January 15, 2026
Provided image/Love City Brewing
Love City Brewing owners Kevin and Melissa Walter are preparing to open a second location. The new taproom and events space in the 4323 Main St. building in Manayunk was last occupied by Fat Lady Brewing.
Love City Brewing is opening a second location in the Manayunk building that, until recently, housed another brewery.
The Callowhill brewers are expanding into a two-story space at 4323 Main St. this spring. Love City, which launched in 2018, said the location will be divided into a ground floor taproom with a full bar and merch station and an upstairs loft for events. While the taproom will be open seven days a week, the events space will have more "selective hours," according to a release.
"We have been looking for the right opportunity to expand for a long time," Melissa Walter, who owns Love City with her husband Kevin, said in a statement. "We were very conscious about choosing a neighborhood that has great energy and foot traffic, as well as one that would allow our current location at 1023 Hamilton St. to continue to be successful – Manayunk checks all those boxes for us."
The Main Street building was the home of Fat Lady Brewing, the circus-themed taproom repped by a fictional 19th century lesbian performer. Founder Jane Lipton announced on Jan. 6 that the brewery had closed after four years in business, calling it a "terribly difficult decision."
"The business was built on community, laughter, and moments of joy too numerous to count," Lipton wrote on Facebook. "I’m incredibly thankful to my team who cared for, nurtured and treated her like the lady she was. To our customers, our friends and our neighbors; you made our hearts sing. Your support meant everything to us."
Love City praised the shuttered brewery in its announcement Thursday, highlighting their shared values as "woman-owned, family-operated, deeply community-focused, and proudly queer-friendly" spaces. The new tenants plan to continue some of the events that Fat Lady Brewing had hosted in Manayunk. While Walter could not share which ones, she said via email that events like bingo, quizzo, drag shows and live music would "be a big part of that location."
The drinks menu will mirror the beer, cocktail and mocktail offerings at the flagship Love City location in Callowhill. Food options will be announced at a later date.
Love City will have another sudsy neighbor in the not-so-distant future. Source Brewing has been renovating the former bank building at 4334 Main St. for the past year and a half, with plans to turn the space into a brewery, restaurant and events hub. While the original fall 2025 launch date has passed, a Manayunk leader says the project is getting back on track.
"The building had run into some issues when they were going into the construction," said Gwen Mccauley, executive director of the Manayunk Development Corporation. "Those things have been taken care of."
Mccauley said she was "really encouraged" by the "quick turnaround" of the former Fat Lady Brewing building, since large spaces like the forthcoming Source and Love City spots tend to sit empty for longer periods of time. Main Street is otherwise "pretty occupied," she said. Mccauley estimated that about 14% of the storefronts along corridor are currently vacant.
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