clean and has stall doors that lock. If you want to avoid walking into something weird avoid the men’s room and go the unisex one.
Drinks are cheap, they have tv, and you can play music on the jukebox. Venture Inn takes credit cards, and has an atm with a relatively cheap fee.

This used to be a place that served good diner food at good diner prices. And it has a nice bar. Last week I had the worst meal of my life. Seafood that smells like ammonia. If you google that you will find that all the entries include the word spoiled. I sent the manager a text to inform him, and he sent mr back a whole book as a reply, highly critical of my behavior. That’s fine if he thinks that’s good business. But what’s not fine is that he said the seafood was fine and informed the chef of that.
I went her for 16 years. Never again.

The Venture Inn is in the Gayborhood of Philadelphia and, as one might guess, a gay bar and eatery. As for a gay bar it’s sort of ehhhh, bland, without any particular sparkle to it. It could be that it is meant to be that way, a sort of neighborhood (or gayborhood) thing catering to regulars and local gossip.
The drinks are good, the bartenders efficient and friendly and the food OK in quality and price, but nothing special or unique about it. Its simple food presented in a simple ordinary fashion, however the wait staff (if one waiter constitutes a wait staff) is friendly and does a rather good job of it. Since the cooking is done upstairs and he has to constantly run up and down the stairs for every little thing, I have to give me credit.